13 August 2018 - What's new
13 August 2018
- ‘Television is suddenly hungry for writers' content because long-form television is much closer to novels than anything else. A lot of people invested in short stories, things you can read on your phone, all very interesting but putting the technology first. Actually what we've seen is authors like Hanya Yanagihara and Donna Tartt - very long novels (being successful). So something is going on in reading which is much more analogous to long-form television - immersive reading and immersive watching...' Clare Alexander of the London literary agency Aitken Alexander AssociatesAccepts fiction and non-fiction. No plays or scripts. in the Bookseller. Our Comment.
- Do you want some help with your writing but don't quite know what you want? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? This article will show you how to work out which is the right editorial service for you. Choosing a service. Alternatively, email us and we'll do our best to help.
- Closing on 30 September, the unique Caterpillar Story Prize 2018 is for a short story written by an adult for 7-11 year-old children. The Prize is open to anyone (over 16), as long as the work is original and previously unpublished. Entry fee €12 per story and there's a £1,000 prize for the winner.
- You can still enter The Booklife Prize 2018 till 31 August.
- 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 the last one we added with its 18 million stock links.
- There are 23 other pages of links of recommended sites and we'd love to hear about any more sites you'd like to recommend to other writers.
- Our links: an inspiring and thorough article showing you how to maximise backlist income, How Traditionally Published Authors Can Repackage and Self-Publish Their Backlist | Jane Friedman; success for the campaign to protect authors' income, 'Elitist': angry book pirates hit back after author campaign sinks website | Books | The Guardian; traditional publishing? Self-publishing? Now here's a third way to publish your books, Ebooks: How digital publishers are 'shaking up' the industry - BBC News; and in a gesture of solidarity, the Authors Guild has issued an essay condemning Donald Trump's assaults on the news media, Authors Guild Closes Ranks With Press on First Amendment Freedoms.
- Our Success Stories series includes Darren Shan and Tina Seskis, of whom we said: 'an irresistible subject for a Success Story because she lives just up the road from WritersServices in north London and because her success as a writer is like a textbook illustration of how to do it'. We have other Success Stories on a wide range of authors.
- More links: the income from rights for UK publishers has increased by an astounding 90% over five years, Publishers Association: How Rights Sales Factor Into the UK's Industry Revenues; a young generation of poets is winning prizes, acclaim, and legions of readers while exploring identity in new ways, How Poetry Came to Matter Again; can an author's personality be separated from his or her reputation as an artist? A question raised this week, The Guardian view on VS Naipaul: a complicated man and a complicated legacy | Editorial | Opinion | The Guardian; and views on great writers from an intellectual powerhouse, Elizabeth Hardwick on Eight Icons of American Letters | Book Marks.
- And from V S Naipaul, who died this week: ‘To be a writer you have to be out in the world, you have to risk yourself in the world, you have to be immersed in the world, you have to go out looking for it. This becomes harder as you get older because there's less energy, the days are shorter for older people and it's not so easy to go out and immerse oneself in the world outside.‘
