Resources and tips for the self-published author.

Publishing News Roundup Series: How Current Trends in Writing Can Help Writers Succeed

by Maureen Crisp •  March 20, 2017  •   Follow

Published in News  •  6 comments

 

Every author wants to know how they can succeed, and keep doing so.

Some try to look at marketing and the movement of trends in order to see how they should shift with the market. But many authors worry that moving with the market strips their unique identities, and many others don’t want to change because they like their writing topics and styles. The question then is how do we find a happy medium?

Writing Trends

 

 

What are the current trends in writing? Everybody wants to know.  Writers do know some trends. Their incomes are all over the place or dropping.  The current political situation is seeing dystopian themed books being dusted off. The South by South West film and television festival is currently full of Handmaids from The Handmaids Tale, a book by Margaret Atwood. This book freaked people out when it was first published and seems set to continue if all the articles about the festival handmaids is anything to go by.

 

The London Book Fair is on* and chat on the floor suggests that Brexit will hit UK publishing scene hard. Also I see on Twitter that it’s not just the Brits who are un-nerved. Several EU countries are facing Brexit calls of their own in upcoming elections. We are in unsettled times.
 
The Bookseller talks about the difference between a bestseller and a profitable book. I was surprised to learn that they are not the same thing.
 
If you have tried to make sense of your publishers royalty statements lately, read Mike Shatzkin’s recent blog on Profit and Loss formulas and how publishers are getting them wrong. Could be some ammo in there for negotiations.
 
Sacha Black wonders if now is the time to go wide given the current trends of income uncertainty.
The latest Author Earnings report is out, and interesting reading it is too. Here in NZ we recently had our own version of Writer Income surveyed… which was pretty dismal reading. Data Guy has some comments on the NZ situation in English language publishing.
 
Mike Sahno wrote a guest post on Anne R Allen’s blog about the 5 pieces of bad advice regularly given to literary writers.
 
Auburn Seal of Bibliocrunch has some rock solid advice if you are spinning around with writing speed trends. Should you write faster or write slower? If you are feeling overwhelmed with everything you should do… set some solid goals.
 
Dan Blank has some sage advice for figuring out where you should be placing your book, marketing wise… way before you publish it. This is a must read.
 
Subscription curation is all the rage in children’s publishing according to Publishers Weekly. Publishers are directly helping parents choose wisely along with publishing classroom versions of popular books to get around censorship.
 
Elizabeth Craig was recently asked why didn’t she sell her books on Etsy. And this sparked a whole new way of looking at writing.

In The Craft Section,

 
 
 
Developing Themes – The midpoint- Sara Letourneau- Bookmark
 
Using Scrivener – Writer Unboxed
 
 
 

In The Marketing Section,

5 tools every Indie author should use– Frances Caballo- Bookmark!!
 
 
6 Basic tech skills authors should learn– Carla King- Bookmark!!
 
 
 
 
 

To Finish,

Reedsy is a great resource for writers. They often have great infographics… (I’m such a sucker…) However Ricardo has recently been putting together a huge list of writing competitions. Have a look. And for all those people who want a publisher to look at their work… Catherine Ryan Howard’s 50 easy ways to get a publishing deal will resonate with everyone.

 

* Don’t forget to check out Alli’s LBF Indie Fringe 24 hour conference. You might just get a jump on some writing trends.

 

Maureen
@craicer
 

 

About Maureen Crisp

Maureen Crisp has been writing her weekly publishing roundups for over seven years. She is a traditionally published children's author as well as indie-published. She lives in New Zealand and is heading the team organising the 4th National Conference of Children's Writers and Illustrators. She is currently trying her hand at writing a children’s book series if she can drag herself away from forever tweaking her Mars novel or obsessing over space.