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Writers' News

Amanda Harris to leave YMU in 2025 and set up new literary agency

thebookseller.com – Friday July 26, 2024

Literary agent Amanda Harris is leaving YMU to set up her own literary agency. Harris will be leaving the company in early 2025, however she will continue to work with YMU clients on future projects.

Speaking exclusively to The Bookseller, Harris, managing director of Literary, said: "I have had a great time at YMU, and I am thrilled to be continuing my work with YMU clients as I take the next step in my agenting career. I feel very honoured to have launched a bespoke literary business within the company, and to have worked with such a talented team of award-winning agents.

"YMU Literary’s impact on the group, and the UK publishing industry, is reflected in the bestseller charts, national book awards and huge TCM sales figures achieved by our authors and their publishers."

[Read the full article]

Plans for national writing centre put to government

bbc.co.uk – Wednesday July 24, 2024

Plans to create a national writing centre in the North East have been put to the government.

The Centre for Writing would be based at Bolbec Hall in Westgate Road, Newcastle, and would support community writing and reading initiatives.

New Writing North, the charity behind the plan, said the centre would cost £14m and it was seeking £5m from the government's Cultural Development Fund.

Claire Malcolm, the charity's CEO, said the investment would "help train and develop a new generation of local talent".

"I want young people here to be able to grow up to be publishers, writers and creatives without presuming they need to leave the North East to achieve their ambition," she added.

If approved, the centre would provide support for professional writers and publishing businesses across the north of England.

[Read the full article]

Max Edwards leaves Aevitas to return to Apple Tree Literary

thebookseller.com – Monday July 22, 2024

Max Edwards has left Aevitas Creative Management after five years to re-open his own agency, Apple Tree Literary. 

Having originally founded Apple Tree in February 2019, Edwards merged it with Aevitas later that year. He brings his list of authors with him to the re-launched Apple Tree Literary.

Edwards said: “I’m excited to be re-launching Apple Tree Literary. I have learnt so much over the last five years and will miss all my former colleagues at Aevitas Creative Management. But the opportunity to grow my own agency from a sapling once more is a thrilling one. I look forward to nurturing the continued successes of my brilliant clients, and to working closely with their publishers around the world.”

Toby Mundy, c.e.o. of ACM UK, said: “I think I speak for everyone at Aevitas Creative Management when I wish Max the very best with his new venture. I look forward to seeing him and his clients flourish in their new home."

[Read the full article]

First romantic fiction festival held in Manchester

thebookseller.com – Saturday July 20, 2024

The first romantic fiction festival was held in Manchester last week, which saw readers and writers gather from across the country.

Manchester Central Library hosted Love Stories etc festival on 13th July, with 28 author panels, five writing workshops and an immensely popular book stall staffed by romance experts from Waterstones Arndale.

Co-directed and co-founded by Simon & Schuster’s brand development director Sara-Jade Virtue and HarperNorth’s head of marketing and publicity Alice Murphy-Pyle, the cross-publishing festival featured authors from several publishers at all stages of their careers. Authors including Milly Johnson, Harriet Evans, Cesca Major, P J Ellis, Veronica Henry and Isabelle Broom took to the performance space, while workshops from literary agent Lisa Highton, the RNA and publishing staff helped inspire writers. 

[Read the full article]

Digital Audio Up 15 Percent: A 23-Percent Jump YTD

publishingperspectives.com – Saturday July 20, 2024

In its May 2024 StatShot report released this morning (July 18), the Association of American Publishers (AAP) cites total revenues across all categories up 10.8 percent over May 2023, at US$1.1 billion.

Year-to-date revenues, the AAP reports, were up 5.5 percent, at US$5.2 billion for the first five months of the year.

For a second month, the United States’ book publishing industry—as assessed by the StatShot program—shows a significant boost. The analysis shows total gross sales increasing 5 percent, with net sales rising 11 percent, according to the report’s authors.

The trade itself—the commercial books industry and the part of the international business most closely followed by Publishing Perspectives—saw gross sales of 9 percent, but because of a 31-percent decrease in returns, that gross-sales figure jumped to 31 percent. Hardback and paperback formats in the trade saw increases of 21 percent and 17 percent, respectively, in net sales, boosting the year-to-date trade net sales to 5 percent.

[Read the full article]

United Agents' Kat Aitken and Seren Adams launch new agency Lexington Literary

thebookseller.com – Wednesday July 17, 2024

Kat Aitken and Seren Adams have left United Agents after nine years to found new agency, Lexington Literary.

The agency will be looking for new writers of bold and emotive literary and upmarket fiction, narrative non-fiction with a strong hook, and general non-fiction by experts and academics.

