Literary agent Emily Hickman: ‘First and foremost, we are passionate advocates for our clients’
thestage.co.uk – Monday October 21, 2019
Representing writers and directors for stage and screen, Emily Hickman also manages the dramatic rights of authors at The Agency. Having most recently worked with Marina Carr on Blood Wedding, she tells Ruth Comerford what it takes to manage clients…
How did you become an agent?
I was always really passionate about theatre; I did a lot of student drama at university. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do specifically so I wrote to lots of theatres and was lucky to get an internship at the Donmar Warehouse, which was amazing and led to a role working in its casting and development department. I started doing a bit of script reading and realised that what I’d really like to do is work with writers in some capacity. I assisted another agent and his clients for several years before I started taking on my own clients alongside his, and built my own list. It took many years.
Karl Ove Knausgaard's latest work to remain unseen until 2114
theguardian.com – Sunday October 20, 2019
Karl Ove Knausgaard, who detailed the minutiae of his own life in the six-volume autobiographical novel My Struggle, has taken on a new challenge: the Norwegian writer is to become the sixth contributor to the Future Library, which collects works by contemporary authors that will remain unread until 2114.
The Future Library is described as a “living, breathing, organic artwork, unfolding over 100 years” by its creator, the Scottish artist Katie Paterson. It currently consists of 1,000 spruce trees that were planted in Oslo’s Nordmarka forest in 2014. After a century, they will be cut down and turned into paper. On this, the manuscripts by participating authors including Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell and Elif Shafak, will finally be printed.
Knausgaard is the first Norwegian writer to contribute to the project; Paterson called him “one of the most exceptional authors of the 21st century”.
Stephen King's mansion in the town that influenced It to host writing retreats
independent.co.uk – Friday October 18, 2019
Stephen King's home in Bagnor, Maine is being turned into a writer's retreat after the author and his wife, Tabitha, were granted permission to rezone the mansion as a non-profit.
The building will now become an archive of King's work, where visits will be possible by appointment, and host up to five writers at a time. The family are unlikely to be home while the writers' residencies are ongoing.
City councillor Ben Sprague told Rolling Stone: "The King family has been wonderful to the city of Bangor over time and have donated literally millions of dollars to various causes in the community.
Eurospan acquires Transatlantic Publishers Group
thebookseller.com – Thursday October 17, 2019
Eurospan has acquired academic and educational sales agency Transatlantic Publishers Group for an undisclosed sum.
TGP offers US specialist academic and technical presses sales and marketing services in Europe and the Middle East. The agency was founded in 2002 and current clients include American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Industrial Press, SAP Press and Kendall-Hunt Publishing.
Transatlantic m.d. Mark Chaloner will be stepping down from his post after a brief handover period. TPG will continue to use Orca Book Services for warehousing and fulfillment services in place of Eurospan’s sister distribution company Turpin Books.
Mundy sets up UK outpost of ACM US
thebookseller.com – Thursday October 17, 2019
Toby Mundy is to head up the new British arm of the US-based Aevitas Creative Management (ACM), with industry veterans Trevor Dolby and Natalie Jerome among the agents joining him.
Mundy will merge his Toby Mundy Associates (TMA), the agency he launched in 2014, with the newly-minted ACM UK and act as the British outpost’s chairman and c.e.o.
Mundy said he loved running TMA, but “by being part of something larger, we will be able to offer our clients more”. He added: “I think long-term success in this industry comes from great people working in a great culture. The creative, collaborative, and collegial atmosphere at ACM has been foundational to its success and I believe that by working with the outstanding team in the US, we can build something similar here.”
One Neat Trick to Writing Great Mystery Plots
vulture.com – Thursday October 17, 2019
I spend a lot of time thinking about a Raymond Chandler quote I once read. “The perfect detective story cannot be written,” he said. “The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce the artistic job of writing.”
Well — shoot. It has the ring of truth to it, unfortunately. Almost every writer seems to start out interested either in narrative or talking, story or language, before filling in the rest later. This is why it’s funny when literary novelists who couldn’t write a competent John Wick novelization (I put this challenge squarely to A.S. Byatt) call J.K. Rowling a bad writer. She’s an indifferent stylist, sure, but in most of the other ways a writer can be “good” — character, plot, imagination — she’s brilliant. Past brilliant. Meanwhile Chandler, whom many of the same people (rightly) revere, could never, as he freely admitted, explain who killed the chauffeur in The Big Sleep.
The contemporary novelist who comes closest to real parity between story and art may be Tana French. Her most striking gift is for voice, but if her plots aren’t flawless, you can see nonetheless how hard she works to make them very, very good, with just an occasional faint seam showing, nothing more. But that’s almost certainly a product of tenacity and intelligence, not instinct. I would bet French has spent more time thinking about structure than Agatha Christie — who hatched her perfect plots in the bathtub, serenely eating apples — ever did.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday October 16, 2019
Publishes: Fiction;
Areas include: Humour; Short Stories;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Publishes novels and short story collections between 45,000 and 100,000 words. Only accepts work from writers who have not yet published a book of literary fiction. Particularly looking for female and LGBTQ voices. Submit via online submission system. $7.13 fee per submission.
New Literary Agent Listing: Rachel Ekstrom
firstwriter.com – Wednesday October 16, 2019
Agent at Folio Literary Literary Management, handling fiction and nonfiction for adults, children, and young adults. Send query by email with writing sample.
Removing the Mystery From Mystery Writing: 13 Tricks Used by Acclaimed Novelists
vulture.com – Tuesday October 15, 2019
What makes reading a good mystery so satisfying? A writer’s hard work. A complex story à la Gone Girl doesn’t just pop out of a writer’s brain fully formed on a random Tuesday. Giving readers what they crave is about structure and pacing and, ultimately, originality. In 2019, it’s also about writing characters with more depth than your archetypal male dick motivated by some dead girl who maybe, if she’s lucky, gets to have a name.
To learn more about the elements of great mystery architecture, Vulture asked eight masters of the form to anatomize their thinking, from the most conceptual level down to the technical details. None of their tips or habits are compulsory, and some even contradict one another, but together they represent craft perfected to the level of art. (Spoiler: Literal crafts are sometimes involved.)
Experts reveal their top tips for how to write a book
goodhousekeeping.com – Tuesday October 15, 2019
If you want to know how to write a book, we've got the answer. While it's a daunting task, it's not impossible and here, experts share their top tips to help you get published.
November marks National Novel Writing Month, a global initiative which aims to inspire and encourage writers across the world.
The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month – which sounds daunting but in fact is just over 1000 a day. So if you’ve always wanted to know how to write a book, now is the perfect time.
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