27 January 2014 - What's new
27 January 2014
- Further information from the 2014 Digital Book World and Writer's Digest Author Survey shows the appallingly low level of income most writers get from their books. In News Review 13 January the first part of this research was revealed, but the research has also yielded information from the 9,000 witers who took part about their earnings from their writing. News Review
- 'It was quite an endeavor for me to start my own literary agency. You have to find the right name and the right type of projects to work on as a literary agent. You have to find ways to let writers know about your agency and what qualifies you to be a literary agent. You as an agent need to make sure that the websites that list your agency are legitimate and professional, and keep accurate listings of your agency...' Jane Dowary of the Jane Dowary Agency on Starting from scratch: setting up a new literary agency
- Are you interested in Getting your poetry published? This article suggests some approaches to this.
- 'You have to inhabit an idea yourself; writing a book or film takes a long time, so you really have to feel like it is life or death for you. I just wanted a situation where I could then think about women and writing and sex and race - all the things I've been thinking about my whole life. This setup is an excuse to write the book I needed to write, because you can explore certain things: what do these characters think about marriage and relationships? (which means you spend months and years thinking, 'what do I think about marriage and relationships?') A story is an excuse to think about something...'Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia and The Last Word in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.
- This week's Writing Opportunity is for UK poets who have published a book of children's poetry in 2013. The CLPE Poetry Award 2014 closes on 28 February.
- Are you considering getting your manuscript copy edited? Or are you wondering about the difference between Copy editing and Proof-reading? Even if you are looking for an agent, copy editing can help you to find one, but if you're self-publishing Copy editing for self-publishers looks at the importance of this. Our copy editing service.
- This week's links: Is the mid-list, "publishing's experimental laboratory," disappearing? » MobyLives looks at the ongoing serious question of where the midlist has gone to, On Becoming a (Self) Publisher | Publishing Perspectives offers more on this absorbing topic, an important blog from Mike Shatzkin on where bookselling is going, The future of bookstores is the key to understanding the future of publishing - The Shatzkin Files, an interesting library start-up, BiblioTech: The 21st Century All-Digital Library | Publishing Perspectives and Publish and be branded: the new threat to literature's laboratory | Books | The Guardian.
- 'When writing a novel, that's pretty much entirely what life turns into: "House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day."'Neil Gaiman in our Writers' Quotes.
