New Literary Agent Listing: Sheila Crowley
firstwriter.com – Friday January 17, 2020
"My list is primarily quality fiction, psychological suspense thrillers and books in the personal development and mindfulness area. Narrative memoir, especially Irish ones, are also on my wish list."
Book Publishers Settle Copyright Battle With Audible Over Captioning Service
mediapost.com – Thursday January 16, 2020
Seven book publishers have settled a lawsuit with Amazon's Audible over a captioning service that could allow people to read along while listening to books, according to court papers filed this week.
Settlement terms have not yet been revealed. U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni in the Southern District of New York, who presided over the litigation, officially dismissed the matter Tuesday.
The move brings an end to a high-profile copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster and Chronicle.
They argued in a complaint filed in federal court last August that Audible's captioning service could directly compete with their own physical books and e-books. Hachette and the others alleged the service would infringe their rights by “taking copyrighted works and repurposing them.”
Submissions are now open for the 2020 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
qmul.ac.uk – Thursday January 16, 2020
From 15 January to 1 June 2020, the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize will be receiving submissions from around the world. The competition is open to any writers who have not yet published a book-length work in their chosen genre, regardless of age, gender, nationality, or background. The grand prize of £1,000 is available in each category: Fiction, Life Writing, and Poetry.
In addition to the cash prize, winners and shortlisted writers may be eligible for a Chapter and Verse Award, courtesy of The Literary Consultancy, worth £2,000, or Free Reads mentoring, to support them as they grow their writing careers.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Thursday January 16, 2020
Publishes: Fiction;
Areas include: Mystery; Suspense;
Markets: Adult
Publishes mystery and suspense novels only. Accepts approaches via post or email. See website for full submission guidelines.
Amazon Publishes Books by Top Authors, and Rivals Fret
wsj.com – Wednesday January 15, 2020
When Dean Koontz’s book contract expired last year, his stature as one of the country’s top-selling authors made him a hot target for several major publishing houses. He chose Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.48%
It was a surprising move because it means his new books likely won’t appear in retail stores, which generally boycott Amazon AMZN -0.47% -published titles. But Mr. Koontz is banking on Amazon’s vast retail machine to get his work to readers, whether in physical or digital formats.
“Maybe I won’t be in some stores or make the New York Times best-seller list, but I’m willing to take that risk and I think we’ll sell more books in all formats,” Mr. Koontz said.
Children/YA Sales Rose, Adult Sales Fell in October
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday January 15, 2020
Sales in the children/young adult category jumped 20.9% in October over October 2018, according to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program. The increase was led by the performance of Wrecking Ball, which helped lift sales of hardcovers, where sales rose 29.3% over October 2018. Sales of paperbacks increased 21.7%. For the first 10 months of 2019, sales in the children/young adult segment were up 9.9% over the comparable period of 2018.
Sales of adult books did not perform nearly as well as children/young adult. In October, sales fell 3.7% as sales of all formats except trade paperback (up 3.2%) and downloadable audio (ahead 16.3%) fell. The mass market paperback category had a particularly bad month, with sales tumbling 38% compared to October 2018.
Rebus author Ian Rankin to chair this year's Harrogate crime writing festival
yorkpress.co.uk – Tuesday January 14, 2020
Ian Rankin, best-selling author of the Inspector Rebus novels, has been unveiled as the chair of this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.
The author, who has sold more than 20 million books, has been charged with pulling together a “most wanted” list of guest authors and speakers to headline the four-day event at Harrogate’s Old Swan Hotel from July 23-26.
Helen Donkin, the Harrogate International Festivals Literature Festival Manager, said: “Ian has been one of the crime writing festival’s greatest supporters and we are delighted that he has agreed to become the 2020 Programming Chair."
New Literary Agent Listing: Jordan Lees
firstwriter.com – Tuesday January 14, 2020
Represents crime and thrillers of all stripes (whether commercial or more literary), including speculative thrillers; literary fiction; true crime and smart non-fiction. Particularly drawn to writing with a real sense of atmosphere and has a soft spot for anything dark and strange.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Monday January 13, 2020
Publishes: Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Submit 1-3 poems through online submission system. Accepts previously published poems and simultaneous submissions. Include short bio.
5 Advantages of Publishing Your Work as an eBook
goodereader.com – Saturday January 11, 2020
A lot of authors are shy when it comes to the idea of publishing their work as an eBook. There’s something nostalgic about a print book – for some people it’s the smell of paper, for some people it’s just nice to mark their progress with the turn of each page.
Even so, eBooks are rapidly becoming more popular as a form of self-publishing. There are numerous advantages to publishing digitally rather than in print, and a few of these are outlined below.
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