28 October 2013 - What's new
28 October 2013
- The shortlist for the 2013 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry is an interesting and diverse one. Including new work by well-established poets Robin Robertson, Michael Symmons Roberts, Sinéad Morrissey and Geroge Szirtes, it also has newcomer Helen Mort's debut collection, Division Street. Daljit Nagra's interpretation of The Ramayana and Moniza Alvi's powerfully felt At the Time of Partition invoke a wider world. Anne Carson is unpredictably experimental, as always, in her verse novel Red Doc >, which contrasts wonderfully with Speak, Old Parrot from veteran poet Dannnie Abse. News Review
- A Printer's View 1 is the first in a series of occasional articles looking at self-publishing from the printing perspective. In Self-publishing? How do you prepare your files for print? Andy EdmonsonManaging Director, Purely Digital, a quality digital printing service based in Derby; over 20 years' experience in printing industry; written for various publications including Print Week and popular blog Just Creative, Managing Director at Purely Digital, looks at this central question. 'You've considered the arguments for and against self-publishing and decided that it's the best option for you. Great; you've got over one of the many difficult hurdles of getting your book out to the world, the next step is to transform the files on your computer into a physical printed book. In theory, this is a relatively straightforward process - get the files ready, find someone to print the book, send it to them and get it printed. Unsurprisingly, it's not as simple as might seem and there are certain tips to bear in mind which will make your life a lot easier as you commence your self-publishing journey...'
- 'When I'm working at full tilt, I average about 1,000 words an hour. I sit at the keyboard and it all comes out. It's an extraordinary thing, but I think it's because fiction is created by the unconscious mind, which is always exploring situations and possibilities. I suppose that's the thing I love about writing, what got me into it in the first place...' Alexander McCall Smith, author of The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon in The Times, quoted in our Comment coumn.
- We have some great links this week: How Amazon and Goodreads could lose their best readers - Salon.com, Neil Gaiman delivers our second annual lecture | Reading Agency and a publily available article from our friends at Bookbrunch, BookBrunch - When print publishers are not necessary.
- This week's Writing Opportunity is the Bodley Head/FT 2013 Essay Prize, closing on 24 November and open to writers who are 18-35 across the world.
- Our Writing Opportunities are helpfully displayed so that you can see them by closing date, or by when they were added, and it's very easy to see which ones are still open.
- 'Writing? It's not something you do for a living. It's an outlandish idea. Particularly if you don't speak the language.'Khaled Hosseini in our Writers' Quotes
