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'The recent Children’s Bookseller Conference in
London focused on a part of the publishing industry in relatively good health.
Children’s book sales have suffered less than adult books as a result of the
recession and they are only down 2% in the UK against an overall figure of 4%.
To be fair, this is partly because the sales of the Stephenie Meyer titles
(which are categorised as young adult) have bumped them up, but there is still a
greater sense of confidence in the children’s sector...'
News Review reports.
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'The winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize has been a
compete surprise to everyone, including the author. Howard Jacobson had
never even been shortlisted before, and his book The Finkler Question was
the bookies’ least favourite title on the shortlist. It’s very nice to see this important prize going to
an author who has paid his dues, with 16 titles which are reckoned only to have
sold 90,000 copies in all. News Review investigates.
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'The Frankfurt Book Fair seems to have engendered a
mood of optimism, in spite of the uneasy world economy and the particular
preoccupations which are making book publishers feel as if the ground is
shifting under their feet. The numbers were up, with 7,533 exhibitors, an
increase of 3%, and 522 agents registered in the Literary Agents Centre,
4% up on last year. This shouldn’t be exaggerated as a factor, but some
publishers who didn’t make it to London because of the volcanic ash seem to have
felt that a trip to Frankfurt was a necessity, although most of them would have
been going to the German book fair anyway.' News Review on the big book
fair.
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'It’s been a gift for the media. ’A comedy of
errors for author of The Corrections .’
(The Times) ‘Jonathan Franzen's 'book of the
century' pulped over error.’ (the Guardian) ‘ Franzen’s new novel
recalled to be pulped.’ (Evening Standard). So what really happened to Jonathan Franzen’s
highly-anticipated new novel, Freedom, and why did the UK edition have
scores of errors, which were so serious that the publisher has reprinted the
corrected version and asked buyers to return their copies to be pulped?' News Review has the story.
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'I can think of no end
of talented authors who are today poorly or even negligently represented. Is it
fair to deny them the possibility of better representation simply because the
more atherosclerotic parts of our industry consider competition to be
ungentlemanly? The lifeblood of business is competition. Other industries
thrive on it: we can too. Peter Cox of Redhammer Management and Litopia, in the
Bookseller.
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'I believed right from
the start it would work powerfully on stage because it's the story of one man,
with a very strong central narrative drive, questioning what it means to be
human, I don't know a more dramatic question than that. Also, for me, it says
that no matter what happens, there is always the possibility of redemption. I
hope the play will make you cry, but make you come out wanting to live... '
Unknown playwright Rachel Wagstaff on dramatising
Sebastian Faulks' First World War novel Birdsong.
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‘Recently, Newsweek ran an article about
the brave new world of self-publishing. Its title asked the question "Who Needs
a Publisher?" Well, the short answer is, I do. The bigger answer is: we all do.
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that self-publishing has
evolved from stigma to respectability. I love that worthy authors who might be
overlooked by the major houses can now be read. It's great that writers with
a special niche, an established following or an entrepreneurial bent can make
more money self-publishing than they would in royalties. But I'm also concerned
about the future of books and the larger issue of assuring the flow of reliable
information. Philip Goldberg in the Huffington Post.
'Unless a writer is extremely old
when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected
institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because
a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world
has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of
Success.'
James Baldwin
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Matera Women's
Fiction Festival: Writing historical fiction
Elizabeth Edmonson gave a masterclass at the Matera
Women’s Fiction Festival 2010.
Her opening point was that
'you must know yourself... creating a historical fiction
requires an extra dose of confidence, plus a real feel for the period and
subject. The challenge for the writer is to generate the complete,
imaginative environment for the reader which often means that they have to
distance them from their familiar frame of reference.'
'It is a brave person who stands up in front of an
audience of writers and creative people to tell them how to communicate. Writers
tend to believe it is one thing that they are good at! But that that is exactly
what Jesse Ponce did at the Matera Women's Fiction Festival 2010 when he talked
about making a pitch.
