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February 2007 - Writers Magazine

News Review



  • 'Quick Reads will not solve the world’s problems, but they do provide a way to start engaging the millions of adults who have missed out on the sheer pleasure of reading.' News Review on the 2007 World Book Day initiative.

  • 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will hit bookshops on 21 July. But a full five months before the just-announced publication date of the next Harry Potter title, a price war has already broken out.'  News Review looks at the last Potter.

  • ‘Ultimately it’s not up to Google or the publishers to decide how books will be read. It’s the readers who will have the final say.’ News Review looks at Google Book Search and its e-book plans.

  • News Review looks at new evidence on the importance of parents involvement in their children's  literacy: 'Amazingly, it is a more powerful force than social class, family size or level of parental education.'

Comment



  • 'As electronic publishing gains traction, which it clearly somehow must, I can see a sort of parallel emergence... an abbreviated book-writing that is suited to electronic consumption.'  Natasha Randall in her New York Notes in Publishing News

  • 'Dear Louise, thank you for refusing to take no for an answer.  For ignoring my in-built hesitance and for giving me the confidence to put pen to paper.  And thank you for getting that first little book into people's kitchens.' Nigel Slater in the Observer Food Magazine

  • 'I never wanted it and I never expected it and certainly didn't work for it and see it as something that I have to get through, really…' J K Rowling on the nature of fame

Writers' Quote



  • 'Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.'
     Salman Rushdie

WritersServices powers ahead


WritersServices goes from strength to strength.  Every week over 60,000 visitors come to the site, with over 3 million in 2006 and 4 million expected this year. And there's a big new launch to come...


Win a website of your own - winners announced


Londoner Rebecca Hazel is one of the two winners. Here's her winning story, An Introduction to the Internet and also the winning story from the second winner, Jeanette Smith, Caught in the Web.


Magazine - Globe 2 



International Book FairsInternational Book Fair Information


Our updated listing for 2007 of book fairs across the globe. Perhaps there's one near you?


Review


Your First Novel by Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb is: 'an excellent tutorial and reference source for anyone who wants to become more than a weekend scribbler... with a book like this on your desk, you stand a much better chance of succeeding.'

Bob's Journal goes into its 7th volume


Bob on the new colour of his office, what he needs around him to write and the search for the GLA (Greatest Living Author):

'My own opinion is that the popularity of these games illustrates a sad truth about contemporary fiction, namely that it is often more of a pleasure to write about than to read.'


This week


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 Column


John Jenkins on phrases to spice up your French, the peculiarities of the school syllabus, Lord Archer's latest big deal and Enid Blyton, whose Famous Five series is about to be made into another TV series:

'Blyton wrote around 800 books and her sales topped 400 million copies so she must have been doing something right. She was also translated into 90 languages.'

Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Flaubert were pretty good at it.'
 



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