Ebooks: How digital publishers are 'shaking up' the industry
bbc.com – Wednesday August 8, 2018
JK Rowling notoriously received numerous rejections before meeting her literary agent, and later, publisher. Having stacked up at least 60 rejections in my writing career, I know exactly how that feels.
And while being a novelist recently came out on top in a survey as one of the most desirable jobs to have, it is definitely not for the faint hearted.
I now have an agent and an award, but it wasn't always that way.
As a writer, the first step to securing a publishing deal is to acquire an agent, a middle-man, basically your number one fan who will shout about how good you are to publishers and hopefully persuade them to read your carefully-crafted novel.
They are the gatekeepers to the publishing industry.
Digital publishers, however, are changing the game because they talk directly to authors.
ICM Promotes Three to Agents
variety.com – Tuesday August 7, 2018
Talent agency ICM Partners has promoted three to agents.
ICM upped Celestine Au and Madeline Feder to agents in the talent department, and Viviane Telio to agent in the motion picture literary department.
Au started at ICM in 2015, spending two years as a talent department assistant before being promoted to talent department coordinator last year. Au was recognized as one of Variety’s 10 Assistants to Watch in 2017 and is part of Time’s Up Next Gen. She was born in Hong Kong and raised in Shanghai before moving to the U.S. to attend UCLA, where she completed 12 internships and graduated with a degree in communication studies. She is fluent in Mandarin and has traveled to China with ICM agents, acting as an interpreter, and helping the team close deals and sign clients.
The one piece of advice every aspiring author needs to know
independent.co.uk – Sunday August 5, 2018
If you are one of the millions of people who aspire to be a published author, I have some writing advice for you: never listen to writing advice.
Not that it’s easy to avoid. If you go on Twitter and follow the hashtag #amwriting you’ll get more unsolicited advice than you know what to do with. Do this, do that, don’t on any account do the other. Everyone it seems, has some rules for you to follow.
Which is hardly surprising, as literally almost everybody is writinga book. And I use the phrase “literally almost everybody” advisedly. At the BookExpo America conference in 2015, author Jane McGonigal claimed that 90 per cent of young people in the US say they want to write a book.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Friday August 3, 2018
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction;
Markets: Adult; Youth
Describes itself as a conventional independent publishing house that thinks unconventionally. Willing to consider most genres of fiction and nonfiction, other than hate books and gratuitous pornography. Approach using submission form on website.
Agent Danielle Smith’s Former Clients Speak Out
publishersweekly.com – Thursday August 2, 2018
The children’s book publishing world has been roiling for the past week over the disclosure that Danielle Smith, the principal of Lupine Grove Creative, an agency specializing in children’s and YA authors, acted more like a literary grifter than a literary agent. Since Smith emailed a letter to her clients on July 24, confessing that recently she had “not handled a situation as well as I should have” and thus was dissolving the agency effective immediately, 19 former clients have reached out to PW, sharing tales of a pattern of malfeasance that has shaken their confidence and adversely affected their careers.
According to some former clients, she claimed to have had offers in hand that didn’t exist, such as, one author requesting anonymity disclosed, a $50,000 two-book deal. She informed others that editors had expressed interest in their submissions, but subsequently told them that either the editors had then lost interest or had outright rejected those submissions. Clients also complained about Smith’s refusal to communicate with them honestly and in a timely fashion, as well as the lack of transparency, including a reluctance to render submission lists to them upon request. A few clients allege that she even forged emails from editors and passed this correspondence along to them.
How to Write a Book Without Losing Your Mind
theatlantic.com – Thursday August 2, 2018
A few months ago, I promised some nice people in New York that I would, sometime very soon, write a book.
Since then, I have:
Called my mom rejoicing.
Called my mom crying.
Considered changing my Twitter bio, then thought better of it.
Considered emailing all my ex-boyfriends and mentors to let them know I’m an impostor, then thought better of it.
Extensively researched three different long-form writing softwares, only to find that I prefer the first one I ever tried.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Thursday August 2, 2018
Publishes: Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Online magazine publishing poems that are unique or thought provoking. No religious poems, nature poems, greeting card styled poems or teenage angst. Send submissions in the body of an email with bio up to 75 words and author photo.
Why Are So Many Wannabe Screenwriters Getting Scammed?
hollywoodreporter.com – Wednesday August 1, 2018
From "pitch fests" to online script coaches, an entire cottage industry has sprung up to help aspiring scribes crack the movie business, and while some offerings are legit, many are schemes designed to prey on the Hollywood dreams of gullible strivers.
A few weeks after Manny Fonseca arrived in Los Angeles in the early part of this decade, having left his native Michigan with the hope of becoming a Hollywood writer or executive, the then 30-year-old was at a party when a producer asked if he’d “like to make a hundred bucks.” Sure, he replied. What would he have to do?
The answer was to show up the next day at a “pitch fest,” one of dozens of such gatherings each year in which hopefuls pay hundreds of dollars to serve up their story ideas to agents and executives who, in theory, will buy them if they’re good. Fonseca would be there as one of the buyers, which struck him as strange — not only was he not an executive, he didn’t even have a proper job: he had been interning with producers Arnold Kopelson and Irwin Winkler.
Advice For Entrepreneurs Looking To Launch An Online Magazine
forbes.com – Tuesday July 31, 2018
With so many companies and individuals creating blogs on almost every topic under the sun, it can be difficult to grab your audience’s attention. However, if you consider yourself an expert on a particular subject, whether it’s gardening or real estate, you might be well-placed to launch an online magazine.
An online magazine is a digital publication on a specific subject or interest that can generate revenue and provide significant archival content. Even if there are already other magazines on the subject, you might be able to offer something uniquely valuable to your niche that establishes you as a thought leader in your field.
Judith Appelbaum, a Guide for Would-Be Authors, Dies at 78
nytimes.com – Monday July 30, 2018
Judith Appelbaum, whose almost 60-year career in book publishing became a crusade to make the industry better — for writers, publishers and readers — died on Wednesday at her home in Bedford, N.Y. She was 78.
Alan Appelbaum, her husband of 57 years, said the cause was ovarian cancer.
Ms. Appelbaum held numerous jobs in the book publishing industry. During the early 1980s she was managing editor of Publishers Weekly and wrote the “Paperback Talk” column for The New York Times Book Review. But her best-remembered and most influential project may have been the 1978 book “How to Get Happily Published: A Complete and Candid Guide,” which she wrote with Nancy Evans.
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