
New Literary Agent Listing: Gabrielle Demblon
firstwriter.com – Wednesday July 2, 2025

I’m looking for literary and upmarket fiction, particularly with queer themes or from unusual / underrepresented perspectives, as well as select thrillers and nonfiction. I’m open to debut authors at all life stages. I’m looking for literary speculative/high concept fiction from queer/female/transnational perspectives. In crime, I’m looking for a fun, pulpy thriller with a high concept twist or standout setting. In nonfiction, I’m drawn to popular science, politics, and true crime. I’m also looking to work with experts and influencers specialising in personal style, nutrition, psychology, relationships, personal finance, career guidance, parenting and alternative family formation.

Reading Force is delighted to welcome submissions from adults, children and young people to its 2025 Memoir Writing Competition
cobseo.org.uk – Monday June 30, 2025

Reading Force is delighted to welcome submissions from adults, children and young people to its 2025 Memoir Writing Competition. First prize is a publishing contract with Pen & Sword Ltd.
The shared-reading charity has launched its 2025 writing competition and warmly welcomes entries from anyone and everyone in the tri-service community, including spouses and partners, children and young people, serving personnel, and veterans. Entries can be submitted until 31st August and winners will be announced in January 2026.
Reading Force is thrilled to have launched another writing competition because they were so impressed and moved by the entries in their first competition in 2022, and wanted to give another opportunity for the Forces community to voice their stories – be they about moving home, memorable events in service, special friendships and relationships, children and young people’s experiences of military life, the ups and downs and everything between.

New Publisher Listing: Cicada
firstwriter.com – Monday June 30, 2025

A New York Times Award winning children’s book publisher based in London. We started out making adult art and design books, but now specialise in beautiful, high-end books for kids aged 4–11. We have an eclectic list that includes activity books, picture books and non-fiction.

"Your main character doesn’t need to be perfect but they must be relatable": Brilliant writing advice from a top literary agent
goodhousekeeping.com – Saturday June 28, 2025

As the literary agent to some of the best writers around - Sara Collins (winner of the Costa Debut fiction award), Jing-Jing Lee, Jennie Godfrey, Bryony Gordon and Candice Carty-Williams are among her clients - Nelle Andrew knows pretty much everything there is to know about what makes a good book. Here she shares some of the best writing advice from her 20 year career.
1 Creating believable characters
The characters should drive the story, not the other way around. Make your main character compelling, with flaws, desires and agency. Readers should care what happens next because they care about who it’s happening to. I fall in love with the voice first. If the voice doesn’t hook me, I won’t keep reading, so ensure your narrative voice is distinctive, confident and consistent. Your protagonist doesn’t need to be perfect, but they must be relatable and motivated. Avoid stereotypes: nuance and specificity will set your characters apart.
2 Show, don’t tell
Avoid overly expositional writing. Every sentence should serve a purpose – either to develop a character, advance the plot or build atmosphere. Use action, dialogue and internal thoughts to reveal emotions and themes. Avoid telling the reader what to feel – let the story, and the characters within it, evoke feelings. And don’t overwrite; clarity, rhythm and authenticity matter more than big words.

The Odd Over the Obvious
slate.com – Saturday June 28, 2025

This spring’s hot topic of conversation for my colleagues in higher ed was that “Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College” article in New York magazine. Most of the fellow professors I spoke with about this were horrified by how often students now can and do let A.I. write their papers. Others are joining their students in asking, Why not?
A surprising coalition—William Shakespeare and 17th-century scribes, as well as 21st-century elementary school teachers, anti-fascist scholars, and epidemiologists—would tell you why not.
A key principle for 17th-century scholars transcribing or translating classical or biblical texts was lectio difficilior potior: The reading that is stranger is stronger. If a word differs between two versions of the text you’re working on, you should actually choose the one that seems to make less sense. That surprising word choice is likelier to have been the original author’s meaning, because it’s likelier that a previous copyist, translator, or (eventually) typesetter replaced a surprising word with one that was more predictable than vice versa. The wisdom was: Don’t let an easy, commonsensical option erase a unique and potentially more interesting and challenging statement.

