27 June 2016 - What's new
27 June 2016
- Sometimes an author seems to step new-minted into bestsellerdom and, even rarer, literary acclaim. Lisa McInerney is such a writer and her winning of the Bailey Prize earlier in the month, followed by the Desmond Elliott Prize this week, marks a remarkable debut. News Review on 'a major literary figure of the next generation'.
- Tips for writers is our 8-part crash course for writers, taking you from Improve Your Writing to Learn on the Job, from Self-publishing: is it for you? to Submission to publishers and agents. 'Think about the market for your book. Research the category and read widely to see what other published writers in this area are doing. Which writers are successful and why? Visit bookshops and analyse what you find there. If you are reading this you are probably already writing, but it really is worth thinking right from the beginning about your readers, as that makes it far more likely you'll eventually find them...'
- Our Writing Opportunity in Fiction, Poetry and Life Writing, the Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2016 is open to writers of any nationality and any age group with work which has not been previously published. Winners in each category will receive £300 and their entries will be published in Wasafiri. Closing on 15 July.
- Which Report? gives the details of the three reports we offer: the full Editor's Report, the basic Reader's Report and the most substantial Editor's Report Plus. There's also our specialist Children's reports, part of our Children's Editorial Services. If you want a professional editor's assessment of your work, here's the place to start.
- ‘The first two books, I didn't think about the readers. I didn't think anyone was going to read it, and I was much freer. Then the reaction came, and it was more and more difficult physically to write about other people. I spared them. It is inhuman, if you push that direction you end up outside humanity...' Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of the international literary bestsellers A Death in the Family and Some Rain Must Fall, provides our Comment from the Bookseller.
- A great crop of links this week: so what's the effect if Barnes and Noble goes down? Pulp Friction | New Republic; how a bestselling author discovered the difficulties of success, Jessie Burton: ‘Success can be as fracturing to your self as failure' | Books | The Guardian; if you're looking for representation, or smarting from yet another rejection letter, please don't switch off, From Rejection to Representation - 6 Steps to Landing a Literary Agent | WritingMad; and So what is an imprint, and why are there suddenly so many more of them? Covers story: why are there so many new publishing imprints? | Books | The Guardian.
- Working with an Agent - 'It can be hard work finding an agent to represent you. Make sure though that, when you set up the relationship, you do so in a professional manner Don't let your eagerness to find representation mean that things are left vague. You will be depending on the agent to process all your income from the books they sell, so you need to have a written record of your arrangement, preferably a contract...'
- More links: although Carole Nelson Douglas has traditionally published more than 60 novels, she wanted more control over her books and decided to go indie, Self-Publishing Is a Lifetime Learning Experience: Tips from an Indie Author; it's hard to be a highly-regarded editor and a successful author at the same time, Toni Morrison: 'Part of the Business of Editing Is Telling People to Shut Up'; how it used to be, the publisher would work with the writers for many years, producing three, maybe four books before the writer really hit his or her stride - and made some money or started winning awards, Emerging writers seek out room to shine amid the gloom of arts cuts | Books | The Guardian.
- 'The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do more, and you are not yet decrepit enough to turn them down.' T S Eliot in our Writers Quotes.
