The Writing Business- Shaking Hands with AI

 

 

In Publishing News this week

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Readerlink will stop distributing mass market paperbacks this year. With Readerlink responsible for distributing 30% of all the books into big chains in the United States that is a big revenue hit. Will the cheap mass market format disappear? 

 

Bologna Book Fair names their licensing awards shortlist for 2025 and for the first time licensing for video games makes an appearance. It’s all about the merch in the children’s world. And if you aren’t sure, this is Intellectual Property (IP) based on a creators idea. Smurfs are still a big thing. I wonder how many of their original creators are getting a dividend.

 

The UK government has wrapped up ten weeks of submissions on their copyright and AI proposed law. They finished with a big campaign on the covers of Newspapers asking if AI was fair. It wasn’t just UK associations making submissions. Many overseas publishing organisations also submitted on the bill. Publishing Perspectives writes about what is happening next. Many are calling for transparency and licensing deals. Will the law take this into account? 

 

While the UK is grappling with writing a new law, across the pond Meta is in court trying to justify their theft to train their AI. I’m not sure their arguments- everybody is doing it, and apologise later, are good ones to make to the judge.

 

Mark Williams has his own particular take on the use of AI. Consumers love it. Therefore, we need to embrace it. This could be problematic when your contract arrives, and you have to state whether you have ever used AI or not on the project. Publishers are looking at ways to indemnify themselves from accusations of plagiarism.

 

The way forward into the AI forest looks dark and winding and it might be years before we see the sunlight on the other side. Shining a torch is Debbie Burke of the Killzone authors who explains how the Author’s Guild Human Authored campaign of registrations and stickers work.

 

Jenny Hanson has a great article over at the Dynamic Duo’s blog on Book Structure for Disorganized Writers. Remember writing and plotting is unique to each writer. Jenny offers some handy tips to make sense of your process.

 

Russell Nohelty has the mega post/tutorial on Book Marketing. There is absolutely something for everyone in this post. Bookmark it! 365 simple ways to talk about your writing and keep readers engaged all year. 

 

Carol Michel has updated her very popular post on Jane Friedman’s blog about How to market a book without social media. Also on Jane’s blog is a great article by Lisa Cooper Ellison on Memoir Mistakes. When the backstory derails your narrative.

 

 

In The Craft Section,

9 ways to originalise your story idea- Becca Puglisi

Circling conflicts- September Fawkes- Bookmark

Alternatives for Speechless – Kathy Steinemann- Bookmark

The backstory balancing act- Marissa Graff

How to avoid flat characters in your story- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

3 ways to get amazon reviews- Bang 2 Write

Your voice, your narration- Cindy Gunderson - Interesting article!

5 handy tips for book marketing- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Article ideas for book publicity- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

The author media kit- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish

James Scott Bell always has wise words about writing craft but he has a good business brain for writing as well. It must be the lawyer training. He has an interesting take on the writing business and what is happening in traditional publishing. Remember that publishing is a business, and you should understand this with every contract you sign. One of the most important clauses now for a writer is the rights reversion clause. The old out of print clause doesn’t cut it now with eBooks, so put a time limit on it. 

It's all IP and that’s what the publishers are buying, as much of your intellectual property as they can get. It is a pot of gold if they can on-sell your merch rights to the video game developer before you get the rights back.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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Working Together

In Publishing News this week

 

If you have been reading my publishing roundup for a few years you will know that every now and then I state that co-operatives are the way to go in publishing. Writer co-operatives or marketing co-operatives once started, seem to be the bee’s knees in terms of collegial support for all the writers concerned. So it was with interest that I saw this news article on a publishing co-operative from Publishers Weekly. (What took them so long?) A group of small publishers banding together to share resources and help each other out. It’s a no brainer and totally good news in today’s world.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that youth masculinity seem to be the flavour of the year with the Carnegie long list being announced. Is the pendulum swinging back?

 

How many small press founders do you know? What gender are they? Publishers Weekly have a great article on how women keep reinventing publishing with independent presses.

 

Booksellers in the UK are having an awareness day, Bookselling Is Not A Crime, in support of educational booksellers that have been arrested for the crime of selling books that might challenge the prevailing propaganda. When speech is not free in so called free speech countries. 

 

GoodEReader reports that The Braille Institute has introduced a new font for e Readers. This is good news if you want to be supportive of the disability community.

