Authors approaching accord Two venerable author advocate groups, the UK’s Society of Authors and the Authors Guild in the USA, have recently stepped into the limelight to announce that they are fighting for fairer contracts between publishers and authors. The impetus for these actions seems to come from reports that authors’ median incomes have dropped precipitously since 2009, while publishers have fared… Read More
Will We Ever Be Able To Trust Online Reviews?
‘Fake Reviews Are Still Rife’ Three summers ago, in August 2012, one of the hottest stories of the year came from the book-retail sector. The author John Locke had confirmed to The New York Times’ David Streitfeld that he had paid for reviews, lots of them, starting with 50 reviews of his books for $1,000. The… Read More
'No bookshop is an island': ALLi launches #Authors4Bookstores
At IndieReCon: Launching #Authors4Books Standing in this beautiful new Foyles store to launch ALLi’s Authors For Bookstores campaign, for a moment we can fool ourselves that reports of the decline of bricks-and-mortar bookshops are greatly exaggerated. The Alliance of Independent Authors’ (ALLi) Debbie Young (pictured)took to the floor of Friday’s IndieReCon event in London shortly before we… Read More
From London Book Fair to an IndieReckoning
Where do we find authors this year, as London Book Fair closes? (This story was written originally as a walkup to the #FutureChat of Friday 17th April.) Authors have long attended book fairs, of course, primarily for reasons of publicity or to meet their international publishers—but now they come to do business and to be… Read More
Plunge taken: A #FutureChat recap on The Bookseller's Indie Author Preview
You know the term “four-hander” for a piano piece composed to be played by two pianists, right? Our #FutureChat on Friday turned out to be the Twitteresque equivalent, and I was very glad to have my colleague Caroline Sanderson’s hands along to help engage in the conversation. The FutureBook community seemed energised and welcoming, maybe… Read More
Plunging In: The Bookseller's first Independent Author Preview
Here’s the good news: I do think that pretty much all the books I’ve included are good enough to be traditionally published, and by that I mean, well enough written. That should be music to any weary stigma-fighter’s ears. My colleague Caroline Sanderson is filling me in here on her experiences in choosing the very first round… Read More
Can #EthicalAuthor break through the scepticism?
A funny thing happens when you start talking about ethical behaviour in one setting or another: suddenly everybody was there first. I don’t think this is specific to the authorial community or the wider publishing community: I think we’d find that in almost any industry, a move toward guidelines for ethical business conduct would find… Read More
The Gate We Should Have Kept: And Was Mystique That Bad?
One of the most perceptive regulars in #FutureChat, The FutureBook digital publishing community’s weekly live discussion, is Carla Douglas of BeyondPaperEditing.com in Kingston, Ontario. And in a recent doing of the discussion, Douglas pointed out that writing, while once among the most isolated and solitary of careers has been made one of the most social by digital… Read More
On The Ethical Author Code And Amateurism
The Ethical Author Code The Ethical Author Code is being promoted by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) based in the UK. There’s more about its launch at The FutureBook conference in London here. While no one at ALLi is pointing fingers in this effort, many observers feel that it’s a pivotal one in terms of… Read More
A breakthrough for 'Ethical Authors'?
Big Idea, Uncertain Reception The FutureBook Conference plenary was in an upbeat late-afternoon mood. Abbie Headon, managing and commissioning editor at Summersdale, had stepped forward during the Big Ideas session to recommend we all remember the value of “people power.” Her earnest and soft-spoken appeal — the phrase “warm and fuzzy” comes to mind —… Read More