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2 September 2013 - What's new

2 September 2013
  • Self-publishing - the rights way is a new article from Tom Chalmers of IPR Licensethe global, digital marketplace for authors, agents and publishers to list and license book rights; launched in 2012 which explores the importance of rights to self-published authors: 'It's a fact that most self-published authors understand the process that takes them from a written manuscript to a published book, but few realise the additional elements that make publishing a profitable business. Rights licensing is arguably the most vital element in this equation. Whether it's selling translation rights, audio rights or optioning the film rights, these all help balance the book's books. Rights sales are an increasingly important aspect of a title's profitability for publishers, yet the potential income is often overlooked by self-published authors, who focus on selling their edition of their work in their own territory - or, with the help of digital publishing, internationally in their first language.'
  • The American publisher Sourcebooks has just acquired Simple Truths, a largely unknown publisher - unknown even to Sourcebooks' CEO, Dominique Raccah, although their offices happened to be just a few blocks away from Sourcebooks' own offices in Naperville, Illinois. It's about publishers selling and finding writers online. This week's News Review.
  • Is there a book in you? 'Alison Baverstock's book has been a very good seller but it still seems worth reviewing it, even some time after publication, as it really is an extremely useful book which many writers may not have encountered as yet. Let's face it, we all think we have a book in us. But in this age of over-production when we can only get our work published with difficulty, just how many of us are sufficiently motivated and talented to make it? This is the question which Alison Baverstock addresses...' Our review.
  • 'I've been writing for 50 years now and used to be very disciplined about it, writing every day. I'm not so much any more, and when I do, it's wherever I happen to be. I also used to write longhand, on legal pads - my ex-husband was a lawyer - whereas now it's a laptop...' Alice Walker, author of The Colour Purple, on being 69, quoted in or Comment column.
  • If you are looking for copy editing online, it is difficult to ensure that you are getting a professional copy editor who will do a good job on your manuscript. Our page on Getting your manuscript copy edited may help.
  • This week's Writing Opportunity is the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Writing Fellowships 2013, closing on 19 September and only open to those resident in the US or Canada.
  • 'New media and new forms of buying and lending are all very interesting, for all kinds of reasons, but one principle remains unchanged: authors must be paid fairly for their work. Any arrangement that doesn't acknowledge that principle is a bad one, and needs to be changed. That is our whole argument.' Philip Pullman in our Writers' Quotes.