 

Two great podcasters got together to talk about second editions. Joanna Penn appeared on The Indy Author podcast with Matty Dalrymple. The podcast was wide ranging and including author evolving business models along with updated editions of best selling books. Check out the transcript or listen to these great women talk about the business.

 

This week Katie Weiland talked about self doubt and the way you can work with it. Doubt is not a stop sign but a challenge to grow. She has five proven ways to conquer self doubt.

 

Gabriela Pereira has an interesting article on DIYMFA about Goal Setting.  When you come to set those goals are you choosing the right mountains to climb. This could make the difference between achieving the summit or falling off the cliff.

 

Staying with goal setting, Emma Billington has a great article on Jane Friedman’s blog on a tomato a day… or the pomodoro method. If you haven’t come across this for writing – it is brilliant!

 

A space of ones own. This is the dream of all writers. A room that they can escape to and have everything sorted the way they want it. But is it the room? Is it the state of mind? Sue Coletta writes about the challenges of finding the space to write.

 

In The Craft Section,

Point of view and head hopping- Anne R Allen

A complete guide to revising your novel- Lynette Burrows- BOOKMARK

The bane and pain of transitional scenes-John Gilstrap

Naming and renaming your book-Barbara Linn Probst- Bookmark and Watch this short YouTube video on a novel naming game- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Was the Bookbub featured deal worth it?- Colleen Story – Bookmark

Boost author website traffic- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

2 great posts from the Alliance of Independent Authors- Distribute your Audiobook globally and Setting the right price for your book- Bookmark

How strategic marketing turned a debut into a success- Sandra Beckwith

 

To Finish

Over the years I have been involved in organizing conferences, writing retreats, workshops, evening events etc. The reason for doing this is because I can’t afford to go on any of these myself. So, I organize them and then I can hopefully learn while rushing around making sure that the event goes well. Amy Goldmacher has an article on Jane Friedman’s blog asking if you are too intimidated to organize a writing retreat. Frankly, Tuscany would be a tall order. A wise bookseller told me when I floated the idea of holding a national children’s writer conference that looking around at who I knew and using their strengths would sort out my programming fears. He was right. You know the people already. All you have to do is reach out and offer to do the leg work. Your time is as valuable as the entry fee.

Maureen

@craicer

 

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If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

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Publishing: The Meet Cute Rollercoaster

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

 

Paris, the city of love, or if you have been following AI news, the city of the International AI Summit. 40 world organizations called on the summit to recognize the threat to copyright. Unfortunately, the summit didn’t take much note of the threat to Intellectual Property, so publishers are not happy.

 

Joanna Penn recently interviewed Alicia Wright on copyright and AI which gives you a handle on how one Intellectual Property lawyer who also happens to be a sci fi author is using it.

 

Meanwhile, The Diamond Comics Distributor bankruptcy is beginning to bite with many bookshops left hanging. Diamond distributed many niche comic magazines which may go to the wall if another distributor doesn’t buy Diamond’s business. Publishers Weekly looks at the assets on sale.

 

In book sales news, the latest monthly numbers are in. Dystopian books are outselling everything else. Is everybody looking for a how to survive the current political turmoil handbook? Publishers Weekly looks at who the big winners are in post inauguration book sales.

 

While dystopian fiction is on the rise- Mark Williams is taking acerbic aim at HarperCollins and how they may have only just come to realise that the world has changed in publishing. 

 

Spotify are happy. Dan Holloway reports that they have made a profit after a year of making audiobooks available. They are also very keen on their Spotify for Authors platform.

 

Anne Carley has a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog about the messy creative process. Nothing is ever straightforward in the creative life. This is a great post on recognizing when the process gets unstuck and how to get creative again.

 

Colleen Story has a great post for when you don’t think your writing is good enough. This happens to every author. It doesn’t matter how many best sellers they have. If you are feeling down about your writing check out this great post. Jenny Hansen takes it a step further looking at Book Structure for Disorganised Writers. No, you are not at fault... in fact there is no fault. 

 

Kathleen McCleary has a great post on Writer Unboxed about working obsessively on the beginning of your novel and why it’s important to nail these pages.

You have to make the reader care… really it’s just a reader meet cute.

