Why do books have chapters? How writing changed from antiquity to children's books and streaming
abc.net.au – Sunday May 26, 2024
Nicholas Dames remembers the first time he really got thinking about a very obvious but largely invisible writing device.
It was around two decades ago, when he was completing a PhD in English and American literature.
"A friend of mine, who was not an academic, over drinks one night, just blurted out to me, 'why do novels have chapters?'," the Columbia University humanities professor tells ABC RN's Late Night Live.
"I realised I hadn't the faintest clue how to answer that question. It was one of those, 'why is the sky blue' questions."
In the years that followed, Professor Dames returned to this question again and again, so he decided to explore the history of the chapter.
The topic may sound deeply academic, but it's not all laborious details about medieval tomes.
At the heart of this history is how we tell stories.
And from a child's development to an evening on the couch watching Netflix, the chapter affects our lives in many unnoticed ways.
Ursula K. Le Guin on How to Become a Writer
lithub.com – Saturday May 25, 2024
How do you become a writer? Answer: you write.
It’s amazing how much resentment and disgust and evasion this answer can arouse. Even among writers, believe me. It is one of those Horrible Truths one would rather not face.
The most frequent evasive tactic is for the would-be writer to say, But before I have anything to say, I must get experience.
Well, yes; if you want to be a journalist. But I don’t know anything about journalism, I’m talking about fiction. And of course fiction is made out of experience, your whole life from infancy on, everything you’ve thought and done and seen and read and dreamed. But experience isn’t something you go and get—it’s a gift, and the only prerequisite for receiving it is that you be open to it. A closed soul can have the most immense adventures, go through a civil war or a trip to the moon, and have nothing to show for all that “experience”; whereas the open soul can do wonders with nothing. I invite you to meditate on a pair of sisters. Emily and Charlotte. Their life experience was an isolated vicarage in a small, dreary English village, a couple of bad years at a girls’ school, another year or two in Brussels, which is surely the dullest city in all Europe, and a lot of housework. Out of that seething mass of raw, vital, brutal, gutsy Experience they made two of the greatest novels ever written: Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
New Literary Agent Listing: Jess Molloy
firstwriter.com – Monday May 20, 2024
I read broadly across fiction and narrative non-fiction. I am usually first pulled in by a unique concept or setting, but what keeps me reading are beautifully drawn, complex characters, relationships, and family dynamics. I enjoy reading fantasy and romance and I am particularly on the lookout for a story which has a slow burn at its heart, full of angst and drama. I have a deep love for Irish fiction both in terms of Irish writers, and novels set in Ireland. I enjoy crime fiction and true crime writing that subverts the genre and focuses on the victim or the fallout for their family. In terms of non-fiction, I enjoy issues led narrative writing with a personal story at its heart and particularly love hearing from underrepresented voices. I am also interested in psychology and therapy. My non-fiction reading varies broadly from comedians to experts and journalists, but what I am always looking for is an authentic voice that will teach me something fascinating or share a very personal journey with me.
Our Interactions in This Business
By G. Miki Hayden
Instructor at Writer's Digest University online and private writing coach
firstwriter.com – Sunday May 19, 2024
At the heart of much of what we accomplish in this life, very much including how well we do as writers, lies how we conduct our relationships, knowingly or unknowingly.
For instance, I’m pretty sure my neighbor is annoyed with me. From time to time I’ll edit a piece of writing for him, as I did recently. I don’t charge him anything, but he will sometime thereafter take me to lunch. Generally, we’re on quite good terms, but what he sent me this last time had a tone that I didn’t think was his, and the way the material was phrased I felt was unwise. Yet the letter—that’s what the note was—made me bristle. The intent was to let a government entity know that the group requesting some action had a distinct amount of power and had better be listened to.
How to find a literary agent: A masterclass with Juliet Mushens
uk.news.yahoo.com – Friday May 17, 2024
As an aspiring author, the journey to getting your book into print can seem like a daunting maze. But what if you had an insider's guide to navigating the publishing world and capturing the attention of a top-tier literary agent?
This unique masterclass with leading agent Juliet Mushens will demystify the process and reveal what it takes to make your submission stand out from the slush pile.
What will you learn?
In his comprehensive masterclass, you'll gain invaluable insights into how the publishing industry works and the role of a literary agent, including:
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Expert tips on editing your novel to make it submission-ready
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How to research and identify the best agents for your work
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What agents look for in submissions, from manuscripts to cover letters
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Crafting a killer pitch and blurb that hooks agents from the first line
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Practical pitching exercises, with opportunities for feedback
New Literary Agent Listing: Donya Dickerson
firstwriter.com – Wednesday May 15, 2024
Focuses primarily on nonfiction in the categories of business, personal development, self-help, pop culture, science, technology, history, and parenting. She is looking for breakthrough thinking, experts with a fresh voice, and new approaches to solving the problems people face daily. She is especially drawn to books that help others be their best self and succeed in both their professional and personal lives. She is based in New York.
