Hachette UK Buys Laurence King Publishing
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday September 2, 2020
Laurence King Publishing (LKP) has been acquired by fellow U.K.-based publisher Hachette UK in a deal signed August 31. No price was disclosed.
Founded in London in 1991, LKP, which is currently distributed in the U.S. by Chronicle Books, has focused on publishing books and gifts tied to the creative arts. It is likely best known as one on the creators of the adult coloring format and was the original publisher of adult coloring book queen Johanna Basford. Her Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest adult coloring books sold more than 16 million copies globally and were a huge hit in the U.S. In recent years, LKP has become well-known for its gift products.
Why are cliches in writing so bad?
authorlink.com – Tuesday September 1, 2020
Writing is a craft that requires constant improvement, whether you are a beginner working to develop their first story or a seasoned author with many accomplishments under their belt.
Among other aspects, writing without cliches is one of the vital skills prospective essayists and novelists have to master before they start to consider publishing their works. If you’re struggling with this challenge and feel insecure about your texts, you can easily avoid cliches in writing in 6 simple and actionable steps.
But first, let’s talk about what cliches are, why you should steer away from them, and which ones are the most common (and, therefore, the ones you should be on the lookout for the most).
Why are cliches in writing so bad?
Cliché (past passive participle form of the French word clicher, referring to a stereotype) is a word or a phrase used so often in writing and speech that they’re no longer appealing or effective.
A Few Amateur Goofs to Avoid
By G. Miki Hayden
Instructor at Writer's Digest University online and private writing coach
firstwriter.com – Tuesday September 1, 2020
Your novel won’t be rejected just because the red flag is raised that you’re an amateur; however, the clues that you don’t know the rules of the road won’t endear you to agents, and unless the writing is otherwise good and the concept extraordinary, you may not be invited to join the agency gang. Have a read below to find out what errors to watch for.
International Dublin Writers' Festival to be held online this September
irishpost.com – Sunday August 30, 2020
CALLING ALL budding writers from across Ireland and beyond.
The International Dublin Writers' Festival is nearly upon us, with this year’s event heading online this September.
Now in its sixth year, the former Writers' Conference will go live next month with an impressive array of online speakers booked for this year.
There will also be a special live pitch session for anyone hoping to get their work published.
While the Covid-19 pandemic may have put paid to some of the usual festivities, the new digital-only festival promises to be quite the occasion before the festival returns for a full event in September 2021.
New Magazine Listing: Rising Innovator
firstwriter.com – Friday August 28, 2020
A web-only publication to support entrepreneurship in children. We have three basic targets: children aged 8 to 18, their parents, and any school staff that teach entrepreneurship. We offer news, profiles, guides, advice, and any articles of interest to our audience. We also offer a few free online tools as well, such as a quiz that helps children select a business idea.
Because of our different targets, sometimes we solicit the same content to be written for two different audiences. We keep content differentiated on our website. If you have further questions then please refer to the guidelines above or email us.
Literary Agency Fires Agent for TERF-y Tweets
bookandfilmglobe.com – Thursday August 27, 2020
While August is traditionally a dead zone for book news, one tiny sect of literary Twitter has been busy. Tobias Literary Agency (TLA), a full-service agency that includes among its recent titles The Candy Cane Caper–a dual mystery-cookbook–and that is explicitly looking for non-white and marginalized voices to publish, has fired former assistant agent Sasha White for anti-trans comments on Twitter.
The news broke on Monday morning after lawyer Anya Palmer laid out the story, of course, in a Twitter thread. “Another woman summarily dismissed by a literary agency for daring to tweet her opinions on sex and gender,” wrote Palmer, including a screenshot of a statement from TLA about White, that reads in part:
New Literary Agent Listing: Janet Silver
firstwriter.com – Thursday August 27, 2020
Represents literary fiction, memoir, and creative/narrative nonfiction with a compelling storyline. In both fiction and nonfiction, she seeks diverse, singular voices, and unique perspectives.
New Publisher Imprint Listing: Imagine Publishing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday August 26, 2020
Publishes 8-10 titles a year, primarily focused on history, politics, women’s studies, and nature.
Magazine Rejections and Learning to Love the Hate
splicetoday.com – Tuesday August 25, 2020
Many years ago, an editor at The Chicago Quarterly Review sent me one of the most colorful rejections I’ve gotten from a magazine: “I can’t think of a single person who’d want to spend thirty seconds with these morons,” meaning the characters in my short story but also, in a way, me.
It was a story about falling in love with a stripper in Missoula, titled “The Machinery Above Us,” and Eclipse Magazine took it some time after that. There were graphic parts in it and I noticed that the rejections came most fluidly from the Ivy and Ivy-adjacent literary journals on my submission A-list. The Partisan Review, The Paris Review, Doubletake, Story, and Boulevard rejected it with a quickness. They seemed to find the material distasteful.
Start Preparing for NaNoWriMo Now
lifehacker.com – Saturday August 22, 2020
Even under normal circumstances, early planning for major events is critical to their success. This year, of course, we are in far from ordinary circumstances, which makes it that much more important for writers to begin planning for National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for short—NaNo, for even shorter) right now.
A couple years (decades?) ago, an amazing colleague spelled out a game plan for succeeding at the challenge of writing a 50,000-word novel draft within the month of November. But like most structured plans, it takes time to get into a groove and properly form a habit. NaNoWriMo should be treated no differently. It may sound easy to some—you’re just writing 1,667 words per day, not training for a marathon—but take it from someone’s who’s done both: the preparation involved in both is, in many ways, is quite similar.
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