CWA creates new Dagger for crime publishers
thebookseller.com – Wednesday August 7, 2019
The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has created a new category for its Dagger awards, Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year.
Maxim Jakubowski, honorary vice-chair of the CWA, said: “As part of the ongoing process of keeping the CWA in the forefront when it comes to crime writing and crime publishing, we felt this was an overdue category in our Daggers, and it becomes the first new Dagger to be created in well over a decade. Publishing houses and imprints are very important to the genre and are instrumental in keeping crime, mystery and thriller writing at the forefront of the reading public's consciousness, and fully deserve the recognition.”
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Tuesday August 6, 2019
Publishes: Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Magazine publishing Haiku. Submit via online submission system available on website.
To Self-Publish Or Not To Self-Publish: What’s The Best Option For Me?
authorlink.com – Friday August 2, 2019
Got your manuscript ready to go? Now you just need to send it away to literary agents, right?
Not necessarily. Read on to learn the pros and cons of self-publishing vs traditional publishing, with some tips for how to get started with each.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday July 31, 2019
Publishes: Fiction;
Areas include: Short Stories;
Markets: Adult
Online magazine publishing fiction up to 10,000 words. Submit via online submission system.
Why is Irish literature thriving? Because its writers and publishers take risks
theguardian.com – Tuesday July 30, 2019
Much has been written about the boom in Irish writing, buoyed by the apparently ceaseless tide of new voices: not a smattering of talent making a splash but waves and waves of writers, going beyond much repeated names such as Sally Rooney and Eimear McBride to the equally talented and ambitious Mike McCormack, Sara Baume, Colin Barrett, Anakana Schofield, Gavin Corbett and Lisa McInerney.
Now there’s more. Having been an all-American affair in 2018, this year the shortlist for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award (the world’s richest short story prize – £30,000 for a single story!) is dominated by the Irish: Kevin Barry, winner of the award in 2012 and just longlisted for this year’s Booker; Danielle McLaughlin from the Republic and Louise Kennedy from Northern Ireland. Joining them on the shortlist are Joe Dunthorne (Welsh), Paul Dalla Rosa, based in Melbourne, and Emma Cline, the sole representative of the US.
E-Book Revenues Decreased In April While Audio Continued Its Strong Streak
forbes.com – Sunday July 28, 2019
E-book revenues continue to drop. April saw publishers face a 2.5% net revenue decrease over the same period in 2018, according to the Association of American Publishers, following decreases in February and March. AAP's figures come from 1,360 participating publishers, though notably do not include data from Amazon's publishing efforts.
Audio, on the other hand, remains strong. Downloaded audio was up 28.7% in April over the same month in 2018—this despite the fact that January through April's net revenues in 2018 were up 36.1% over the same period in 2017.
James Patterson: ‘I've got too many ideas to write all my books myself!'
express.co.uk – Sunday July 28, 2019
THE WORLD'S biggest-selling thriller writer has told how he relies on an army of co-authors to create his books - because he has too many stories in him to write them all himself.
James Patterson has a 4in-thick file where he stores the torrent of ideas pouring out of him every day. He says: "I have so many stories to tell. There are only so many books you can put out there and I could not possibly do all of them myself, so this is one of the attractions of co-writing." By outlining the plots and using emerging talent to write the first draft, which he then edits and rewrites, Patterson has become a one-man publishing phenomenon. With more than 200 adult and children's books to his name, he has sold 385 million copies across the globe.
Hooray for Hollywood
By G. Miki Hayden
Instructor at Writer's Digest University online and private writing coach
firstwriter.com – Sunday July 28, 2019
The movies didn't spoil my books. They're still on the shelves.—James M. Cain, author of The Postman Rings Twice
One writer told me that she had been advised to hold onto the film rights to the book she’s currently making an effort to place. I looked at her blankly. Discussing the sale of film rights to an unsold book is a pretty minuscule—not to say completely irrelevant—consideration. Sell the book first. Moreover, very few books are optioned for film, much less actually turned into one. That said, of course you want to keep whatever rights you are able to, or as large a percentage of them as you can, but never let that be a dealbreaker.
Publishizer Is Building An International Virtual Agency
publishersweekly.com – Saturday July 27, 2019
Can a nomadic Australian tech entrepreneur transform literary agenting? Guy Vincent thinks he can. Vincent says that in 2013 he was living in Singapore and working for Tien Wah Press, one of the region’s largest printers, when his friend Jackie Treagus asked for help publishing her book—a pocked-size cookbook for adventurers titled The Backpacker Chef. Vincent helped Treagus raise $5,220 through crowdfunding, garnering 522 preorders, and thus Publishizer was born.
Fast forward six years and Publishizer has become, Vincent says, “the world’s first crowdfunding literary agency.” He is speaking via phone from Amsterdam, where he lives after moving from Singapore to Bali, then Peru and New York City. The company is based in the Netherlands due to a $420,000 investment from Netherlands-based Arches Capital, which built on an earlier $100,000 investment from 500 Startups, a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley.
Initially, Publishizer launched its own crowdfunding platform to fund books that would then be self-published, taking 5% of the money raised as a fee for the service. As the company grew, it began seeing that publishers were interested in acquiring books that had garnered more than 500 preorders on the platform and began placing books with publishers on behalf of authors. Today, Publishizer takes a fee of 30% of the crowdfunding campaign’s earnings, but it gets no cut of any ensuing publishing deal, and authors are also free to sign up agents and publishers on their own.
Buchwald Becomes Second ATA Literary Agency to Sign Writers Guild Agreement
hollywoodreporter.com – Saturday July 27, 2019
Mid-tier talent agency Buchwald has become the second literary agency to break ranks with the Association of Talent Agents and sign a so-called franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America, just three days after the WGA signed a smaller shop, Kaplan Stahler, and three weeks after the guild sidelined the ATA with a cease-and-desist letter that ended joint talks.
The news, which broke Thursday in a WGA member email, marks a victory for the union in its campaign to reshape agency business practices, particularly around packaging fees and affiliate production, and is likely to increase pressure on other mid-tier firms to sign as well.
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