31 October 2016 - What's new
31 October 2016
- The recent Book Fair at Frankfurt showed a slight increase in attendance figures but otherwise seemed much the same as ever, with corporate publishers surveying the international publishing world from their huge stands and life going on pretty much as usual. But how can it be the same for publishers after the digital revolution and the great upsurge in self-publishing, haven't they affected things at all? Our News Review.
- We mentioned this a month ago but here's a reminder about the UK International Novel Writing Competition, It's open to all writers internationally with a fee of £12. Closing on 30 November, it has a 1st Prize of £5,000.
- Why your book contract needs vetting - 'You are a first-time author without an agent and you receive a contract to publish your book - just how do you evaluate it? Is it fair or biased against the author by prevailing industry standards? Is your publisher looking out for your interests as well as his own - or wording the clauses in a way only advantageous to the company? Would you, for example, know which rights to grant - for how long and on what terms...' Our contracts expert on why contract vetting is essential if you don't have an agent.
- ‘It's wonderful in some ways but makes you feel very vulnerable in others. To suddenly become known and to have lots of people reading your slightly odd thoughts is a weird thing. You feel exposed because all these eyes are on you... Paula Hawkins, author of the huge bestseller The Girl on the Train, in the Sunday Telegraph's Stella on Sudden fame and writing your second novel.
- Links: from an acute observer of the publishing scene, The latest marketplace data would seem to say publishers are as strong as ever - The Shatzkin Files The Shatzkin Files; what's happening in children's publishing and with young readers? Children's Book Summit: Nielsen on Kids, Their Trends, and Their Parents; the girl is "significantly more likely to end up dead", if the author of the book is male, On the train, gone, or with a tattoo: what happens to all those 'Girls' in book titles? | Books | The Guardian; and women crime writers and corpses, The 'Killer Women' Writers Collective Is Turning the Page on Sexist Crime Novels | Broadly.
- Do you want to self-publish your work? WritersServices offers a suite of services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish. Our page of Services for Self-publishers includes Copy editing, Blurb-writing, Poetry Collection editing and Translation editing.
- More links: Debut authors are largely being shut out of a fair shake, Why Most Amazon Reader Reviews are Worthless; S J Kincaid is obsessed by history. So why is she writing SF? BookBrunch - How history shapes science fiction; and "Collect rejections. Set rejection goals," Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year | Literary Hub.
- Your submission package and how to put it together - 'given the difficulty of getting agents and publishers to take on your work, it's really important to make sure that you present it in the best possible way. Less is more, so don't send a full manuscript, as it's very unlikely to be read. Far better to tempt them with a submission package that will leave them wanting to see the rest of the manuscript'.
- 'Celebrity does not often come to poets, but it is as hard for them to bear as for anyone else... For poets it is better - in a way - if celebrity comes after death.' Geoffrey Grigson in our Writers' Quotes.
