Writers' Handbook 2023 now available to buy
firstwriter.com – Sunday October 16, 2022
The 2023 edition of firstwriter.com’s bestselling directory for writers has just been released, and is now available to buy both as a paperbook and an ebook.
The directory is the perfect book for anyone searching for literary agents, book publishers, or magazines. It contains over 2,000 listings, including revised and updated listings from the 2022 edition, and over 350 brand new entries.
Thuan Dang Joins APA As Agent; Lucy Tashman Upped To Director Content Development
deadline.com – Tuesday October 11, 2022
Thuan Dang has joined APA as an agent in the scripted literary department and Lucy Tashman has been promoted to Director of Content Development at the agency.
Dang represents writers and directors in feature films, TV, streaming and animation. He becomes the 15th new agent/exec APA has brought in during the past two months. Tashman began her career as an intern at APA and was promoted to agent in the scripted literary department in 2020.
Association of Authors’ Agents to focus on smaller agencies and demystifying the craft
thebookseller.com – Monday October 10, 2022
A round-table with the exec at the Association of Authors’ Agents reveals a group champing at the bit to get back to Frankfurt—and to ensure there is space there for a broader spread of talent.
I am met in the reception of 50 Albemarle Street by Marsh Agency deputy m.d. Jemma McDonagh. The grand townhouse retains its Regency elegance and its stately drawing rooms still look like the sort of places gouty periwigged men might have, over brandies, discussed how best to put down a colonial uprising. “What about a spot of genocide, m’lud?” you can almost hear a foreign office mandarin suggesting to enthusiastic assents.
The address is also a landmark in British literary history: for 190 years it was the John Murray headquarters and in one of its drawing rooms, John Murray II infamously burned Lord Byron’s memoir after the poet’s death. Murray, incidentally, paid what (if The Bookseller had been going at the time) might have termed “a significant four-figure sum” for the memoir—an eye-watering 2,000 guineas (presumably world all-languages; not clear if audio or film/TV rights were mentioned). Ever the canny operator, Murray squeezed the rights-holder (Byron’s friend, the poet Thomas Moore) to get his money back with interest.
British art magazine Elephant to fold after publisher pulls funding
theartnewspaper.com – Saturday October 8, 2022
The British art magazine Elephant will cease publication at the end of this month after its publisher Colart International Holdings Limited pulled the title’s funding, citing the current economic crisis and a downturn in global sales of art supplies.
Colart purchased Elephant in May 2017 but will no longer fund the print and digital magazine. With no other funding available, the magazine is set to fold at the end of October unless a new owner is found.
"Colart is actively in conversation with several parties about taking over the magazine," says Karen Spinner, Colart's commercial director.
Trade associations hit back as 300 authors accuse publishers of 'undermining libraries'
thebookseller.com – Sunday October 2, 2022
More than 300 authors including Neil Gaiman, Naomi Klein, and Lawrence Lessig have teamed up with advocacy group Fight for the Future with an open letter demanding publishers and trade organisations "cease efforts to undermine the essential contributions of libraries to an accessible and inclusive world of books”.
The letter mainly focuses on the lawsuit brought against the Internet Archive, over its Open Library programme, involving mass scanning and distribution of literary works under a process called Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) which publishers and trade organisations have criticised for “facilitating the distribution of millions of pirated books without paying a penny to the authors and publishers who produce them”.
There is also reference to the Association of American Publishers (AAP) suing to block a Maryland law that would have required publishers to offer commercially available e-book licences to libraries on “reasonable terms”.
The Authors Guild called the open letter "highly misleading” while the AAP and Publishers Association (PA) have sought to stress that the Internet Archive is “not a library” but instead “a pirate website”.
Free writing course for aspiring novelists
enfielddispatch.co.uk – Wednesday September 28, 2022
Indie Novella is launching a new writing course in October, alongside literary agency Watson Little (credit Deepesh Thobhani, Indie Novella)
Our North London-based publisher Indie Novella is launching a brand new form of writing course for new, aspiring and experienced writers.
What makes this writing course different to those currently out there can be summarised as follows: it is the only publisher and literary agent led writing course that is completely free and available to anyone.
Longrigg to retire from MBA Literary Agents after 25 years
thebookseller.com – Wednesday September 28, 2022
Laura Longrigg is retiring at the end of September 2022 after 25 years at MBA Literary Agents as an agent and director of the company.
Longrigg started her publishing career as assistant to Mic Cheetham at Abner Stein, before becoming an editor at HarperCollins, Hutchinson Heinemann and Penguin. In 1994 she joined Jennifer Kavanagh’s agency.
Since 1997 she has been a literary agent at MBA, where her clients have included Clare Morrall, Alex Dahl, Cathy Woodman and Rosanna Ley.
Save Our Books campaign urges government to keep UK copyright exhaustion scheme
thebookseller.com – Friday September 23, 2022
The Publishers Association (PA) has written to the new secretaries of state for digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) and business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) to urge them to continue with the UK’s current copyright exhaustion scheme.
The PA, alongside its Save Our Books campaign partners, including the Association of Authors’ Agents, Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and Society of Authors, want the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to stick to the current regime when it makes a final decision in March 2023.
The IPO consulted on changes to the UK’s copyright exhaustion regime last year, including considering a move to an international exhaustion regime. The Save Our Books campaign fought to retain the UK’s current regime, arguing that the proposed changes “would cause a projected loss of up to £2.2bn to the publishing industry, disincentivise the UK’s thriving book exports, and flood the UK with international copies of books tailored to other international audiences, typically American”.
Loughman swaps Bev James for The bks Agency
thebookseller.com – Thursday September 22, 2022
Literary agent Morwenna Loughman is departing Bev James Management to join The bks Agency.
Loughman has previously worked as an editor at Ebury, Bonnier and HarperCollins with authors including Hilary Mantel, Nigel Slater, Anna Jones, Marie Kondo, Brené Brown and Tim Ferriss, as well as commissioning books such as Body Positive Power by Megan Jayne Crabbe (Vermilion) and Ask Me His Name by Elle Wright (Lagom). She has since worked as a literary agent at Bev James Management.
Loughman said: “I’m over the moon to be joining the brilliant team at bks. I’ve long admired their spirit, warmth and tenacity, which, when combined with their unparalleled industry expertise, makes an unbeatable combination. The fact that they are also some of the loveliest people in publishing is the icing on the cake.”
Thwaites becomes head of books at Curtis Brown as new children’s division announced
thebookseller.com – Tuesday September 13, 2022
Senior literary agent Steph Thwaites has been appointed head of books at Curtis Brown amid a raft of promotions within the agency’s book division, and she will be setting up a new children’s division.
In her new role as head of the Books Department, she succeeds Sheila Crowley and Gordon Wise, joint managing directors of the Book Department over the past three years, who continue in their book board and senior agent capacities.
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