Star-studded line-up unveiled for Scottish crime writing festival
thenational.scot – Friday June 5, 2026
Richard Osman, Lucy Foley and Lee Child will be among the authors taking part in a “sensational” crime writing festival in September, organisers have announced.
Writer Denise Mina, guest programmer for the Bloody Scotland festival, has unveiled the programme for the event which takes place in Stirling later this year.
Other authors appearing include Liz Nugent, Sarah Pinborough, Gregg Hurwitz and Robert Bryndza, as well as Irish crime writer Andrea Mara and one of China’s bestselling writers Cai Jun.
Scottish writers on the line-up include Harriet Tyce, Chris Brookmyre, Alex Gray, Lin Anderson, Louise Welsh and Graeme Macrae Burnet.
Denise Mina said: “If Bloody Scotland 2026 is even half as much fun as I had helping to put this festival together then it’s going to be bloody brilliant. See you there!”
Broadcasters Robert Peston, Olly Smith and Jeremy Vine will also be taking part in the festival, as will Irish comedian and Father Ted actor, Ardal O’Hanlon.
There will also be a range of non-fiction events including How to Clean A Crime Scene with Ben Giles and A History Of Modern Britain In Twenty Murders with Professor David Wilson.
Publishing professionals are becoming prime targets for impersonation
thenextweb.com – Thursday June 4, 2026
An aspiring author receives an email from a “literary agent” expressing enthusiasm about their manuscript. The message is polished, personalized, and professional. The sender references recent bestsellers, adaptation potential, and submission strategy. The agency website looks legitimate, the LinkedIn profile appears credible, and the tone sounds authoritative and reassuring. Then comes the catch with one of the following: a “representation onboarding fee,” a paid representation package, a marketing retainer, or perhaps a request for the full manuscript that surreptitiously disappears into piracy networks. The real literary agent whose identity was stolen may not even know the scam is happening.
As Mark Gottlieb, an Executive Vice President & Literary Agent at Trident Media Group, has observed firsthand: artificial intelligence has not merely accelerated publishing fraud, it has industrialized it. Increasingly, literary agents have become some of the easiest and most effective identities for scammers to impersonate.
For over 100 years, literary agents have served as trusted intermediaries between writers and the publishing industry. They have functioned as curators, advocates, negotiators, editors, strategists, and gatekeepers. Their role has traditionally depended on one essential currency above all else: trust. Tech-driven impersonators are threatening to erode that trust.
Renowned authors to appear at this year’s Frome Festival
frometimes.co.uk – Wednesday June 3, 2026
A wealth of literary events, including talks from well-known authors and writing workshops, are planned as part of this year’s Frome Festival.
The group organising the literary events, Words at Frome Festival, says this year’s festival will feature more events than in previous years, alongside the 10th anniversary of the Frome Publishing Fair.
Local author Alison Clink, speaking on behalf of the group, said, “We have many more literary events this year than in the past. Audiences will be treated to talks by well-known writers, writing workshops and the opportunity for budding novelists to meet with literary agents who will be coming to Frome to help guide them towards publication.”
During the festival, which runs from 3rd to 12th July, Frome will welcome Booker Prize shortlisted author Andrew Miller, who will discuss his latest novel The Land in Winter with author Emma Craigie; novelist and biographer Nicholas Shakespeare, whose political thriller Frame 37 is published this May; novelist and academic Emily Hauser, author of Mythica, a study of women in ancient Greek mythology; plus Satish Kumar, Winnie Li, Lily Dunn, Harriet Derioz, poets Kate Fox and Jenny Mitchell, and local authors Peter Clark and Annie Elliot.
Introducing The Colby Review
news.colby.edu – Friday May 22, 2026
Writer-in-Residence Zach Peckham and 23 student editors band together to create a brand-new, student-led literary journal
Zach Peckham earned this launch party. The standing-room-only crowd in the Mary Low Coffeehouse. His colleagues peppering the room. Students jockeying for space, juggling iced matcha and chilled cold brews. Even the sunlight streaming through the bay window felt deserved.
Everyone was fired up, and the buzz wasn’t from the caffeine.
Peckham approached the mic, his sandy hair slightly ruffled from the heat and energy. “I came here this year to teach editing and publishing courses and to make this object,” he declared jubilantly, holding up The Colby Review, a brand-new, student-led literary journal published by the Creative Writing Program. “I guess we were successful—we have an object!”
As faculty editor of The Colby Review, he had been anticipating this moment for months.
“I’ve had the time of my life getting to be here with you all,” said Peckham, his yearlong residency nearing its end. “And what we put together here is messy, and cool, and confusing, and fun as hell.”
The inaugural issue of The Colby Review is available in hard copy and has an online presence.
Words ’N’ Wishes has acquired Nigel Quiney and Paper Rose
pgbuzz.net – Thursday May 21, 2026
Rod Brown and Carl Salt add two more brands to their publishing portfolio
Nigel Quiney Publications and Paper Rose have been sold to Rod Brown and Carl Salt, owners of the Wigan-based Words ’N’ Wishes.
