February 2012 - Writers Magazine

News Review

• 'The publishing world has been electrified by the news that J K Rowling has written her first adult novel and it is expected to be published later this year, although there’s no title or date yet. Some observers have always felt that Rowling would produce another book. She does after all give every appearance of being a compulsive writer, the kind of author who always has plots running round her head. ' News Review on this week's hot news.
• 'World Book Day and World Book Night get the Wow! factor. World Book Day and Night are approaching fast. This year it’s going to become more of an international set of events, and some it will be available online. It's a fantastic line-up on 1 March and 23 April.
• 'Hugely successful self-published author Amanda Hocking has grabbed the headlines again with her decision not to go with Amazon’s new publishing venture, in spite of their offer of a higher advance, but to stick with St Martin’s Press, which she felt would be better able to get her books into bookshops. This deal was for her new four-book series Watersong, with the first title, Wake, to be published this autumn.' News Review reports.
• 'There’s been an interesting discussion this week sparked off by an article in Publishing Perspectives about why an editor who has been working at a senior level in a publishing house would want to become a literary agent in order to spend more time working on authors’ manuscripts. The editor in question is Rebecca Carter of Harvill Secker and before that of Chatto & Windus, both highly-regarded imprints of Random House UKPenguin Random House have more than 50 creative and autonomous imprints, publishing the very best books for all audiences, covering fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s books, autobiographies and much more. Click for Random House UK Publishers References listing.' News Review investigates.
• 'The New Year has started with a mass of news from the ebook front, where things are really moving very fast. In the States ebook sales surged after Christmas. In the UK the figures show that more than one million ereaders and more than half a million tablet devices were received as gifts over Christmas, with Amazon and Apple the leading suppliers of e-readers and tablets respectively. One in 40 adults received a Kindle for Christmas.' News Review reports.
• 'A review of the UK children’s publishing scene by Caroline Horn in this week’s Bookseller provides an interesting picture of a part of the publishing business which is in pretty good shape. There is a strong feeling in the trade that the focus has shifted to bestsellers, bestselling authors and brand-name series. This makes it hard for new authors to get a sympathetic view taken of their work. The view is that nobody is interested in unknowns unless they are likely to be instant bestseller material.' News Review takes a look.

Comment

• 'We are not seeing a migration from print to digital reading among young people, we are seeing reading falling in overall popularity as a leisure activity. We know that viewing video online is becoming more popular for all internet users than reading text. Reading itself is being squeezed.' Jonathan Douglas, Director of the UK National Literacy TrustUK-based organisation which has campaigned since 1993 to improve literacy standards across all age groups. Excellent research information and details of the many initiatives the charity is currently involved in. www.literacytrust.org.uk. It also has a useful page of news stories on UK literacy, which links to newsletter http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx, in his blog.
• 'In November I'll start to think about the next book. In January I'll begin writing it, deliver it in June, in July it'll be edited, August is the holidays. September I'll start doing pre-publication interviews, it'll come out in October and I'll' go on the road again. It's like working on a production line, there's not an awful lot of time to sit around chewing the fat with Salman Rushdie, even if he wanted to...' Ian Rankin, author of The Impossible Dead in the Independent on Sunday
• 'I think the short story's a bit of a bisexual - it takes from prose what's great about prose, the wide-angle lens and the interest in psychology and character. And then it takes from poetry the distillation of language and the complete ease at using metaphors and images and motifs... Jackie Kay in The Poetry Paper
• 'To the Society of Authors, the arguments in favour of higher royalties on e-books seem as unanswerable as they have ever been. We feel that the starting rate for an unenhanced book, including academic texts, should be at least 30% - and that where enhanced e-books are being published, the royalty rate should be negotiated to reflect the degree of additional costs and work involved. Where the deal is exclusively for an e-book, and no advance is being paid, the royalties should start at a minimum of 50% and be valid either for a period of some three years, or else permit the author to terminate the agreement. Tom Holland, retiring chair of the UK Society of Authors in the Bookseller
• 'I believe that the iron grip that large publishers and their marketing partners have had on readers’ attention since the 1990s has slipped quite a bit with the arrival of online retailers and opinion-makers.' Fred Ramey in Psychology Today

Writers' Quote

'Eight hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, that's the only way I know how to do it.'
Philip Roth