This week's publishing news and industry blogs covers 4/19-5/2. (Links open in new windows.)
Publishing News
Apple requested a stay in all damages until after appeals were resolved, including a request to move the trial, but was denied across the board by Judge Cote. However, the Second Circuit Court has granted a temporary stay until they've reviewed Cote's decision. The States accuse Apple of stonewalling the trial.
Authors whose e-book rights were owned by MacAdam Cage Publishing before it sold those rights to MP Publishing and went bankrupt are being called to the Authors' Guild. While all agree that MP legally owns the rights, the Authors' Guild wants to offer legal help to authors who wish to fight to get their rights back. Former MacCage authors are saying they've not received royalties in years, while MP says they have.
Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, publishes an Indie Author Manifesto. Also, because it's 2014, he makes it into an infographic.
BookBub has just gotten its first external funding, in the form of $3.8 million.
Open Road and Harper Collins are back in court over Julie of the Wolves e-distribution rights.
Industry Blogs
QueryTracker's Publishing Pulse for 4/25 and 5/2.
On the QueryTracker Blog, Rosie Genova, daytime English teacher, explains why even she, grammar expert, needs a copyeditor (and you do, too). Stina Lindenblatt talks about choosing a POV character. Who's got the story tell? The character with the highest stake in the game should be the POV character. Sarah Pinneo explains how Amazon's new crackdown on reviews isn't sensible--it's taking down reviews because authors sent the readers a free copy of the book or a small gift certificate worth about the value of the book to purchase it to the reviewer (with no specific review requirements), which has long been considered perfectly ethical and allowed in the industry.
On Writers Beware, Victoria Strauss reports on the "publicist" Kerry Jacobson, who has taken authors' money and skedaddled. She also posts an update on the class action case against Author Solutions, Inc: Judge Cote has ruled that the case against Penguin should be dismissed; but ASI is still on the hook.
Agent Janet Reid answers questions and offers advice. If you don't want to show your (literal) face as an author, can you still get an agent? (Yes. They're looking for great writing, not photogenic ability.) Is it normal to get a rejection letter from someone other than the agent to whom you wrote it? (No. Definitely not!) If English isn't your native language and you live in another country, but you're mostly fluent except for a little grammar, will it completely stop you from getting an American agent to publish in America? (You can still get an agent, but you'll need to hire an editor to polish your grammar for you first. However, not being American isn't a huge problem.) Does the QueryShark format not mesh with the formulas you've seen? What should you do? (Janet Shark Reid suggests following the format that shows up on QueryShark.)
Reid also advises that platform isn't being on a wide variety of social media platforms. It's other people talking about you, not you talking about yourself. And if not getting feedback about your query bothers you, can you tell who does and doesn't give real feedback vs form rejections? (No. And get over it.) What if the request went to your spam folder for a couple of weeks--is it too late to reply? (Go ahead and reply!) What if you meet an agent in person who requests your manuscript, but you'd really rather query a different agent at their agency? (Query the agent you want. The first has no claim to it, just because they met you first.) Is it kosher to re-query the same agent with a book that's been massively re-written? (Yes, and you should probably mention that it's been massively rewritten right up.)
Agent Kristen Nelson posts her year-end stats for 2013 (first shared in a newsletter in January, but now on the blog for the general public.)
Author Jim Hines posts about writing diverse characters as a non-minority author... and why he's not the person to ask if it's okay, and gives a couple of links for doing more research.
Agent Rachelle Gardner does an interview via vlog about what agents want. She also answers the question "Is it important who you know?" in terms of being an author trying to get published (it does help to network).
On the Editor's Blog, all about nouns.
Publishers' Weekly estimates that it takes about 300 book sales on Amazon to make the Amazon Top Five.
The Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal blog interviews agent Stefanie Lieberman and also interviews Penguin-Random House editor Sue Grimshaw.
Author Angela Quarles writes a set of posts on querying, from when you should write it, to what to write, to strategies for submission: Part 1, Part2, and Part 3.
How long should just about everything you post online be? Buffer shares, breaking it down by blogs, titles, tweets, status updates, and more.
GalleyCat shares a tool that allows authors to add soundtracks to their self-published books: Booktrack.
Bid4Papers puts together an infographic looking at what famous people read, from George R R Martin to Sheldon Cooper to David Bowie.
James Patterson gives advice on writing, and how to write a book people don't want to put down.
