‘There’s Never Been a Better Time To Be A Writer’ You’ve read that line, of course, we all have. Sometimes here at Writer Unboxed. I’ve seen this mantra frequently over the past few years in blog posts, conference reports and news items. And I don’t disagree there’s been a lot to celebrate. This is… Read More
May The Best SELF-e Win: Library Journal Ups The Ante
‘Judged Purely On Whether We Are Worth Reading’ As the word spreads about independent authors’ new avenue into the nation’s libraries, the organization behind SELF-e,Library Journal, is launching a contest, kicking off today (11 May) and with a final deadline of 31 August at midnight Eastern time for submissions. Ebook authors in four genres — romance,… Read More
‘Who Decided Our Worth?’ Do Free Books Give Away Authors’ Value?
‘There’s Something Badly Wrong’ For those following the industry! the industry! in its digital melodrama, tossing books to the crowd free is not new. But the question of whether today’s plethora of free offers may devalue books and/or authors in readers’ minds is not going away as easily as some folks wish it would. Roz Morris… Read More
Girl Online Spooked: What The Zoella Ghostwriting Issue Tells Us
Ghosts Creep Us Out For A Reason This graphic landed in my Twitter stream today, supposedly from the UK-based “Campaign For Real Authors,” hashing themselves as #CFRA. I suspect this is from the Authors Electric collective, which in 2012 had some blog commentary focused on the priority some publishers seem to have for celebrity books over the… 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
Independent Author Previews and a 'tide turning'
The Bookseller’s announcement that it will begin next month previewing self-published work from the Nook Press platform prompted our #FutureChat focus on efforts to “open up to indies,” as the Alliance of Independent Authors’ campaign (ALLi) has it. While most of the reception of the news has seemed positive, the new programme’s outlines are still coming… Read More
Publishing innovation: #FutureChat recap
Pushback and pull forward…If there had been any doubt about the scepticism encountered around digital cookbooks, you could find some verification in The FutureBook.net community’s #FutureChat on publishing innovation. Alta Editions’ Chris McBride, in our walkup to the #FutureChat, had spoken of how the cookbook sector has seemed to lag some other parts of the books industry… Read More
Torchin' For Books Data
Nobody came forward to say we have too much books data. The fact that we cannot see the size and shape of the publishing industry today, however, strikes some as more problematic than others. And shortly after The FutureBook.net community’s #FutureChat on the problem of missing data, I was reminded once more of how many folks… Read More
WRITING ON THE ETHER: Static
Currently sponsored by Roz Morris, author of My Memories of a Future Life, Writing on the Ether is a collection of news and perspectives on publishing. It is written by journalist and critic Porter Anderson for Jane Friedman and it appears at JaneFriedman.com each Thursday. Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
It’s a sadly traditional rift, the gulf between authors and the publishers who depend on them for the raw material of their business. But as with so many things in the industry, the digital dawn seems to be aggravating this strange estrangement. Insiders are starting to call into healthy question the scorn with which too many in the publishing core see their indispensable writers. Read More