PW Star Watch 2020 Honorees Named
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday September 16, 2020
Publishers Weekly and Frankfurter Buchmesse have named 40 publishing professionals as honorees for PW Star Watch 2020, the annual publishing and bookselling award now in its sixth year. Honorees hail from the U.S. and Canada, and were selected from the ranks of the Big 5 publishers as well as independent and university presses, literary agents, booksellers, and other industry and related organizations.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 also marks several firsts for the awards. This year, a charitable component was added to the program, and will benefit the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation, which provides financial support to booksellers. In another departure from previous years, the celebration, usually held in a downtown Manhattan locale, will be a virtual celebration free and open to all, and will be held on October 13 at 5 p.m. The five honorees selected as finalists will speak, and one Superstar will be announced by Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly’s editorial director, and Erin Cox, Frankfurter Buchmesse’s U.S. publicist. As in past years, the Superstar will be invited to the virtual Frankfurter Buchmesse 2020 as well as awarded a sponsored trip to Frankfurter Buchmesse 2021.
New Literary Agent Listing: Jane von Mehren
firstwriter.com – Wednesday September 16, 2020
Interested in narratives in the areas of business, history, memoir, popular culture and science, books that help us live our best lives, literary, book club, and historical fiction.
New Literary Agent Listing: Rick Richter
firstwriter.com – Thursday September 10, 2020
Areas of interest include self-help, music and pop culture, military history and memoir, history, thriller, men’s fiction, business, celebrity, sports celebrity and faith. He has deep experience and interest in children’s books.
New Literary Agency Listing: ASH Literary
firstwriter.com – Wednesday September 9, 2020
Actively seeking creators working across picture books through to Young Adult, including graphic novels.
Sutherland-Hawes leaves Madeleine Milburn to launch own agency
thebookseller.com – Tuesday September 8, 2020
Children's and YA agent Alice Sutherland-Hawes has left Madeleine Milburn Agency to launch her own agency, ASH Literary.
The new venture will focus on the children's market, representing both authors and illustrators.
Sutherland-Hawes said the majority of her clients would be following her to the agency, including twice Kate Greenaway Medal-shortlisted Poonam Mistry, debut authors Kereen Getten and Namina Forna, and illustrator of I Am Brown (Lantana), Sandhya Prabhat.
The agency will be represented for translation rights by ILA.
New Literary Agent Listing: Michelle Brower
firstwriter.com – Tuesday September 8, 2020
Represents fiction and narrative nonfiction. Her interests include book club fiction (a commercial concept with a literary execution), literary fiction (including with an element of genre), and smart women’s fiction. She also represents select young adult, middle grade, and memoir projects.
How did you get your first job in feature writing?
journalism.co.uk – Monday September 7, 2020
If the thought of job hunting straight out of university seemed daunting before, spare a thought for this year's graduates doing so in the midst of a global pandemic.
But all hope is not lost. Many graduates are still getting their big breaks, and one of those is Nicole Baddeley, who graduated this May from Bournemouth University with a bachelors degree in Multimedia Journalism.
She is now a digital trends and feature writer for Newsquest, the second largest regional and local newspaper publisher in the UK. She writes general and evergreen news stories on trending digital topics for the publisher's local websites in the South of England and Wales.
Baddeley spoke to Journalism.co.uk and offered her best tips to job seekers hoping to crack the current market.
New Publisher Listing: City Limits Publishing
firstwriter.com – Monday September 7, 2020
A Tennessee-based publishing company that helps authors find voice, develop writing and storytelling abilities, and publish works.
Why U.K. Publishers Released 600 Books in a Single Day
smithsonianmag.com – Sunday September 6, 2020
Yesterday, book publishers across the United Kingdom raced to release almost 600 books in a single day. Known within the industry as “Super Thursday,” the massive push was planned in response to a growing backlog of titles that were supposed to be released throughout the spring and summer but, like many events this year, were delayed by Covid-19.
Thanks to the pandemic, the majority of book festivals and literary events planned for this spring and summer ended up canceled. Bookstores around the world have also shuttered due to lack of business: This April, reports Alexandra Alter for the New York Times, bookstore sales in the United States dropped more than 65 percent versus April 2019.
#PitMad Gives Unsigned Authors a Chance to Find a Literary Agent
distractify.com – Friday September 4, 2020
If you're a writer, you know the process of taking your dream of writing a book and making it a reality is not an easy road. While you may have spent countless hours on a manuscript or nonfiction proposal, getting it in the hands of an agent who is the right fit can be one of the hardest parts of the process.
Of course, you can always pitch literary agents the traditional way by sending query letters, though if that's still left your manuscript unsigned, then participating in PitMad might be your next move.
What is PitMad, and how do you submit your manuscript?
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