Portico prize winner Benjamin Myers: 'Why bother chasing the big publishers?'
theguardian.com – Wednesday December 9, 2015
After being turned down by ‘every major publisher in London’ for his Portico winning novel Beastings, the author says landing the £10,000 prize ‘felt like a vindication’.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday December 9, 2015
Publishes: Fiction; Poetry;
Areas include: Short Stories;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Publishes poetry and fiction. Submit one story up to 5,000 words or up to five poems by post only with SASE. No submissions by email. Reading period runs from September 1 to December 1 annually.
Should Writing Be an Art or a Career?
newrepublic.com – Tuesday December 8, 2015
There’s a very funny photograph taken by Brassaï of Pablo Picasso posing in his Paris studio. Picasso had acquired a giant oil painting of a nude woman from an antique shop, and he strikes an affected pose before it, his brush poised and his little finger extended, as though he’s preparing to make the finishing touch on a masterwork. The actor Jean Marais is stretched out on the floor beside him, pretending to serve as the model despite being fully dressed. The target of the joke is clear: Picasso was ridiculing the pretensions and conventions of the professional painter. “I am not a professional artist,” Brassaï recounts him repeating, “as if he were claiming innocence of a slander.”
What Acclaimed Authors Love About Writing
huffingtonpost.com – Monday December 7, 2015
Over the years, I've had the incredibly good fortune of interviewing many of the most widely-read novelists on the planet. I often (but not always) ask certain questions of each author. One of my favorites is: What do you love about the writing life?
Rude rejection letters could cost you the next JK Rowling or George Orwell, publishers warned
independent.co.uk – Monday December 7, 2015
JK Rowling was advised not to quit her day job, George Orwell was informed there was “no market” for animal stories and Rudyard Kipling was told he clearly did not understand the English language.
There are countless such tales of writerly brilliance being turned away with a snooty dismissal. But in an age when it is increasingly easy to self-publish, whether online or in print, one publishing house has warned others to think again before sending rude rejection letters, for the sake of future profits.
The idea that rude publishers force future literary stars to self-publish sounds like codswallop
independent.co.uk – Monday December 7, 2015
There were some house rules: no film scripts, plays or poetry. Want to publish a children’s book? Not with us you don’t. A book on self-help? Give us a break.
For an arrogant almost graduate with an inflated sense of literary worth, it seemed the perfect job. Read the stuff the great unwashed think is a future bestseller then, with nary a thought for the pain it would cause, tell them what utter drivel it was and why, even if they were the last words on earth, you still wouldn’t read them.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Monday December 7, 2015
Publishes: Poetry;
Areas include: Romance;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Poetry magazine publishing Romantic and Epic poetry in rhyming form. Also runs annual poetry award and live poetry events.
Eschew thesaurophilia
economist.com – Friday December 4, 2015
It’s rare for a bit of writing advice to get something quite this wrong. The headline from theWall Street Journal says it all:
‘Use More Expressive Words!’ Teachers Bark, Beseech, Implore. To encourage lively writing, instructors put certain words to rest; no more ‘fun’
Though it purports to be a trend piece, it is an old practice: teachers not just encouraging but requiring students to vary their vocabulary by banning certain common, plain English words, and making the students to choose from a list of bigger and fancier words to replace them.
Skrawl Online Screenwriters' Room
By Alexandra Daniel
BoomWriter Media
firstwriter.com – Thursday December 3, 2015
Skrawl, the free online community that turns the storytelling process into a social media experience, will be going Hollywood in January 2016, and it wants to take one talented undiscovered writer along for the ride.
For the first time in decades, the best book ever written about writing is back in print
vox.com – Thursday December 3, 2015
In 1948, an instructor at the University of Illinois strode into a classroom to tell his playwriting students everything he'd learned about writing for the stage and, by extension, the screen. His students were many things — ordinary college kids, men recently returned from the war, women who were the first in their families to pursue higher education. The professor had written a few plays and some screenplays. You probably wouldn't recognize his name. The book, compiled from his lectures and conversations with students, could have been a minor tome.
But it wasn't. The result was (and still is) the greatest book ever written about the craft of dramatic writing — or maybe just writing, period. Published in 1949, it's a uniquely American work, in both its preoccupations and its conception. It perfectly captures a country on the brink of a new world order that it would stand astride with relative confidence and ease.
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