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September 2004 - Writers Magazine

News Review



  • The astonishing fact that this year’s favourite for the Booker, David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas (Sceptre) has the hottest bookmaker odds ever (5 to 4) highlights the way in which the Man Booker Prize now commands attention outside the book world.

  • What's the point of World Book Day? On World Book Day 2004 the Online Festival had 1.4 million hits from 78 different countries; by the end of March this amounted to 3.3 million hits from 100 countries.

  • A European Union survey shows British publishers' turnover has overtaken Germany. ‘Book sales remain resilient, despite the availability of a wide range of other media.’

  • ‘Chaos has broken out… in no other major European country is the gap so deep between the language of the people and the language of literature.’ Germans reject 'new spelling'.

Comment



  • 'Falling for a subject is more gradual than falling in love, though it soon gains something of the same irrational and fascinated compulsion.'Hattie Ellison on her book Sweetness and Light: the Mysterious History of the Honey Bee

  • Talking about publishing for teenagers, 'You have to keep up with the times. There are always 14-year-old girls, but every three or four years, they are going to be completely different.' Brenda Gardner, founder of Piccadilly Press in Publishing News'

  • In the past 10 years an axe has been taken to the crime lists of all the biggest publishers... At the same time crime writing has achieved greater credibility among the lit crit brigade, thanks to a new generation of gifted writers working within the genre…’' Danuta Kean in the Bookseller

  • '..the closer to the essence of things the writer gets, the closer he edges towards literature.' Justin Cartwright writing in the Independent on Sunday.

Writers' Quotes




  • ‘The most crucial thing is to learn the craft: how to string sentences together, how to make your dialogue sound like real people, how to properly pace a story, how to develop interesting characters.’
    Stephen Coonts

How Not to Write a Novel: Confessions of a Midlist Author


Our sixth excerpt from David Armstrong's entertaining book:


On the importance of getting the first draft written and the secret joys of being a writer.


' I write almost every day. Not only do I recognise the need for the discipline of doing it, but frankly, if I'm not writing, I don't feel 'whole'. To put it another way, I might be miserable when I'm doing it, but I'm definitely miserable when I'm not.'




Magazine - Rails


The Golden Rules for Starting a Small Business


Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? Do you want to know what it's like? I mean, what it`s really like? Check out the White Ladder Press's 35 Golden Rules, gleaned from their publishing start-up.


Links update


Our latest update to our selected Links provides 25 new sites of interest to writers from Guardian Unlimited

Not just for writers, but a must for anyone interested in books, this is quite simply one of the best places for keeping up with the literary world on the net. http://books.guardian.co.uk

to Ask about Writing and the rather entertaining Book Forager

Branching Out, a UK librarians' site, offers highly innovative way of finding the book you would like to read, using the happy/sad, conventional/weird and other spectrums. www.branching-out.net/forager/



Poster


This month's new poster is More Wisdom from the Experts, including Murphy’s Fourth Law:


'If it is possible for several things to go wrong, the one that will cause the most damage is the one that will actually go wrong.'

Bob's Journal goes into its 4th volume


Bob's now on his seventh EastEnders script.


'Most travel writers do not write in order to reveal their innermost selves, they write in order to express their opinions about everyone else.'


 This week


Agency listings


New this week - the UK, US and international agents' listings from the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook


Writers'  Forum Column


John Jenkins's advice to writers:  'If you want to know something about writing, study Graham Greene and everything about him.'


All in the Editor's View from the Editor of 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 magazine.


NAWG 2004


Report on the National Association of Writers' Groups get-together in Durham


Linked pages...