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5 December 2016 - What's new

5 December 2016
  • ‘I wrote my first mystery novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, when I was 26. It was turned down by, I don't know, thirty or more publishers. Then it was bought and went on to win the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Obviously, and I know this from experience, perseverance is key to making it as a writer. You have to be able to accept rejection and keep going. If you know that it's what you want to do, then you need to make it happen. No one else will make it happen for you...' Our Comment this week comes from James Patterson, author of Cross the Line and many other novels, whose sales amount to 350million + books.
  • It's a measure of the growing interest in short stories, amongst both writers and readers, that Costa launched its short story prize in 2012 and that the public is currently invited to read and listen to the shortlisted stories selected from over 1,000 entries on the Costa Book Awards website, and to take part in the public vote. News Review
  • Writing Biography & Autobiography is a serialisation from our archive of the book by Brian D Osborne published by A & C BlackClick for A & C Black Publishers Publishers References listing. In the first excerpt, 'Managing the matters of truth and objectivity', the author says: 'Just as you need to remember that letters, reports, census forms, legal documents and so forth were not created simply for our convenience, so you also need to remember that what is written in them may not be true...'
  • Our Poetry Critique service and Poetry Collection Editing service might help you to work out where you've got to with your poetry. Do you want to make sure that your poetry is as good as it can be before you go ahead with submitting to competitions, magazines or websites, or do you want help to prepare a collection? Our Poetry Collection Editing service is unique and is a real help when what you need is editorial advice on preparing your collection for self-publishing or submission.
  • Our links: everyone may have a book in them, but what about a bestselling one? Periodically a book comes out of nowhere that captures the imagination - and the public's money - to become a break-out hit, The Bestseller Experiment: can you deliberately write a blockbuster book? | Books | The Guardian; is "the book market in secular decline" or does a brighter future beckon? - a report from the Futurebook conference, #FutureBook16: The future of the book is... human | The Bookseller; from the bestselling crime writer who is publishing her 30th book this year, Val McDermid: ‘It Doesn't Get Easier, It Gets Harder!' | Literary Hub; and Tim Parks asks an important question of readers: "Do we need to finish [books]?" What Does It Mean to Have ‘Read' a Book? | Read It Forward.
  • Have you managed to find a publisher for your work and are now enjoying the thrill of knowing that your book will soon be published? If you're wondering what happens next or just dreaming of being in that situation, Preparing for Publication gives an outline of the processes involved.
  • More links: did you know that "the three top languages combined, English, German and French, account for roughly four in five translations recorded"? Diversity in Translation, a New Report from Europe; how self-published writers can get their books into neighborhood bookshops, How Indie Authors Can Sell Their Print Books at Local Bookstores - DBW; and the spokesperson for this year's Bad Sex in Fiction Award explains why literary copulation is so often terrible, Putting Penis to Paper: When Sex Writing Goes Terribly Wrong | Broadly.
  • 'The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.' Raymond Chandler provides this week's Writers' Quote.