New Book Publisher Listing: Sourcebooks Horror
firstwriter.com – Friday March 21, 2025
We are actively acquiring agented and unagented Horror fiction including Own Voices, marginalized voices, inclusive and diverse stories. We’re looking for strong writers of all ethnicities, races, sexualities, gender identities, abilities and ages, whose stories have something fresh to offer in the Horror genre.
The Vanishing White Male Writer
compactmag.com – Friday March 21, 2025
t’s easy enough to trace the decline of young white men in American letters—just browse The New York Times’s “Notable Fiction” list. In 2012 the Times included seven white American men under the age of 43 (the cut-off for a millennial today); in 2013 there were six, in 2014 there were six.
And then the doors shut.
By 2021, there was not one white male millennial on the “Notable Fiction” list. There were none again in 2022, and just one apiece in 2023 and 2024 (since 2021, just 2 of 72 millennials featured were white American men). There were no white male millennials featured in Vulture’s 2024 year-end fiction list, none in Vanity Fair’s, none in The Atlantic’s. Esquire, a magazine ostensibly geared towards male millennials, has featured 53 millennial fiction writers on its year-end book lists since 2020. Only one was a white American man.
Over the course of the 2010s, the literary pipeline for white men was effectively shut down. Between 2001 and 2011, six white men won the New York Public Library’s Young Lions prize for debut fiction. Since 2020, not a single white man has even been nominated (of 25 total nominations). The past decade has seen 70 finalists for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize—with again, not a single straight white American millennial man. Of 14 millennial finalists for the National Book Award during that same time period, exactly zero are white men. The Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, a launching pad for young writers, currently has zero white male fiction and poetry fellows (of 25 fiction fellows since 2020, just one was a white man). Perhaps most astonishingly, not a single white American man born after 1984 has published a work of literary fiction in The New Yorker (at least 24, and probably closer to 30, younger millennials have been published in total).
In defence of self-publishing
spectator.co.uk – Wednesday March 19, 2025
Years ago, newly triumphant from getting my first book published, I went to my parents’ house for a celebration dinner. Having duly toasted their son’s modest literary success, they then revealed that I wasn’t the new author in their social circle. An old university friend of theirs from Holland – we’ll call him Jörg – had just sent them a copy of his new book, ‘a sort of travel memoir, a bit like yours’.
This was not a comparison I welcomed. My book was about quitting my job as pot-holes correspondent on the London Evening Standard to freelance in post-Saddam Iraq – not exactly Michael Herr’s Dispatches, granted, but more gripping, I liked to think, than writing about roadworks on Streatham High Road. Jörg’s book was a self-published account of his campervanning trip the year before across America. At a hefty 500 pages long, it was twice the length of mine. And much as one can commend Dutch pensioners for their adventurous travelling spirit, Jörg was not a Theroux or Chatwin. Chapter one was devoted largely to a quiet first night in a motorway service station, and how it compared to those back home.
I thought of Jörg’s book last week, when the writer Bill Bryson railed against self-published books, which have proliferated in the era of e-publishing and Kindle. Bryson told the Times that many were ‘of no interest’, and that a glut of books about ‘some anonymous person’s life’ made it harder for genuinely talented authors to be spotted by publishers. His remarks reflect a widespread disdain for DIY authors. As the phrase ‘vanity publishing’ suggests, it’s seen as literary onanism, a dirty habit best resisted rather than indulged.
Hayward poet Pat Doyne holds free metaphor workshop
tricityvoice.com – Wednesday March 19, 2025
On Saturday, March 22, award-winning poet and Hayward resident Patricia Doyne will conduct a free Zoom workshop on the power of metaphor. “Ever since we read ‘Fog comes in on little cat feet’ in grade school, we have been aware that words can have meanings beyond the literal,” Doyne says. That means hooking into figurative language in all genres—non-fiction and fiction as well as poetry—to make writing clear, strong and unforgettable.
Doyne will discuss the use of metaphors to establish moods and images. This is an interactive workshop. Participants will practice creating metaphors and may share them if they choose. The event is sponsored by Fremont Area Writers and is open to all.