Their clients include Caleb Azumah Nelson, winner of the 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize and bestselling author of Open Water and Small Worlds (Viking), #Merky Books Prize-winning debut novelist William Rayfet Hunter, Granta Best Young British Novelist Lauren Aimee Curtis, and forthcoming debut novelist Róisín Lanigan.

In non-fiction, Lexington Literary represents Forward Prize-shortlisted Ralf Webb, academic Orlando Reade, and Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize shortlistees Asa Seresin and Benoît Loiseau, among others.

[Read the full article]

Harrogate to welcome crime-writing celebs for return of annual festival

yourharrogate.co.uk – Wednesday July 17, 2024

The 21st Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is set to return to Harrogate this weekend, organised by Harrogate International Festivals.

The Festival, which takes place at Harrogate’s Old Swan Hotel from 18th-21st July, has been curated by 2024’s Festival Chair, bestselling crime novelist Ruth Ware.

Programme highlights include an all-star lineup of acclaimed writers and global bestsellers including Mick Herron, Louise Candlish, M.W. Craven, James Comey, Lucy Foley and Richard Osman.

It was also include the crowning of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the much-anticipated Critics’ New Blood panel which showcases four talented debut novelists. 

This year’s cohort, selected by a panel of the UK’s leading crime fiction critics, are Jonny Sweet, Martta Kaukonen, Claire Coughlan and Colin Walsh. 

For aspiring writers, Creative Thursday offers an immersive day of workshops and talks led by bestselling writers and industry experts, with the unique opportunity to pitch work in the ‘Dragon’s Pen’.

[Read the full article]

AI makes writing easier, but stories sound alike

newsarawaktribune.com.my – Tuesday July 16, 2024

Books and movies of the future could all start to feel the same if creative industries embrace artificial intelligence to help write stories, a study published on Friday warned.

The research, which drew on hundreds of volunteers and was published in Science Advances, comes amid rising fears over the impact of widely available AI tools that turn simple text prompts into relatively sophisticated music, art and writing.

“Our goal was to study to what extent and how generative AI might help humans with creativity,” co-author Anil Doshi of the University College London told AFP.

For their experiment, Doshi and co-author Oliver Hauser of the University of Exeter recruited around 300 volunteers as “writers.”

These were people who didn’t write for a living, and their inherent creative ability was assessed by a standard psychology test that asked them to provide 10 drastically different words.

The scientists then split them randomly into three groups to write an eight-sentence story about one of three topics: an adventure on the open seas, an adventure in the jungle, or an adventure on another planet.

[Read the full article]

The ‘romantasy’ novel is now an almost $820 million business sweeping publishing

straitstimes.com – Monday July 15, 2024

NEW YORK – Dragons, faeries and happily-ever-after love stories are having a moment.

Sales of romantasy novels – a genre that blends fantasy’s epic quests and mystical characters with romance’s swooning gestures and spicy sex scenes – are projected to jump to US$610 million (S$817.8 million) this year, after hitting a record US$454 million in 2023, according to industry analyst Circana.

The number of books sold reached 11 million in the first five months of 2024, almost double the same period in 2023. And while Circana anticipates the books hitting a saturation point in 2025, their empowered female protagonists and cult followings make them likely to find permanent shelf space in stores.

The demand has been anchored by American author Sarah J. Maas, a romantasy heavyweight published by Bloomsbury Publishing, whose A Court Of Thorns And Roses series – known to fans as Acotar – often serves as an entry point for readers who are new to the genre.

[Read the full article]

Hounded out of my job in publishing

crowdjustice.com – Monday July 15, 2024

Who am I, and what's the story?

My name is Ursula Doyle, and I have worked in book publishing for more than thirty years. Since 2008 I have worked at Hachette UK, one of the UK’s leading publishing groups, first at its Virago imprint (a sub-brand of the publisher) before setting up my own imprint, Fleet, in 2016. Fleet publishes a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, and Fleet authors have between them won numerous awards, including four Pulitzers.

In 2020 I published Kathleen Stock’s influential book on sex and gender, Material Girls. Since then, I have been a target for abuse by colleagues in the book industry, who have used social media to accuse me of - among other things - bigotry, prejudice, transphobia and hatred, often tagging in my employer, Hachette, and Hachette’s Pride network. 

Hachette have done nothing to protect me, and have created a hostile working environment for me and anyone else who shares my views. When two of Fleet's authors complained that my views were transphobic, the company agreed to move paperback editions of the authors' books away from the imprint to another part of the business, damaging my reputation both inside and outside the company. I became ill with stress and associated conditions, and finally resigned. I am bringing a claim of discrimination on the grounds of my gender-critical belief (sometimes known as 'sex realism'), and of sex discrimination.

[Read the full article]

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