Skip to Content

What's New in 2014

November 2014

24 November 2014 - What's new

November 2014
  • A new article in the Talking to publishers series covers How-to books for experienced writers - by experienced writers: 'In reality, no writer can exist for ever in a comfort cocoon of familiar marketplaces since editors are constantly changing, publishers frequently alter their focus, and all too often published authors find themselves redundant. That's why it's necessary for relatively new or middle list authors to be constantly re-inventing themselves to stay ahead of these market changes...'
  • To find out what editors are looking for, have a look at the Talking to publishers series, with contributions from the editors of lists which deal with books for writers, children's books, Young Adult, a paranormal list and Christian AlternativeAn Imprint Of John Hunt Publishing. A space at the edge where the light shines through..
  • 'Two interesting pieces of news from the last week show that publishing - of both the traditional and the new variety - is stronger than you might think. In China the second Shanghai International Children's Book Fair has attracted 250 exhibitors from 25 countries, with 6,000 Chinese and international business visitors and 20,000 Chinese consumers expected to attend This new Fair offers a real challenge to the international children's rights fair in Bologna...' News Review
  • From our Archive: 'Indeed, what is a ‘book life'? Author Jeff VanderMeer sees the ‘book' as any creative project requiring text, be it a traditional print book, an e-book or a podcast. The aim is to do things that support that book life in a positive way rather than undermining it. And the point of Booklife is to provide a strategic and tactical guide to being a writer in contemporary times. It is not a how-to guide to creating a blog or website, nor is it an instructional manual about writing. Instead, Booklife is a more subtle examination of the business of being a writer, intended to help the reader to create a modus operandi that works for them' Our reviewer looks at Jeff VanderMeer's Booklife.
  • ‘Beginners' failures are often the result of trying to work with strong feelings and ideas without having found the images to embody them, or without even knowing how to find the words and string them together. Ignorance of English vocabulary and grammar is a considerable liability to a writer of English. The best cure for it is, I believe, reading. Ursula K Le Guin , author of the classic The Left Hand of Darkness and Dancing at the Edge of the World on Brain Picking, quoted in our Comment column.
  • To find a mass of useful material on the site, try this page - Advice for Writers.
  • This week's links: a summary from authors' rights campaigner Hugh Howey, Amazon and Hachette Come to Terms | Hugh Howey; the views of a bestselling author, Dan Brown on the Writing Life as a Global Megaseller - Publishing Perspectives; views from the future front, Curiouser and curiouser: What we discovered at FutureBook 2014 | The Bookseller; a new perspective on SF, Virtual Sci-Fi Book Festival Makes Backlist Sexy Again - Publishing Perspectives; and, for light relief, Shortlist Announced for 2014 Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
  • 'The trouble with science fiction is that you can write about everything: time, space, all the future, all the past, all of the universe, any kind of creature imaginable. That's too big. It provides no focus for the artist. An artist needs, in order to function, some narrowing of focus. Read more.' Philip Klass in our Writers' Quotes.

 

17 November 2014 - What's new

November 2014

10 November 2014 - What's new

November 2014
  • Latest figures from the States suggest that readers are not parting with their print books, in spite of the growth in ebook sales, which have reached $8.5 billion in value worldwide. In the US the figures show that 23% of all male adult readers and 33% of females ones read ebooks. But global print still stands at $53.9 billion so there's a lot of catching up for ebooks to do to overtake, let alone wipe out, print books. News Review on why American readers are loyal to print.
  • ‘My audience is someone similar to who I was when I got started with serious reading: a young person - I was 19 - who can simply read... My students at Columbia I teach to read. If you can be a good reader and can think that reading and literature are great pursuits, you can perhaps teach yourself to write. This week's Comment is from Richard Ford, author of Let Me Be Frank With You in the Observer.
  • Talking to publishers is our nine-part series of interviews and artilces from the editors of various publishing lists lists, showing you exactly what they're looking for. The nine cover historical books, young adult, self-help and several more.
  • Our Writing Opportunity this week is the ITV This Morning Novel Writing Competition, run with Curtis BrownSee Curtis Brown listing and with representation by them offered. It's open only to UK residents though and you'll need to move fast as it closes on 14 November.
  • Top Ten Tips for Non-fiction writers is a useful checklist from a creative wriitng teacher.
  • This week's links: 23 authors from the Andrew Lownie Agency write about their own work habits, What Are Your Writing Habits? - Publishing Perspectives; a longer view on Amazon, Seattle News and Events | The Perks, Pitfalls, and Paradoxes of Amazon Publishing; the publishing industry is only now feeling the force of technological change, The ebook industry needs to make reading more social; the changing market in English-language publishing, Hot Button Issues for English-Language Publishers in 2014 - Publishing Perspectives; and a useful look at children's international rights, Expanding the Foreign Rights Market for Children's Books.
  • And from the cynical but accurate P D James in our Writers Quotes: 'Publishers don't nurse you,; they buy and sell you.'

 

3 November 2014 - What's new

November 2014
  • There are no less than two Writing Opportunities this week, together with a News Review looking at prizes and competitions and five links to the top stories of the week.
  • 'The growth of literary prizes of one kind and another seems unending, although it's a pity from the point of view of unpublished writers that so many of them are restricted to books which have come from traditional publishers. WritersServices doesn't usually feature these, on the basis that they already get plenty of publicity and it is usually publishers rather than writers who have to do the submission...' News Review on Prizes, prizes and competitions.
  • Pressing deadlines mean that we have two Wriitng Opportunities this week. The first is the 2014 National Novel Writing Month, which has already started as the month is November. You'll need to get your skates on for this one if you're to complete a 50,000 word novel is just one month!
  • The second Writing Opportunity is the ITV This Morning Novel Writing Competition, which is open to unrepresented and unpublished authors living in the UK. The first prize will be representation for the winning novel from a Curtis BrownSee Curtis Brown listing agent and a free place on one of Curtis Brown Creative's six-month novel-writing courses.
  • Writing biography and autobiography is a three-part excerpt from the book by Brian D Osborne which provides a starting-point for memoir.
  • ‘That thing of treating the writer like a famous boxer or a rock star has harmed writers, because one of the ingredients most essential for writing is that you have to be solitary. You can't be gregarious. You can't do both. The brain won't take it. That is why poor Mrs Woolf went off her rocker. Too many people, too much outside life...' Edna O'Brien, author of The Country Girls and Country Girl (an autobiography) in the Independent on Sunday, quoted in our Comment column.
  • If you want to browse across the WritersServices site, Advice for writers helps you find what you're looking for.
  • Our links this week: in a characteristically outspoken interview, the US super-agent known as the Jackal gives his take on Amazon and the publishing world, Andrew Wylie talks about the state of the publishing industry - Quill and Quire; a blogger who takes an individual view asks if publishers do have a use, Dr. Syntax: Do Publishers Deserve to Exist? an authoritative article on the important subject of copyright, BookBrunch - Speak up for copyright; where is fan fiction going now, From ‘Fifty Shades' to ‘After': why publishers want fan fiction to go mainstream - The Washington Post; and , in an article on YouTube opportunities written for publishers but useful to writers, Your Tube | The Bookseller.
  • Finding it difficult to write your own synopsis for your submission or your blurb for your self-published book? Our Synopsis-writing and Blurb-writing services can help.
  • ‘Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.' Robertson Davies in our Writers' Quotes.
  • The October Magazine is ready!