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11 August 2014 - What's new

11 August 2014
  • Now it's open warfare, as described in our News Review, and in our Comment column, Sara Paretsky says 'My greatest feat is that stories will stop coming to me.'Our links include a knowledgeable article on historical fiction and an interview with an agent.
  • The Amazon/Hachette dispute has now caused a large group of authors to band together to protest about how Amazon's actions are affecting their sales. Authors Unlimited printed a letter in Sunday's New York Times. They have accused Amazon of boycotting their books by refusing to accept pre-orders, not discounting their books, slowing the delivery of their books (in some cases to several weeks) and suggesting on some Hachette authors' pages that they might prefer to buy something else. Authors United v Readers United (aka Amazon) is the title of this week's News Review.
  • ‘Crime fiction is the natural medium for writing about social justice. I used to write books about an environmental concern or a healthcare concern, but I was beginning to be tiresome, so now I tend to make those issues part of the backdrop to a crime story instead...' Sara Paretsky, author of 16 novels including Critical Mass, in the Independent on Sunday, quoted in our Comment column.
  • What a publisher wants - The view from a publisher's desk No 1 - the first in a series of four articles by Tom Chalmers, MD of Legend Press, giving a publisher's view of the submission process and what a publisher is looking for. Also available: Judging a book by its covering letter and synopsis, The writer's X-Factor and The changing face of publishing.
  • Our Writing Opportunity this week is the HarperCollins Killer Reads open submission. HC is launching a new digital-first crime and thriller list, which will begin publication with the best finds from an open submission held this summer. Killer Reads will invite unagented submissions from 29th August to 14th September, in all crime genres from police procedurals to high-concept thrillers
  • Our listing of Writing Opportunities on the site will give you a view according to what is still open and a list according to when it was added to the site.
  • Do you want to get a professional editor's opinion on your manuscript? Our reports range from the Editor's Report to the more detailed Editor's Report Plus or the shorter Reader's Report, with a range of special editorial support on children's writing from our children's editors.
  • Our links this week: Authors United ramps up Amazon campaign | The Bookseller; Setting Expectations Before You Publish Your Book | Publishing Perspectives; Historical fiction can speak very clearly to the present and the past | Books | theguardian.com; and Literary Agent Q&A: Taryn Fagerness | Publishing Perspectives.
  • The July Magazine is ready, giving you an overview of the last month.
  • 'The literary world is made up of little confederacies, each looking upon its own members as the lights of the universe; and considering all others as mere transient meteors, doomed to soon fall and be forgotten, while its own luminaries are to shine steadily into immortality.' Washington Irving in our Writers' Quotes.