A boom in the business of literary agents in India
dnaindia.com – Sunday March 13, 2016
For publishers looking to bet on the next, potential big selling author, Aditya Mukherjee would seem to tick all the right boxes — he is an MBA from an IIM, a start-up entrepreneur and his 2013 book Boomtown is a pacey, good read. Yet, when he'd finished writing Boomtown, Mukherjee had little idea what to do. He didn't know any commissioning editors, how to get his manuscript across to them, or make sure they read it. Being the enterprising kind, he read up on the subject and decided that he needed an agent to represent him. He got himself one — Mumbai-based Purple Folio, started by Urmila Dasgupta, and in three months, he had a deal with Rupa.
The New Indie and the Self-Publishing Revolution
publishersweekly.com – Saturday March 12, 2016
Independent publishing doesn't mean what it used to. When I started in publishing in 2000, indie publishers were simply non-corporate, or independently owned. The label was reserved for small traditional presses that wore the indie label with pride because of what “indie” signifies, then and now—a spirit of independence, of course, but also of not needing approval or to operate within the parameters of the existing paradigm.
Powerful Writing App Ulysses Launches on the iPhone
lifehacker.co.uk – Saturday March 12, 2016
Popular writing app Ulysses has been available for some time on desktop and iPad devices, enabling those who need to write regularly, like journalists, writers or teachers to use its clean interface and easy organisational structure to find what they need fast and write, write, write with no distractions.
How Publishers and ‘Hybrid’ Authors Are Working Together
digitalbookworld.com – Friday March 11, 2016
In a time when authors have multiple avenues to publish their books, many publishers are finding themselves broadening their offerings to authors. And this trend has resulted in more “hybrid” authors who both self-publish and work with traditional publishers at the same time.
Tips from 5 Literary Agents Representing Latino Authors
nbcnews.com – Friday March 11, 2016
While we hear of the need for diverse books and that Latinos are a growing demographic, getting a book published by a reputable press can be a daunting task. First you write the book or craft a book proposal, then you must find an agent by submitting queries and samples of the manuscript so that the agent can then send the manuscript to the bigger publishing houses or even smaller presses. This process can demoralize even the most positive individuals. For Latino writers the climb can be so steep, it might seem impossible.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Friday March 11, 2016
Publishes: Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Publishes first collections of poetry by poets who have an established track-record of publication in poetry magazines.
Major publishers’ e-book sales stagnate as overall market grows
seattletimes.com – Thursday March 10, 2016
While sales of e-books from major publishers have declined since 2014 — the year many gained the right to price their digital titles sold through Amazon — the overall market continues to progress, helped by independent and nontraditional publishing.
Writing Your Blurb or Bio: The Essential Points
huffingtonpost.com – Thursday March 10, 2016
Your blurb or bio is a short, concise, effective introduction and description of yourself. It can be used and inserted in myriad ways: for your company profile, as an introduction at meetings or presentations, on social media sites such as LinkedIn, for your articles, blogs or books, and whenever and wherever you need a pithy, interesting and informative description of yourself. The essential characteristics of effective and memorable blurbs are:
Tax Court Holds That Family Vacations Are Not Deductible As Book-Writing Research
forbes.com – Thursday March 10, 2016
For the past few years, I’ve harbored the hope that I would author a children’s book. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered two small problems that have thus far kept me from fulfilling my goal:
- I have no ideas, and
- I have no talent.
Should those two things change, however, I’ll be off and running. And once that happens, I had hoped to turn my two kids into what I always dreamed they’d become: big ol’ tax deductions.
Monkeys, Shakespeare, Writing and Me
huffingtonpost.com – Thursday March 10, 2016
There's an adage that says, "If you put 100 monkeys with typewriters in a room long enough, eventually they'll write Hamlet." It requires just a nanosecond of reflection to realize that the monkeys wouldn't actually be writing. They'd merely be typing. But the idea is they'd be typing fast and furious and eventually create something worth reading.
This is the biggest year I've ever experienced as a writer and there are indeed times when I feel like the aforementioned monkeys. I have four books being published in 2016 -- one each in January, March, April and May. When I mention the four books in conversation, people often regard me with incredulous shock. How is such a thing possible? Do you write non-stop? Did you write all four books simultaneously? Were you actually just monkey-typing?
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