Hollywood Banks on the Underdog, Pushes Indie Book Publishers Into the Mainstream
prnewswire.com – Wednesday May 18, 2016
BOWIE, Md., May 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Jennifer Barnes and John Lawson, owners of publishing company Raw Dog Screaming Press, find themselves receiving international attention after news that 20th Century Fox will make a novel of theirs into a major motion picture. Writer/filmmaker S. Craig Zahler's Wraiths of the Broken Land, published in 2013 by RDSP, will be director Ridley Scott's entry into the western genre. Hoping to recreate its success from The Martian 20th Century Fox is again pairing Scott with screenwriter Drew Goddard. Producers Simon Kinberg, Michael Schaefer, and Aditya Sood are returning to work on Wraiths, completing The Martian's creative team. This move continues last year's trend of turning to small publishers when planning blockbusters.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday May 18, 2016
Publishes: Fiction; Poetry
Areas include: Short Stories
Markets: Adult
Preferred styles: Literary
Independent small, literary publisher, publishing books, chapbooks, and magazines of poetry and fiction.
BookCon 2016: Too Short for Readers, Just Right for Publishers
publishersweekly.com – Monday May 16, 2016
The biggest complaint from attendees at this year’s BookCon literary fanfest was that it was too short. Held the day after BEA in Chicago’s McCormick Place, on May 14, attendees were thrilled to be in Chicago, and very happy with the venue, the programming, and the show’s logistics, but disappointed that this year’s event had been downsized to one day from last year’s two-day event. As for the participating publishers, many of whom had spent three days previously exhibiting at BEA, they were very satisfied with how the show went, but happy that for them it meant only one more day inside McCormick Place rather than two.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Monday May 16, 2016
Publishes: Fiction; Poetry
Areas include: Short Stories
Markets: Adult
Preferred styles: Literary
Publishes poetry, short stories, and flash fiction. Send up to 6 poems, or one story up to 4,000 words, per year. Submissions by post only, with SASE for reply.
10-minute play festival
etcmemphistheater.com – Monday May 16, 2016
Emerald Theatre Company in Memphis is proud to announce it's first annual 10-minute play festival. The theme is "Out of the Closet" Deadline June 30th.
Publishers Database upgraded
firstwriter.com – Sunday May 15, 2016
Following last month's upgrade of the Magazines Database, firstwriter.com's Publishers Database has now also been upgraded.
The new-look Publishers Database features the same enhancements to the search, navigation, and listings as was introduced for the Magazines Database, making finding the right publisher for your work easier than ever.
For full details of all the new features, see the news item on the launch of the Magazines Database at https://www.firstwriter.com/news/?New-Magazines-Database-launched&GUID=584
To try out the new database yourself (anyone can try it out – you don't need to be a subscriber), go to https://www.firstwriter.com/publishers
Publishers Say E-Book Sales Fell in the U.K. Last Year
fortune.com – Saturday May 14, 2016
The U.K. Publishers Association has released its latest annual sales figures, recording the first fall in e-book sales (at least, those from traditional publishers) in the seven years they’ve been tracked.
E-book sales fell 1.6% from £563 million ($811 million) in 2014 to £554m in 2015. Over the same period, physical sales rose 0.4% from £2,748 million to £2,760 million—the first rise in physical sales in four years.
The Five Stages of Writing a Novel
huffingtonpost.co.uk – Thursday May 12, 2016
Few things in life are more daunting than attempting to write a novel. Leaving aside the amount of words you have to write (novels are usually around 80,000 - 100,000 words), there's the enormity of having to create an entire world, peopled by characters that have come straight out of your imagination. Most difficult of all, you have to keep that world spinning; keep it interesting, keep the twists and turns coming, right up to the very end.
The 15 Stages of Sitting Down to Write
bustle.com – Wednesday May 11, 2016
We all know that the life of a professional writer is exciting, glamorous, and filled with unqualified success. The only downside to a career in writing is the actual writing. Writing, as most people already know, is impossible. If you've ever tried to write something, be it a novel or a term paper, you're probably well acquainted with the struggle of actually sitting down to write.
Know a budding writer? Roddy Doyle has ten tips to get them writing
irishtimes.com – Wednesday May 11, 2016
It’s there in front of you - the blank space with the blinking cursor or the empty page in a notebook. Your fingers grasp the pencil or the pen; your hands hover over the keyboard. There’s so much to say but how to start and, once started, how to keep going? That’s the challenge. You and only you can do it, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
Here's Roddy Doyle with some tips.
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