Want to make your writing more collaborative, cross-platform and creative? Try Collab Writers
thebookseller.com – Friday January 11, 2019
The pitch
Collab Writers is a global community for creatives to connect, collaborate and create on poems, flash fiction, short stories and ;novels - and to get those stories on screen.
At the heart of the startup is a hub where members can collaborate to create and publish their work, with assistance and guidance from the Collab Writers team. They will also connect the best writers to the film world, to help adapt their work.
"Creatives at Collab Writers aren't just writers," says co-founder Jennie Griffiths. "We want to encourage a new wave of surrealist creatives to bring pictures, photos, words, images, illustrations, film and music together. We encourage a mash-up of creative genres and mixed media products including short graphic memoirs, manga and stories told through song and screen.
"Collab Writers is a call to action to rise up off the sofa, turn off the box set and awaken your inner creative through connecting and collaborating with like-minded creatives."
Tweet yourself a literary agent in 280 characters
scottishfield.co.uk – Friday January 11, 2019
After the astonishing success of the last three years, XpoNorth’s Writers’ Tweet Pitch is back.
On Friday 11 January, from 9am-9pm, writers from across Scotland can tweet pitch their work to a panel of Scotland’s literary agents and publishers.
Twitter channels will be open to pitches of unpublished fiction, nonfiction and writing and illustration for children from writers living and working in Scotland. Their projects can be complete – or may still be in development.
Greek publisher Papadopoulos sets up UK children’s imprint
thebookseller.com – Friday January 4, 2019
Papadopoulos Publishing, an Athens-based publisher that has been running for more than 70 years, is setting up an imprint in the UK to publish children’s books.
Faros Books will be based in London and will launch in February and will publish 10 titles in the first year, 10-14 in the following year and the aim is to publish 15-20 books in 2024. Most will be translated from Greek.
M.d. of Papadopoulos Publishing Ioannis Papadopoulos said he wanted to launch a business in London because the city is a centre of English language publishing across continents, and is closer to Athens than alternatives such as New York.
Book industry booms as children catch the reading bug
newshub.co.nz – Thursday December 27, 2018
When it came to kid's presents this year one of the most popular items in Santa's sack was a new book.
Publishers are celebrating an industry boom with children's titles flying off the shelves.
The increase in sales is being put down to a number of factors, including a higher quality of offerings on the shelves.
Bottleneck at printers derails holiday book sales in US
businesstimes.com.sg – Wednesday December 26, 2018
THIS year has been, much to everyone's surprise, a blockbuster for the publishing industry. Despite the relentless news cycle, readers have bought books in droves.
Hardcover sales are up, and unit sales at independent bookstores have risen 5 per cent. Multiple titles - Bob Woodward's Fear, Bill Clinton and James Patterson's The President Is Missing and Michelle Obama's Becoming - have passed the million-copy mark, while there is also a surprisingly strong appetite for literary fiction.
But what should be good news for publishers, agents and authors has created headaches during the crucial holiday sales season, as printing presses struggle to keep up with a surge in demand, creating a backlog that has led to stock shortages of popular titles.
Non-fiction ruled even as new wave of authors came to the fore (2018 In Retrospect)
business-standard.com – Wednesday December 19, 2018
Scripting a fresh narrative in Indian publishing, the year saw a sustained interest of both publishers as well as readers in non-fiction while a new wave of authors -- spanning genres and languages -- came to the fore both on the bestseller charts and through recognition at major literary awards.
In fact, the rising popularity of non-fiction and memoirs has been a significant trend over the past few years, but 2018 was the year when the genre firmly cemented itself as the favourite of the readers in India.
This is evident as leading publishers and literary agents have now become sceptical when it comes to considering fiction manuscripts -- some have even set aside only two days of the week for such submissions -- while non-fiction commissioning has climbed a notch higher.
The Borough Press and The Good Literary Agency open submissions for un-agented BAME writers
thebookseller.com – Monday December 17, 2018
The Borough Press has teamed up with The Good Literary Agency to open submissions for un-agented BAME writers with the one winning applicant set to secure a £10,000 publishing contract, agency representation and mentoring from writer Nikesh Shukla.
Assistant editor Ore Agbaje-Williams is calling for authors from BAME backgrounds who have written a literary or literary-commercial novel in keeping with the spirit of The Borough Press list - books people want to talk about, either to question or agree; books that span the globe, whether near home or far afield; energetic, modern and eclectic books that inspire passion in readers - to enter the open submission.
Publishers put up £5k prize for funny female writers
chortle.co.uk – Monday December 17, 2018
A new award for funny new female authors has been given a major boost.
The new Comedy Women in Print Prize, launched by Helen Lederer at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, has joined forces with publisher HarperFiction, to award the winning aspiring novelist a publishing contract and a £5,000 advance.
The runner-up will receive a free place on the MA course in creative writing at the University of Hertfordshire.
Eleventh Annual Papatango New Writing Prize Opens For 2019 Submissions
broadwayworld.com – Thursday December 6, 2018
The Papatango New Writing Prize, now in its eleventh year, opens for submissions today, 6 December 2018, until 9pm on 17 February 2019.
The Papatango New Writing Prize was the UK's first - and remains the only annual - opportunity guaranteeing a new writer a full production, publication by Nick Hern Books, a royalty of 10% of the gross box office, and a £6000 commission with full developmental support for a follow-up play.
‘Ignore this’: Jonathan Franzen’s top 10 writing tips get gleefully trolled on Twitter
theguardian.com – Friday November 16, 2018
American novelist Jonathan Franzen has drawn the ire of fellow writers, who are mercilessly trolling him following an article in which he lists his 10 writing rules for aspiring novelists.
No stranger to controversy, Franzen often ends up in public spats after media tours for his new books. His most famous was in 2011, when he derided Oprah’s book club following her selection of his novel The Corrections – after which Oprah disinvited Franzen from appearing on her show.
This week Franzen published a new book of essays, The End of the End of the Earth.
Franzen’s 10 rules, published on Lithub, include: “You have to love before you can be relentless”, “you are more sitting still than chasing after”, “It’s doubtful that anyone with an Internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction”, and one that has particularly drawn the ire of library lovers: “When information becomes free and universally accessible, voluminous research for a novel is devalued along with it.”
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