New S&S UK Imprint Targets Self-Published Authors
publishersweekly.com – Saturday July 25, 2026
Simon & Schuster UK and International has launched Simon Stream, a digital-focused fiction imprint aimed at self-published authors who want to make the switch to traditional publishing. The imprint will be headed up by S&S UK publishing director Victoria Pepe.
Simon Stream will publish globally in paperback, e-book, and audiobook formats, per its website, beginning with the first installment in a new five-book “cozy crime” series by Jack Gatland, set for this fall.
The imprint hosts an open submissions portal, and is currently accepting crime, thriller, romance, historical fiction, and fantasy manuscripts of 70-100k words.
Pepe said in the announcement that Simon Stream aims to offer authors “the best parts of both [self- and traditional] publishing models,” specifically with an eye to royalty rates. Simon Stream offers 50% net royalties on e-book sales, while a typical e-book royalty rate for traditional publishers hovers around 25%. Many hybrid publishing offers also start at a 50% royalty rate.
How to Get Your Book Published: 5 Takeaways from You Are A Writer
pen.org – Friday July 24, 2026
For the final installment of You Are A Writer, PEN America’s workshop series for early-career writers, four industry experts delved into how a book makes its way from a writer’s hands onto shelves. They discussed what agents, editors, and publicists are looking for in proposals and manuscripts, how writers can find the right path for their book’s publication, and why they should never quit their day jobs. Scroll down to read five takeaways from the discussion.
Moderated by Sarah Bowlin, a senior literary agent at Aevitas Creative Management, the session featured Juli Kiyan, editor and associate director of publicity at Penguin Press, Kate Gale, co-founder and managing editor of Red Hen Press, and Liz Garriga, senior director of publicity at Little, Brown.
If you missed them, catch up on the earlier sessions of You Are A Writer.
1. Sweep readers off their feet with your manuscript.
Kicking off the session, Bowlin asked the panelists what they’re looking for in any given submission. Kiyan responded that when it comes to fiction, the writing needs to leap off of the page and wow readers.
Garriga agreed. “Really, it’s just about an immersive reading experience,” she said. “So that’s the good news there: You just have to enchant someone with the writing.”
Later, Bowlin stressed that you should contact agents only once you have a complete (and thoroughly edited) manuscript. “My dad had the very cheesy [saying], ‘You only get one chance at a first impression,’ but it is true in the sense that I have 700 unread novels in my inbox right now and the only way that I get through that material is for something to really stand out,” she said.
Jessica Knoll’s Guide to Writing a Novel Without Losing Your Mind
polyesterzine.com – Friday July 24, 2026
Jessica Knoll knows what it takes to build a life around writing. The bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and The Favorite has spent years turning complicated stories into page-turners, all while navigating the pressures that come with making writing your livelihood. Now, after moving from LA back to New York, raising her young daughter and publishing her latest novel, Helpless, she’s thinking more than ever about the long game, and how to keep writing without letting it consume you.
Helpless is Knoll’s most ambitious novel yet - an erotic thriller about two exes who reunite at the funeral of their beloved professor, only to find themselves pulled into a dangerous story that forces them to question everything they thought they knew about their past.
When we speak, Knoll is candid about the less glamorous side of writing a novel - the days when a thousand words can take four hours, the weeks when the story won’t cooperate and the difficulty of remembering that your life is bigger than your writing.
Here, Jessica Knoll shares her guide to writing a novel without losing your mind.
Free Six-Week Creative Writing Course with Bestselling Author Lucy O’Callaghan at Clare Museum
clarecoco.ie – Friday July 24, 2026
Bestselling author Lucy O'Callaghan is to host a free six-week creative writing course that celebrates the power of heritage, memory and storytelling at the Clare County Council-managed Clare Museum.
Beginning during Heritage Week, on Thursday, August 20, this series of workshops will start with an exploration of the museum's collections, using the objects, stories and history they hold as a springboard for your own writing.
Heritage is more than the past - it's the memories we treasure, the traditions we inherit, the places we call home, and the stories that shape who we are.
Lucy O'Callaghan is a self-confessed people watcher; stories that happen to real people have always fascinated her and this motivated her to write contemporary women’s fiction. Her writing has been described as pacy, human, moving, and very real. Her debut novel, ‘The Lies Beneath’, was published in April 2024 and was an instant Irish Times Bestseller.
The Writing Course Gold Rush
litopia.com – Friday July 24, 2026
That old scoundrel Sam Brannan would have felt completely at home in today’s publishing business. Sam, you may recall, was the original promoter of California’s 1848 Gold Rush. After first cornering the market in picks, shovels and pans (paying a mere 20 cents each wholesale), Sam proceeded to run though the streets of San Francisco shouting at the top of his lungs “Gold! Gold on the American River!”.
Accounts indicate that Sam’s brilliant sales promotion all but emptied San Francisco, as most of its male population departed en masse for the mines – equipped, of course, with a Brannan shovel at an eye-watering $15 a pop. It is hardly necessary to add that while most failed to find their own pots of gold, Sam certainly found his – becoming the Gold Rush’s first millionaire.
