Use a Placeholder in Your Writing to Keep From Getting Stuck
lifehacker.com – Friday May 4, 2018
Sometimes the hardest part about writing isn’t finding ideas or knowing how to begin, it’s maintaining a flow so you actually finish what you started. It’s not quite total writer’s block since you’re already on the move, but a writer’s road block, if you will. This trick that Star Trek: The Next Generation staff writers used can help you keep on truckin’.
The writers of TNG were great at coming up with interesting plot lines for the crew of the Enterprise, but they weren’t actual scientists or experts in space travel. So, when that kind of stuff came up in the script, they often used a placeholder word for the science-y things and worried about fixing it later. Writer Ron Moore explains the process to Syfy:
New Literary Agency Listing
firstwriter.com – Friday May 4, 2018
Handles: Fiction; Nonfiction
Areas include: Arts; Autobiography; Business; Cookery; Crafts; Culture; Film; Gardening; Health; Historical; Hobbies; Humour; Photography; Science; Self-Help; Spiritual; Sport; Technology; Travel; Women's Interests
Markets: Adult; Children's; Youth
Preferred styles: Commercial; Literary
Seeking new and existing authors across all genres. Particularly interested in narrative, memoir, prescriptive nonfiction (including sports, health, wellness, business, political and parenting topics), commercial fiction, young adult and middle grade books. No screenplays, scripts, poetry, or picture books. Submit online through online submissions system or by email. See website for full details.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Thursday May 3, 2018
Publishes: Essays; Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Areas include: Arts; Autobiography; Culture; Current Affairs; Historical; Literature; Media; Philosophy; Photography; Politics; Science; Short Stories; Sociology; Travel;
Markets: Academic; Adult; Professional;
Preferred styles: Contemporary; Experimental; Literary; Popular; Progressive; Satirical; Traditional
University-affiliated quarterly online literary arts journal showcasing creative work. We publish short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and essays, as well as art and photography. The goal of our publication is to assemble a variety of literary and artistic styles and a broad range of voices, perspectives, and life experiences.
The theme of our Fall 2018 issue is “Home.†We are interested in your perspective relating to ideas such as the meaning of home, immigration, marginalization, nationalism, ownership, comfort, security, displacement, boundaries, and identity.
Please include a brief author bio of no more than 100 words. Limit submissions to no more than 2,500 words of prose, five poems, or five artworks or photographic images. Works previously published elsewhere cannot be submitted. Simultaneous and multiple submissions are fine. Please notify if work gets accepted for publication elsewhere.
For additional guidelines and to submit, please visit our website.
New Literary Agency Listing
firstwriter.com – Thursday May 3, 2018
Handles: Fiction; Nonfiction
Areas: Crime; Thrillers
Markets: Adult
Treatments: Literary
Send query by post or by email, with synopsis and first three chapters (or fifty pages) (fiction); or proposal (nonfiction). If submitting by email, send material in Word or PDF attachment. If submitting by post, do not include SAE as material will be recycled once read. Include email address for response. Aims to respond within six weeks.
Michael Lynton, David Steinberger Buy Arcadia Publishing
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday May 2, 2018
Two former book publishing CEOs have teamed up for a series of acquisitions in the book field. The first of those purchases has just closed—Lezen Acquisition LLC has purchased Arcadia Publishing, the Charleston, S.C.-based publisher that specializes in doing books on local history.
Lezen was formed by Michael Lynton and his sister Lili. Prior to serving as CEO of Sony Entertainment, Lynton had been CEO of Penguin. He will serve as non-executive chairman of Arcadia.
New Literary Agency Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday May 2, 2018
Handles: Fiction
Areas: Erotic; Fantasy; Romance; Sci-Fi
Markets: Adult; Children's; Youth
Treatments: Contemporary; Dark
Actively seeking new clients for middle grade, young adult, and adult categories. See website for individual agent interests and contact details and query one agent at a time. See website for full details.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Monday April 30, 2018
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Areas include: Arts; Cookery; Humour;
Markets: Adult; Children's
Accepts electronic submissions of complete manuscripts only (except in the case of cookbooks, which may be submitted as complete mss or proposals). Not currently accepting poetry submissions. See website for full details.
If Shakespeare were alive today, would he be writing crime novels?
telegraph.co.uk – Sunday April 29, 2018
There is no surer way to make yourself sound like a fatuous idiot than to speculate on what famous writers of the past would be doing if they were alive today – to suggest that Dickens would be scripting soap operas, Jane Austen would write chick lit, Blake would be penning hip-hop lyrics, Oscar Wilde would be a preening vlogger, and so on. And yet there is a part of me – the fatuously idiotic part, presumably – that nods along in agreement when people say that if Shakespeare were around today, he would be writing not plays but crime fiction, and we’d find him on the bestseller lists up with Ian Rankin, Lee Child and Val McDermid. The crime novelist Peter James made this point repeatedly as chairman...
Traditional Publishing Ebook Sales Dropped 10% In 2017
forbes.com – Sunday April 29, 2018
Traditional publishers sold 10% fewer ebook units in 2017 compared with the previous year, according to data released by PubTrack Digital. Total sales were 162 million in 2017 rather than the 180 million units sold the year before.
The news won't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed traditional ebook sales trends over the past few years: Nielsen's reports put 2016 ebook unit sales from the top 30 traditional publishers down a full 16% from their 2015 numbers. But this isn't a comeback story for print, and shouldn't be considered evidence of a waning public interest in ebooks. The fact that traditionally published ebook sales fell 10% last year isn't the full picture. As traditional publishers saw sales drop, audiences moved to indie publishers, largely on Amazon. The reason, according to Jonathan Stolper, who was the SVP and global managing director for Nielsen Book in 2016, comes down to pricing. Nielsen’s Books and Consumers survey, according to a Publishers Weekly paraphrase of Stolper, found "that price is the top priority for e-book buyers when considering which book to purchase." In 2015, the Big Five publishing houses raised ebook prices to around $8 a book, far higher than the $3-a-book price point independent publishers settled on.
In the #MeToo Moment, Publishers Turn to Morality Clauses
publishersweekly.com – Saturday April 28, 2018
Until recently, the term “moral turpitude” is not one that crossed the lips of too many people in book publishing. But Bill O’Reilly, Milo Yiannopoulos, Sherman Alexie, Jay Asher, and James Dashner changed all that.
A legal term that refers to behavior generally considered unacceptable in a given community, moral turpitude is something publishers rarely worried themselves about. No longer.
Major publishers are increasingly inserting language into their contracts—referred to as morality clauses—that allows them to terminate agreements in response to a broad range of behavior by authors. And agents, most of whom spoke with PW on the condition of anonymity, say the change is worrying in an industry built on a commitment to defending free speech.
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