9 April 2018 - What's new
9 April 2018
- 'The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them - words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away...' Stephen King, author of a large number of novels, including Carrie and The Dark Tower provides this week's Comment.
- Advice for writers gives a listing of what's on the 6,000+ pages of the site.
- This week's London Book Fair has been a buzzy and optimistic occasion, as publishers from around the world gathered to sell rights to the international market. Second only to the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two., the LBF punches above its weight in terms of its usefulness to publishers. News Review
- Our Services for Writers - just a list of 20 services to help you get your work ready for publication.
- Our links: there's been a big rise in UK purchases of crime and thriller novels, with sales up by 19% between 2015 and 2017, The thriller writers who are making a killing with crime fiction - BBC News; an interesting perspective on the rise of small presses, How Self-Publishing Made Today's Small Independent Presses Possible; 'this amazing age where incredible things are possible, but routinely people are quite disappointed', London Book Fair 2018: Publishing in the 'Mid-Digital' Age; and Indie authors all agree: hiring an editor to work on your manuscript is one of the best and most necessary investments an author can make, Indie Authors Talk Editors.
- Bob's Journal is a long-running column from writer Bob Ritchie described by fellow EastEnders script-writer Pippa McCarthy: 'Just discovered your web page... I've just spent the last hour crying with laughter with periodic yelps of 'been there!'... I'm going to make my entire family read your diary. Then perhaps will understand own bizarre behaviour every time I start a script... Anyway, will shut up now but just wanted to say you have cheered me up no end. It's brilliant.'
- More links: not such good news for African writers to have written in English, On the Rise - and Cost - of the African Novel in English | Literary Hub; how could anyone actually believe that there is a bias against men in an industry that has historically prioritised the work of men, and paid them more for it? There's no female conspiracy in publishing - your book might just not be good | Lauren Spieller | Books | The Guardian; the romance genre is a juggernaut that continues unabated, but The Billion-Dollar Romance Fiction Industry Has A Diversity Problem : NPR; and a few cases of authors who have drawn very unflattering fictional portraits of real people, 10 Literary Diss Tracks | Literary Hub.
- 'A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.' Joseph Conrad in our Writers' Quotes.