Middlebrow? What's so shameful about writing a book and hoping it sells?
theguardian.com – Thursday November 5, 2015
Reading the recent Sydney Review of Books essay, Could Not Put It Down, it’s difficult to work out who its author, Beth Driscoll, intended to insult the most: readers for liking middlebrow books, writers for having the temerity to write them, or publishers for bowing to the demons of commerce by printing them.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday November 4, 2015
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction;
Areas include: Military; Mystery; Romance; Suspense; Thrillers;
Markets: Adult; Youth
Send submissions by email with brief bio, writing background and publishing history, social networks used, decsription of your book, and the first four chapters as a Microsoft Word attachment.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Tuesday November 3, 2015
Publishes: Essays; Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Areas include: Short Stories;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Publishes, poetry, short stories, novel excerpts (if self-contained), personal essays, and memoir excerpts (if self-contained). Send up to six poems maximum at a time. Reading period runs from November 1 to April 15. Will consider long works, but query before submitting prose over 8,000 words or poems over 10 pages. No unsolicited books reviews or criticism. Prefers to receive submissions through online submission system.
Ten things I learned about writing from Stephen King
theguardian.com – Saturday October 31, 2015
The novelist James Smythe, who has been analysing the work of Stephen King for the Guardian since 2012, on the lessons he has drawn from the master of horror fiction
Lit Agent Mike Esola Exits WME
deadline.com – Saturday October 31, 2015
Longtime WME lit agent Mike Esola has left the agency. Word is that Esola and the agency came to a parting of the ways over a number of issues, including wanting to become a partner right away.
Mitch Hoffman to Join Aaron Priest Agency
publishersweekly.com – Friday October 30, 2015
Mitch Hoffman, current v-p and executive editor at Grand Central Publishing, is joining the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency as a senior agent. He will start his new position on November 30.
Hoffman has edited and published over 200 books, both fiction and nonfiction. His list of authors has included Jeff Abbott, David Baldacci, Harlan Coben, Jeffery Deaver, Raymond Khoury, Brad Meltzer, Tom Rob Smith and Don Winslow.
Turns Out Writing Gay Romance Is More Complicated Than Just Plagiarizing Straight Romances
jezebel.com – Friday October 30, 2015
Stephenie Meyer recently demonstrated that taking one of your old novels and “rewriting” it as a gender-bent retelling can be a lucrative way to appeal to one’s fans. But what if the story that you’re writing up isn’t yours to begin with? A romance novelist specializing in gay fiction has just been uncovered as a plagiarist due to her interesting practice of taking others’ work, switching the gender of one main character and calling it her own. Her response? She “made a mistake.”
This is a clever app for creative writing: You don’t get to see what you’ve just written
thenextweb.com – Friday October 30, 2015
There are plenty of minimalist, ‘distraction-free’ writing apps out there, butIlys is by far the most distraction-free I’ve ever seen.
As the annual National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short) approaches, you might be looking for a tool to help you build up a longform piece of work. Ilys helps you get on with writing thanks to a simple twist: you don’t get to see what you’ve just written.
Publishers sell empty calories, but kids want meatier books
thetimesherald.com – Friday October 30, 2015
In 1998, when I first presented the concept for the children’s TV series Blue’s Clues to a roomful of television executives, my proposal was met with nearly complete skepticism. At the time, conventional wisdom held that children were afflicted with “short attention spans,” yet I was proposing a continuous 25-minute narrative, which is more than seven times longer than anyone believed the attention of a preschooler could be held. The only way to get preschoolers to engage with a TV series, the executives insisted, was to give them easily digestible bits of content in a “magazine format,” like most other preschool series.
Virginia Pye On Books, Publishers & the Dreaded Sophomore Jinx
huffingtonpost.com – Thursday October 29, 2015
We first met Virginia Pye at the James River Writers Conference (another reason to attend what is a great conference) and we were immediately struck by how curious she was. How she asked questions. How she seemed to want to know. We believe this is one of the most important characteristics an author can have, especially one who is starting out, but it really applies to anyone. We were overjoyed when her first novel came out, and now she has a second. We thought we'd pick her brain about what it's like to go through the process the first time, and then do it all over again.
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