What publishing news have you encountered in the past two weeks?
Publishing News
Apple requested a stay in all damages until after appeals were resolved, including a request to move the trial, but was denied across the board by Judge Cote. However, the Second Circuit Court has granted a temporary stay until they've reviewed Cote's decision. The States accuse Apple of stonewalling the trial.
Authors whose e-book rights were owned by MacAdam Cage Publishing before it sold those rights to MP Publishing and went bankrupt are being called to the Authors' Guild. While all agree that MP legally owns the rights, the Authors' Guild wants to offer legal help to authors who wish to fight to get their rights back. Former MacCage authors are saying they've not received royalties in years, while MP says they have.
Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, publishes an Indie Author Manifesto. Also, because it's 2014, he makes it into an infographic.
BookBub has just gotten its first external funding, in the form of $3.8 million.
Open Road and Harper Collins are back in court over Julie of the Wolves e-distribution rights.
Industry Blogs
QueryTracker's Publishing Pulse for 4/25 and 5/2.
On the QueryTracker Blog, Rosie Genova, daytime English teacher, explains why even she, grammar expert, needs a copyeditor (and you do, too). Stina Lindenblatt talks about choosing a POV character. Who's got the story tell? The character with the highest stake in the game should be the POV character. Sarah Pinneo explains how Amazon's new crackdown on reviews isn't sensible--it's taking down reviews because authors sent the readers a free copy of the book or a small gift certificate worth about the value of the book to purchase it to the reviewer (with no specific review requirements), which has long been considered perfectly ethical and allowed in the industry.
On Writers Beware, Victoria Strauss reports on the "publicist" Kerry Jacobson, who has taken authors' money and skedaddled. She also posts an update on the class action case against Author Solutions, Inc: Judge Cote has ruled that the case against Penguin should be dismissed; but ASI is still on the hook.
Agent Janet Reid answers questions and offers advice. If you don't want to show your (literal) face as an author, can you still get an agent? (Yes. They're looking for great writing, not photogenic ability.) Is it normal to get a rejection letter from someone other than the agent to whom you wrote it? (No. Definitely not!) If English isn't your native language and you live in another country, but you're mostly fluent except for a little grammar, will it completely stop you from getting an American agent to publish in America? (You can still get an agent, but you'll need to hire an editor to polish your grammar for you first. However, not being American isn't a huge problem.) Does the QueryShark format not mesh with the formulas you've seen? What should you do? (Janet Shark Reid suggests following the format that shows up on QueryShark.)
Reid also advises that platform isn't being on a wide variety of social media platforms. It's other people talking about you, not you talking about yourself. And if not getting feedback about your query bothers you, can you tell who does and doesn't give real feedback vs form rejections? (No. And get over it.) What if the request went to your spam folder for a couple of weeks--is it too late to reply? (Go ahead and reply!) What if you meet an agent in person who requests your manuscript, but you'd really rather query a different agent at their agency? (Query the agent you want. The first has no claim to it, just because they met you first.) Is it kosher to re-query the same agent with a book that's been massively re-written? (Yes, and you should probably mention that it's been massively rewritten right up.)
Agent Kristen Nelson posts her year-end stats for 2013 (first shared in a newsletter in January, but now on the blog for the general public.)
Author Jim Hines posts about writing diverse characters as a non-minority author... and why he's not the person to ask if it's okay, and gives a couple of links for doing more research.
Agent Rachelle Gardner does an interview via vlog about what agents want. She also answers the question "Is it important who you know?" in terms of being an author trying to get published (it does help to network).
On the Editor's Blog, all about nouns.
Publishers' Weekly estimates that it takes about 300 book sales on Amazon to make the Amazon Top Five.
The Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal blog interviews agent Stefanie Lieberman and also interviews Penguin-Random House editor Sue Grimshaw.
Author Angela Quarles writes a set of posts on querying, from when you should write it, to what to write, to strategies for submission: Part 1, Part2, and Part 3.
How long should just about everything you post online be? Buffer shares, breaking it down by blogs, titles, tweets, status updates, and more.
GalleyCat shares a tool that allows authors to add soundtracks to their self-published books: Booktrack.
Bid4Papers puts together an infographic looking at what famous people read, from George R R Martin to Sheldon Cooper to David Bowie.
James Patterson gives advice on writing, and how to write a book people don't want to put down.
What publishing news have you encountered in the past two weeks?
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