Skip to Content

14 April 2014 - What's new

14 April 2014
  • Many of you are interested in children's writing and we're thrilled to launch a new series by Suzy Jenvey, vastly experienced children's editorial director and now agent, called The Essential Guide to Writing for Children. The first article looks at the all-important question of age groups and what you should be aware of in writing for each one: 'Children's publishers divide their editorial departments according to age group. The editors and designers in each division are expert at the language, content, word length and style for their particular age group. As a children's writer, you have to aim for a specific age group, and show through your writing that you understand the requirements...'
  • 'Last week was dominated by the London Book Fair and it's good to be able to report a very buzzy fair, with confidence returning and a mass of business being done. LBF is a rights fair and has increasingly come to be the major book fair of the spring, balancing the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. in the autumn. The American BookExpo is much larger but is essentially focused on the huge US domestic market. London is easy to get to for publishers from many European countries but also increasingly a magnet for publishers from much further afield, such as Japan, China, Brazil and (this year's LBF Focus) Korea...' This week's News Review looks at LBF.
  • This week's Writing Opportunity is The Guardian Legend Self-Published Book of the Month, open to all self-publishers but you'll have to move fast as this month's Competition closes on 18 April.
  • We have list of Writing Opportunities, which can be viewed in closing date order from this page.
  • This week's Comment on writing poetry comes from Simon Armitage, whose latest books are The Death of King Arthur and Black Roses, in The Times: 'I don't dedicate my day to poetry like you would do with a job. You can't get yourself a office and sit there from 9 to 5 writing poems - it just doesn't work. With prose I can knock it out, but it's an effort to write poems because they're so intense. You need a lot of energy and stamina and patience to just sit there and fall under a poem's spell. I'm not casual with my poetry, though. When I'm engaged and writing poems I'm completely disciplined and deadly serious. I really mean it...'
  • Our links of the week: firstly an amazing translation publisher, Archipelago Books: 10 Years, 100 Titles, 26 Languages | Publishing Perspectives; more talk about the future of literary agents, Paper Lantern Lit and the Rise of the Hybrid Agent; a thoughtful piece from the London Book Fair, LBF's Digital Minds: The Golden Age or End of the Book? | Publishing Perspectives; and, from the Bookseller's Futurebook, always an interesting and often provocative blog, The end of the beginning | FutureBook.
  • Writing Non-fiction? Have a look at our Top Ten Tips for Nonfiction Writers, written by Julie Wheelwright, programme director, MA Creative Writing Nonfiction, City University, London.
  • Are you thinking of submitting your book to an agent?  Try our Finding an Agent page or your Submission package. Our Submission critique service may also help.
  • 'It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. Today, for instance, as man and woman, both lover and mistress, I rode in a forest on autumn afternoon under the yellow leaves, and I was also the horses, the leaves, the wind, the words my people uttered, even the red sun that made them almost close their love-drowned eyes...' Gustave Flaubert in our Writers' Quotes.