Expand your mind with a new magazine of psychedelic art and literature
lithub.com – Monday May 13, 2024
Are you ready to take a trip?
Elastic, a biannual print magazine of psychedelic art and literature that will debut in spring 2025, aims to publish art and writing that’s “immersive, dreamlike, daring, genre- and time-bending, and that acts to expand the mind and the vast possibilities of narrative.”
Founding editor-in-chief Hillary Brenhouse was previously the editorial director of Bold Type Books and editor-in-chief of Guernica magazine. She’ll be joined by editor Meara Sharma, formerly the editor-in-chief of Adi magazine, and a body of contributing editors and artists that includes Jaquira Diaz, Amanda Gunn, Laura van den Berg, Jia Sung, Amber Sparks, and Darian Longmire. The magazine is being supported in part by grants from UC Berkeley and Harvard as part of their Psychedelics in Society and Culture initiative.
WME Acquires Ross Yoon Agency in Expansion of Literary Talent Portfolio
msn.com – Monday May 13, 2024
Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.’s WME announced today it has acquired Ross Yoon Agency.
The Washington D.C.-based agency, Ross Yoon, specializes in literary and commercial nonfiction including memoir, biography, history, popular science, business and psychology. In addition, the literary agency’s president Gail Ross and principal Howard Yoon will join WME as partners.
The current Ross Yoon clients will join WME’s roster — the new clientele will include Ross Yoon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and authors, business, non-profit leaders, doctors, scientists, academics, politicians and media personalities.
Ross Yoon joins WME’s 40-year-old book department, which includes a clientele of best-selling and award-winning fiction and nonfiction authors. Most recently in 2022, WME had over 50 New York Times bestsellers and closed nearly 1,000 international publishing deals.
“This acquisition is a natural evolution of WME’s long history of representing best-selling authors and helping bring their visions to life across platforms,” said WME co-chairmen Christian Muirhead and Richard Weitz. “We are proud that after so many hugely successful independent years Gail and Howard chose WME as their partner in this next phase of growth.”
How sci-fi writer JG Ballard's computer poems predicted ChatGPT
bbc.com – Saturday May 11, 2024
In the 1970s, science fiction writer JG Ballard was intrigued by the growing capabilities of computers – so used one to compose poems. They were a first step on the road to ChatGPT.
The novelist and short story writer JG Ballard, is known for conjuring warped and reimagined versions of the world he occupied. Dealing with strange exaggerations of realities and often detailing the breakdown of social norms, his unconventional works are hard to categorise.
Sitting on the edge of reality, these unsettling visions often provoked controversy. Eschewing a science-fiction of the distant future, Ballard described his own work as being set in "a kind of visionary present".
Today, as we contemplate generative AI writing texts, composing music and creating art, Ballard's visionary present yet again has something prescient and fresh to tell us.
In an interview from 2004, the author Vanora Bennett suggested to Ballard that he writes about "what is just about to happen in a given community". Asked about what "kind of real-life event" inspired the ideas in his fiction Ballard responded:
I just have a feeling in my bones: there's something odd going on, and I explore that by writing a novel, by trying to find the unconscious logic that runs below the surface and looking for the hidden wiring. It's as if there are all these strange lights, and I'm looking for the wiring and the fuse box.
The topics in Ballard's fiction frequently reveal just how highly attuned he was to the subtleties of the emerging technological and social shifts that were, as he puts it, just below the surface. The fuse box of society was often rewired in his ideas.
And with generative AI there is undoubtedly something odd going on, to which Ballard's attention seems to have been drawn long before it even happened.
UK audiobook downloads up 17% last year, Publishers Association data shows
theguardian.com – Wednesday May 8, 2024
The number of UK audiobook downloads increased by 17% between 2022 and 2023, according to new data from the Publishers Association (PA).
Revenue from audiobooks rose 24% across the same period to £206m in 2023, reflecting an increase in the number of audiobook downloads from 50m to 59m, the trade body said.
Over five years, UK audiobook revenue has more than doubled. “It’s fair to say that audio is now a really serious part of the publishing portfolio,” said the PA’s chief executive, Dan Conway. “Audiobooks have established themselves as a major route to market for consumers of books in this country”.
These figures reflect the way the audiobook market has evolved. Spotify made audiobooks available to its Premium subscribers in October, while Audible has expanded from single-narrator audiobooks to those with large, starry casts and sound effects. Sam Mendes-produced audiobooks of David Copperfield and Oliver Twist featuring Ncuti Gatwa, Helena Bonham Carter and Nicola Coughlan were released in the past two years, and there are plans to release new audiobooks of all seven Harry Potter titles, voiced by a cast of more than 100 performers.
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