 

In The Craft Section,

5 questions to ask before adding a subplot- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

How to use traits to create character arcs- Sarah Hamer- Bookmark

Deepening a story with theme echoes- Jami Goild- Bookmark

Redeeming your villain- Becca Puglisi

Overcoming plot constipation- James Scott Bell

 

In The Marketing Section,

Book advertising- David Gaughran- Bookmark

How to promote like a pro- Ingram Spark

How to build a loyal audience- PR by the book- Bookmark

25 ways to promote your book- Marika Flatt

2025 Literary Calendar dates Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

The romance story outsells every other genre. The romance authors are the savviest book marketers on the planet. The romance brand gets the most brickbats. I don’t know whether it’s jealousy because of the sales, or covering up sentiment by doubling down on hate, or some mistaken idea that cool people don’t like romance. With savvy marketing, huge sales, and the stories promoting being nice to each other, everybody should be celebrating the genre. September Fawkes writes on how every story needs a meet cute scene. 

It’s got to be better than doom scrolling.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

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Publishing Pick and Mix

 

 

In Publishing News this week

 

London Book Fair is coming up and Porter Anderson gives a run down on the big topics that will be discussed at the fair. No prizes for guessing that AI will be front and centre as how to use it/cope with it/ignore it/embrace it are the hot topics in publishing this year.

 

Forbes magazine put their toe in the water with a prediction on how the publishing industry will cope with AI “which promises to transform how we create, distribute, and consume content.”

Piper Bayard see’s AI as a cause for concern. She looks at the big questions. How much AI is too much and Will AI be the end of authors?  

 

With the concerns about distinguishing your content from AI driven content, Dan Holloway of The Alliance of Independent Authors takes a look at a new initiative from The Authors Guild to champion a book registering site which makes it official that your book is human authored.

 

This week Simon and Schuster announced that they would no longer blurb books. This has caught some people by surprise with many thinking it is the back blurb that they are talking about, which seems daft. However, it’s the pull quotes from reviews by other authors that they are meaning. (I hope.) My bookseller family member said they had received books from PRH that had no blurbs on the back - only reviews. Which didn’t help when they had to catalogue the book.

 

Publishing Industry commentator Kathleen Schmidt weighs in on the blurb news in her article Let’s Talk About Blurbs Again – Is it past its use by date or does the blurb have a place in publishing?

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that the Big Five publishers and quite a few other interested groups have banded together to sue Idaho over their book banning efforts. 

 

We are two weeks into the new American administration and the big news was around tariffs. Who was getting them who was not? Would there be a reprieve? If so for how long? The publishing industry is caught up in this as well. After all where are the big printers based? Publishers Weekly took a look at what the publishing industry might have to do to survive.

 

Katie Weiland has an interesting article on Creative Burnout Recovery. I am always asking my teacher colleagues about what they are doing to fill the creative well. This is important for writers too.

Netgalley has upgraded their reader experience by creating a new reader browser with the ability to read in the website and protect files from unauthorised downloads.

 

In happy news, Mac Barnett became the new US National Ambassador for Young Peoples Literature. In the UK this position is the Children’s Laureate. Here in New Zealand, we are eagerly awaiting who will get the nod as our Reading Ambassador. These positions are about connecting and inspiring reading and young people. These truly are the most important jobs. For every reader we inspire, we create a person who thinks about their life and other lives, who finds solace or inspiration in imaginary worlds and ultimately remains a reader into adult hood. 

 

Donald Maass has another knock it out of the park article on craft. Nailing Purpose and Effect. Do you understand the primary purpose of the story? The intent. The intent of any given story is the effect that you want to have on readers. It is a must read.

 

In The Craft Section,

Creating a plot/subplot template-Laurie Campbell- Bookmark

Tag your dialogue- Margie Lawson

How to manipulate time in your writing- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Important parts of a book- Joe Yamulla

Most asked for topic articles- K M Weilands master list- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

How cover art influences readers-Sierra Kay

Why reviews are a game changer- ReaderViews

Optimize your Amazon Central page – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Generating article ideas- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

From obscurity to bestseller-Leonard Tillerman- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

How wedded are you to a particular sales platform? If it all fell over tomorrow would your business survive? That is the wake up call authors who were primarily relying on BookTok got faced with recently. The Alliance of Independent Authors canvassed a few of their superstar members to find out how they would navigate a similar business problem. This is a great article about being in control of your business. 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

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*Kiwi’s call a selection of lollies… a pick and mix.