Heading out to DragonCon, Publisher’s Weekly’s Barbara Vey had an interesting conversation on the plane with a potential reader, which led her to ask the question: How do you get new readers? Read her answer, it’s maybe not what you would think. http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/beyondherbook/?p=4683

No new reporting on the agents-as-publishers controversy. Meanwhile, Chuck Sambuchino reports on a new agent—Barbara J. Scott of Wordserve Literary—who, among other things, is interested in representing women’s fiction.http://www.writersdigest.com/uncategorized/new-agent-alert-barbara-scott-of-wordserve-literary

 “This industry is an eco-system: you get exactly out of it what you put in,” says Lauren Cerand.

Galley Cat’s Jason Boog interviewed publicist Cerand last week, discussing whether new authors need to hire out publicity skills to promote their books. Boog’s written summary: http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/should-i-hire-a-book-publicist_b38096 pulled from a 10 min MP3 file interview that can be accessed from this link as well on the MediaBistro site.

A previous worry of e-book authors is being put to rest as companies are now launching technology that makes it possible to digitally sign e-books. In a press release, Autography and Open Road Integrated Media touted their e-signing technology for author Jonathon King and his Edgar award winning mystery The Blue Edge of Midnight.

“Autography’s e-signing technology works across all major eReader platforms and applications. Jonathon’s signature page will feature special graphicsjust for Bouchercon and can include a picture with the author that is also inserted into the ebook. The now personalized greeting can be exported to the consumer’s Facebook or Twitter space with a single button if they choose.”

http://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/autography-open-road-host-first-ever-autography-ebook-signing/1

Evoking the myth of the three-headed hydra, Bob Mayer divides the publishing landscape up into tech people, business people, and content providers. In his blog post he exhorts writers to let go of their fears and, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/the-three-headed-hydra-of-publishing-that’s-consuming-itself/

In his analysis of screenwriter Harlan Ellison’s (I, Robot) on-air rant, Steven Pressfield makes the point that,

“The problem is that we as artists and entrepreneurs don’t control the means of production or distribution. If we want our work to get “out there,” we have to make a deal—with a bank, a movie studio, a record label, a publishing house. Art and commerce inevitably clash, and we know who comes out on the short end of that.”

So he recommends writers develop two key skills… http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2011/09/un-screwing-the-writer/

And if you need some good news (I know I do!), Sourcebooks’ publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah has some good news for her company, which means good news for the book industry too, as she writes in this open letter introduced in Richard Curtis’s E-reads blog: http://ereads.com/2011/09/sourcebooks-ceo-raccah-upbeat-and-so-are-her-stats.html

From Industry News Team Member Kecia Adams

The publishing industry is supposed to be on summer lull right now, but the blogs have been active as late summer conferences wind down, and Apple and Amazon launch salvos in the ebook access and pricing wars.

On Barbara Vey’s Beyond Her Book blog, guest blogger Maggie Mae Gallagher gives a rundown of reader-author event RomCon, recently held in Denver, CO. She was so impressed by the reader-focused interaction that she’s put the conference on her “must-go” schedule for next year.

Meanwhile, there is good news from the American Publishers and Book Industry Study Group, BookStats. As Publisher’s Weekly blogger Jim Melliot reported:

BookStats found that, contrary to widespread belief, the publishing industry grew in both 2009 and 2010, aided by $1.6 billion in sales from e-books. Total estimated revenue for all publishers rose 3.1% in 2010, to $27.9 billion, following a 2.5% increase in 2009.

As digital news outlet C-Net reported, reader access to ebooks on the iPad and other Apple devices took a small blow when Apple decided to disallow “buy” links from ebook reader apps such as Kindle and B&N’s Nook. However, Apple may have to rethink its strategy as Amazon responded with its new Kindle Cloud Reader web app that uses HTML5 to create a web app, more technical details from Wired here. Apple will also have to respond to a lawsuit accusing Apple and other “agency model” publishers of illegal ebook price fixing.

Also this month the discussion continued about literary agents offering additional services, namely ebook publishing, to their clients. The Knight Agency was named in this blog entry from the Shatzkin Files as one full service model to keep your eye on.

Jane Friedman interviews author Amy Stolls about how book marketing has changed in the past five years, and how Amy is marketing her novel, The Ninth Wife. And BookEnds literary agent, Jessica Faust, offers the advice to author-entrepreneurs to, “Give it five years.”

Stay cool, everyone. And happy writing!

