
New Literary Agent Listing: Jared Johnson
firstwriter.com – Friday February 14, 2025

I'm a recovering academic. After several years of academic research in the humanities and teaching writing and history, I realized academia wasn't for me, but I always loved sharing good stories with others. I wanted a job that would still let me do that, so I pursued a career in publishing. I represent a range of nonfiction and fiction genres.

A major book publisher announced a change. The industry freaked out.
vox.com – Tuesday February 11, 2025

For the past few months, publishing has been consumed with debate over that ever-divisive topic: blurbs, those breathless little testimonials from other writers that appear on the back of a book’s cover, which hardly anyone likes to write and even fewer people like to ask for.
One big author and one major publisher announced within weeks of each other that they were through with the practice of blurbs, and the resulting conversation threw publishing into a tizzy. In the process, it provided a new lens on who has access to clout and resources in an increasingly precarious industry.
Authors traditionally set out to procure blurbs after their books have been accepted by publishers and gone through the editorial process, but before the books have been finalized, typeset, and printed. At that point, some combination of author, editor, and publicist reaches out to other writers, ideally famous ones, and ask them to read the manuscript and write a few nice words to go on the back of the published book.

HarperCollins opens Author Academy applications
thebookseller.com – Sunday February 9, 2025

HarperCollins has opened applications to its Author Academy, from which 200 aspiring authors have graduated since January 2021. Applications open today (7th February), and close on Monday, 24th February. The six-week course runs from 9th May.
The academy is now lead by Ken Wilson-Max, publisher of HCCB imprint Kumusha Books, and offers free training to writers and designers from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to help them "gain the knowledge and skills to succeed in fiction, non-fiction and children’s books".
In previous years students have learnt directly from the experience of authors through a series of Q&As including Jamila Gavin, Sarah Morgan, June Sarpong, Rebecca F Kuang and Charles Cumming. After the course, students will be mentored by members of the HarperCollins team and join the Author Academy alumni network. They also have the opportunity to submit a manuscript for consideration by HarperCollins’ editorial team.

New Literary Agent Listing: Melissa Fontaine
firstwriter.com – Thursday February 6, 2025

Works across the list of television and brand talent. She began her career in theatre, before moving into the world of agenting. She is a self-confessed TV addict and can be found watching everything from reality shows to feature length documentaries.

How to Write a Novella - With Paul Michael Anderson
litreactor.com – Thursday February 6, 2025

When the newly reformed LitReactor asked if I’d be interested in writing a how-to article on novellas, my knee-jerk answer (to myself) was: “How the hell should I know?” It’s a strange answer, one I should probably unpack with my therapist at some point, because — putting my own neuroses aside — I do know how to write them.
As of 2025, I’ve written five novellas: Bones Are Made To Be Broken, Standalone, How We Broke (with Bracken MacLeod), The Only Way Out Is Through, and You Can’t Save What Isn’t There — and only one of them was a whoopsie-daisy, didn’t see a novella there, son. With the other four, it was deliberate action; I wasn’t creating a short story or developing a novel, I was writing a novella, and I knew it.
On that note, allow me to show you how it’s done.

Have we reached peak imprint?
thebookseller.com – Thursday February 6, 2025

Imprints are great business, but is their prestige and value getting diluted as they proliferate?
For decades now, the ‘Big Five’ publishers have been swelling in size by amassing a huge number of imprints: names under which they publish that each focus on a specific genre, market or type of book. Some, such as Virago or Fourth Estate, used to be independent publishers, but many, such as Hachette’s Brazen Books or Penguin’s Fern Press, began within these larger organisations. The question is, does the industry have too many imprints and do they influence how readers behave?
A good place to start, perhaps, is with Penguin Random House, home to the largest collection of imprints in the UK. Its website states that the company owns "300 editorially and creatively independent publishing imprints... together, our imprints publish over 70,000 digital and 15,000 print titles annually, with more than 100,000 eBooks available worldwide".
Take a moment to process those numbers. In the UK, the average number of books a person reads each year is 10. Given the sheer scale of PRH’s operation, it’s not surprising that dividing itself up into imprints is helpful: they form an infrastructure that maintains variety in this behemoth company.