Like all good communicators he had one message that he wanted to convey in the
time allotted for this presentation. His message was ‘make sure you define your
objective’.'
Chas Jones reports.
John
Jenkins' October column
John's column recounts how he won the heart of his
prospective mother-in-law through a volume of Bryon's poems and provides a
glowing review of a travel book which takes you in the footsteps of the poet.
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...'
Our fictionalised stories of how our services
have helped writers give you some idea of what they can do.
Reaching new poetry audiences
The Poetry Book Society has just announced the launch of two major new websites,
www.poetrybookshoponline.com and
www.poetrybooks.co.uk, which will provide a substantial way for poetry
readers to find out about poetry and to buy poetry books and CDs. It’s becoming
ever harder to find a decent selection of poetry in bookshops, so these new
sites offer a good way of finding out about the latest new poetry - and much
more - and buying it.
Great review of WritersServices
We're complimented by Stuart Aken's review of our site in his blog
for 27 July:
'It is the Resources pages that really make this site stand out from the
crowd. Here you’ll find reviews of books and software, listings of agents,
self-publishing facts, educational matters, health and safety advice, and
there’s a new feature, reviewing writing magazines. You’ll see there is a
great deal of information on this site. It’s well presented and easily
navigated, which is as well, considering the number of pages. It’s a site I
browse often and I think you’ll benefit from a good look at this one.'
Read more.
In the face of a changing situation as
English becomes ever more established as the international language,
Chris Holifield has revised this article in the
Inside Publishing series, which
consists of 19 articles which take you inside the publishing world.
Writing Memoir and
Autobiography
Writing
Historical Fiction
Writing Romance
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writing Crime Fiction
Writing non-fiction
Our book review section
Our Editorial
Services for writers
Check out the 17 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to
Copy editing, Typing to Rewriting.
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Inside Publishing
series This extremely useful 19-part series is in the
midst of being revised to take account of changes in the publishing world. The
introduction, How the publishing business
works,
Advances and royalties,
The Relationship between agents and
publishers, Subsidiary rights,
The English-speaking publishing
world and The Marketing
department have all just been brought up-to-date.
This second week we're on to
The Frankfurt Book Fair,
the Sales Department,
the Production Department,
Pricing and
Distribution.
And the third week it's
Books clubs and
Direct selling.
John tells the inspiring story of Joe Delaney,
whose agent suggested he should switch to writing for children, which he did
with the Wardstone Chronicle series.
The first book,
The Spook’s Apprentice, spent seven weeks in the bestseller’s
charts, was translated into 12 languages and landed a film deal with Warner
Brothers.
Our agents'
listings have been compiled from agents' own websites and other
information they publish about what they're looking for. You can use
them to research which agents to submit to.
The listings cover UK and US agents,
with separate listings for children's agents in the UK, and
international agents from all over the world.
Improving your writing, Learning on the job, New
technology and the Internet,
Self-publishing - is it for you?,
Promoting your writing (and yourself), Other kinds of writing, Keep up to date
and Submission to
publishers and agents
Previous magazines:
August 2010
July 2010
Magazine index
Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site,
including Finding an Agent
and Making Submissions.
Our reviewer Maureen Kincaid Speller
concluded that: 'This is an unconventional book about writing,
inspirational as much as it is practical, and focusing on an aspect of
the writing process that isn’t much discussed. It would, I think, prove
a valuable addition to the writing bookshelf if you are at all
interested in the workshopping process and what it involves.'
Our huge section on technology and the web, and how writers can make use of
them, takes you from beginner-level articles to advanced technology.
Are you having difficulty deciding which service might be right for you?
This useful new article by Chris Holifield offers advice on what to go for,
depending on what stage you are at with your writing.
WritersPrintShop
If you're thinking
about self-publishing, this is the place to find out what's
involved. If you're ready to go ahead, our high quality service is second
to none and there's an economy version for those who want to
tackle some of the work themselves. You can
estimate
the cost for yourself.
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