NewsBreak Original

I was surprised when I received an email from the founders of the publishing site Simily. But I was totally blown away by what they had to say. The logo of the crowdsources publishing platform SimilyLogo provided by and published with permission from the founders of Simily.

Danielle Steel headlines this week’s new book releases with High Stakes, her 190-something published book. The 74-year-old Steel is the fourth-bestselling author who said in 2019 that she writes for 20-22 hours a day.

A federal judge ruled against Maryland’s e-book law, granting the Association of American Publishers’ (AAP) motion for a preliminary injunction. In their Feb. 16 decision, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman said they agreed with the AAP’s argument that Maryland’s law violates federal copyright protections.

A few years after his creator passed away, Paddington Bear is about to make a comeback. HarperCollins Children’s Books (HCCB) will publish a recently discovered Paddington Bear story titled Paddington’s Easter Egg Hunt. The publisher will release the book in March.

This week, Francine Rivers returns a new novel that returns Rivers’ fans to familiar territory: a historical romance set in 18th century California. Joining Rivers’ new book, The Lady’s Mine, in this week’s new releases is a new novel by Jonathan Kellerman and a short story collection by up-and-coming writer Dantiel W. Moniz.

Lawyers for the state of Maryland and a leading publishing industry trade group squared off in federal court on Feb. 7 to decide the fate of Maryland’s new e-book law. The Public Libraries - Electronic Literary Product Licenses law, requires publishers who sell e-books in Maryland to also license those books to libraries “on reasonable terms.” The law went into effect on Jan. 1.

It’s fitting that Anne Rice’s latest, and perhaps last, novel, Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris, focuses on immortality. Rice passed away in Dec., but she returns to bookshelves with her latest collaboration with her son, Christopher Rice. The Reign of Osiris is a follow-up to the duo’s 2017 novel, Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra.

Tochi Onyebuchi published his first novel this week, Goliath, a futuristic story that tries to tell us something about our present. This week, Fiona Davis is also out with a new novel, The Magnolia Place. And John Darnielle and Marie Benedict are releasing new books, too.

More print books were sold in 2021 than ever recorded by an industry analyst. NPD BookScan, part of a research company called The NPD Group, said print book sales reached 825.7 million units last year. BookScan accounts for about 85% of all print book sales.

Hanya Yanagihara headlines an impressive list of books coming out on Jan. 11, 2022. Yanagihara’s newest novel, To Paradise, is her first since 2015’s A Little Life. That novel was shortlisted for a Booker Prize and received critical acclaim.

New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover is out this week with her latest book, Reminders of Him. Hoover is a young-adult romance writer whose titles include 2013’s Hopeless and 2020’s Heart Bones. A summary of Reminders of Him is below.

It was the summer of 1971. I was 7 years old (almost 8, thank-you-very-much). I had just read E.B. White’s Trumpet of the Swan. Finishing a novel always brought a time of grief for me. The characters who had been alive for me during those chapters were now no more.

According to new Gallup poll results, Americans read an average of 12.6 books last year. That’s the lowest number Gallup’s recorded, going back to 1990. “U.S. adults are reading roughly two or three fewer books per year than they did between 2001 and 2016,” Gallup’s Jeffrey M. Jones said.

Writing is a journey of growth. No one starts out as a bestselling author, and many times, there is a road of failure before you get to where you want to be. However, I have found four things that have helped me on the way, and I feel that doing these things has greatly improved my writing.

Every writer wants a book cover that is not only going to show a preview of their story but draw attention from an audience. However, it seems almost impossible to get something like this without paying a ton of money. However, over time and after reviewing several websites that sell these types of products, I have realized that it may be easier to educate yourself and make your own.

When you first release a book, it may seem like you have dozens of readers, but as time goes on, this trend may slow, and you may end up having dozens of reads without any reviews.

Promoting a book can be difficult, especially if you don’t want to spend a whole bunch of money, so it is understandable why some authors decide to give out promotional copies. Not only do these copies help reach new readers, but they can also help an author get reviews, if they are promoted in the right place.

Everyone has a story to tell, but sometimes after that story is written down and published, authors still have issues finding readers. This common conundrum can usually be due to catering to the wrong market segment.