Pat Doyne holds an MA in creative writing from San Francisco State. Her first book of poetry, Regeneration Isn’t Always Spontaneous, was published in 1976, after which her career as a poet went on hiatus while she taught in the Castro Valley Unified School District and raised her children.
New Publisher Listing: Bearded Badger Publishing Co.
firstwriter.com – Wednesday March 19, 2025
Independent book publisher with a focus on the East Midlands.
Authors await overdue payments as publisher Unbound goes into administration
theguardian.com – Tuesday March 18, 2025
Authors have been left unsure whether their books will be published and when they will receive outstanding payments after crowdfunding publisher Unbound went into administration last week.
The unique selling point of the publisher, launched in 2011 by QI researchers John Mitchinson and Justin Pollard, and Crap Towns author Dan Kieran, was that it allowed writers to pitch ideas online directly to readers. If enough people pledged financial support, the author would write the book, with supporters receiving various perks, such as early access to the book or a special edition.
Unbound confirmed last week that the business had been acquired by the newly-formed Boundless Publishing Group. A statement on its website said “Boundless will be moving forward with the majority of the Unbound projects”, instructing readers who have made pledges to “check back at the end of March when our new website will be live and you will have access to your account and order status”.
Boundless will be led by Archna Sharma, who was appointed as Unbound’s new CEO in January, with Mitchinson as a director. “This is the beginning of a bold new era,” said Sharma in a statement. “Boundless looks forward to forging exciting new connections between authors and readers.”
New Literary Agency Listing: Children’s Books North Agency
firstwriter.com – Monday March 17, 2025
Represents authors, illustrators and author-illustrators, and specialises in picture books, pre-school, illustrated non-fiction, young fiction and graphic novels. Accepts submissions from debut and established authors and illustrators who are based in the north of England (Northwest, Northeast and Yorkshire) and Scotland.
New Spotify Audiobooks publishing programme for independent authors
podcastingtoday.co.uk – Sunday March 16, 2025
Spotify Audiobooks has partnered with various publishers and authors to license and produce hundreds of titles.
A new website has been launched for independent authors to submit short-form stories for audiobook creation and publishing consideration by Spotify.
Leah Kleynhans, Spotify Audiobooks Producer says: “Spotify Audiobooks is thrilled to be opening submissions for short-form content written by independent authors who are as passionate about audiobooks as we are.
“We know Spotify users will love exploring these intense, bite-sized listens, and expanding our audiobooks catalogue in this way gives fans even more choice in the content they love to consume on our platform.”
Publisher Unbound Slides Into Administration
timeextension.com – Saturday March 15, 2025
"I might have accidentally destroyed an entire publishing house!"
Update [Fri 14th Mar 2025, 2:15pm]: The Bookseller has reported that troubled on-demand book publisher Unbound has gone into administration.
Allister Manson and Charles Turner of Opus Restructuring were appointed administrators of the company on 10th March 2025.
Author Steven Goodwin, one of the many writers who hasn't been paid by the publisher, has posted the following message on Linkedin:
I might have accidentally destroyed an entire publishing house!
At the end of 2023 I released a book "20 GOTO 10" via the publisher Unbound. (4.4 stars on Amazon!) It sold tens of thousands of copies, and yet, I was not paid for any of them. I waited. Politely emailed. Looked past their emails of "any day now" and waited some more.
ChatGPT firm reveals AI model that is ‘good at creative writing’
theguardian.com – Wednesday March 12, 2025
As tech firms battle creative industries over copyright, OpenAI chief Sam Altman says he was ‘really struck’ by product’s output
The company behind ChatGPT has revealed it has developed an artificial intelligence model that is “good at creative writing”, as the tech sector continues its tussle with the creative industries over copyright.
The chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, said the unnamed model, which has not been released publicly, was the first time he had been “really struck” by the written output of one of the startup’s products.
In a post on the social media platform X, Altman wrote: “We trained a new model that is good at creative writing (not sure yet how/when it will get released). This is the first time i have been really struck by something written by AI.”
AI systems such as ChatGPT are the subject of a running legal battle between AI companies and the creative industries because their underlying models are “trained” on reams of publicly available data, including copyright-protected material such as novels and journalism.
Get the free newsletter | Submit a news item or article | Get Writers' News for your website