Fast Forward 160 Years…
The industry is different, but the conversations are the same. “There’s gold in them thar slushpiles,” says one publishing executive to another. “If we had £15 for every submission sent in – why, pardner – we’d never need to sell books again!”
Suddenly, it seems as if every Tom, Dick and publishing Harriet are running writing courses, setting up seminars, organising conferences, selling critiquing services, creating writing groups, providing manuscript doctoring and generally trying to monetize the slushpile. Our industry appears to have declared open season on the naive, sometimes gullible hopes of aspiring writers. It’s the Wild West out there, and someone has to say that much of what is happening now is simply not right.
While many of these offerings are merely guilty of being extremely poor value for money – why anyone would pay hundreds or thousands of pounds for advice that’s available in any how-to book is beyond me – others are less benign.
Writing 4 Novels in 10 Months with AI
oreilly.com – Thursday July 23, 2026
Using AI as a writers’ room without having it generate a word
What you’ll learn and how you can apply it
- Set up an AI-assisted research and visual-reference process before drafting begins
- Use AI as an interrogable continuity reference across a long manuscript or series
- Run AI-assisted brainstorming and chapter outlining without ceding structural decisions
- Deploy AI in four distinct editorial roles (developmental editor, writers’ room, copy editor, proofreader) at different stages of revision
- Build an AI-assisted research and continuity pipeline for a long-form creative project, from initial world-building through final proofread
AI’s taken my job
spectator.com – Wednesday July 22, 2026
This week I was replaced by AI. I saw it coming, but it didn’t make the news any easier to deal with. To be honest, it terrifies me for the future of our species. If that sounds a bit over the top, hear me out.
I am a writer. Not only that, I am a commercially successful one. Although you probably haven’t heard of me, I’ve published more than 300 short stories in women’s magazines over the past 15 years. From ghost stories in Woman’s Weekly to tales of romance in Take a Break Fiction Feast, I write them all. Sorry – wrote.
‘Dear Geoff,’ the email said. ‘Going forward, our in-house team will be using AI tools to compile future editions, but we thank you for your many contributions to the magazine over the years. Kind regards, Rebecca.’ Or to put it more bluntly: ‘We’ve replaced you with a robot.’
What I know now about publishing a book
newsroom.co.nz – Wednesday July 22, 2026
It’s Saturday morning, five days after my book launch. I’m at a GP conference in a provincial town. I hadn’t considered seeing my book in an actual book shop. That was only an ethereal idea. But I make myself duck uneasily into Whitcoulls and PaperPlus, self-conscious that every shop assistant knows I am an author looking for their own book, and I pick up a Chelsea Winter, then Become Unstoppable, then Lessons on Living, then Habits of High Performers, flicking through them like I’m legit. I edge around shelves and finally at floor level, in the health and wellbeing section I find one copy of my book Everything but the Medicine: A doctor’s tale between Befriending Your Gut Biome and Menopause Conquered. WTF. I run out the door.
On Google maps I find the Indie bookshop. That will be better. The door sticks and clatters. I avoid eye contact, pretending to browse the Māori and literary sections, my eyes flicking around for my book cover but I can’t see it anywhere. I pause, consider running again, but bravely go to the desk, introduce myself and my book. She looks blank, consults her computer and the computer says, “No.” I desperately wish I’d stayed at the conference and learned more about heart failure.
Publishing your first book is a strange experience. There’s a lot I didn’t know. Here’s what I would tell my pre-book self now that I’ve done it.
New Publisher Listing: Ockham Publishing
firstwriter.com – Monday July 20, 2026
Publishes general nonfiction focused on smart thinking titles that explore human experience, social phenomena, and fresh perspectives on familiar subjects. Dedicated to works that challenge assumptions and deepen understanding, offering accessible, idea‑driven books rooted in clear, thoughtful inquiry.
The Real Book Ban No One Talks About
dailywire.com – Sunday July 19, 2026
Move over, Leonardo Da Vinci. There’s a new Renaissance humanist on the block — at least, according to the internet. You might know her as the global pop star Dua Lipa, and she wants you to read banned books.
This past week, the “Levitating” singer unveiled her new “Manifesto Library” in Portugal, which features hundreds of books she claims were once banned or otherwise controversial. Posing with a copy of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a book that has now sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, she tells her 650K+ “Book Club” followers that her initiative opens up “conversations around censorship, resistance and the importance of preserving voices that challenge power and refuse to be silenced.”
There’s only one problem. None of the books in her library were ever “banned” or “censored” in the first place.
Among the other titles in Dua Lipa’s library are George Orwell’s “1984,” a book that has sold over 30 million copies as of 2024, and J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” a novel that is read in virtually every single high school English class across the country. I don’t necessarily disagree with Dua Lipa that we all should read these great books, but calling “1984″ and “The Catcher in the Rye” “banned” books is like calling “Game of Thrones,” one of the world’s most widely watched TV shows, a “banned” show.
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