What's New in 2014
- This week: why your book contract needs vetting, News Review on open submissions, writing opportunity The Big Idea and the link to an article on whether TV writers as such exist any more.
- 'It looks as if open submissions are here to stay. Publishers, having for many years tried to stem the tide of unsolicited submissions, are now openly soliciting them within a time-limited and often genre- specific framework. Some publishers have always worked this way. Harlequin Mills and Boon has been an example, encouraging unsolicited manuscripts in specific sub-genres of romance and going to some pains to encourage authors to send in what they were looking for to add to each of their lists. But most publishers have made it clear that they will not accept unsolicited submissions...' Our News Review this week is entitled Open submissions give writers a chance
- If you're a UK resident of 13 or over, you've got until 2nd September to enter this week's Writing Opportunity, The Big Idea, for a chance to win £1,000 plus the opportunity to see your idea come to life, with one overall winner offered the prize of a publishing contract and the promise of their idea being nurtured, developed and written by a well-known author.
- Why your book contract needs vetting - '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? Would you, for example, know which rights to grant - for how long and on what terms..' Our contracts expert on why contract vetting is essential if you don't have an agent.
- For an overview of our nineteen services, which range from Editor's Report to Copy editing, from Submission Critique to Blurb-writing, try Which service?
- In response to one commentator, Melanie A, who said the "publishing business is corrupt, sick and almost dead", Child stated: "When you say the publishing business is corrupt, sick, and almost dead, you're completely wrong. Yes, it's cautious and careful, as a result of the recession you mention, and the changing entertainment environment you note, and contracts are certainly stricter, but it's vibrant, optimistic, profitable, energetic, full of very smart people, most of them young, most of them women, and I find it a very pleasant place to work (but then, I came from television.) Lee Child, author of 19 Jack Reacher novels, including Personal, after appearing on UK's Newsnight TV programme, quoted in our Comment column.
- Our Tips for writers series is a succinct but useful 8-part series which starts with Improve your writing and ends with Submission to agents and publishers.
- Our links this week: no-one really writes for TV any more, Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society - A TV writer? What's that?; the real lowdown on book tours, Dumps and Death Threats, Hecklers and Vindication: True Tales from Today's DIY Book Tour - The Daily Beast; crowd-funding arrives in the book world, Publishers Turn to the Crowd to Find the Next Best Seller - NYTimes.com; how to use publishing's secret weapon, What is Your Book Community? | Publishing Perspectives; and what price film adaptations of novels, The Hunger Games vs. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Publishing Perspectives.
- 'Confronted by an absolutely infuriating review it is sometimes helpful for the victim to do a little personal research on the critic. Is there any truth to the rumor that he had no formal education beyond the age of eleven? In any event, is he able to construct a simple English sentence? Do his participles dangle? When moved to lyricism does he write "I had a fun time"? Jean Kerr in our Writers' Quotes.
- This week, the 2015 Sunday Times EFG short Story Award, News Review looks at film options and how many British novels have been made into big films, Ian Rankin on money and, from our links, how reading print increases comprehension compared with reading digital.
- 'The truth is that many a film option, much publicised at the time it was sold, has subsequently disappeared into the sand. The investment in a feature film, particularly a Hollywood one, is so great that studios are exceedingly cautious about which options they pick up and run with. On the plus side though, the track-record of a bestselling book, especially one with a distinctive plot, can give it ‘legs' in a way that nothing else can. The studios have a ready-made audience and storyline, all they need to do is to commission a screenplay and then they're ready to start making the film.' Our News Review this week on What are your chances of getting your book made into a film?
- Our Writing Opportunity this week is the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. It is open to writers of any nationality, entrants just have to show a previous record of publication in creative writing in the UK and Ireland, and the prize is £30,000.
- ‘I never started writing thinking I would make a lot of money out of it. Most of the writers I knew in the early days had day jobs. When I started making a bit of money from it that was nice. When it became a full-time occupation that was lovely. So the money was a bonus, really. Ian Rankin, author of Saints of the Shadow Bible and many other Rebus novels in the Sunday Telegraph.
- Are you planning to self-publish and thinking about copy editing? Our page on Copy editing for self-publishers may help to give you the background.
- In our links: an acount of flourishing self-publishing in China, In China, You Don't Need a Publisher to Rake in the Big Yuan | Publishing Perspectives; how writers are losing out, Streaming of books threatens to sell readers down the river | Books | The Observer; a fascinating study of the difference between reading print and digitally, Reading Print Versus Digital Increases Comprehension: Study - GalleyCat; a review of a documentary on the book business and teh culture of reading, Review: Out of Print, a Film by Vivienne Roumani | Publishing Perspectives; and the most clearly written account of the Amazon/Hachette dispute we've found, Amazon vs Hachette: today books, tomorrow the world - Telegraph.
- A useful page for finding your way amongst the hundreds of articles on the site is Advice for Writers.
- 'Only a person with a Best Seller mind can write Best Sellers.' Aldous Huxley in our Writers' Quotes.
- 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.
- Our Success Story this week is that of Tina Seskis: an irresistible subject for a Success Story because she lives just up the road from WritersServices in north London and the reasons for her success as a writer are like a textbook illustration of how to do it. After university, she went on to work in marketing and advertising for more than 20 years and it was this experience which stood her in good stead when she found herself with a book to market. This was a book which she'd had the idea for whilst on holiday in Venice. Here's its brilliant starting-point: "It's funny how easy it is, when it really comes down to it, to get up from your life and begin a new one. All you need is enough money to start you off, and a resolve to not think about the people you're leaving behind..."
- Is this 'the end of the publishing business as we know it'? This week's News Review: 'Amazon's launch of a subscription model for ebooks with its Kindle Unlimited has caused dismay amongst both publishers and agents. There has been a debate about whether this would be a sub-licence or a sale, with some agents insisting that it is a sub-licence and Amazon arguing that it is a sale. Authors will get a tiny amount of royalty...'
- This week's Writing Opportunity is the 2014 Manchester Fiction Prize for a story of up to 2,500 words in length, open to all and closing on 29 August.
- ‘Last month, if you will excuse the self-advertisement, I published a novella as an Amazon Kindle single. A mere £1.49 to download, but already a site called general-ebooks.com is offering the thing free. Call me a spoilsport, but this ripped-off author would prefer the authorities to send a policeman with a search warrant...' D J Taylor, columnist and author of The Windsor Faction and 10 other novels, and biographies of Thackerary and Orwell, in the Independent on Sunday, quoted in our Comment column.
- Are you interested in Getting Your Manuscript Copy Edited? As well as this article we have one from Inside Publishing about Copy editing and proof-reading and we offer a Copy editing service, as well as Proof-reading and Manuscript Polishing, which involves more intensive work, 'polishing' and improving the text, and correcting the English if you are writing in English as a second language.
- Our links this week start with a cynical but very relevant question: Can So Many Authors Be Earning Big Money? - Dana Beth Weinberg; Mashable on the latest from Amazon, How Amazon Brought Publishing to Its Knees - and Why Authors Might Be Next; this one might be useful if you're planning to publicise your own book, 6 Questions to Ask Before Publicizing Your Book | Publishing Perspectives; and A Short History of Self-Help, The World's Bestselling Genre | Publishing Perspectives.
- Our series of six articles on writing in different categories covers a wide range of genre writing - Crime, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Romance, Non-fiction, Historical fiction and Memoir and Autobiography. So we it's likely that we have the genre you are interested in covered.
- 'And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.' Sylvia Plath in our Writers' Quotes.
