What Amazon's Mysterious 50% Royalty 'Error' Says About Self-Publishing
forbes.com – Sunday January 28, 2018
Authors using Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon's e-book publishing unit, were given a shock when they turned to their KDP dashboards on January 9: A "50%" royalty rate had appeared between the normal 35% and 70% on the dashboard. The new feature was unclickable, unexplained, and had quickly vanished by the next day. “This was an error and we apologize for any confusion. None of our royalty terms have changed,” an Amazon spokesperson informed me when I asked. Though nothing else has been confirmed, the self-publishing community has been swift to make their informed opinions known.
SleuthFest 2018 Announces Special Programming Geared Towards Helping Writers Succeed
markets.businessinsider.com – Saturday January 27, 2018
BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mystery Writers of America's Florida Chapter will host the SleuthFest 2018 Writers Conference March 1-4, 2018 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Boca Raton, Florida. One of the country's premier conferences for writers, SleuthFest is an intensive four-day conference featuring writing workshops, social events, and pitch sessions. SleuthFest includes four tracks of workshops, presentations, and panels on the craft of writing, business, traditional and self-publishing, marketing, and forensics. In addition, top literary agents and editors will be available to hear pitches from aspiring writers, offer troubleshooting sessions, and manuscript critiques. SleuthFest also features the annual Freddie Awards for Writing Excellence and the SleuthFest Author Auction, where attendees can bid on such once-in-a-lifetime experiences as one-on-one sessions, critiques, and character naming opportunities featuring the conference's guests of honor, agents, and editors.
ICM Partners Acquires Lit Outfit The Sagalyn Agency, Opens D.C. Office
deadline.com – Friday January 26, 2018
ICM Partners has acquired The Sagalyn Agency, the Washington D.C.-based literary agency that reps leading journalists, historians, biographers, scientists, thought leaders and novelists. The deal comes four years after ICM and Raphael Sagalyn’s company formed an alliance that melded Sagalyn’s strong nonfiction author list and ICM’s roster dominated by fiction authors.
Dear younger writer self, can I give you some advice?
irishtimes.com – Thursday January 25, 2018
Joan Brady on taking the scenic route to write her novel, missing her deadline to go from journalist to author by a mere 20 years.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Thursday January 25, 2018
Publishes: Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Online poetry journal. Submit up to five poems of any length via online submission system.
I often reward writing a thousand words with a latte and eight jammie dodgers
irishtimes.com – Wednesday January 24, 2018
Louise Beech: Writing without a deal, agent or audience means you can be the most honest you’ll probably ever be
Adversity is a great place for inspiration. It lends a sort of desperation, a need to create and make something good when the world seems against us. It’s not a great place to permanently live, but without experiencing it for at least a good period of time we don’t grow, survive, or scream to be heard. During adversity, we write hungry. I mean this in a spiritual way, not literally, though it can help to be physically hungry too. I often reward writing a thousand words with a latte and eight Jammie Dodgers.
New Literary Agency Listing
firstwriter.com – Tuesday January 23, 2018
Handles: Nonfiction
Areas: Autobiography; Culture; Health; Philosophy; Politics; Psychology; Spiritual
Markets: Adult
Send single-page query by email with information about your proposed book, your publishing history, and any media or online platform you have developed. Response only if interested.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Monday January 22, 2018
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction;
Markets: Children's; Youth
Publishes fiction and nonfiction for teens and young adults. Send complete ms with full synopsis by email only. Prefers Word and PDF files. Response only if interested.
Why Writing Network Startups Are Banking On Serialized Storytelling
forbes.com – Sunday January 21, 2018
The publishing industry might not be as buzzy as film or TV, but it still attracts its share of startups: Startup database Angel List currently holds 2,261 companies under the "publishing" rubric, at an average valuation of $3.7 million.
Granted, many of these are news curators or offer website templates, but of the fiction-centric startups, the success stories are built on a strongly engaged base of users. How do these writing networks chase engagement? They master the art of page-turning addiction.
Serialized storytelling isn't new. Serialized folklore and literature includes Homer, Dickens, and 1,001 Arabian Nights. The concept adapts to new formats: Pulp fiction has profited from their heroes' endless exploits since the dime store novel, and the 1920s-era Stratemeyer Syndicate further improved on the model with ghostwritten series like Nancy Drew, the Bobsey Twins and the Hardy Boys. These books promoted previous stories at the front of the book and often ended with previews teasing the title of the next installment — and the syndicate even instructed writers to end chapters and even pages mid-scene. The result was a literal $0.50 page-turner.
firstwriter.magazine final issue - out now
firstwriter.com – Sunday January 21, 2018
This month sees the launch of the last ever issue of firstwriter.magazine.
firstwriter.magazine has been published twice a year since 2002, making it probably one of the longest-running online journals on the internet. All good things must come to an end, however, and issue 32 will be the last issue of firstwriter.magazine. Managing Editor, J. Paul Dyson, gave the following explanation about the decision to end the long-running publication:
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