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29 May 2017 - What's new

29 May 2017
  • Did you know that China publishes more books per year than the US? Or that it's in India that people devote the most time to reading books? Some interesting but rather bald figures from Goodreader.com show that the US with 304,914 books published a year comes second to China's 440,000, the world's highest number. Russia is third with 120,000, followed by the UK. News Review
  • We have two Writing Opportunities this week, the MslexiaStylish and lively site for quarterly UK literary magazine read by 12,000 'committed' women writers. Good range of quality writing, information and advice with news, reviews, competitions and interviews, all presented in a friendly fashion. Praised by Helen Dunmore as 'astute, invigorating and above all an excellent read.' www.mslexia.co.uk Women's Poetry and Pamphlet Competitions 2017, which are open to women of any nationality from any country. Entry fee: £7 for up to 3 poems and £20 for a collection of 18-20 poems of 20-24 pages. The prizes are: Poetry Prize £2,000 plus two optional extras, Pamphlet Prize: Publication of the pamphlet by Seren BooksClick for Seren Books Publishers References listing in 2017. Closing on 19 June.
  • Other Writing Opportunities which are still open.
  • Two more articles from our Inside Publishing series: Children's publishing - 'Long regarded as the Cinderella of the publishing world, children's publishing has enjoyed a remarkable rate of growth and is now seen by many as one of the most exciting areas to work in...' and Vanity Publishing - 'It is natural for writers to be eager to get published but it pays to be wary of the vanity publishers who will take your money and give you very little in return... the author is effectively conned into paying over a sometimes quite substantial sum by the publisher's willingness to publish their book. Once the money is handed over, the publisher produces the book, but often very little is done to market it and the sales can be minuscule...'
  • 'But what is just as obvious - and what is too often overlooked - is the fact that from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, that fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, that they continually cope with frustration as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things...' the great Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of Where the Wild things Are, in his 1964 Caldecott Medal Acceptance Speech for that book provides thsi week's Comment.
  • 'Hardly any authors can copy edit their own writing. It is notoriously difficult to spot the errors in your own work. So professional copy editing does make sense, either if you are trying to give your work its best chance when submitting it or, even more crucially, if you are planning to self-publish...' Getting your manuscript copy edited
  • Our links: websites are in no way old hat. You may not need a fax machine in the 21st century, and you can certainly manage without a photocopier - but a website should still be as important to a writer as their laptop, notebook and thesaurus, Has social media made author websites obsolete? | The Bookseller; a new approach to your book being out of print, My book went out of print, but I have a plan to revive it - The Washington Post; for nine decades, the New York Times bestseller lists have been the industry gold standard when it comes to obtaining a seal of approval that will make readers sit up and pay attention, but now Online top ranking: what does Amazon Charts mean for the book industry? | Books | The Guardian; and hungry players such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are spurring on the number of dramatic rights deals being struck, Trade rides boom from TV and film | The Bookseller.
  • Our Services for Writers - just a list of 20 services to help you get your work ready for publication.
  • More links: with all of the glamour and glitz that can come out of the YA world, it's easy to forget about the rest of children's literature. No, not board books or picture books: I'm talking about middle grade, Spotlight on Middle Grade - Publishing Trends; thoughts on writing from 'a fearless, clear-eyed writer, with a pure approach to her craft and an irreverent, passionate take on life', Jamaica Kincaid on How to Live and How to Write | Literary Hub; with the expectation that geekiness is an embrace of whiteness, what happens when you are in fact not white? The Millions: Dragons Are for White Kids with Money: On the Friction of Geekdom and Race - The Millions; and do you really need hushed page-flipping; the sound of two covers sliding against each other as a book is returned to its spot on the shelf; the quiet murmur of, "Have you read this one?" Amazon (AMZN) bookstore in New York City: The first one sucks the joy out of buying books - Quartz.
  • The latest addition to our Writers' Quotes is an especially cynical one from Dorothy Parker: 'If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy.'
  • And if Quotes float your boat, try More Writers Quotes and Even More Quotes.