Resources and tips for the self-published author.

Publishing News Roundup Series: Genre Journeys

by Christi Sheehan •  March 30, 2016  •   Follow

Published in Publishing Tips  •  No comments

 

This week seemed to be genre week with interesting  articles from across the genre spectrum. Children’s Publishing day at Digital Book World had some interesting takeaways. A few years ago it was widely speculated that with all these smart phones the early adopters would be teenagers. But they aren’t. They still want a physical book with printed pages. But the genre could be slowly changing.

 

Over in the Romance field the HEA (happily ever after) ending is being questioned… do modern romances need this? It isn’t reflected in real life… is it? Some interesting thoughts in this blog post and comments.

 

James Patterson, who is his own genre, has been making waves this week with the revelation that there is a whole publishing arm devoted to just him… and he is employing them through his publishers, which would make him a Self Publisher with a traditional publishing house or a traditional publishing house with a self publishing imprint devoted to one person. No one can decide but it makes fascinating reading especially as he is publishing across age groups.

 

Leo Hartas, an illustrator, makes a plea for writers to understand how to commission an illustrator. If you are in the market for having illustrations for your project… read this first. I know illustrators who say these words often.

 

One of the most heartfelt posts on Social Media came from Anne R Allen this week. This follows on from Jami Gold’s post last week. Anne talks about the increasing pressure on writers to be everywhere… You don’t need to be. She makes absolute sense and this is a must read for every author out there.

 

Catherine Ryan Howard who is a Go To Guru on how to self-publish has an agent and a traditional publishing deal. This is an interesting journey… and one a lot of writers are taking as Hybrid is seen as a good career move.
 
This week publishing futurist Mike Shatzkin has been thinking about the need for publishers to use critical data research in the acquisitions process. These days research and data profiles are becoming easier to find and use so why aren’t publishers using them? As always read the comments for the robust discussion points.

 

Today while traveling on an errand a character, whom I had put on hold for a few years, popped into my mind demanding that now was the time to tell his story… never mind I’m in the middle of something big…somewhere else. Some characters are so rude! This got me thinking about Story Structure and this led me to one of Larry Brooks latest posts on structure versus pantsing. There is no opposition. There is subliminal understanding that every story should have a beginning and an end. This is a one of those A-HA posts that you will print out!

 

In The Craft Section,
 
 
How to write a love scene– Jane Friedman-Bookmark
 
 
2 Bookmark posts from K M Weiland 5 ways to trim your word count and 11 killer chapter breaks.
 
 
Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have compiled a popular posts list.
 
 

 

In The Marketing Section,
 
 
How authors can find readers– Jane Friedman- Bookmark
 
 
 
 
 
To Finish,

YA Highway is an interesting site where YA authors hang out. They have an interesting infographic (very Jasper Ffordish) with lots of clickable links on all sorts of interesting posts. This is well worth a trawl. Children’s writers cover all genres the good and the bad

 

Maureen
@craicer
PNR

About Christi Sheehan

Christi Sheehan joins the ranks of Bibliocrunch from her previous position as an Assistant Editor at Oxford University Press. She was graduated from Marist College with a degree in English (with a concentration in Writing) in 2012. Since then, Christi completed a number of social media and editorial internships. She currently works as a book reviewer for TeenReads.com. In her free time, Christi enjoys reading (primarily books in the mystery, literary fiction, and poetry genres), writing, singing, unabashedly watching the Real Housewives series on Bravo while on the elliptical, teaching swim classes at her local Y, and kicking her boyfriend’s butt in P90X classes at her local gym. You can follow her daily musings about life and books at her twitter handle, @ChristiShee.