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24 July 2017 - What's new

24 July 2017
  • 'A powerfully-argued article in the Bookseller's Futurebook has highlighted how the explosion in social media and freemium games means we have reached saturation point - what the author defines as ‘peak attention', where the time we have available has run out and we have to cut down on something, which will very probably be books...' News Review
  • How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) asks writers who are not native English speakers with a manuscript which needs polishing or translating: "if your English is good enough, what about translating your book yourself or writing in English, and then getting your work polished and copy edited by a professional editor who is a native English speaker?" This could be a cost-effective way of reaching the international English-speaking market.
  • ‘A short story... can be held in the mind all in one piece. It's less like a building than a fiendish device. Every bit of it must be cunningly made and crafted to fit together perfectly and without waste so it can perform its task with absolute precision... The ideal short story is like a knife - strongly made, well balanced, and with an absolute minimum of moving parts.' Michael Swanwick, author of many short stories and a number of SF novels including Chasing the Phoenix, provides this week's Comment.
  • Advice for Writers is a really useful page which takes you into our archive and helps you explore our 6,000 pages of information for writers.
  • Our links: from a writer who doesn't believe in rules, 10 Writing Rules You Can (and Should) Break; a thoughtful article which shows how the literary world is already being hit hard by the Trump administration, Is Trump Ruining Book Sales? | New Republic; a third piece from editor Terry McDonell, So You've Decided to Write: Will You Tell the Truth? | Literary Hub; and you should probably not write a book. And you shouldn't pay someone to write one for you either, Not everyone on the internet should write a book - Quartz.
  • Under 24 different headings we have hundreds of recommended links to sites for writers, including Poetry Sites and Writers Online Services. Share with us any new links you'd recommend.
  • More links: a long but elegant article on writing memoir, Literary Style and the Lessons of Memoir | The New Yorker; sometimes I want an opening to slap me in the face; other times I'd rather it come on like a creepy hand across my shoulder, Top 10 opening scenes in books | Books | The Guardian; and a writer whose many thoughts on writing have been widely shared, taught, studied and adapted, Kurt Vonnegut's Greatest Writing Advice | Literary Hub.
  • If you need to get your material typed up, but can't face doing the job yourself, Typing manuscripts is a service for writers who have an old or handwritten manuscript or audio tapes, which need typing before they can proceed with reworking, submission or publication.
  • 'The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible.' Mark Twain in our Writers' Quotes.