26 May 2014 - What's new
26 May 2014
- 'In an article in the print edition of the Bookseller, Philip Gwyn Jones offered a clear-sighted analysis of the current model of funding literary writing. He is the former publisher of Granta, a very highly-regarded editor with msses of experience in this area and the independence currently to call it like it is. Gwynn Jones says that serious non-fiction publishing is in trouble and that publishers are simply not prepared to come up with the advances which will enable writers to spend the time they need researching their books, perhaps over several years. News Review
- We've added two brilliant new links to our big listing of 24 pages of links to recommended sites for writers, Life Cycle of a Book and Life Cycle of a Book in Translation. Both have videos of young publishing professionals explaining their part in the process.
- ‘There's a paradox as a writer where you're encouraged to put everything of yourself in your books, to take things to the furthest extreme, to hold back nothing. But when you're talking in your own voice, you have to reassure people that you share their values and agree with them about everything and nobody need be perturbed by the content of the book because we're in this consensus about how we see each other and see art.' Ned Beauman, author of Glow and the youngest of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, in the Independent on Sunday, quoted in our Comment column.
- The web as a research tool is a useful page showing you what a great research tool the web is for writers.
- Our links this week: more on the debate about literary fiction, Self-publishing will save literary fiction | Hugh Howey; a look at how Harlequin is faring and its prospects under its new owners, Harlequin Romance Tries to Adjust to Changing Times | Publishing Perspectives; this week's BEABookExpo America, commonly referred to within the book publishing industry as BEA. The largest annual book trade fair in the United States - Self-Publishers Go to the Library: SELF-e at BEA's Author Hub | Publishing Perspectives; the shameful joys of the franchise novel ... and why the force is with them | Books | theguardian.com; how an open submission process led to success, Former East Kilbride News reporter secures publishing deal - Daily Record; and, as anxiety deepens across the publishing world about this problem, AAR Calls Out Amazon in Hachette Dispute.
- This week's Writing Opportunity is the Mslexia Women's Poetry Competition 2014, for women only, closing on 31 May and with a £2,000 First Prize. Mslexia are also offering their Pamphlet Competition, with the same closing date.
- Are you sturggling to get someone to look at your poetry? Our Poetry Critique service for 150 lines of poetry and our Poetry Collection editing, to help you prepare your collection for submission or self-publishing, might be able to help.
- 'I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you can't do it alone.' John Cheever in our Writers' Quotes.