Casarotto Ramsay Hires Two Agents
ca.news.yahoo.com – Thursday February 6, 2025

Casarotto Ramsay & Associates has brought in two agents including one who reps the likes of Essex Serpent writer Anna Symon and Get Millie Black’s Lydia Adetunji.
Tanya Tillett and Kara Fitzpatrick have joined as Senior Agent and Theater Agent respectively. Tillett, who has previously worked for The Agency and the Knight Hall Agency, reps the likes of Symon, Adetunji and Grace Ofori-Attah, who wrote recent James Norton-starrer Playing Nice. She will report to Casarotto Head of Film & Television Jodi Shields.

On Navigating 300 Rejections and Learning to Write Fearlessly with Maurice Carlos Ruffin
subclub.substack.com – Thursday February 6, 2025

Welcome to our interview series, On Something with Somebody! This week, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, shares his thoughts on being a joyous and aggressive writer, the many rejections of his early career, celebrating with ice cream, and his submissions strategy.
"During a seven-year stretch, my work was rejected over 300 times by literary magazines. I had to accept that if I wanted to publish, I had to change both the work and my approach."
Kailey DelloRusso: When you were first starting out, how did you take rejection? And what did you learn from those first few rejections?
Maurice Carlos Ruffin: I didn't take it well. The first rejection I can recall was from my undergraduate literary magazine. Frankly, I was devastated. I stopped writing stories for about four years and stopped submitting for maybe six.
Later, I came back to writing and went to grad school. I still got rejected quite often. In fact, during a seven-year stretch, my work was rejected over 300 times by literary magazines. Fortunately, I can thank Stephen King's On Writing for giving me perspective and gumption. He was rejected, I think 200 times before the age of 18. He used to pin the rejection slips on the wall above his typewriter. How could I complain?
Ultimately, I had to accept that if I wanted to publish, I had to change both the work and my approach. I sharpened my stories and became more strategic about my submission strategy. Basically, I made the stories sound more like the place I'm from (my weird, wonderful New Orleans) and made them faster-paced and more emotionally charged. For submissions, I used Duotrope, which allowed me to figure out which high-quality magazines I had the best shot of being published by. I entered many contests and won three. As Biggie Smalls said, "I went from negative to positive."

New Publisher Listing: Orphans Publishing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday February 5, 2025

Our ethos is producing beautiful books with a sense of place. Whether it’s coffee table design-led non-fiction or a beautifully written memoir, we’re interested in hearing from those who are passionate about their specialist subject. We’re not worried about mass-market appeal; it’s the niche interests explained through intricate narrative that we’re interested in most. We strongly believe in the power of a beautifully produced book. Print and design is at the heart of everything we do. It’s our heritage. From creative endpapers and beautiful jackets to gorgeous illustration and typesetting, we take pride in even the smallest details.

MyPoolitzer launches AI writing competition with Quantifiction and Blue Denim Press
thebookseller.com – Tuesday February 4, 2025

A writing competition judged by artificial intelligence (AI) and dubbed the "first-of-its-kind" has launched with backing by tech companies MyPoolitzer and Quantifiction with Canadian publisher Blue Denim Press.
Berlin-based submissions management software MyPoolitzer – which drew controversy at the last Frankfurt Book Fair on unveiling its AI-assisted submissions software – has teamed up with AI-based manuscript service Quantifiction, based in the US, and literary trade publisher Blue Denim Press in what they dubbed "a significant milestone in the publishing industry".
All competition entries will be analysed using Quantifiction’s AI technology "Iris", using a combination of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to assess manuscripts. "It will evaluate submissions based on sales potential, genre fit and stylistic elements across over 30 dimensions, including reading difficulty, pacing and emotional resonance," organisers said.
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