What's been going on in the publishing industry over the past two weeks? Quick links and summaries for your perusal:
Industry News
Barnes & Noble urges the DOJ to reject the settlements of 3 big publishers over the price-fixing lawsuit, saying that the settlements are not in the public's best interest and that there is no factual basis that the settlements will actually address the issues raised by the lawsuit.
E-book retailer Kobo reveals plans for a self-publishing platform. Author royalties will be up to 70% and authors can set the prices as they please, including giving books away for free.
Hachette Group is beginning a new line for commercial fiction called Redhook.
For Cloud, iPad, and Android, Kindle now supports childrens' books, graphic novels, and comics.
In the Authors Guild vs Google lawsuit over the book-scanning project, Google asks for an extension to file its motion for summary judgement. Also, French publishers drop their lawsuit, working out a settlement with Google to allow out-of-print books by French authors to be scanned.
Publishing companies (including Amazon) will soon be able to have their URLs end in .book.
Think Amazon's the only company dealing with book scammers? Not so. Barnes & Noble's PubIt! bans Nora A. Roberts, a scammer trying to cash in on the famous Nora Roberts.
Want to weigh in on the DOJ's lawsuit against major publishers? Deadline for public commentary is June 25, so get your letters written before then. (Where to send your letter)
Industry Blogs
QueryTracker's Publishing Pulse for 5/8.
Nathan Bransford posts The Last Few Weeks in Books.
Agent Natalie Lakosil suggests that writers do not requery a revised manuscript to the same agent unless the agent originally asked for a revise and resubmit, or the story has been basically completely rewritten. Requerying the same agent with a different manuscript is a good idea, though.
Jami Gold posts her ultimate guide to pitch writing.
The Zola Social Reader is an app that brings the people back into bookselling, allowing critics and friends to make their choices known instead of relying solely on algorithms for book recommendations. Notes can be shared, and you'll be able to write in the margins and highlight and share that, too. The beta version has just been released; the official is expected no sooner than July.
Rachelle Gardner reflects on what's changed in the past 4 years. She also talks about using the setting as a character in your book - the correct setting can enhance your characters' moods, display their faults, challenge them, or show what they want to be. And she advices us on using emotion in our publishing careers. The key to getting someone to buy your book is to connect them emotionally; if an agent turns you down, it may because they're having a bad day themselves, so don't let it get you down; if you want your readers to remember your book - they'll always remember how you made them feel, even if they forget the plot.
Janet Reid gives us an example what should be in a personalized PR announcement. Let's say you just got published and want to let your friends know. If you want to come across as not spam, you need to: personalize (yes, that's include each name and write to each person, and talk about why they'd like it and mention something specific to them that wouldn't apply to each generic person), include full information (title, word count/page count, price, publisher, genre), and a full URL (including introducing the URL with "Here's my book" or some such).
Over at GalleyCat, advice on how to market to the YA audience. Keep up the social media, go on blog tours, go to independent bookstores and invite readers, get people talking about you.
Here's an excellent inspirational post from Danyelle Leafty to keep us going, via Winston Churchill's advice.
If you're writing children's books and plan to write for e-readers, be careful about including too many apps, as they may be distracting and reduce a child's ability to retain information from the story.
That's all I've found on my news round-up.What other major publishing news have you encountered over the past two weeks?
Industry News
Barnes & Noble urges the DOJ to reject the settlements of 3 big publishers over the price-fixing lawsuit, saying that the settlements are not in the public's best interest and that there is no factual basis that the settlements will actually address the issues raised by the lawsuit.
E-book retailer Kobo reveals plans for a self-publishing platform. Author royalties will be up to 70% and authors can set the prices as they please, including giving books away for free.
Hachette Group is beginning a new line for commercial fiction called Redhook.
For Cloud, iPad, and Android, Kindle now supports childrens' books, graphic novels, and comics.
In the Authors Guild vs Google lawsuit over the book-scanning project, Google asks for an extension to file its motion for summary judgement. Also, French publishers drop their lawsuit, working out a settlement with Google to allow out-of-print books by French authors to be scanned.
Publishing companies (including Amazon) will soon be able to have their URLs end in .book.
Think Amazon's the only company dealing with book scammers? Not so. Barnes & Noble's PubIt! bans Nora A. Roberts, a scammer trying to cash in on the famous Nora Roberts.
Want to weigh in on the DOJ's lawsuit against major publishers? Deadline for public commentary is June 25, so get your letters written before then. (Where to send your letter)
Industry Blogs
QueryTracker's Publishing Pulse for 5/8.
Nathan Bransford posts The Last Few Weeks in Books.
Agent Natalie Lakosil suggests that writers do not requery a revised manuscript to the same agent unless the agent originally asked for a revise and resubmit, or the story has been basically completely rewritten. Requerying the same agent with a different manuscript is a good idea, though.
Jami Gold posts her ultimate guide to pitch writing.
The Zola Social Reader is an app that brings the people back into bookselling, allowing critics and friends to make their choices known instead of relying solely on algorithms for book recommendations. Notes can be shared, and you'll be able to write in the margins and highlight and share that, too. The beta version has just been released; the official is expected no sooner than July.
Rachelle Gardner reflects on what's changed in the past 4 years. She also talks about using the setting as a character in your book - the correct setting can enhance your characters' moods, display their faults, challenge them, or show what they want to be. And she advices us on using emotion in our publishing careers. The key to getting someone to buy your book is to connect them emotionally; if an agent turns you down, it may because they're having a bad day themselves, so don't let it get you down; if you want your readers to remember your book - they'll always remember how you made them feel, even if they forget the plot.
Janet Reid gives us an example what should be in a personalized PR announcement. Let's say you just got published and want to let your friends know. If you want to come across as not spam, you need to: personalize (yes, that's include each name and write to each person, and talk about why they'd like it and mention something specific to them that wouldn't apply to each generic person), include full information (title, word count/page count, price, publisher, genre), and a full URL (including introducing the URL with "Here's my book" or some such).
Over at GalleyCat, advice on how to market to the YA audience. Keep up the social media, go on blog tours, go to independent bookstores and invite readers, get people talking about you.
Here's an excellent inspirational post from Danyelle Leafty to keep us going, via Winston Churchill's advice.
If you're writing children's books and plan to write for e-readers, be careful about including too many apps, as they may be distracting and reduce a child's ability to retain information from the story.
That's all I've found on my news round-up.What other major publishing news have you encountered over the past two weeks?
No comments:
Post a Comment