Monthly archive - March 2016

Most literary agents receive around 5,000 manuscripts a year from aspiring authors, and each year probably end up taking on only around five or six.

So how do we decide what to take on and what to reject? It all hangs on that first page.  Read more

Twelve years ago, Ned Rust was the lone employee on James Patterson's team at Hachette Book Group (then Time Warner Book Group), working as what was then "radically" (as he put it) called a brand manager. At the time, Patterson was publishing two adult titles a year. "People were worried it was just too fast a clip," Rust said, and that "readers wouldn't be able to keep up."  Read more

There isn't a company that more directly affects book publishing than Amazon. The e-commerce giant's tentacles are firmly wrapped around all publishers, just waiting to tighten when its terms are deemed a speck below satisfactory.  Read more

A few days ago, I wrote a piece on my blog exploding the myth of the rich writer, and laying out (in terms the Royal Literary Fund

Old-established British organisation which is using substantial new funds from writers' estates for excellent new scheme offering grants to published writers, who act as 'fellows' helping to improve students' writing in higher education institutions. The fellows each have a page and contact details on the website. www.rlf.org.uk

described as "ruthlessly mathematical") what authors actually receive when you buy their books. The simple answer for many of us is nothing at all, after that heady advance in the case of my most recent novel, which was £5,000 for two years' work.