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22 April 2013 - What's new

22 April 2013
  • 'Amazon was one of the major talking-points at last week's London Book Fair. Earlier in the month the internet retailer had bought the book recommendation site Goodreads. Apple had been discussing with Goodreads the possibility of integrating its content into the iBookstore, when suddenly things went quiet, then Amazon's purchase of Goodreads was announced. Amazon is also rumoured to be preparing its own phone, which would bring a direct challenge to Apple's iPhone...' News Review
  • 'In his essay Politics and the English language George Orwell set out a series of rules for writing that are worth repeating in full: 1 Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech that you are used to seeing in print. 2 Never use a long word where a short one will do. 3 If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. 4 Never use the passive when you can use the active. 5 Never use a foreign phrase or jargon word if you can think of an everyday equivalent. 6 Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Damian Whitworth in The Times, quoted in our Comment column.
  • Writing Memoir and Autobiography - if you want to write a memoir you're in good company - lots of writers want to try their hand at this category. Chris HolifieldManaging director of WritersServices; spent working life in publishing,employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups; track record includes: editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley Head, publishing director for start-up of upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of Britain’s biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She is also currently the Director of the Poetry Book Society; During all of this time aware of problems faced by writers, as publishing changed from idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'occupation for gentlemen', into corporate business of today. Writers encountered increasing difficulty in getting books edited or published. Authors create the books which are the raw material for the whole business. She believes it is time to bring them back to centre stage. looks at how to set about writing your memoir and how to publish it.
  • Links of the week: At the London Book Fair, Authors Encouraged to Think Like Entrepreneurs and 5 Ways Publishers Can Be More Like Start-Ups.
  • Our Writing Opportunity this week is The TLM Young Poets Competition, which is open to young people between the ages of 16 and 30 from around the world. It closes on 30 April though, so get your entry in quickly.
  • 'Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.' Thomas Gray in our Writers Quotes.