25 September 2017 - What's new
25 September 2017
- 'Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Verbs have to agree with their subjects. Proofread carefully to see if you words out...' William Safire, author of Full Disclosure, Scandalmonger and a long-running column "On Language" for The New York Times Magazine. William Safire's Rules for Writers are still just as relevant as ever. Our Comment.
- 'Should you do what your editor says? And, if you feel uncomfortable, how can you find another editor? Or will you submit through an online organisation which is bypassing editors? The tech solution abandons the editor's input in the book selection process, using instead readers' votes to decide what to publish...' News Review
- From our nineteen-part Inside Publishing series, you can read up on Advances and royalties: 'Publishers usually offer to pay authors advances against royalties. How do you work out how much money you might earn from your book? You need to understand for yourself how advances and royalties work and what they mean for you...'
- From the same series, Copy editing and proof-reading explains the difference between the two. Copy editing is the painstaking job of going through a manuscript line by line to correct the spelling, grammar and punctuation. Proof-reading at a later stage is a separate check through the book when is is set up in pages, before it goes to press or is finalised for ebook publishing.
- Our article on How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) asks writers with a manuscript which needs translating or has been written in English by a non-native speaker: "if your English is good enough, what about translating your book yourself, or writing in English, and then getting your translation 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.
- Our links: some amazing stories about plagiarism, The 5 Weirdest Lawsuits About Authors Stealing Ideas; as they lined up to board the invasion barges, each was issued something less practical than a weapon, but equally precious: a slim, postcard-sized, softcover book, How Books Designed for Soldiers' Pockets Changed Publishing Forever - Atlas Obscura; a Berlin-based startup is part writing and reading community, and part publishing house, with one aspect feeding the other, Inkitt, a ‘reader powered' book publisher, raises $3.9M to discover the next best-selling author | TechCrunch; and a beautifully written bit of memoir, Searching for My Mother, 16 Years After Her Murder | Literary Hub.
- Our page of Picture library links provides a good starting-point for finding an image for your book, whether it's for the cover or inside. Gograph was recently added with its 18 million stock links.
- More links: Hachette Children's Group's ceo shared concerns over "overuse of social media and time online" and how the current generation of young children is "absolutely beset by anxiety", Murray Hill calls for publishers to be 'agents of social change' | The Bookseller; as a Nigerian-American, I've longed to write an adventure story set in West Africa. But we've come a long way since the days of Allan Quartermain slashing through jungles wearing a pith helmet, Imagining the Future of Nigeria: Accessing Africa Through Sci-Fi | Literary Hub; the themes and tropes laid down by Tolkien continue to shape fantasy to this day, The Hobbit at 80: much more than a childish prequel to The Lord of the Rings | Books | The Guardian; and What should I do when I disagree with my editor? It seems to be happening more and more. Ask the Editor: Working with an Editor.
- 'A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.' G K Chesterton in our Writers' Quotes.
