8 June 2020 - What's new
8 June 2020
- 'I feel optimistic about the sector. Independents are well placed as they've been for a number of years now. We are small, flexible and nimble businesses with relatively low overheads, and as long as we can continue to find and successfully publish wonderful authors and their books I'm sure we'll not only survive but thrive no matter what the future landscape looks like.' Adam Freudenheim, publisher and managing director of London-based Pushkin Press in Bookbrunch. Independent publishers will ‘not only survive but thrive'
- My Say gives writers a chance to air their views about writing and the writer's life. So we have Lynda Finn about the isolation of New Zealand writers and their problems with getting published, British author Eliza Graham, author of Playing with the Moon, on her route to publication and Zoe Jenny, who is Swiss, on writing in English and why it was liberating. Send us your contributions, ideally up to 400 words in length and of general interest. Please email them to us.
- The Moth Nature Writing Prize is a new prize which is open to anyone over the age of 16 with an unpublished piece of nature writing. Entry fee is €15 per entry and the Prize is €1,000 and a week-long stay at The Moth Retreat in rural Ireland. Closing 15 September.
- Do you want some help with your writing but don't quite know what you want - or even if you need any help? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? Choosing a service can help you work out which service is right for you.
- Our links, first, Black Lives Matter: amid all the fury, corporations have been quick to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and publishers have been among them, but Publishing has ignored and pigeonholed black authors for too long | Magdalene Abraha | Books | The Guardian; books afford us the opportunity to read about our past and present while engaging with ideas that will help us to imagine our future, How the Book Business Can, and Must, Build a New Future; the disparity between the advances paid by publishers to non-Black authors versus Black authors, #PublishingPaidMe lays advances bare | The Bookseller; a little over half a century ago, but the editorial might as well have been written yesterday, It's Time for the Book Business to Change; and an open letter from a group of its fellows and programmatic partners and signed by more than 1,800 individuals, Poets Call for Change at Poetry Foundation.
- Do you need to get your material typed up, but can't face doing the job yourself? We can provide a clean typed version of your work at very competitive rates. Our service offers help for writers who have an old or handwritten manuscript, or audio tapes, which need re-typing before the writer can proceed with submission or publication. Typing manuscripts.
- More links on writers: second real-time survey from the UK confirms extent of impact of COVID-19 on authors' income, News | The Society of Authors; one of the most rewarding experiences a writer can have - but also the scariest, How to and (Especially) How Not to Write About Family | Jane Friedman; and a new children's book, Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell announce new 'piratical adventure' | Books | The Guardian.
- Written exclusively for WritersServices - Trident Media Group Literary Agent Mark Gottlieb explains how literary agencies work. It's no surprise that they do a lot more than you think and that they bring a lot of expertise in a range of different areas to bear on behalf of their authors. How Literary Agents Work.
- Working with an agent explains how to get the best out of the relationship with your agent: 'It can be hard work finding an agent to represent you. Make sure though that, when you set up the relationship, you do so in a professional manner Don't let your eagerness to find representation mean that things are left vague. You will be depending on the agent to process all your income from the books they sell, so you need to have a written record of your arrangement, preferably a contract...'
- Links on how publishers are coping with the pandemic: corporate publishing has a different economic imperative, but ‘Small presses are the coral reefs of publishing, attracting the most colourful fish'; how readers have helped booksellers, Book Lovers' Donations Helped Independent Sellers During Virus; a warning that physical booksellers could have difficulty clawing back trade from online retailers after lockdown, Ingram sees 'huge swing' to print on demand during coronavirus | The Bookseller; only a limited reopening, New York's Publishers Won't Reopen Until September.
- 'An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.' Irwin Shaw in our Writers' Quotes.
