New Literary Agent Listing: Hillary Fazzari
firstwriter.com – Monday June 10, 2024
A highly editorial agent, she is looking for high concept, high stakes stories with deep character development and gorgeous, commercial prose. Overall, she acquires primarily Middle Grade and YA, and is open to any genre in those areas, including graphic novels (but only with illustrators attached). In New Adult and Adult, she acquires more selectively and is open to unsolicited queries in: Rom-coms and rom-com adjacent material (including relevant genre mashups); Romantasy and other SFF/romance mashups (including romantic dystopian); and very select narrative nonfiction that focuses on history.
Books are my business: Founder of Fish Publishing Clem Cairns
irishexaminer.com – Sunday June 9, 2024
Clem Cairns is the founder of Fish Publishing, which he started with Jula Walton in 1994 with the aim of promoting the work of new writers.
It is based in Durrus, Co Cork, and every year publishes the Fish Anthology, featuring the winners of the Fish short story, short memoir, flash fiction and poetry prizes.
How did you get into publishing?
It is 30 years now since we founded Fish Publishing. I was trying to be a writer and there weren’t that many outlets in Ireland at that time for new writers, particularly for short fiction. Myself and my partner Jula Walton decided we would publish short Irish fiction, and we would do it by running a competition.
That was the initial idea. We called it Fish Publishing because I was working on a fishing trawler out of Schull at the time to earn the money to publish my first book of short stories. It was a good metaphor — casting out a net and hauling in the stories. We wanted to promote and encourage a new generation of Irish writers. After a few years, the internet happened and it went worldwide.
Inside Danielle Steel’s Writing Process: Needing ‘Everything Perfect to Start’ And Why She Still Gets Scared
people.com – Sunday June 9, 2024
Danielle Steel has written 212 books — so far — but the bestselling author still feels the pang of nerves before starting a new draft and the thrill of seeing the finished product on shelves when each publication day rolls around.
"It doesn't get old," she told PEOPLE, for a story in this week's print issue. "I'm always grateful. But also, I'm always scared in the beginning. I never think, 'Oh, I can do this. No big deal.' I'm always scared I won't get it right, or it won't be as good as it should be."
The author says it usually takes about 200 pages before she can really relax, and she strives to make her books "better every time."
Her writing process begins with an outlines she does by hand, accompanied by exhaustive research, much of which she does herself because that attention to detail is what makes her books credible, and keeps her readers coming back.
Writers’ Guild of Great Britain demands fair pay for writers ahead of general election
thebookseller.com – Thursday June 6, 2024
The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) has called on the next government to “enshrine protections for writers” in its manifesto recommendations ahead of the forthcoming general election.
The trade union representing writers wants the next government to implement its recommendations around fair pay, fair treatment, sustainability, and copyright and AI.
Ellie Peers, general secretary of WGGB, said: “Writing is a highly skilled job and everything starts with the writer – without them there would be no feature films, TV or audio dramas, no plays, no books, poems or videogames.
“They provide the fuel that fires our creative industries, which in turn makes a major contribution to the UK economy.”
New Literary Agent Listing: Rosie Pierce
firstwriter.com – Tuesday June 4, 2024
I read widely and across genres, and I am looking for both literary and commercial fiction. I love family dramas, ghost and horror stories, psychological suspense, murder mysteries, gripping thrillers, and big-hearted romantic comedies. In storytelling I am most often drawn to distinctive, original voices; vivid characterisation and world building; confident, engaging prose; and astute social observation. I particularly love to read about the relationships that shape - or even define - a life. I am looking for expansive, character-driven novels that explore complicated family dynamics, enduring friendships, love affairs, coming of age, the best and worst things we do for love. I am also always keen to read novels that explore occultism, séances, the uncanny, dark academia, and thrillers with emotional punch and nail-biting plot. And if a novel can make me laugh, I am sold. In non-fiction, I'd love to hear from writers who bring their expertise and/or experiences to the page in an accessible, compelling and original way. I am looking for narrative non-fiction, memoir, and books exploring pop and celebrity culture, alternative histories, psychology, the internet.
The surprising joys of independent publishing
thebookseller.com – Monday June 3, 2024
Publishing non-fiction is a tricky beast. I should know, I’ve written five non-fiction books to date with different publishers across the board: Ebury, Transworld, Hodder & Stoughton and each experience has been very different. While I’ve had great experiences (a Sunday Times Business Bestseller, Apple’s "best book of the month", UK book tours, guest curating at Cheltenham Literary Festival, multiple appearances at Hay Festival and other “badges of honour”) I’ve been left wondering if there might a different way to get my zeitgeist non-fiction writing out there. Non-fiction is famously hard to sell (requiring authors to have "a platform") and the books often include timely topics that rely on tapping into a cultural moment. I’ve been thinking: in a world of newsletters and zines — is publishing a traditional big hardback non-fiction book always the best way to spread your idea? I am not so sure anymore.
