London Book Fair is over and in comes Bologna Children’s Book Fair. I like to think it’s the most important because without creating readers the other book fairs wouldn’t exist.
Publishers Weekly has a deep dive into what the big topics are at Bologna. The crisis in early literacy is worrying and have the covid years caused a reading slump or is it cyclical?
Graphic novels are now one of the biggest formats at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. There are many interesting moves in this area reports Publishers Weekly. One thing that caught my eye in this article was audio books scripts generated by graphic novels.
The awards for Children’s Publisher of the year at Bologna is always a great event. The world is divided into six continent-ish zones and so there are six winners. Publishing Perspectives has a run down of the winners. Congratulations to Mila’s Books from New Zealand which took out the Oceania prize.
In another attack on literacy in the United States-The staff of The Institute of Museum and Library Services – the body that oversees funding for libraries have been placed on administrative leave according to Publishers Weekly. Hopefully their jobs can be saved.
Also closing their doors is NaNoWriMo. After a turbulent year and falling memberships the organization has closed. NaNoWriMo was a great idea and many bestsellers got their start in the white hot frenzy of writing a novel in a month.
Ingram Spark’s new book to screen database, MediaScout is now live. Publisher’s Weekly reports they already have an impressive number of books in the catalogue.
Mark Williams looks at the latest fallout of Meta AI and the proposed tariffs that had a good portion of the world on edge. While Mark see’s the value in some AI tools on the basis of its coming anyway we may as well use it. Dan Holloway looks at the impact AI has had on translators and artists.
Teri Case writing on Jane Friedman’s blog looks at how AI made her want to trademark her name and how she went about it. This came about because Jane Friedman’s name had been stolen and pasted on AI generated books last year. Amazon wouldn’t take the books down because Jane hadn’t trademarked her name.
Kathleen Schmidt has a fascinating article on book publicity. She dives into when and how to connect to your audience and book publicists. This is a must read if you have a book ready to release into the world.
Sandra Beckwith has a list of useful apps and tools to help the writer.
Donald Maass writing on Writer Unboxed has an excellent craft article on the hidden reason why readers read. Donald has excellent advice on how to craft your plot to hit all the right cues. A must read!
In The Craft Section,
The wolf under the table- J Scott Coatsworth
How conflict enhances your story- Ellen Buikema- Bookmark
4 stages of knowing in character arcs- K M Weiland – Bookmark
Using writing prompts to unstick yourself- Savannah Cordova
Dialogue mechanics- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
How to get accepted by a distributor- Bokbaby- Bookmark
Marketing tips for a new genre- an example - Bookbub
Author swag and merch- IWSG- Bookmark
Amazon central changes – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
How to sell on Amazon – Dave Chesson – updated- Comprehensive!
To Finish
The world can be filled with negativity everywhere you look. It’s hard to stay upbeat when you feel bludgeoned by the daily news. In writing we can so often feel discouraged about our work. Harper Ross had a timely post on Writer Unboxed last week -The importance of defining success for yourself. This is a little reality check to recognize the wins in your creative life and celebrate them.
Maureen
@craicer
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