28 May 2012 - What's new
28 May 2012
- Our latest Success story deals with Stephen Leather, who has had an interesting path to success. A thriller writer who has been writing for long enough to have produced 25 titles, he has diversified over his writing career, with three series characters and books in slightly different genres. But it is how he has used self-published ebooks to build his audience which is particularly interesting.
- 'Shock horror announcement - That's not putting too strongly the chorus of disapproval which greeted the surprise announcement from James Daunt of Waterstones that he had agreed an alliance with Amazon which would see Waterstones selling Kindles in their shops and providing wi-fi acess so that customers can browse the shop's stock and then order ebooks on their Kindles.' News Review on the story of the week.
- From our archive, five excerpts from Inspired Creative Writing by Alexander Gordon Smith from the brisk and entertaining 52 Brilliant Ideas series.
- This week's links to topical stories: US agent Rosemary Stimola and the Changing World of Children's Books, Apple: U.S. e-book lawsuit 'fundamentally flawed' and Publishers Association Director Mollet attacks 'grotesque' tactics of copyright opponents.
- 'The sprawling fan fiction groups of the internet cover everything from films to TV shows to pop stars, and the strongest tend to cluster around imaginative teenage fiction such as Harry Potter and the Twilight series. It's from these groups that Fifty Shades of Grey has emerged... James Bridle in the Observer in our Comment column.
- Our fictionalised stories show how our eighteen services have helped writers give you some idea of what they can do. Screenplay assessment fictionalised story - 'Sarah had always been fascinated by the cinema. As a little girl going to see a film was her favourite treat and she was also interested in how movies got to be made. Her own favourites were the films with really good stories, like Titantic and Avatar, but she also liked the ones which were based on books, like Lord of the Rings and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...'
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'There are three reasons for becoming a writer. The first is that you need the money; the second, that you have something to say that you think the world should know; and the third is that you can't think what to do with the long winter evenings.' Quentin Crisp in our Writers' Quotes.
