31 December 2018 - What's new
31 December 2018
- 'Writers remember everything... especially the hurts. Strip a writer to the buff, point to the scars, and he'll tell you the story of each small one. From the big ones you get novels. A little talent is a nice thing to have if you want to be a writer, but the only real requirement is the ability to remember the story of every scar...' Stephen King, author of more than 60 novels and countless novellas, short stories and screenplays, whose most recent novel is The Outsider. Our Comment.
- Have you been working on your book over the holidays? Are you now ready to submit to publishers or to self-publish? We offer the widest range of editorial services on the web, tailored to writers' requirements and carried out by our professional editors, Our Services for writers.
- If you're planning to submit to agents, you'll want to get your submission package into good shape before getting started, to give your book its best chance.
- Our links this week: sales double in five years, as commercial success for audiobooks has coincided with a creative flourishing, Narrator of 133-hour audiobook proclaims boom in 'evolving art' | Books | The Guardian; this year, we were obliged to say goodbye to far too many literary luminaries, as well as a few pretty complicated figures, Notable Literary Deaths in 2018 | Literary Hub; the rise of online has helped revive the second-hand book market, but what impact has it had on traditional, second-hand book shops? The booming trade in second-hand books - BBC News; what happens to a song lyric when it lands on the page? When song lyrics become literature; and good news for physical books, the UK print market has grown in value again, Print market posts fourth consecutive year of value growth | The Bookseller.
- Writing Biography & Autobiography is a serialisation from our Archives of the book by Brian D Osborne published by A & C BlackClick for A & C Black Publishers Publishers References listing. In the first excerpt, Managing the matters of truth and objectivity, the author says: 'Just as you need to remember that letters, reports, census forms, legal documents and so forth were not created simply for our convenience, so you also need to remember that what is written in them may not be true...'
- More links: spy novels rank in a special class of literature in which the real and the imaginary can be mixed in any proportion, so long as both are present, A Brief History of Spy Fiction | CrimeReads; what are we not allowed to do or say when writing for teenagers? Is Any Topic Off Limits When You Write for Teenagers? Maybe Just One - The New York Times; tens of thousands of books just became legal to download for free in 2019, Where to Download All the Books That Just Entered the Public Domain; reading gives children the very skills they need to succeed at school, at work and in life, If we want our children to thrive, teaching them to read is not enough - they must learn to enjoy it | The Independent.
- From Margaret Atwood in our Writers' Quotes: 'There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine - "Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté.'
- And a happy and productive New Year to you all!
