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30 November 2015 - What's new

30 November 2015
  • 'Lizzie Kremer's amusing article about being a nerd, which we link to this week, disguises a greater truth about agents, which is that behind the showmanship and flair that many of the better-known and possibly more successful ones show there is a great deal of attention paid to the detail of their clients' affairs, particularly their royalty statements and subsidiary rights sales...' News Review on agents.
  • Have you got something you'd like to say to our community of writers? My Say gives writers a chance to air their views about writing and the writer's life. So we have Zoe Jenny on learning to write in another language - and loving it, Dominae Primus with a paean of praise for WritersServices and Wendy Walker with How a Stay-Home-Mom Became a Writer. Contributions should ideally be 200 to 400 words in length and of general interest. Please email them to us.
  • Our Comment is from Robert Harris, author of Dictator, Pompeii and many other historical novels, in the Bookseller: ‘I wouldn't have gone back to the period, if I hadn't felt it had something to say to us. You have a double benefit (when you write a historical novel): you re-create that world for the reader, yet at the same time it's a commentary on our own time: whatever you select to write is inevitably trying to hold up a mirror to our own age, whether consciously or unconsciously...'
  • 'You are a first-time author without an agent and you receive a contract to publish your book - just how do you evaluate it? Is it fair or biased against the author by prevailing industry standards? Is your publisher looking out for your interests as well as his own - or wording the clauses in a way only advantageous to the company?' Why your book contract needs vetting.
  • Our links: an audacious attempt to extend the copyright in Anne Frank's book, Does Anne Frank Copyright Extension Rewrite History? - Publishing Perspectives; a useful article for anyone who is self-publishing a book with illustrations, The Indie Authors' Guide to Self-Publishing Art Books; all agents love to make a lot of money for an author: to find a book which sets their heart racing and to work all day and all night sending it to publishers, so they can feel the excitement too; to use their skills to make a fantastic deal or thirty fantastic deals, Hi, I'm Lizzy, I'll be your nerd today: The detail of publishing | Publishing for Humans; and the latest manifesto - 'We need to change the way we think about our books, A manifesto for new formats | The Bookseller.
  • Have you managed to find a publisher for your work and are now enjoying the thrill of knowing that your book will soon be published? If you're wondering what happens next or just dreaming of being in that situation, Preparing for Publication gives an outline of the processes involved.
  • More links: Collins Dictionaries in the UK has declared "binge-watch" its "word of the year" for 2015, following the public's appetite for watching episodes of series like House of Cards and Breaking Bad back to back, Forget Binge-Watching, Try Encouraging Binge-Reading; for the first time in 17 years, the Guardian First Book Award has been won by a poet, Guardian first book award 2015 goes to poet Andrew McMillan | Books | The Guardian; and Call it "Goldfinching", after Vanity Fair's 2014 yes-but-is-it-art interrogation as to whether Donna Tartt's Pulitzer prize-winning, mega-bestselling book The Goldfinch is or is not literature, If you enjoyed a good book and you're a woman, the critics think you're wrong | Jennifer Weiner | Comment is free | The Guardian.
  • The September Magazine is ready!
  • From our Writers' Quotes: 'When you take stuff from one writer, it's plagiarism; but when you take it from many writers, it's research.' William Mizner