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January 2007 - Writers Magazine

News Review



  • 'We’re only just coming up to the end of the first month of the new year, but already there are signs that the pace of change is not going to slow.' News Review looks at big changes in the book world.

  • 'Following the recent furore relating to the Decibel Penguin Prize, the organisers have been forced to back down.'  News Review on whether you can single out particular ethnic groups with special programmes of support without discriminating against others.

  • It’s pretty unusual for a novel to start an international movement, but Catherine Ryan Hyde can claim to have done just that. News Review looks at Pay it Forward.

  • Fast forward into the digital future? News Review looks at what the futurologists are saying.

Comment



  • 'The acquisition of Serpent's Tail by Profile... guarantees that Serpent's Tail remains within the independent sector. It also means I can devote myself to publishing and editing – a dream come true.' Pete Ayrton of Serpent’s Tail

  • 'Large advances attract huge publicity, not all of it good.  Literary critics will be more inclined to review whether the book is value for money than whether it is a good read.'  Danuta Kean in MslexiaStylish and lively site for quarterly UK literary magazine read by 12,000 'committed' women writers. Good range of quality writing, information and advice with news, reviews, competitions and interviews, all presented in a friendly fashion. Praised by Helen Dunmore as 'astute, invigorating and above all an excellent read.' www.mslexia.co.uk

  • 'I never set out to write historical fiction: it's just that history keeps being what I want to write about.'  Emma Darwin, author of Mathematics of Love, 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

  • 'When I first considered self-publishing I worried that it might be career suicide.  But my experience has been really great.' Frances O'Brien, author of Sheer Bliss.

Writers' Quote




  • 'What a blessed thing it is, that Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left!'
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jnr

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.'



See also Making submissions for how to approach publishers and agents. 


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