
Women reveal the VERY irritating mistakes male authors make in writing female characters - including describing itchy tights as 'sexy' and thinking EVERYONE can run in heels
dailymail.co.uk – Thursday August 30, 2018

Authors have the ability to immerse their readers in fictional words, but women everywhere believe they're still not getting one thing right: female characters.
Tumblr users from around the world have been penning advice to male authors about the common mistakes they make when writing female characters - and they'll strike a chord with women everywhere.
The tips, compiled in a Bored Panda thread, include a request to describe tights as 'itchy' rather than sexy and the handy tip that almost no women can run in heels

OWN IT! founder launches literary agency
thebookseller.com – Thursday August 30, 2018

Multimedia publisher OWN IT! has launched a literary agency arm, signing author Courttia Newland as its first client.
Billed as a “storytelling lifestyle brand” spearheaded by founder Crystal Mahey-Morgan, the company already operates as a book publisher, a record label and an events arm. Mahey-Morgan will be OWN IT!’s main agent, helping to “diversify how it works with storytellers to include literary representation”. The company is currently negotiating with several sub-agents about a foreign rights partnership, according to a spokesperson for the organisation.
Mahey-Morgan's previous contract negotiation experience includes a year at PFD as well as a three-year stint in the contracts department at Penguin Random House between 2008 and 2012. She described setting up a literary agency as "an obvious next step for OWN IT!"

'Godfather of the industry' Michael Sissons dies
thebookseller.com – Wednesday August 29, 2018

Veteran literary agent and “godfather of the industry” Michael Sissons has died aged 83.
Various agents have paid tribute to Sissons who died on Saturday (August 24th), following a stellar career which saw him representing names such as Simon Schama, Margaret Drabble and William Hague, setting up the Association of Authors' Agents, and overseeing PFD for almost half a century before acting as a senior consultant for the agency for the last decade.
“I would say that he was the godfather of the industry,” said Caroline Michel, c.e.o. of PFD, who had known Sissons for 30 years, since before she entered the publishing industry.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday August 29, 2018
Publishes: Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Considers unpublished poems only. Submit via online submission system. See website for more details.

Turning Pages: When it's good to break the writing rules
smh.com.au – Sunday August 26, 2018

Sometimes the writer doesn't need a gentle muse when facing a blank page. Sometimes the writer needs a pep talk from a coach, the kind that gets you out in the drizzly dawn doing push-ups and feeling good about it.
If that's your bag, then Catherine Deveny is your woman. The comedian and writer who describes herself as "Atheist, Feminist, Dyslexic" runs regular writing classes for her Gunnas (as in "I'm gunna write a book some day"). For her students, that day is today. And she'll do everything short of push-ups to motivate them and destroy their procrastination and fear.
Judging from the website testimonials, her Gunnas adore her. So I was intrigued to see her in action at the recent Bayside Literary Festival, talking about "The Twelve Things They Don't Tell You About Writing".
I was particularly struck by one piece of advice that was exactly the opposite of what most creative writing teachers tell their students: "You don't have to read a lot".

Why millennial pink is the colour of money for book publishers
inews.co.uk – Sunday August 26, 2018

In recent years the mid-tone blush colour commonly referred to as “millennial pink” has taken over fashion, interior design, branding and publicity. Now publishers are also latching on to the colour’s marketability.
The number of pink books published in the past two years has risen sharply. Titles such as the Man Booker Prize-longlisted The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner, The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer, Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart and Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman all feature the hue on their covers. The cover of Sweetbitter, a novel by Stephanie Danler which was adapted into a Netflix series, was redesigned and reissued with a salmon-pink cover.

2019 edition of Writers' Handbook now available to buy
firstwriter.com – Saturday August 25, 2018

The 2019 edition of firstwriter.com’s bestselling directory for writers is the perfect book for anyone searching for literary agents, book publishers, or magazines. It contains over 1,300 listings, including revised and updated listings from the 2018 edition, and over 400 brand new entries.

#shareyourrejection is exactly the hashtag we need right now
artshub.com.au – Thursday August 23, 2018

It hasn't quite taken off in Australia yet, but hopefully that is only a matter of time. Maybe Peter Dutton will get us started.
#shareyourrejection is the latest hashtag to highlight the reality of rejection in the arts and creative industries, and to show once again that resilience is key to any creative career.
This will make you laugh and wince and understand the poetic power of revenge.

Clare Barron: 'My best advice? Write the ugliest, clunkiest play you can imagine'
standard.co.uk – Thursday August 23, 2018

In our Play Talk series, playwrights discuss the joys and struggles of the writing life. This week, Clare Barron talks about her Susan Smith Blackburn Award-winning play Dance Nation, which has its European premiere at the Almeida next month.

A bestselling author reveals his 3 techniques to overcome writer’s block
cnbc.com – Thursday August 23, 2018

Experiencing writer's block can be both frightening and frustrating for anybody working on a project with a deadline fast approaching.
Unfortunately, this inability to produce content within a specified period of time can strike at any moment.
And bestselling Hay House author Charlie Morley is no stranger to this common setback.
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