There was plenty of industry news and buzz coming out of the RWA National conference in New York City, and it has taken a week (or, at least, it has taken ME a week) to process and filter it all. To give you a taste, book reviewer and blogger Dear Author’s Jane posted some Things I Learned from RWA 2011, while Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blogger Sarah Wendell provided photos plus “overheard” tidbits of her RWA 2011 experience.

You can join the debate about whether women’s fiction and romantic novels are bad for women, as Barbara Vey of the Publisher’s Weekly blog Beyond Her Book gives her two cents in her post Family Planning and Romance.

In other, less genre-oriented industry news, Google launched a social networking competitor to Facebook called Google Plus. Huffington Post blogger David All discussed Six Things Marketers Must Know About Google Plus, and author Nathan Bransford, also a new fan of the project, provided a few Google Plus links and how-tos on his This Week In Books blog.

For all of us who are struggling to balance work on the WIP with how to get our name out there, Dan Blank has written a thoughtful article on Honing Your Craft vs Connecting With Your Audience.

And finally (just for fun), publishers are buzzing that the new Duchess of Cambridge said she enjoyed reading Anne of Green Gables as a child. Catherine and Prince William visted Prince Edward Island on their recent Canadian tour, where “Kate” was presented with a commemorative copy of L.M. Montgomery’s much-beloved book.

Happy writing (and reading!)

Kecia

If you’re querying agents and editors, you’ll enjoy this two-minute video in which agent Kristin Nelson gives two down-and-dirty query tips.

Amazon is venturing into book publishing, with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to publish the print editions. They put in a bid for Amanda Hocking’s YA series, but she decided to go with St. Martin’s.

More news on Dorchester, and it’s not good. They’ve been publishing books digitally that they don’t have the rights to. Brian Keene, a former Dorchester author, is encouraging writers to boycott them.

Brenda Hiatt updated her Show Me the Money! list. A good place to go if you want to get an idea of what publishers pay. Some e-publishers are included in the list, too.

Smashword’s Mark Coker says that the data stating that “ebooks accounted for about 8% of the overall trade book market” is incorrect:

“The data only includes reported results from about 12-14 large publishers, so it doesn’t include data from the hundreds of thousands indie authors and the thousands of smaller independent publishers.”

At Barbara Vey’s Beyond Her Book blog on PW, Rosemary Harris reported that during an Industry Professionals On Publishing workshop at the Left Coast Crime Conference, “an audience member questioned the existing publishing model, specifically the role of agents and editors…” Agent Janet Reid’s response was met with cheers:

“GM went under and no one talked about the end of the car”

If you’re wondering why e-books are taking longer to catch on in Europe, you’ll want to read this New York Times article.

I started with a fun link, and I thought I’d end with one. At Romance University, read this article by Jeanne Adams to find out if you’re visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, and how to use that to make your workspace work for you.

Be a social artist with social media, with the help of The Writer Mama. It’s interesting but still unclear to me. I need examples.

If you think the Facebook redesign is confusing, here’s a comprehensive step-by-step guide.

Author Tech Tip has information on pretty much everything for writers, from blogging to websites to promotion and more.

Neil Gaimen explains how piracy helped sell his books.

In this New York Times article, Scott Turow shares his very different take on piracy.

Marcus Shakey shares advice on how to ensure 75% of agents will request your material.

Coulters’ Daughter by Maya Banks became the first digital book on the New York Times Bestseller list. And it’s a romance! Both Maya and indie author Amanda Hockings were on the USA Today‘s Bestseller list.

Agent Kristin Nelson reports that the new Macmillan contract includes a clause to obtain the derivative rights to works.

In the new Macmillan contract is clause 6. (b) Copyright on Derivative Works. To state bluntly, this clause gives the Publisher the right to create “derivative works” based on the work they are buying from the author. And to add insult to injury, the publisher owns the copyright to any of these “new works.”

Sisters in Crime shows the results of a Vida study that “examines a group of publications in terms of their overall representation of women and men and a count by gender of book reviewers and reviewed authors.” Women didn’t fare well in these mostly literary publications. I’d like to add that in quite a few online review sites, such as Barbara Vey’s Beyond Her Book blog at Publishers Weekly, the books reviewed are mostly by women authors. Still, this is not good news for many women writers.

Borders filed for bankruptcy. We knew it was coming but it still hurts.

Better news for writers. Book sales are way up from 20 years ago, according to Timothy McSweeney. But Daniel Nester questions McSweeney’s the conclusions. You can read about it here.

From Publisher’s Marketplace Lunch: Canadian Distributor HB Fenn Initiates Bankruptcy Proceedings.