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The astonishing fact that this year’s favourite for the
Booker, David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas (Sceptre) has the hottest
bookmaker odds ever (5 to 4) highlights the way in which the Man Booker Prize
now commands attention outside the book world.
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What's the point of World Book Day? On World Book Day 2004
the Online Festival had 1.4 million hits from 78 different countries; by the end
of March this amounted to 3.3 million hits from 100 countries.
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A
European Union survey shows British publishers' turnover has overtaken Germany. ‘Book sales remain resilient, despite
the availability of a wide range of other media.’
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‘Chaos has broken out… in no other major European country is
the gap so deep between the language of the people and the language of
literature.’ Germans reject 'new spelling'.
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| 'Falling for a subject is more gradual than falling in love,
though it soon gains something of the same irrational and fascinated
compulsion.' Hattie Ellison on her book Sweetness and Light:
the Mysterious History of the Honey Bee |
| Talking about publishing for teenagers, 'You have to keep up with the times. There are always 14-year-old girls,
but every three or four years, they are going to be completely different.' Brenda Gardner, founder of Piccadilly Press in
Publishing News' |
| In the past 10 years an axe has been taken to the crime lists of
all the biggest publishers... At the same time crime writing has achieved
greater credibility among the lit crit brigade, thanks to a new generation
of gifted writers working within the genre…’' Danuta Kean in the Bookseller |
| '..the closer to the essence of things the writer gets, the closer he edges
towards literature.' Justin Cartwright writing in the Independent on
Sunday. |
| ‘The most crucial thing is to learn the craft: how to string
sentences together, how to make your dialogue sound like real people, how
to properly pace a story, how to develop interesting characters.’
Stephen Coonts |
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Our sixth excerpt from David Armstrong's entertaining book:
On the importance of getting the first draft written and the
secret joys of being a writer.
' I write almost every day. Not only do I recognise the need for
the discipline of doing it, but frankly, if I'm not writing, I don't
feel 'whole'. To put it another way, I might be miserable when I'm doing
it, but I'm definitely miserable when I'm not.'
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? Do you want to
know what it's like? I mean, what it's really like? Check out the
White Ladder Press's 35 Golden Rules, gleaned from their
publishing start-up.
Our latest update to our selected Links provides 25 new sites of
interest to writers from
Guardian Unlimited to Ask
about Writing and the rather entertaining
Which Book?
This month's new poster is More Wisdom from the Experts,
including Murphy’s Fourth Law:
'If it is possible for several things to go wrong, the one that will
cause the most damage is the one that will actually go wrong.'
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Bob's now on his
seventh EastEnders script.
'Most travel writers do not write in order to reveal
their innermost selves, they write in order to express their opinions about
everyone else.'
This week
New this week - the UK, US and international agents'
listings from the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook
Chas Jones draws on his own experience to offer advice on how to go
about it.
Writers' Forum Column
John Jenkins's advice to writers: 'If you want to know something
about writing, study Graham Greene and everything about him.' All in the Editor's View from the Editor of
Writers' Forum magazine.
Our latest article updates our piece on Trojan horses with the
latest scams
Our design, print and distribution service for self-publishers.
Report on the
National Association of Writers' Groups get-together in Durham
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