Calling all aspiring authors! Here's your chance to win a one-to-one session with a literary agent - plus £1,500
goodhousekeeping.com – Thursday June 26, 2025

Do you have a brilliant idea for a book but need help getting it down on paper? GH has teamed up with literary agent Nelle Andrew from Rachel Mills Literary agency to give readers the chance to win valuable feedback on their writing, plus support in finishing their novel.
We’re after someone whose work is unpublished and is without a literary agent. Entries can be in any genre of adult fiction (not children’s or YA, short stories, poetry, drama or plays, or any non-fiction). The winning entry will be the one that grabs our attention, shows the most promise and leaves us wanting to read more.
First prize is £1,500, plus a one-onone, hour-long mentoring session with Nelle, and an extract will be published by GH online. Six readers will get written feedback from a literary agent. So get writing!

New prize for translated poetry aims to tap into boom for international-language writing
theguardian.com – Tuesday June 24, 2025

A new poetry prize for collections translated into English is opening for entries next month.
Publishers Fitzcarraldo Editions, Giramondo Publishing and New Directions have launched the biennial Poetry in Translation prize, which will award an advance of $5,000 (£3,700) to be shared equally between poet and translator.
The winning collection will be published in the UK and Ireland by Fitzcarraldo Editions, in Australia and New Zealand by Giramondo and in North America by New Directions.
“We wanted to open our doors to new poetry in translation to give space and gain exposure to poetries we may not be aware of,” said Fitzcarraldo poetry editor Rachael Allen. “There is no other prize like this that we know.”

The Plight Of The White Male Novelist
defector.com – Tuesday June 24, 2025

In July of 2022, Joyce Carol Oates tweeted that her literary agent friend told her editors are no longer interested in reading first novels by young white male writers, “no matter how good.” She was saying this in support of an article by former New York Times columnist Pamela Paul, who argued that the publishing industry is being destroyed by “illiberal scolds” keen to stifle free speech. Among Paul’s examples are the industry’s recourse to sensitivity readers, who ostensibly scold authors, and the backlash against 2020 bestseller American Dirt on the grounds that its white author Jeanine Cummins was not the right person to tell the story of poor Mexican migrants. Paul is implying, in other words, that calls for publishing to address its whiteness problem amount to a form of woke censorship. In sharing Paul’s piece and adding her own anecdote about young white men being overlooked, Oates was connecting their fate to Paul’s complaint: White men are the victims of the industry’s takeover by the DEI mafia.
The idea that white male writers today face diminishing opportunities has since occasioned considerable debate and several attempts to lay out in greater detail the forces behind their recent marginalization. Jacob Savage’s explanation is that they are “vanishing” because, having been castigated as toxic masculinists and told there are no “Good White Men,” they no longer feel that they are allowed to have a voice. Tim Lott argues that an industry now dominated by women editors and agents, who are naturally biased toward manuscripts that center their own experiences, is guilty of the same inequality that women once complained about, except now it is men who are excluded.

New Literary Agent Listing: Kaylyn Aldridge
firstwriter.com – Tuesday June 24, 2025

Loves to research underground internet subcultures. She believes that diverse perspectives are key to understanding cultures, communities, and nuances of the human experience. Accepts submissions in December, June, and July.

TikTok parent ByteDance is shutting down its short-lived book publisher
techcrunch.com – Monday June 23, 2025

TikTok parent ByteDance’s book publisher 8th Note Press is closing up shop, according to a report from The Bookseller.
Through its #BookTok community, TikTok has become an irreplaceable engine for publishers to drive book sales; even self-published authors have found unprecedented success by capturing a viral moment on TikTok. ByteDance took the next logical step in 2023, figuring that if the app was revolutionizing book sales, then it may as well cash in on selling its own books.
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