Giving Thanks

 

 

This week in publishing news,

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard took a close look at this week’s report from the UK Publishers Association on the rise and rise of audiobook revenue. Mark looks at the bounce in publishing revenue from the pandemic. The numbers are truly startling. I never suspected that Children’s digital publishing had risen by 26%. 

 

Several days later and it was Nielsen’s turn to deliver their report on audio publishing. Publishing Perspectives compares both reports and the strong indications of subscription being the way of the future for our ears.

 

Recently two posts caught my eye on data protection and online privacy. 

How many times have you just skated around the edge of disaster, nearly losing all your work files. Lindsay Syhakhom on how to keep track of multiple copies of your work. You are filing multiple copies away, aren’t you?

 

How secure are you from hackers? Jacqui Murray has a great article for writers on protecting their online identities. If you ever wanted to scare someone about how easy it is to hack someone, check out the little embedded video of a hacker at work. Let’s be careful out there.

 

It’s interesting to look from the other side of the world at the North American holiday of Thanksgiving. On the surface, it seems to be all about the food, insane travel stories, family feuds, and getting ready for Black Friday sales. But underneath there is a simple message - stop what you are doing and be thankful for being. 

Ruth Harris listed her reasons to be thankful and they made me stop and think about the little things in my writing life that I am thankful for.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors have published a useful glossary of terms for writing contracts. Know the meaning of the language.

 

Today I saw a comment about December being the Friday of the year. For some writers that piles extra pressure on to produce or finish a big project. Dave Chesson has an interesting article on coping with writer burnout.

 

Recently Joanna Penn interviewed Chrissy Metge on pitching to film studios. It was an information packed interview. If you think your writing project has potential you should listen/read the interview. Chrissy mentioned that studios need content all the time now with streaming services. 

Joshua Robinson follows this up with a post on Writing for Video Games on Insecure Writers Support Group. He writes for Video games. Yes, they need writers to do plot development and narration and dialogue. Writing is not only printed words on the page. 

 

Nina Amir has an interesting article on bringing writing ideas to life by creative visualization.

 

Now Novel has an excellent article on Story Planning. There are many ways to do this. Whether you write a bullet point list to begin with or a detailed plan- Jordan has broken down the main points of how to start from the first idea.

 

In The Craft Section,

Editing- The redundancy quiz- Kathy Steinemann- Bookmark

10 mistakes to avoid writing fantasy- Lucy Hay

Populating your story with background characters- Jan Drexler

Writing from the end- Mary Moore- Bookmark

The static hiss of description- Donald Maass- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Common Author questions- Draft2Digital team

How To format a book- Dave Chesson - Bookmark

Start marketing your book now- Stevan Spatz

Ultimate guide to getting reviews- Alliance of Independent Authors

22 must have resources in 2022- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

 

To Finish

It’s December and thoughts turn to getting ready for Christmas and the end of the year wind down. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are back with another Advent calendar for writers. Check out the daily offerings and send Thanks to the Dream Team.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

My monthly newsletter of the best of my bookmarked links is due out soon. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks to the lovely person who donated coffee this week.

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons –  Mike Gnuckz

Finding Bargains

 

In Publishing News this week.

The news dust is still swirling after Spotify’s purchase of Findaway last week. While everyone was venting opinions the Futurebook conference happened in London. Dan Holloway from The Alliance of Independent Authors goes over the main talking points, subscription, sustainability and the rise of new digital products. How bad is the print publishing industry for the climate? Are eBooks just as bad? 

 

Meanwhile, Mark Williams from The New Publishing Standard shone a bright light on the Futurebook conference interview with the CEO of Penguin Random House. Mark was wondering where the hard questions were about the Simon and Schuster merger and the rise of subscriptions as a marketing model. PRH pulled all their books from subscription sites. Will this change?

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on Ingram Lightning Source opening their new Print On Demand facility at Sharjah Publishing City. The world's first publishing free trade zone was announced in 2018 with a commitment by Ingram to the East and African book market. Print On Demand does have the ability to reduce at least one of the unsustainable practices of the publishing industry, returns.

Penny Sansevieri has a guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog about creating reader connections. How many readers do you need to make a difference in your sales. It’s all about the right readers, says Penny. 

 

Have you got an idea for a book but are not sure where to start? How to blog a book takes a look at how you can get started by blogging the book. They use the idea for marketing the book right alongside.

 

Have you tried writing with soundtracks? Many authors swear by the practice. I find them distracting because I tune into the music instead of writing. Matt Frick has another way of using soundtracks. He uses them to write the book when he isn’t writing. This idea could be super inspirational for story crafting.

 

Ann Patchett has an article in Lithub on creating the workspace that you need. Are you really sitting well? Do you have the right keyboard?

 

Jami Gold turns her lazer eyes onto the Dune Movie and looks at the Plot Arc focus vs the Character Arc focus. Jami is an excellent writing craft teacher so make sure you read this.

 

In The Craft Section,

3 critical elements in opening scenes 

Award season PDF’s of screenplays- Scott Myers- Bookmark

5 tips on writing fiction- DIYMFA

Avoiding excessive detail in your descriptions-Mythcreants- bookmark

Writing using Word Styles.- Libertabooks- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

What is an Author Platform? Rachel Thompson – Bookmark

Unique marketing ideas for December and How to sell direct to the consumer

Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to track book marketing activity- Sandra Beckwith

Case study with Bryan Cohen on Amazon Ads

 

To Finish,

The Black Friday Sales are on. Everywhere you look there is an Ad for something. For writers there are sales on subscriptions or courses or books. Dave Chesson has compiled a long list of  Black Friday gifts for writers. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have found some great Black Friday bargains as well. If you are thinking of stocking up gifts for Christmas check out Robyn Roste’s list of writer gifts. 

Don’t forget this week is the last week to get the NaNoWriMo Storybundle  Craft Book collection- which has often been my yearly gift to myself.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter where I share the best of the bookmarked links and other things that have caught my eye. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons- GoFishDigital