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News Review assesses the Harry Potter phenomenon: 'Rowling has had many critics and many imitators, but none have managed to
surpass the sheer page-turning quality of her books. This is the magic which
keeps children coming back for more.'
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News Review reports on how Londoners have got back to work after the bomb
blasts: 'It’s been an extraordinary couple of weeks in London... Londoners, hardened to terror by the IRA campaigns of the past and the
clear knowledge that the city was a likely Al Qaeda target, were mostly stoical.
'
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Here comes Harry Potter! Outrage has been expressed in the book trade about
the ‘wasted’ discount that all book retailers are giving away on a book which is
so much in demand that many feel there is no need to cut the price.
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News Review looks at the changing face of bookselling: 'the net effect is
fewer bookshops and more power concentrated in the hands of fewer big groups,
both booksellers and publishers. Books, like other businesses, are suffering
from globalisation.'
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'The
business is so f***ing hard now, and there's so much pressure on those
working inside it, that either they don't have the time for (shall we say)
pro bono discourse about (say) how to do some of the little things better; or
they feel that giving away what few secrets they possess will put them at
the sort of competitive disadvantage that might, soon, cost them their jobs.’ Mad Max Perkins of BookAngst
101
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'To an outsider the British publishing industry can seem like a conspiracy
intent on depriving English-speaking readers of the majority of the good books
written in languages other than their own.' John Carey, Chair of the
judges of the Man Booker International Prize
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'Book reviews should inspire reading. They should excite, stimulate,
agitate and empower readers to discover new books and avoid bad ones... But let's be honest. They don't, do
they?…'
Scott Pack of Waterstone's
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'Somebody once said that one's real life is often the life that one does not
lead... the story of the boy and the wolf sat in my filing cabinet, and came to
life only when I realised that this was the world I had lost. This was the life
I hadn't led. Michelle Paver, author of Wolf Brother, in The
Times
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'Well, great authors are great people, but I believe that
they are best seen at a distance.' Mrs
Mitford
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Writing Handbooks
The first excerpt from this title from the A & C Black
Writing Handbooks series looks at working out which genre you want to write
in:
'In today’s sophisticated market of superclassification, the
midlist is gone, and every novel must fit into a niche... But a novel
written without a genre in mind can be difficult if not impossible to
sell. Challenge yourself to be creative within your genre’s
conventions…'
The fourth in our series of magazine reviews.
This month the focus is on Mslexia magazine:
'for women writers who take their writing quite seriously and are
aiming at the more literary end of the spectrum but who want good
practical advice, offered in an accessible and friendly way, Mslexia
is perfect. '
For reviews of Writers' Forum, Writer's Digest and
Writers' News, see our
writers' magazine review section.
Check out our just-overhauled 18 pages of carefully-chosen links
for writers, which range from Writers' Online Services to Web Resources.
Please email us with any good
children's sites you recommend for our new section.
The third in our series of
magazine reviews.
Our reviewer 's view was that: 'Writers’ News two-in-one
package also represents excellent value and is recommended for writers
who want to keep in touch, find out about markets and improve their
writing.'
Check out the 15 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to
Copy editing, Typing to Contract vetting. Our latest new service is
Synopsis-writing.
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Bob on language development in Big Brother, why he doesn't need to
buy novels and Tom Stoppard's theory on what is true and what is good.
Plus:
'the most borrowed author from the UK’s 4,200 public
libraries between 2002 and 2004 was Jacqueline Wilson. And I have absolutely
no idea who she is.'
(check it out in
News Review 12 April 2004 -
Unofficial Laureate of the Sleepover Generation - who is also now the
Children's Laureate)
This week
Chas Jones
investigates how self-publishers can extend the market for their books:
'pursuing some of these avenues brings you much closer to your readers and
should allow you to learn a lot more about your market'
There’s still just time to enter the Foyle Young Poets of
the Award, Britain’s most prestigious prize for young writers between the
ages of 11-17, but the closing date is 31 July!
Fay Weldon on the writer's role: ‘The reader is looking
to you to provide some meaning and shape to the chaos of real life... The writer’s job is
to provide a pattern.'
Try our new survey
See below
Writers' Forum Column
John Jenkins looks at the creation of Penguin paperbacks:
'Penguins were an immediate success and sold a million copies in four months
with sales climbing to 17 million in the first three years...IF
YOU were Allen Lane starting today which 10 recent novels would you choose?' The Editor's View, written by the Editor of
Writers' Forum magazine.
Our design, print and distribution service for self-publishers. The
latest addition to the service is our WritersPrintShop online bookshop,
which will sell your book for you on the Internet as soon as it's published.
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