Festival of Words guests talk fantasy writing, defining genre during panel
moosejawtoday.com – Sunday July 18, 2021
A selection of fantasy authors joined together to talk about how they approach writing a genre that includes anything the imagination can create, during the ongoing Saskatchewan Festival of Words.
The panel was pre-recorded, as part of a small series of sessions from the Festival of Words available for attendees to watch anytime.
Moderated by crime writer Wayne Arthurson — who said he was an avid fantasy reader excited to join the discussion — authors Melanie McFarlane, C.L. Polk and Hiromi Goto sat down to talk about the details of creating fantasy fiction.
The Bleeding Cool List Of Agents Selling Graphic Novels To Publishers
bleedingcool.com – Wednesday July 14, 2021
So this is what I have been doing, on and off, for the last two weeks. You're welcome. A compilation of every announced graphic novel from a major publisher over the last year-and-a-half, arranged by which agent negotiated the deal – if they did. The bookstore graphic novel market has been booming, and so many deals for 2022, 2023, and 2024 are being done through the lockdown and pandemic. Speaking with many major comic book creators wondering about projects out there, I discovered that most haven't even considered an agent and just try and use their own personal contacts and knowledge which they often find lacking. Here's an attempt to highlight the people working on comic book creators' behalf in what is an expanding graphic novel bookstore market.
Writing A Script Is An Exciting Task – From Learning The Basics To Developing Character To Editing It: 8 Tips on Writing Film Scripts
thefancarpet.com – Monday July 12, 2021
Writing a script is an exciting task. One can develop their own original story, tell something that happened in reality, or adapt a book to a big screen. But if you are just beginning to work in this field, it might feel a bit complicated.
After all, being a good writer doesn’t mean that you can simply tackle any type of text. Some can professionally write an essay, others are great with blog posts, some are perfect at comedy writing. And screenwriting is a form of art with a set of rules. But do not get discouraged. With some effort and the tips below, you can nail your script for a film.
Putting the Self in Self-Publishing
publishersweekly.com – Sunday July 11, 2021
Have you ever written a character based on your life or experiences? Like most writers, even when I’m writing characters who are no-thing like me, I will still borrow places I’ve been, feelings I’ve had, or things I’ve experienced to build out my characters. But, though I routinely draw from my experience as I write novels and short stories, this doesn’t mean that these stories fully mirror my life or are accurate representations of me.
Autofiction
Can you write a character who is like you but has completely different experiences? You can! Autofiction plays with the idea of truth, which, for an author, can be creatively liberating. In autofiction, significant details, plots, and characters are mod-ified to fit the story and don’t necessarily indicate what actually happened.
Four Crucial Steps To Successfully Publishing Your Book
forbes.com – Tuesday July 6, 2021
In my most recent Forbes Coaches Council article, "Boost Your Brand: Write a Book," I outlined the methodology, purpose and value in writing a nonfiction how-to book based on one’s personal experiences and learnings and the initial steps to consider before embarking on this journey.
Writing your book is all very well, as you are the expert in your area. You have had the journey and you know what needs to be shared and what will be of interest for the reader. However, now that you have the bones of your "story" mapped out and are on track to completing what you believe is a valid, interesting and well-thought-out manuscript, where to from here?
How to build worlds in sci-fi and speculative fiction: A beginner’s class with Sally Gales
theguardian.com – Friday July 2, 2021
When you read a fantasy or sci-fi novel, you might have wondered what lends itself to the authenticity of the story. Is it the intricately detailed setting that is not merely a backdrop to the characters’ action, but is itself a central character? Could it be the ensemble of characters with unique backstories that add weight to the plot?
As an aspiring writer of sci-fi and speculative fiction, one of the most valuable skills you can sharpen is your ability to craft worlds that are believable, authentic and weighty. Far from being a simple landscape, your world needs to envelope character and reader alike, to help and hinder their journey to the triumphant - or bitter - end.
What this wordy writer learned by keeping it short
eu.azcentral.com – Sunday June 27, 2021
When I took this assignment three years ago, moving my column to the top of Page A2 and writing six times a week instead of once, my editors told me I could write about anything I wanted. Just do it in 326 words.
Heck, it practically takes me 326 words to say hello.
My predecessor, Clay Thompson, had done it. When Clay was my editor in my early years at the paper, he'd chide me to "Write tight, and make it sing."
I never took to it. The license plate on my car says, LNGSTRY.
Five Tips To Selling Hundreds Of EBook Copies This Summer
forbes.com – Friday June 18, 2021
Ebooks have taken the e-commerce world by storm. Unlike physical books, they come with less pomp and circumstance, meaning ebooks can cover anything from the art of bird-watching, to cookbooks, to the latest business workbook. Many entrepreneurs are considering ebooks for one major reason: they require very little cost and time, and can churn out big bucks on the backend - making them a powerful return on investment. Plus, ebooks can help to build out an entrepreneur’s personal brand and credibility.
‘If publishers become afraid, we’re in trouble’: publishing’s cancel culture debate boils over
theguardian.com – Saturday June 5, 2021
In the 1960s, Simon & Schuster’s co-founder Max Schuster was facing a dilemma. Albert Speer, Hitler’s chief architect and armaments minister, had written a memoir providing new insights into the workings of Nazi leadership. As Michael Korda, Schuster’s editor-in-chief, recounted in his memoir Another Life, Schuster knew it would be a huge success. “There is only one problem,” he said, “and it’s this: I do not want to see Albert Speer’s name and mine on the same book.”
In the liberal industry of publishing, the tension that exists between profit and morality is nothing new, whether it’s Schuster turning down Speer (the book was finally published by Macmillan), or the UK government introducing legislation to prevent criminals making money from writing about their crimes.
Calling time on comps
thebookseller.com – Saturday May 29, 2021
It goes without saying that when agents, editors, publicists, marketeers and sales people have a book to get in the hands of readers, they use every means they can to ensure it is published well.
Unfortunately, to “publish well” has increasingly become a hopelessly standardized process, one in which every actor involved in the publishing process, according to the size of their respective companies, has to tick certain boxes in order to avoid savage retaliations from their fellow agents, editors, publicists, marketeers and sales people.
One of these boxes, which a Bookseller article pointed out this week, comes labelled “comparative titles”, i.e. those already-successful published titles to which a new book is compared when being pitched.
I am not sure when the habit of using comp titles became such a thing, nor why. I like to imagine that it started when an editor went to pitch a very quirky book to their publisher, and their publisher did not have time to read it so they asked the editor what it was like, and the editor said: “it is unlike anything that has been done before”. And the publisher said: “Let’s leave it, then. If no one has done it before, there is surely a reason why”. So from then on the editor learnt how to compare their picks to successful things which had been published in the past.
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