Saturday, March 28, 2015

Publishing Industry News

This week's publishing news post covers 3/14-3/28/15.

Publishing News

OverDrive is being bought by the Japanese company Ratuken. OverDrive was one of the first companies to bring e-books to libraries and will still continue to do so.

In the GSU e-reserves court case, the case nearly went back to court for a second trial. However, the judge has ruled that no additional trial is needed, as no sufficient new evidence has been brought up.


Industry Blogs


Writing links over at agent Nephele Tempest's blog for Friday, 3/20 and 3/27,  Particularly recommended is the Publication Opportunities for Writers collection for April and May over at Aerogramme Writers' Studio. 

On Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss looks at Omni Reboot, a reincarnation of Omni Magazine, and its contract language. She's still waiting for clarification, but if you're considering submitting, make sure you read the fine print to be sure you get the correct contract... whatever you sign shouldn't sell away your lifetime rights to your fiction. Also of note is that a second class action lawsuit has been filed against Author Solutions, Inc. Anyone who has signed with them can still add information to suit.

Agent Janet Reid answers questions and gives advice. An agent requests a partial, disappears, and doesn't respond to nudges for months--should you worry? (Yes; that's a bad sign... agents shouldn't disappear.)  She gives an informative review of answers, questions, and general useful info from the past week or so. She also gives clarification on what pre-empts are, and some info about book auctions.

Reid also advises that if an agent promises to reply and doesn't, it's okay to send a nudge to be sure the query arrived safely. If a NY Times best-selling author offers a blurb, is it okay to say that in a query? (Sure. Can't hurt, but say why they made the offer.) You published a book when you were a kid for some friends, and took it down in a week--are you previously published? (Yes, but you don't have to say it at the query stage, or anytime soon. Just make sure your agent knows about before entering you for awards.)

Agent Jessica Faust lists what the agents in her agency enjoy.

On the Editor's Blog, advice to look at the intention behind writing advice. A one-line ultimatum might be short, sweet, and make a nice meme, but it probably has some really important exceptions.

QueryTracker offers a series on querying well. Make a spreadsheet, research your basics to avoid dumb mistakes, figure out what to do while you wait and who to query, learn how to get over rejections and keep on querying.

Author Kristin Kathryn Rusch warns writers to beware thinking that early success means eternal success--if you don't keep growing, you'll eventually wash up.

On the FF&P blog, agent Sara Megibow gets interviewed.

Author Jim Hines takes a look at the effects of being a Kindle Daily Deal on his sales, and the overall impact the deal had. He also invites a series of guests to talk about representation. One talks about the impact of lack of representation when growing up bisexual, another talks about the need for the presence of characters with disabilities in SF, another about the over-mystifying of Native Americans in SF and Fantasy, and about being an older female writer in SF&F.

Author Angela Quarles posts about SELF-e, a site that helps get indie authors into libraries.

At ContentAudit.biz, an infographic on writing content for a webpage.

And if you're self-publishing, make sure your cover isn't bad enough to wind up on the Kindle Cover Disasters Tumblr page.


What publishing news have you encountered in the past two weeks?

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