The news broke late last night, with an official announcement released this morning, 20 May, by Rod who said: “Words ’N’ Wishes is pleased to announce that following lengthy discussions with Paul Taylor we have completed the acquisitions of publishers Nigel Quiney Publications Ltd and Paper Rose Ltd with immediate effect.
“Words ’N’ Wishes has been very fortunate to have built a strong publishing business over the last 15 years and have been looking for a while to find the right opportunity to strengthen our market presence in what has been and continues to be a challenging marketplace.
“Once we got into discussions with Paul regarding both highly-regarded companies it was not a difficult decision to close on. Both publishers have a history of good product and therefore, with the necessary financial support and working capital, will allow them to continue to drive their product strengths.
Filipino CEO pleads guilty in $48M book publishing scam in US
msn.com – Wednesday May 20, 2026
Michael Cris Traya Sordilla, a 34-year-old businessman from the Philippines, has pleaded guilty in federal court in a fraudulent book publishing scheme that defrauded over 800 victims across the United States, resulting in losses exceeding $48 million.
Sordilla is the first of four defendants to admit taking part in the scheme, which primarily targeted senior authors by promising them major publishing deals and Hollywood adaptations in exchange for hefty upfront fees.
Innocentrix Philippines
Sordilla was the founder and CEO of Innocentrix Philippines, identified in the plea agreement as a “business process outsourcing” company.
He and his co-conspirators established fictitious businesses in the US, including: PageTurner Press and Media LLC, founded in California in September 2017, claiming to be a book publishing firm located in Chula Vista, California; Metro Films LLC, incorporated in California in April 2022, claiming to be a motion picture and sound recording company in Los Angeles; and WP Lighthouse LLC, registered in Indiana in July 2024, falsely presented as a book publishing operation in Indianapolis.
Literary Scout Philippa Donovan Sets Up Screen-To-Book Business Two Script Studio To Facilitate ‘Reverse Adaptations’
deadline.com – Tuesday May 19, 2026
Veteran literary scout Philippa Donovan wants to reverse engineer the books-to-screen market through her new business, Two Script Studio.
The operation will create ‘reverse adaptations‘ to allow producers and screenwriters to turn screenplays into novels at an early stage of development. Book rights are then pitched to literary agents and publishers to build an audience or developed as underlying IP for the film or TV project.
Donovan will also help writers rework dormant scripts for publishers, and is offering mentoring where a pitch deck or script is used for narrative structure.
Two Script is so-named to represent the idea that one story becomes two scripts at the earliest possible stage.
A prize-winning story published in Granta was (very likely) written by AI
lithub.com – Tuesday May 19, 2026
It’s another grim day at the human factory. There is strong evidence to suggest that a prize-winning short story published this week in celebrated literary magazine Granta was entirely generated by AI.
Jamir Nazir’s “The Serpent in the Grove,” was published in Granta in partnership with the Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize, which annually recognizes unpublished fiction from around the British Commonwealth. Nazir’s story, which follows a rum-drinking farmer who comes across an enchanted grove, was the recognized entry from the Caribbean region.
A set of judges chaired by award-winning novelist Louise Doughty appreciated the story’s “precise yet richly evocative” language, and selected the piece as a regional finalist from a whopping class of 7,806 entries across the board. But literary sleuths smelled a rat.
Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor who studies AI’s effects on education and the workplace, broke down this “Turing Test of sorts” in a helpful Bluesky thread.
How to protect against scammers – a new guide for authors
writersguild.org.uk – Monday May 18, 2026
An alarming increase in fraudulent activity targeting authors has led WGGB and the Society of Authors (SoA) to join together to issue urgent new guidance outlining measures writers can take to protect themselves.
How to protect against scammers: a guide for authors – which is published today – follows reports of a large uptick in members contacting WGGB and the SoA for advice on scams. Much of this activity is being driven by the rise of AI, which means that scams are taking more sophisticated and convincing forms, including impersonation of agents and publishers. The scammers aim to manipulate writers to part with money or sign away their rights in return for the promise of representation, publication, promotion or important connections.
The guide includes a checklist for authors to help them assess whether offers they receive are genuine or fraudulent. Advice includes being wary of convincing-seeming email addresses which scammers use to impersonate publishers, agents, big-name authors, publicists, marketing providers and others to ‘cold-email’ authors and make unsolicited offers, including attempts to try to acquire rights in books that have not been submitted to them (a practice legitimate agents or publishers would not engage with).
Call for Submissions | Iska Press and Iskanchi Magazine Want Your Unruly African Writing
brittlepaper.com – Thursday May 14, 2026
Iska Press, the Utah-based independent publisher that describes itself as a home for “unruly African literature”, is currently open for submissions on two fronts, and African writers working in English or in translation should take note.
Iskanchi Magazine, the press’s literary journal, publishes short, original, irreverent, disobedient, and experimental work, writing that pushes the boundaries of experimental fiction in both content and form. The Summer Issue is currently open, with a deadline of 30 May. Subsequent submission periods open in August for the Fall Issue and January for the Spring Issue.
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