Pitch your book to Jacana publishers!
jacana.bookslive.co.za – Wednesday April 12, 2017
Like many publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts, we receive a large number of submissions every week. This means hours spent wading through many emails as we try to give every author feedback on their work. Writers often try to arrange meetings with publishers, convinced that meeting the publisher in person will persuade them to publish the book, but with only so many hours in a day this isn’t always feasible.
Visitors to get clued up on Agatha Christie at crime writing festival
nwemail.co.uk – Wednesday April 5, 2017
Crime fiction fans will be able to visit a major exhibition celebrating Agatha Christie this summer at the hotel where she was found after her mysterious disappearance in 1926.
The Poirot and Miss Marple writer famously left her Surrey home on December 3 1926 and was discovered 11 days later staying under an assumed name at a hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, but with no recollection of how she got there.
This year's star-studded Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is to be held at that same hotel - the Old Swan Hotel - over four days in July.
Publishers Did Marginally Better in 2016
publishersweekly.com – Sunday April 2, 2017
Four of the five large publicly held trade publishers managed to improve their operating margins in 2016 over 2015, despite generally weak revenue performances.
Penguin Random House, which reported its results last week, saw revenue fall 9.6% in 2016, to €3.36 billion, but since EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) dropped only 3.6%, its operating margin in the year rose to 16%, from 15% in 2015. In a letter to employees, PRH CEO Markus Dohle said that a key to maintaining strong profitability levels has been the company’s commitment to “preserving a vital and vibrant bookselling community” as well as “maximizing efficiencies in our cutting-edge supply chain.” Dohle also noted PRH’s long-term commitment to print—“even when it was in decline earlier this decade”—and its use of technology to increase the reach of its books.
Missing Oxford comma shows why writing skills matter
ft.com – Wednesday March 29, 2017
“For want of a comma, we have this case.” So begins a ruling this month by David Barron, a US Court of Appeals judge, deciding in favour of five Maine truck drivers who claimed they had been wrongly denied overtime payments by a dairy company with an inadequate grasp of English punctuation.
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