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Comment from the book world in February 2006

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February 2006

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'Fascinated by people'

27 February 2006

'I write biographies because I am fascinated by people - by their infinite resourcefulness, by their mystery and power, by the strange patterns their lives make - and because they give me better plots than any novel I could invent. My subjects have been writers and a painter because the frontier between life and art is where I like to work.'

Hilary Spurling, winner of the Whitbread Prize for Matisse the Master, quoted in Writers' ForumBritish writers' magazine which is highly recommended for all writers. It features wide range of news and articles which help writers to improve their work and get published: www.writers-forum.com

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Writing 'from the heart and your soul'

20 February 2006

'If you write something that you know well, from the heart and your soul, it will live, somehow. It may not live in your lifetime, but it will survive, if you write it from your heart and soul. And you have a brushstroke of talent. It will live.'

Mel Brooks

'Publishing is more market-driven'

13 February 2006

'In the three years since I became President of the AAA (Association of Authors' AgentsThe association of UK agents. Their website (http://www.agentsassoc.co.uk/index.html) gives a Directory of Members and a code of practice, but no information about the agencies other than their names. The association refers visitors to the UK agent listings from The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook on the WritersServices site.), there has been a significant rise in the tempo of change in the publishing world. This change is systemic and wide-ranging, and is set to accelerate further. Its various aspects are all linked, but I think they may be divided into three main categories: change in the retail trade; change in the mode of delivery and reading of texts; and change in the policies of publishers.

The greatest change has been in the retail trade. It is here that we can see most clearly how market forces are shaping our industry. When I came into publishing in the 1980s, it was a world in which publishers pushed books through the marketplace; it is now a world in which retailers pull books through. I don't mean by this that retailers are directly making the decisions about what books should be published; but we have all of us - agents, editors, publishers - internalized the lessons of the marketplace, and are bound to be influenced by it in the judgments we make every day. Put simply, publishing is more market-driven now than then.'

Derek Johns, outgoing President of the Association of Authors' Agents, in a speech reprinted in Publishing News

'Write every day'

6 February 2006

'You have to be able to edit your own work. Write every day even if it's rubbish, because it's always better to have something to work on than to have nothing. You have to be ruthless and you have to give yourself space to do it.

I don't find it as easy to concentrate as I used to and my attention span is short. But as long as I get my 1,000 words written it doesn't matter if I only sit down at my computer for five minutes at a time then jump up and do the dishes or something.'

Sara Waters, whose new book The Night Watch is just out, in Writers' ForumBritish writers' magazine which is highly recommended for all writers. It features wide range of news and articles which help writers to improve their work and get published: www.writers-forum.com