We started with the longest pause yet at the top of a #FutureChat session. Crickets. “#FutureChat is open for your comments,” I announced. “The floor is yours.” Beat. Beat. Beat. And then, after a couple of minutes, several folks braved the Twitter silence, editor Dan Benton finally easing the tension by suggesting that 2018 “Year of… Read More
Australia's Tablo adds fee-based analytics for 'authors who are serious'
Not unlike the social writing-and-reading platform of Allen Lau’s Wattpad, the Melbourne-based Tablo positions itself as an online site at which you can “create, publish, and discover new books.” Its founder, Ash Davies, has been honoured several times as one of Australia’s younger entrepreneurs. He says that more than 130 countries are represented in… Read More
What's 'fairness' got to do with publishing?
We seem to encounter ‘fairness’ questions in publishing at every turn these days. Three weeks ago, our #FutureChat focus was on questions of an “unfair” tendency to allow inconsistent metadata procedures and sheer negligence overlook proper credit for book illustrators. Two weeks ago, we talked about writers contributing articles and posts without pay to… Read More
'The Tsunami-of-Content Monster': #FutureChat recap
“Ninety percent want to publish a book? That sounds great to me!” Of course, that would sound great to Miral Sattar, wouldn’t it? Sattar runs Bibliocrunch, which connects writers and “author services.” I ran into Sattar as she was putting together her booth at the post-BookExpo America (BEA) Javits Center in New York on Saturday morning (30th May)… Read More
Authors making $8,000 per year? Why write free? A #FutureChat recap
‘Question is, are you making money for someone else?’ That’s the historical fiction author Jane Steen, English, based in Chicago, during our live Twitter conversation at the end of last week. But not for nothing do independent writers like to “celebrate their diversity,” as they tend to put it on a good day. Views of… Read More
Should Authors Write Without Pay?
From anyone else, the advice might sound like right-headed rationality, itself. But as the author Roxana Robinson (pictured) can tell you, when you’re the president of the Authors Guild, nothing you say seems to fall on unbiased ears. This time, Robinson is talking about what authors may be doing to inadvertently diminish their own perceived… Read More
Illustrating a need for publishing reforms
Yes, she has to draw you a picture. Since our #FutureChat of Friday (15th May), we’ve had the news that illustrators Axel Scheffler, Chris Riddell, Birgitta Sif, and others — including the irrepressible Sarah McIntyre — are among contributors featured in a new book, Creatures, to be published by Macmillan Children’s Books in September. As our colleague at… Read More
'It's discovery that's lagging'
“A difficulty in marketing something that has no physical presence.” That’s the author Stark Holborn talking with my Bookseller associate Sarah Shaffi (pictured) about the question of digital-first publishing and its potential for writers, in Authors debate digital-first publication. And that line, appearing among many enthusiastic comments from writers about digital-first in Shaffi’s story, echoes the strongest qualm… Read More
Is digital-first best for authors?
As our understanding of digital publishing evolves, how much holds true for authors? Publishing digitally first can help authors to learn about the publishing process, make writers more critical of their own work and help reinvent an author, but the format should only be used in the right context as there is “a difficulty in… Read More
From Boston's #TheMuse: Whatever happened to 'author-ity'?
When Everybody Publishes, Is Anybody An Authority? The Muse and The Marketplace has opened on Friday, 1st May, with of authority in digital times was followed Friday (1st May) by our weekly #FutureChat from The Bookseller’s The FutureBook. The Muse annually draws some 800 attendees and is produced by the highly respected Grub Street creative writing center,… Read More