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Bestselling

Penguin Random House swoops on Ehrlin's bestseller

7 September 2015

The speed with which Penguin Random House has moved to do a world English language deal for Ehrlin's bestselling picture book, The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep, is an indication of how much the big publishers are now relying on self-publishers to produce saleable books. Once the author has established a market, it's easy to see why the publishers want to jump on board.  Read more

The author as a brand

23 March 2015

Karen Joy Fowler in this week's Comment makes a totally fair point about the importance of enjoying your writing, and what makes some writers happy is writing a different kind of book each time. But is there any truth in the suggestion that writing similar books is the best way to build a successful writing career?  Read more

Hardbacks - still a success story

12 May 2014

Hardbacks, rather than ebooks, are the wild cards of the publishing industry. Who would have thought that they would survive and prosper in the age of the ebook? Wouldn't you assume that hardbacks would simply fade away once they were so radically undercut on price by ebooks, never mind paperbacks.  Read more

Patterson champions the book business

6 May 2013

Bestselling author James Patterson has taken the unusual step of speaking out about the changes going on in the industry. He's gone for a novel way of doing this, with full-page ads in Publishers' Weekly and the New York Times Book Review, asking the government to bail out bookshops.  Read more

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Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award 2020

Information

Closing date: 
31 October 2019
Entry: 
Writers writing in English and resident within the British Commonwealth and Eire, who have not yet published or self-published a full-length book No entry fee
Prize: 
First Prize £10,000, 2 runners-up £1,000

Applications for the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award are now invited.

Submissions can be made from 1st June 2019 until 31st October 2019.

The Judges of the 2020 Award will be Ian Rankin (Chair), Sarah Perry and Max Porter.  Read more

'It is my contention that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have the intestinal fortitude to cut out even the most brilliant passage so long as it doesn't advance the story.'

— Frank Yerby

'Starving for publication'

17 June 2019

'I think I am starving for publication: I love to get published; it maddens me not to get published. I feel at times like getting every publisher in the world by the scruff of the neck, forcing his jaws open, and cramming the Mss down his throat - 'God-damn you, here it is - I will and must be published.  Read more

10 June 2019 - What's new

June 2019
  • ‘First the length. In an age of ever-shortening attention spans, you have to have a pretty powerful message to keep anyone's interest for much over 75,000 words (about 300 pages).
  Read more