15 June 2015 - What's new
15 June 2015
- This week's Writing Opportunity is the Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2015. Submissions in English are accepted from individuals of any nationality. Entry fee £5 with First Prize £5,000, Second Prize £1,00 and Third Prize £500.
- 'Mike Shatzkin's long piece on his blog gives an update on why the publishing business as we have known it is not going away anytime soon. Shatzkin is one of the most respected but also down-to-earth commentators on the publishing world...' Our News Review gives a summary of his blog.
- 'I think most women are amateur psychiatrists. We're brought up to be like that. We think much more about the whys than most men do: ‘Why has someone done that?' And that is an advantage in writing crime novels.' Our Comment is from Minette Walters, author of The Cellar, in the Guardian.
- How to market your writing services online is a useful article from Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk about selling yourself as a writer. 'Recently someone commented to me that I seem to be doing a pretty good job of promoting my writing services on the internet. I was touched by the observation - we writers get so many rejections that a little praise is especially gratifying. And I began to wonder - what does it take to market yourself successfully as a jobbing writer today?...'
- Links of the week: bestselling novelist Marian Keyes recently called the term "chick lit" derogatory, and now other female writers are agreeing with her, These Female Writers Want To Stop "Chick Lit" Being Used To Describe Work By Women; Mike Shatzkin's influential blog, the subject of this week's News Review, The publishing business as we have known it is not going away anytime soon - The Shatzkin Files The Shatzkin Files; speaking in favour of international authors and broader horizons, UK reading habits an embarrassment, says Edinburgh book festival director | Books | The Guardian; and an affectionate interview with the last of the Beat Poets, At 96, Poet And Beat Publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti Isn't Done Yet : NPR.
- More links: Nielsen: how sef-publishing is changing, Self-Publishing Now More Like Traditional Publishing - Publishing Perspectives; the new UK Children's Laureate is an illustrator who thinks everyone should draw, Chris Riddell, Children's Laureate: 'Everybody can draw - just do it! - Telegraph; and not very good news for Euroean self-publishers, VAT changes are a mere nuisance for huge retailers, but a real blow to self-published authors | Books | The Guardian.
- Does your manuscript need polishing to get it into shape for submission or self-publishing? Or are you just concerned that your English may not be quite up to producing a publishable manuscript? Manuscript Polishing is a service we've designed for writers who want a bit more help than straight copy editing provides.
- 'I suggest that the only books which influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.' E M Forster in our Writers' Quotes.