Publishing News Roundup Series: What Has Been Cancelled in Publishing Due to Covid 19?
by Maureen Crisp • March 31, 2020 • Follow
Published in News • No comments
Covid 19 has been the cause of a lot of publishing events. What can publishing do to combat it?
Spring is a big seasonal book conference time for the world of publishing. As everything begins to be cancelled, what will the effect be on publishing? What can publishers do to continue to market their books and get them into readers hands? Most importantly, how will publishers recover from this type of loss?
If you’re a reader and want to continue to support your publishing community, how can you help? Look up all the canceled conferences and what the books they were sponsoring. Some publishers have even decided to go virtual with their marketing. A little effort from you can make a big difference to the authors you love.
Looking For The Silver Lining
Pic: Flickr- Creative Commons – Sean Freese
This week the publishing industry was trying to catch up with all the cancellations as the Covid 19 virus is now a global pandemic. Publishing Perspectives announced a roundup today of what’s been canceled.
Meanwhile over on Amazon, there have been scams taking advantage of people’s fear. Let’s rip off some scientific articles dress it up with a salad of opinion and badly formatted or just scanned pages of tips and sell it to frightened people.
If you are thinking it’s all a big conspiracy theory and the virus isn’t that bad you need to read this detailed article on the statistics of the pandemic thus far.
I was hoping to find some silver linings I could share with you this week. This became especially important for my mental health as I investigated the contents of our emergency bag and discovered expired food. Hmm. What would a writer need to get through some forced isolation time? A separate workroom from children and spouses for a start. (The laundry- I’m always in there.) Lay in a stock of pain killers, cough medicine, your favourite chicken soup, wine, chocolate, pens, and paper and get in a stack of books from your local bookshop.
When you are all settled in, channel Mary Shelley. She wrote Frankenstein during a pandemic. You too could write a novel that changes the literature landscape.
(N.B. You might have to handwrite it just like Mary if the internet goes down because everyone is working from home.)
This could be a great time to do some computer spring cleaning says Litreactor– Have you ever spent twenty minutes going through the files of your manuscripts trying to find the latest version where you didn’t make that stupid change that resulted in the hero heading to Antarctica? Clean up your hard drive.
The Portalist caught up with some pandemic apocalypse writers and asked them why people were searching out their books. First of all, Chuck Wendig apologized for writing a book about a pandemic in an election year….
If you were planning on attending a book fair or conference that has just disappeared there is light on the horizon. The Alliance of Independent Authors online conference is still on. Attend virtually and soak up all the great information for free this weekend.
A ray of sunshine amid the gloom for UK writers. Their government is dropping the VAT on books.
Go Into The Story has a link to an interview with the screenwriter of Emma- Eleanor Catton
Kris Rusch examines the double-dealings of Hachette this week when their staff walked out to support Ronan Farrow’s protest over publishing Woody Allen’s memoir. It’s ok to enforce these clauses of non-compete to authors but not when the shoe is on the other foot.
In the Craft Section,
39 writing tips to take seriously– Zoe McCarthy- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Blogging consistently helps readers find you– Rachel Thompson
To Finish,
One of my young friends suffered a concussion at work and she was at a loss as to what to do for the compulsory week off. She couldn’t look at screens or bright lights. Audiobooks I said. It’s a form of reading with your ears. It takes you right back to reading with Mum. The light switched on, and we went on to talk about Stephen Fry’s superlative reading of the Harry Potter series. There are reading snobs out there who say that reading anything outside of the printed page is wrong… however, science now backs up that audiobook listening is reading.
Yay for Science!
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.