In Publishing News this week,
It’s been a tricky old week if you have been watching the tariff brinkmanship going on and wondering what this will do to the global economy. Closer to home writers and publishers are wondering what it will mean for the book industry. If you are in the USA and get your books printed in China, you may be lucky as so far books have been exempt from tariffs, unfortunately paper and ink imported into the USA from China is not. Kathleen Schmidt has a quick run down on what the American Booksellers Association is saying about tariffs.
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair has just wrapped up and interesting articles have come out of the presentations at the fair. Publisher’s Weekly reports on the panel discussion with audio publishers at the fair. There is an emphasis from audio publishers to snap up all audio rights so they can be in control when new formats arrive in this space. If you aren’t sure what I mean, think AI audio books, AI translated audiobooks etc.
Publisher’s Weekly also had an informative article on what everyone was buying at Bologna, the trends in children’s books, Romantasy might be over, and what everyone is doing about middle grade books. If you write in this space, it’s a must read.
In wider publishing news, last week I wrote that the staff of The Institute of Museum and Library Services – the body that oversees funding for libraries have been placed on administrative leave. This week the American Library Association has gone into bat for them with a court case suing The President, the DOGE executive, and the directors of the Institute.
The American Publishers Association co-hosted a day long forum to look at the threat of AI on creative license. This is to tie in with the recently introduced bill – The TRAIN act, or Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks. Your creativity rights are in the constitution. (Looking from outside the USA, I wonder for how long…)
The Guardian has written an article looking at book banning and who are actually behind the majority of the book bans, and it is not individual concerned parents but interest groups.
Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware does a fantastic job of keeping up with the scam artists out there. In her latest article she turns the spotlight on a new scam that uses identity theft to impersonate editors and agents with pre-paid commissions and contracts that have been copied from Penguin Random House. This is a must read for all writers. You might feel that you know enough about what is happening to spot a scam, but many writers don’t. If they do a cursory search to see if the editor is legit, it looks like it… then the fish hooks start happening. At the very least you will be able to tell a newbie writer what to look for in this new scam.
Dan Holloway of The Alliance of Independent Authors talks about a new feature being rolled out by Amazon for the Kindle, ReCaps… where an AI will tell you what’s happened in the story so far, if you are following a series. I can’t see anything problematic here at all….
Cassie Manns Murray a book publicist has an interesting opinion piece about Publishers Weekly’s new move to charge a $25 submission fee for a potential review. It is not guaranteed. If they do this will others follow? This is a good piece on how hard it is juggle publicity around publishing dates.
A writer recently asked me if was programming another writers conference what topics would be on my must have list. Contracts, Understanding Intellectual Property, and Literary Estates. This century so far has seen huge changes to each of these three important facets of the writing and publishing life. This week Madeleine L’Engle’s literary executor, her granddaughter, has an interesting article covering these topics in a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog. Planning for the life of your work (even if you are not famous yet.)
In The Craft Section,
Humanity over AI- your difference – Angela Ackerman- Bookmark
The importance of flaws- Beem Weeks
What is play by play in writing- September Fawkes – Bookmark
Search Out The Unexpected- Kathleen McCleary-
3 Writing aspects you should never mess with- Julie Glover- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Parts of a book – a primer- Fictionary
Step by step to profitable ads- Bookbub- Bookmark
3 unconventional ways to market- Savannah Cordova- Bookmark
Why Quality Counts- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark
How to grow your list with giveaways- Thomas Umstattd- Bookmark
To Finish
If you have been feeling battered by this week’s news and the constant churn of the news cycle which never has any good news. Chuck Wendig has a post on his blog that you can read that explains your feelings- What it feels like right now- It’s hard to hope.
Maureen
@craicer
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