My Substack newsletter, The Hyphen, has really taken off over the last couple of years and has attracted over 50,000 engaged readers, meaning that I can publish my articles and essays with a click of a button, directly reaching my readers. There is a paid subscription model for any supporters of my work who want to access my hub of over 100+ articles. Even though it’s more about building the community than "scaling" financially or otherwise, I recently made the equivalent of a previous non-fiction book advance in a single month on Substack.
Why Are Debut Novels Failing to Launch?
esquire.com – Thursday May 30, 2024
For first-time writers, it’s harder than ever to break out. That poses an existential crisis for publishing—and disturbing limits on your access to exciting new voices.
On the Road was not Jack Kerouac’s first novel, but you’d be forgiven for thinking as much.
Though 1957’s On the Road is widely considered to be Kerouac’s “debut,” the author’s first novel, The Town and the City, was in fact published in 1950. By all measures, it flopped. Between that book and the launch of On the Road, Kerouac started working with the literary agent Sterling Lord, who believed he could be the voice of his generation and laid the groundwork for his public reception as such. What, exactly, did Sterling Lord do to prime Kerouac’s audience? From 1953 to 1957, he leveraged his own professional connections to place excerpts of On the Road in magazines like The Paris Review and New World Writing, building hype for the young novelist’s next book. This is common practice today, but in the fifties, it was a novel solution to the name-recognition problem faced by unknown writers.
After a few years of seeing Kerouac’s byline in print, the thinking went, readers would pay attention when they recognized his name on the cover of On the Road. It was one of the first literary “debuts” of its kind, explains Temple University professor Laura McGrath, author of the forthcoming book Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of Contemporary American Literature. McGrath argues that Sterling Lord created the blueprint for the literary “debut” phenomenon we still see today.
How a Self-Published Book Broke ‘All the Rules’ and Became a Best Seller
nytimes.com – Thursday May 30, 2024
Keila Shaheen’s “The Shadow Work Journal” shows how radically book sales and marketing have been changed by TikTok.
Last summer, a book changed Kohn Glay’s life.
A TikTok ad had steered him to “The Shadow Work Journal,” a slim workbook that directs readers to explore hidden parts of their unconscious — their shadow selves, in the book’s vernacular. He ordered a copy, and soon was back on TikTok, fervently recommending it to his followers.
“If you’re on your spiritual journey, you absolutely need to go and get you one of these,” he says in the video, urging viewers to buy the book in the TikTok store.
The video went viral, eventually drawing more than 58 million views. Glay, who is 43 and lives in Baltimore, began holding online classes to guide people through the journal. Over the next few months, people who watched his videos bought more than 40,000 copies of the book on TikTok, and Glay earned more than $150,000 in commissions. By December, he had quit his job as a sales representative for Home Depot and now runs his own business, “Happy Healin,” which offers subscribers spiritual mentorship and coaching through Zoom sessions.
Penguin seeks out emerging talent in science fiction and fantasy through WriteNow
herald.wales – Thursday May 30, 2024
ASPIRING authors have until Sunday 16th June to submit their story ideas for this year’s WriteNow programme, which will focus exclusively on science fiction and fantasy.
WriteNow, Penguin Books’ award-winning programme to seek out, nurture and publish new under-represented voices has opened applications for the 2024/2025 cohort. Focusing on science fiction and fantasy, the programme is looking to find exciting new writers from across the UK and Ireland.
Aspiring authors can apply to take part in this year’s programme by submitting a short synopsis and 1,000 words of sample writing by Sunday 16th June. Entries will be judged by editors across Penguin Random House with the longlist contacted by Friday 12th July.
WriteNow is designed to give writers from under-represented backgrounds the skills, knowledge, and access needed to navigate the industry and build a successful writing career. Since its launch in 2016, 20 authors to have come through the programme have been published by a Penguin Random House imprint, including: Beth Lincoln, author of New York Times bestseller The Swifts, and Manjeet Mann, author of The Crossing, winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award.
Jo Unwin to leave publishing for new career
thebookseller.com – Wednesday May 29, 2024
Literary agent Jo Unwin is leaving the Jo Unwin Literary Agency (JULA) and starting a new career outside publishing.
Unwin, who founded JULA in 2013, has discovered and championed new voices throughout her career. She has helped establish prizewinners such as Candice Carty-Williams and Kit de Waal, and to have worked with Booker Prize nominees Gabriel Krauze and Stephen Kelman, as well as bestsellers such as Emma Flint, A J Pearce and Jenny Colgan.
Her non-fiction authors range from Charlie Brooker and Philomena Cunk to Richard Ayoade, the poet Brian Bilston along with children’s authors such as Sarah Moore Fitzgerald and Nadia Shireen.
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