In Publishing News This Week,
Frankfurt. Are we back to normal? That seemed to be the question on everybody’s lips. There was a lot of chat amongst the publishers, sold-out sessions, and positivity everywhere.
Audiobooks got a lot of attention in Frankfurt with many saying that they were now a mainstream format. The ways for the public to acquire them seem to be all over the place though. You would think that Spotify with its streaming model would extend this into audiobooks – not so. Which audience model will win out was a hot topic discussed at Frankfurt.
Over the last month, the spotlight has been on AI generated art and its copyright ownership. If you buy art for book covers or fan merch this seems to be a rising trend, to generate AI art. However, the AI’s are sampling artists' portfolios and styles and so the ownership is murky. After many photo stock dealers saying they wouldn’t deal with AI art, Shutterstock changed its mind and is trying have it both ways by attempting to pay the sampled artists if they can prove it. This has annoyed many in the industry.
It always pays to drop into Writer Beware occasionally to keep on top of ways that authors can be parted from their money. Recently Victoria had a long form piece on anthologies and how one anthology publisher collapsed and was exposed as probably running a Ponzi scheme. Anthologies can be great…but you must go in with your eyes wide open.
Today I was listening to an interesting conversation between Orna Ross and Joanna Penn on publishing values. It was wide ranging and referred to Orna’s recent article. This is a meaty topic. What do you wish to be known for and are you sure that’s what you are projecting to the readership?
Kris Rusch has an interesting article on Thinking Big. Do you note down your success? What about your positive reviews? Kris talks about exposure and when someone goes from chugging along to breakout.
Elizabeth Sims has an interesting post on short stories over on Jane Friedman's blog. 20 reasons why everyone should write a short story. I have been trying my hand at these this year and not managing to finish them. This article makes me look at short story writing in a different way. Let it go and have fun.
In The Craft Section,
Where do Ideas come from- Randy Ingermanson- Bookmark
4 writing pitfalls to avoid- Laurence McNaughton- Bookmark
Writing beginnings- Interview with Shane Millar- Joanna Penn- Bookmark
4 tips for writing effective backstory- Carolyn Arnold
The perils of not knowing what happens next- Janice Hardy
In The Marketing Section,
Update your Amazon book pages- Elizabeth S Craig- Bookmark
Book cover design ideas- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
3 ways to promote poetry- Raegen Pietrucha
Reaching readers for the long term- Becky Robinson- Interview with Joanna Penn- Bookmark
Instagram Book marketing ideas-Bookbub
To Finish,
This weekend is The Alliance of Independent Authors 24 hour conference, SelfPubCon. It’s free. Sessions are recorded and you get three days to go over them.
If you intend to attempt NaNoWriMo this November hopefully you will have everything organized. Check back over the last few blog posts for handy prep links. Don’t forget to check out your local library. Quite a few have embraced the NaNoWriMo experience and have spaces for writers to go and pound out their words.
Good Luck with your final days of preparation.
Maureen
@craicer
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Pic: Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash
