'Defend and nurture' UK publishing, Wise urges policymakers
thebookseller.com – Monday February 19, 2018
Curtis Brown agent Gordon Wise, former president of the Association of Authors' Agents, has urged parliamentarians to defend the achievements of UK publishers.
Wise stood down as AAA president last month, making way for David Higham agent Lizzy Kremer. Reflecting on his time at the helm of the group, Wise was buoyant about the contributions of the publishing industry to the UK economy after its revenues totalled £4.8bn in 2016, according to the Publishers Association, with "significant growth" of exports in recent years.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Monday February 19, 2018
Publishes: Essays; Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Areas include: Arts; Biography; Criticism;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Open to work by New Zealand and Pacific writers or by writers whose work has a connection to the region in subject matter or location. Work from Australian writers is occasionally included as a special feature. Send up to 10 poems or up to three pieces of prose per issue. Preferred length is 3,000 words, but longer pieces will be considered.
John Grisham to appear with Lee Child at crime writing festival
home.bt.com – Sunday February 18, 2018
John Grisham will be a headline author at a UK crime writing festival where he will appear with writer Lee Child.
The author of The Firm, The Pelican Brief and A Time To Kill will be interviewed on stage at the Theakston Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate by Child, who is responsible for the Jack Reacher series.
Grisham will join previously announced special guest and Savages author Don Winslow.
Publisher’s story shows that pulp is not dead
bendbulletin.com – Sunday February 18, 2018
Print books are back. I think.
“People thought physical books were goners,” said Jed Lyons, chief executive of Lanham, Maryland-based Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.
He should know. Lyons, 66, ships about 41,000 books a day across the U.S. and to Europe. He has been in the publishing business since the 1970s.
What I Learned From Bestselling Author Andrew Neiderman
publishersweekly.com – Saturday February 17, 2018
I grew up in South Fallsburg, New York about 100 miles from New York City. I went to Fallsburg Central Schools, where it took nearly 10 villages and rural towns to create a district. And in my junior year of high school, I convinced the school leadership to allow me to graduate a year early, and I convinced my parents to let me escape small town life for college.
The main requirement for early graduation was doing double English in my junior year. So I signed up for the required New York State Regents English course, and took a creative writing elective. I was neither creative, nor showing any potential as a writer, but I was always a reader. And my creative writing teacher, Andrew Neiderman, nurtured that love of reading with the eclectic novels he chose for his syllabus, among them, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, books that have stayed with me nearly 50 years later.
6 famous writers who never made a dime
bigthink.com – Friday February 16, 2018
The image of the broke writer is engrained in the popular imagination. The often tortured artist who writes until they remember to eat, and then eats too little as to stretch out their failing budget.
While this image doesn’t apply to most writers, there are a few remarkably famous authors who hardly made a dime by writing. This didn’t stop them from joining the ranks of the most celebrated poets and novelists of all time. Here we have six such authors for your consideration.
Corvus and A M Heath launch thriller competition
thebookseller.com – Friday February 16, 2018
Atlantic imprint Corvus has joined forces with literary agency A M Heath to launch a crime and thriller competition.
Deviant Minds is a writing prize open to unagented authors in the UK or Ireland, with an unpublished adult crime novel or thriller. The winner will be offered representation by the agency, along with an offer of digital publication from Corvus, and possible print publication to follow.
S&S launches competition with Darley Anderson and Bradford Literature Festival
thebookseller.com – Friday February 16, 2018
Simon & Schuster UK has launched a competition with the Darley Anderson Literary Agency and Bradford Literature Festival to find the next bestselling commercial fiction author.
The theme for the first 'Write Here, Right Now' prize is “new beginnings and discovery”, with writers encouraged to submit the first three chapters and synopsis of their work in any genre. The competition is live and open until 13th April and the winner will be announced at the Bradford Literature Festival in June.
Creative Writing Tips from Harvard’s Faculty
thecrimson.com – Wednesday February 14, 2018
Harvard’s English faculty hosts a powerhouse of acclaimed creative writers. As lecturers and professors, they devote countless hours to passing on the skills of their craft to students. The Crimson asked four faculty members who teach fiction-writing classes to share their creative writing wisdom.
“You can make an entire world up in your head and transmit it to other people with scribbles on a page,” said Claire Messud, a Senior Lecturer. “Making up stories is open to all of us.” While not every Harvard student will have the opportunity to take their classes, anyone can try their hand at creative writing.
The Necessity of 'Willful Blindness' in Writing
theatlantic.com – Wednesday February 14, 2018
There’s nothing conventional about Heart Berries, Terese Marie Mailhot’s debut. A little over 100 pages, it’s far short of the 80,000 words most memoirs need to be deemed viable. There’s barely any exposition: Major characters enter the narrative intimately and without fanfare, almost as though we know them already. A crucial scene might be just three lines of unsparing poetry. In short, the book does everything it technically shouldn’t, brushing off the familiar regimen prescribed by MFA programs, and slipping the strictures of commercial publishing. The thrilling part is, it works. Heart Berries is a reminder that, in the right hands, literature can do anything it wants.
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