Recent Trends in Publishing

Welcome to the second post in my 'Trends in Publishing' Series. I've got some interesting things in store for you today, so let's jump right in.

1. Dorian- Writing video Games With No Code

You may be wondering why I'm talking about video games on a blog that mostly deals with prose but just hear me out. I'm a firm believer in trying out different forms of writing to help develop your craft and I've learned a great deal about writing from playing visual novels like Choices. Maybe it could do the same for you or just be a fun challenge or a side hustle.

Dorian is a platform where authors can earn money immediately from writing 'choose your own adventure' stories with no coding experience needed. A cool thing about Dorian is that creators can make fan works of already existing Dorain stories where the creator decides what percentage of royalties go to fan writers.

So if you're a writer, artist, streamer, or game enthusiast, Dorian may be something to look into.

2. Draft2Digital and Smashwords Merger-The Story So Far

In March of this year, the Ebook publishing company Draft2Digital acquired Smashwords, another Ebook publishing company. Not only ending the Draft2Digital versus Smashwords debate, but this merger has also opened up a lot of opportunities for self-publishing authors.

There are three phases in the integration of the two companies. Right now they're in the midst of Phase One which involves Draft2Digital authors gaining access to the Smashwords store as well as other retailers however they will not have access to Smashwords' other features such as coupons, Smashwords presales, self-serve merchandising, and the ability to take part in the Summer/Winter Sale. These added features will come in Phase Two in 2023.

D2D will also be rolling out their support for the Smashwords Erotica Certification for D2D authors.

With D2D there is also the option of trying out D2D Print beta which Mike Crocker, CEO of Smashwords said was going to be just as disruptive to print self-publishing as Smashwords was to e-book publishing. I've personally tried some of the print templates, and I have to say they are lovely and very efficient.

The full integration of both platforms is said to take place sometime in late 2023.

So what does that mean for authors today? Well as of now, you can still keep uploading new titles to Smashwords or begin experimenting with D2D. It depends on you.

3. AI Writing-What Does the Future Hold?

This may seem a little counter-intuitive, having bots do the writing for you but that's not the whole story. Most AI writing software out there doesn't just start randomly churning out words (yet). Words or sometimes sentences must be put in to get various suggestions whether writing a blog post, an article, or a piece of fiction.

I've tried some of them, and frankly, I've had mixed results. Half of the stuff was nonsense while some were actually decent. I think it depends on what you put in and the system you use. Some admittedly have better results than others, but one thing I can guarantee is that they are good for idea generation. You keep trying different words or phrases until inspiration strikes and build your piece from there.

So AI at least, for now, won't replace writers but honestly, I believe, they can work hand in hand.

4. Email Marketing

This is an old topic but I feel it needs to be brought to the forefront.

Author and blogger Jeff Goins said that email marketing is the best way to sell books which does make sense because your hot leads i.e the people most likely to buy your books, will have done more than follow you on a social media platform, they've given you permission to be in their email box and the thing about an email list is that you own it.

If someday in the future, Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok were to go offline, so would your audience but with an email list, that's yours for as long as you have subscribers.

Having an email list provided plenty of opportunities. You can do newsletter swaps with authors in your genre or join a group promo with other authors to find new readers or for other fun collaboration ideas.

All of this is to say that email marketing is most definitely not dead.