Will Google ever reopen signups for its Google Play Books self-publishing platform?
9to5google.com – Thursday December 29, 2016
Google “temporarily” stopped allowing new publishers to sign up for its Google Play Books Partner Center more than a year ago, largely due to rampant piracy on the service. Now, a year and a half later (it was originally shuttered in May of 2015), the Partner Center still hasn’t opened back up…
Irish novelist Elizabeth Reapy give her tips on writing a page-turner
irishpost.co.uk – Thursday December 29, 2016
FIRST-TIME novelist Elizabeth Reapy’s debut Red Dirt is a thrilling piece of fiction based on the lives of three Irish emigrants attempting to find their way in Australia.
Here, the Co. Mayo-based author tells Fiona Audley her top tips for any prospective writers…
Rick Pascocello joins Glass Literary Management
firstwriter.com – Tuesday December 27, 2016
Rick Pascocello has joined the boutique literary agency, Glass Literary Management, as a literary agent. Rick previously worked at Penguin Random House for 23 years, where he was Vice President, Executive Director of Marketing.
New Literary Agency Listing
firstwriter.com – Tuesday December 27, 2016
Handles: Fiction; Nonfiction
Areas: Autobiography; Biography; Business; Culture; Entertainment; Health; Historical; Media; Sport
Markets: Adult; Children's
Treatments: Literary; Mainstream; Popular
Send query by email only, directly to one of the two agents -- see website for both email addresses. No attachments, picture books for children, or approaches by post. No response to queries not directly addressed to either one of the agents. Send query letter in the body of your email. Response not guaranteed unless interested.
Caimh McDonnell: too funny and too Irish
irishtimes.com – Wednesday December 21, 2016
Publishing used be a lot like a bad country disco. The publishers in this metaphor are the lovely ladies and the authors are the likely lads. I don’t mean that the ladies stand bored on one side of the hall while the lads are on the other skulling pints. No, this is another kind of bad. Imagine a GAA tournament clashed with a young farmer’s convention and the AGM of the Association of People Called Sean. The ladies are so out-numbered, it’s like the film 300 remade as a romcom.
Good news, though, the publishers found a solution. The ladies hired some bouncers to do their rejecting for them – literary agents. As a lonely author looking for love, you’ve now got to convince one of them to dance with you long before any of the girls will consider it.
Channel 4 begins hunt for new northern writing talent
prolificnorth.co.uk – Wednesday December 21, 2016
Channel 4 has launched its search for new northern writing talent – giving the chance for three writers to win £3,000 bursaries and the opportunity to work on shows including Hollyoaks.
The scheme is open to writers who are new to television and three winners will be placed with independent production companies Lime Pictures and Bonafide Films.
Brisbane author John Birmingham takes leap from trade publishing to go indie
abc.net.au – Saturday December 17, 2016
Brisbane author John Birmingham likens the break with his trade publishers to jumping out a window, but insists the leap was not suicidal and that he has landed firmly on his feet.
The successful author, renowned for his iconic 1994 autobiographical novel He Died With A Felafel In His Hand, has garnered worldwide acclaim in more recent years for mystery thrillers and alternate history novels including The Disappearance trilogy and the Axis of Time series.
All were released with big-name publishers. But in 2015 Birmingham found to his chagrin how quickly those ties could unwind.
A primer on writing from a gifted novelist
usatoday.com – Friday December 16, 2016
Charles Johnson, one of America’s finest novelists (Middle Passage) and foremost thinkers pondering the cosmos of literature, has published a road map to that cosmos as complex, daunting and rewarding as the destination itself. Titled The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling (Scribner, 256 pp., *** out of four stars), this dense little book could just as cogently be called The Rigors of Writing Seriously.
Jill Corcoran Expands into Adult Market
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday December 14, 2016
Jill Corcoran Literary Agency, in an effort to both extend its reach in the children's book market and expand into the adult market, has announced the addition of four new agents.
WME Names 18 New Partners
variety.com – Saturday December 10, 2016
WME has promoted 18 people to partner, across film, television, music, non-scripted television, endorsements, and books.
In New York, Claudia Ballard from the books department, Josh Bider in non-scripted television, and Strand Conover in endorsements were named partners. Shari Lewin, an agent who focuses on endorsement deals for the agency’s country music artists, was also part of the group.
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