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In this issue: content creation, writing advice, social media self-promotion, new publishing models, the Blue Like Jazz movie, crowd-funded publishing, top authors to watch, Robin Meyers’ new book, trust and online content, digital content for kids, scratchboard design, a new book from Ross Douthat, and Wiley’s bittorrent piracy trial.
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58 ways to create persuasive content your audience will love
« Would you like to become a better writer? Would you like to create content that people will remember, tweet, and plus? How about content that inspires your audience to click, subscribe or buy? That’s the Holy Grail, right? It may sound difficult, but it really isn’t. You’re about to become a writer that’s incredibly persuasive and completely unforgettable. Ready? Let’s start with structuring your content so your message becomes irresistible.… » -
Free newsletters help aspiring writers and authors to publish
« Dan Pointer is probably the leading authority in the world on publishing as he has authored 102 books. Among his books are Writing Nonfiction, The Self-Publishing Manual and others. His own personal mission in life is to be sure people don’t die with a book still inside them.… » -
Social media self-promotion scheme draws authors—including Margaret Atwood
« Audible opens $20m fund that will reward authors using social media to help sales… » -
Rolling up the rim on new publishing models
« The increasing popularity of self-funding creative projects raises interesting questions about the future of publishing, especially when someone like McKay—who was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 1995 for his short story collection Like This—is abandoning traditional publishing models for ones like this. "I am one of the first Canadian literary writers with an established record in old-school publishing to make the giant step in the direction of going Indie," McKay writes on his Indiegogo campaign site. "You can help make this happen."… » -
Making Blue Like Jazz required faith and a little improvisation
« It took a miracle, and fans’ financial support, for Donald Miller’s best-selling memoir Blue Like Jazz to reach theaters.… » -
World’s only book-centric crowd-funding site helps authors get paid to write their books and raises money to promote their work
« Authr.com today announced the official launch of its crowd-funding site for aspiring authors to raise funds to get their books published. With the increased popularity of crowd funding for business ideas and projects, Authr.com is currently the only site to concentrate entirely on book funding for authors and writers. The Authr.com fundraising platform differentiates itself from other crowd-funding sites by continuing to support authors beyond fundraising as their book project transitions to pre-orders and sales once their book is published.… » -
Time 100: Authors to watch
« The Time 100 Most Influential People in the World is, by and large, a grab-bag of politicos, entertainers and technology entrepreneurs. But it also gives a nod to the publishing world. Among the Time 100 are…… » -
Author Robin Meyers looks for link between liberal, conservative Christians
« Robin Meyers, author of "Saving Jesus From the Church," grew up the son of a Church of Christ minister who was a Shakespearean scholar with a doctorate in English literature. Like his father, Meyers became intensely interested in the Bible as a work of literature, full of metaphor and deeply symbolic spiritual messages. In his latest book, "The Underground Church," Meyers looks for common ground between liberal and conservative Christians.… » -
Consumer Search Insights: Which source do you trust most?
« People tend to trust friends & family and the mainstream media far more than they trust websites & search engines. Relative to one another, men tend to trust newspapers, search engines & weblogs more; whereas women tend to trust friends & family and social media websites more. The youngest age group tends to trust social media a bit more & newspapers a bit less than other age groups do. Outside of that, it is somewhat hard to see other age-based patterns.… » -
Penguin, Macmillan, and Nosy Crow talk digital books for children
« How publishers can make reading experiences that parents feel ‘more positive about than Angry Birds’. For much of the book publishing world, the move to digital is all about e-books. That brings big challenges (and regulatory scrutiny) around distribution deals and pricing, but less around the actual content and design. For children’s books, it’s a different story. The text-centric e-books market has seen children’s publishers turning their picture-books into apps.… » -
Talking to the End-User—A Publishing Paradigm
« For many publishers of academic and professional literature, focusing on the end-user is something of a dislocating thought process. A good part of the sales of professional publishers tend to be through intermediaries. For example, some portion, in some cases the largest portion, of professional publishing is sold to libraries. It’s hard to be user-focused when the library stands between you and the user. In other instances, you might reach the end-user through channel selling. For example, a book publisher might ship books to Baker & Taylor and not know where those books ultimately end up, whether in a library or in the office of an anesthesiologist. The common theme of all these methods of marketing publishing materials is that little is known about the people who actually read the works.… » -
What is Scratchboard Design?
« Scratchboard was developed in nineteenth century England and France, where printers were looking for new ways to reproduce illustrations. Wood, metal and linoleum engraving all had their faults, and scratchboard seemed to be the perfect solution.… » -
Why Ross Douthat thinks we’re a nation of heretics
« Since the 1960s, Douthat argues, institutional Christianity has suffered a slow-motion collapse, leaving the country without the moral core that carried it through foreign wars, economic depressions and roiling internal debates. In its place heresies have cropped up—from the "God-within" theology of Oprah to the Mammon-obsessed missionaries of the prosperity gospel, says Douthat, a Roman Catholic. … » -
Wiley seeks piracy trial
« John Wiley has filed papers in New York demanding a trial by jury of four defendants accused of copying its books through BitTorrent, according to a BBC report. The publisher said the amount of revenue lost through illegal copying of its For Dummies guides was "enormous", with over 74,000 copies of its Photoshop CS5 All-In-One For Dummies guide pirated.… »
Note: This resource has been curated for your enjoyment and education. It is intended to reflect what publishers and leaders in the Christian publishing industry are thinking and talking about — it does not reflect the positions or opinions of Zondervan, its authors, agents, employees, or leadership.
Zondervan: Things to Read 