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Writers' News

New Publishing Imprint Listing: Schiffer Military

firstwriter.com – Wednesday June 22, 2022

Dedicated to publishing definitive books on military and aviation history by the world’s leading historians.

[See the full listing]

My journey to getting a book deal

dailykos.com – Tuesday June 21, 2022

So much about making a career as a writer is opaque and exclusionary. There’s also a lot that, frankly, simply depends on your specific situation. It’s hard to give advice that will work for everyone, much less most people. All of that said, I shared a bit about my experience finding a literary agent for my novel (you can check that out here if you’d like) and now that I’ve sold my first book, I figured I would return and share a bit more for anyone who might be considering a similar path. 

The biggest caveat here is that this is all what my experience was like. So many other writers have had wildly different journeys. No one’s path is better than anyone else’s and it is (truly) never a reflection of your worth or merit as a writer. It can be oddly tempting to think about folks who get major house auctions within a few days of going on submission, but really, don’t torture yourself.

[Read the full article]

Good God, I can’t publish this…

thecritic.co.uk – Monday June 20, 2022

The literary rejection is almost a genre in itself. It has shaken the confidence of every writer in history. The best examples are to be found wherever there is a publisher armed with a power complex, a sense of literary inferiority and a ready wit. In recent years, the soft thud of the manuscript on the hall floor has been gradually replaced by the pernicious ping of the inbox. It does seem that the email is a paler version of the quintessential letter of the past.

Back in the 60s, Sylvia Plath boldly claimed, “I love my rejection slips. They show me I try”. This was in spite of being told by a publisher that she didn’t have “enough genuine talent for us to take notice”.

Stephen King kept his rejection letters on a spike while Hemingway mutilated his — and no wonder. Mrs Moberley Luger of Peacock & Peacock (surely a parody of a publisher if ever there was one) sent Hemingway an intensely personal missive on the shortcomings of The Sun Also Rises: “I may be frank, Mr Hemingway — you certainly are in your prose — I found your efforts to be both tedious and offensive. You really are a man’s man, aren’t you? I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that you had penned this entire story locked up at the club, ink in one hand, brandy in the other.” She went on to berate his writing style with “I daresay my young son could do better!” and of the novel’s hero she unleashed this zinger, “I doubt he’d have the energy to turn the page to find out what happened to himself”.

[Read the full article]

Literary agents share the magic ingredients they’re looking for in a novel

metro.co.uk – Monday June 20, 2022

What keeps you hooked when you’re reading a novel?

Twists and turns? Great characters? Writing that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside?

Identifying the things that make a good book can be key when it comes to writing your own fiction. But what are experts in the industry looking for in new fiction writing?

We asked Lizzy Kremer, Jemima Forrester and Maddalena Cavaciuti, all literary agents at David Higham Associates, to share their magic ingredients for fiction.

[Read the full article]

Darley Anderson sheds light on publishing world with virtual open week

thebookseller.com – Saturday June 18, 2022

The Darley Anderson Agency will be hosting a virtual open week at the end of June with Twitter Q&As, pitch contests, Instagram Lives and helpful blog content.  

Running from 27th June, the agency will welcome aspiring writers, readers and book fans to give them a glimpse of life at a commercial literary agency through a variety of online events.  

The agency said it wanted to shed light on the publishing process, from submission to publication and everything in between, talking all things “entertainment fiction”. 

[Read the full article]

AGNI, BU’s Elite Literary Magazine, Celebrates Its 50th Birthday

bu.edu – Friday June 17, 2022

The latest print edition of AGNI hit subscribers’ mailboxes and bookstores a month late, thanks to a ransomware attack on its Pennsylvania printer. The biannual literary magazine—crammed with essays, poetry, and reviews—battled cultural headwinds even before that delay: while pandemic isolating induced an uptick in reading, other research suggests that almost 60 percent of Americans never crack a book in a given year; pleasure reading of literary fiction especially is nosediving.

If it seems that fate has it in for AGNI as it celebrates its 50th birthday among the nation’s elite literary magazines, coeditor William Pierce makes the glass-half-full case: “I’m skeptical that there was ever a period when 40 percent or even 20 percent read literary work. In the era of Wordsworth, most in England were illiterate.” That even 40 percent of Americans read books actually “cuts against narratives of decline. To me, that’s a shockingly high number.” 

[Read the full article]

The Constellation of Possibilities: An Approach to Writing Historical Fiction

crimereads.com – Wednesday June 15, 2022

The poet David Kirby once said that “only shallow people and charlatans begin with perfect knowledge of what it is they mean to say.  An honest writer begins in ignorance and writes his way to the truth.”

The word “truth” is a bit controversial when it comes to historical fiction.  Some authors of historical novels claim they only “stick to the facts,” while others acknowledge and celebrate their expansive creative license.  When I wrote Oleander CityA Novel Based on the True Story, I did so with the understanding that our notions of “truth” are complex, and that what we accept as historical actuality is often incomplete or misguided.  We all know about eye-witness testimony.  Even the best efforts at recorded history, such as newspapers, letters, diaries, government records, books, etc., can be specious at best, in many cases mixed with many decades of rumor, myth, ignorance, personal bias, and deliberate manipulation.  My first historical novel, The Wettest County in the World (titled Lawless in the movie tie-in edition), taught me a lot about this problem.  I learned that in order to create a compelling narrative (the end goal for any fiction writer) I would need to be vigilant and unsparing while researching.  I also learned to lean into my personal motivations, which was to seek out the gaps between what I call “the points of light,” or the moments that “really happened.”

But why do it as a novel at all?  “If this story actually happened, then why didn’t you do it as non-fiction?”

[Read the full article]

New Literary Agent Listing: Saskia Leach

firstwriter.com – Wednesday June 15, 2022

Enjoys reading a wide range of genres and is fascinated by stories written from multiple perspectives. She also loves books which feature complex and dynamic characters.

[See the full listing]

UTA Acquires U.K. Literary and Talent Agency Curtis Brown

yahoo.com – Monday June 13, 2022

United Talent Agency (UTA) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire U.K. literary and talent agency Curtis Brown Group.

Under the terms of the deal, London-based Curtis Brown Group, founded in 1899, will continue to operate under its current name and management, including CEO Jonny Geller. The structure will allow both parries to continue their longstanding relationships with other agency partners in the U.K. and U.S.

[Read the full article]

Out with the 'chick lit' and in with the 'menopause thriller'? Leading British publisher says it wants more fiction books to reflect experiences of menopausal women after complaints about an over-focus on 'edgy' twentysomethings

dailymail.co.uk – Saturday June 11, 2022

  •  HarperCollins are creating a new genre they are calling the menopause thriller
  • They want stories that ‘change the conversation surrounding menopause’ 
  •  It would portray peri-menopausal and menopausal women...who fight back’
  • The new genre could spell the end of ‘chick lit’, which targeted  younger women

A leading British publisher is ‘actively looking’ for fiction which reflects women’s experiences of the menopause.

HarperCollins wants to print stories that ‘change the conversation surrounding menopause’ following years of young female protagonists taking centre stage.

It comes as the subject is increasingly raised on TV, from Davina McCall’s Channel 4 documentary Sex, Mind and the Menopause to the Netflix political drama Borgen, in which the protagonist grapples with menopausal symptoms.

[Read the full article]

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