19 May 2014 - What's new
19 May 2014
- This week we're delighted to publish the last article in 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' WritersServices Publishing Guide, we look at creative writing courses on both sides of the Atlantic and our Writing Opportunity is the very first MMU Novella Award 2014.
- Joanne Phillips completes her ten-part WritersServices Self-publishing Guide: 'Self-publishing has changed so much over the past few years it's hard to believe it was once looked down upon by the publishing industry as the last resort of the vain and desperate. At the time of writing (July 2013) many self-publishing authors are identifying with the term ‘indie author', which acknowledges that to professionally publish today, you don't actually have to do everything yourself!...' The tenth article deals with Marketing and Promotion for Indie Authors: Offline.
- ‘Television is a fine medium and I love cinema more than most. I listen to music all the time and have been known to glance at the web too, but for me nothing quite compares to that moment when you read some marks on the page and think "yes, I know exactly what you mean". David Nicholls talks about the experience of reading a wonderful book in our Comment column.
- From our Archive: excerpts from Inspired Creative Writing by Alexander Gordon Smith from the brisk and entertaining 52 Brilliant Ideas series. The first of six excerpts is on Limbering Up: 'Looking down at that blank page can send tsunami-sized shivers down your spine, but don't give in to the temptation to run for cover screaming, victory is just a scribble away.'
- Creative writing courses continue to proliferate on both sides of the Atlantic .Many writers believe that enrolling on a course, particularly a university one, will make all the difference to their writing careers. In the UK the rapid growth in courses has been described by the Bookseller as ‘a viral contagion'. Writers have rushed to sign up to the new university courses for writers, with growth from 64 writing programmes in 2003 and 504 degree programmes offered by Higher Education institutions a decade later. This week's News Review asks the question Creative writing courses - a good investment for writers?
- Our Publishing Glossary is very useful if you come across a printing or publishing term you don't understand.
- This week's links: a really fundamental question - Are Literary Agents Really Worth Their Commission? | Digital Book World; an interesting spat between Will Self in the Guardian, The novel is dead (this time it's for real) | Books | The Guardian and David L Ulin in the Los Angeles Times, Notes on the (non-)death of the book - Los Angeles Times; Reasons to Be Optimistic During the Disruption of Publishing; and Mills & Boon announces 'totally new' digital storytelling format | Books | theguardian.com.
- Our Writing Opportunity this week is the inaugural MMU Novella Award 2014, an unusual one as novellas are not often eleigible for prizes, and closes on 24 May, so you need to get your skates on to enter.
- ‘If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.' George Orwell in our Writers' Quotes.
