30 April 2012 - What's new
30 April 2012
- 'Erotica, Romance, Crime and Fantasy bullish - So what do these four areas of genre publishing have in common? Well, they’re all in demand at the moment, in some cases after a period in the doldrums. How much is this down to ebooks? Well, hard to say, but with romance in particular this is certainly part of the equation.' News Review looks at genre publishing.
- Links to recent stories Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world: Larry Kirshbaum shares many more details on how Amazon Publishing will work, Lack Of Pulitzer Didn’t Hurt Book Sales and Publishers Beware, more creative destruction on the way.
- If you want editorial input from our professional editors, have a look at our 18 Services, especially our Editor's Report, Submission Critique and Children's Services. Also available is Copy editing, Manuscript Typing and what we call Manuscript Polishing - getting your manuscript ready for publication if you are not a native English speaker and need some help to get it right.
- Our Writing Opportunity this week is the 18 competitions which are part of the Winchester Writers' Conference and which cover just about every type of writing.
- ‘This has been a tumultuous year for the book business, a time of profound change in the way books are distributed and read. It is no exaggeration to say that the widespread acceptance of digital devices and a simultaneous contraction of shelf-space in stores qualify as a historic shift...' Peter Osnos, founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs Books in The Atlantic, quoted in our Comment column.
- What does it take to market yourself successfully as a jobbing writer today? Joanne Phillips provides the answer, which is that the internet is a fertile ground for writers. You just need to know how to make it work for you...
- 'Beware of self-indulgence. The romance surrounding the writing profession carries several myths: that one must suffer in order to be creative; that one must be cantankerous and objectionable in order to be bright; that ego is paramount over skill; that one can rise to a level from which one can tell the reader to go to hell. These myths, if believed, can ruin you. If you believe you can make a living as a writer, you already have enough ego.' David Brin in our Writers' Quotes.