The first AI-generated textbook shows what robot writers are actually good at
theverge.com – Wednesday April 10, 2019
Academic publisher Springer Nature has unveiled what it claims is the first research book generated using machine learning.
The book, titled Lithium-Ion Batteries: A Machine-Generated Summary of Current Research, isn’t exactly a snappy read. Instead, as the name suggests, it’s a summary of peer-reviewed papers published on the topic in question. It includes quotations, hyperlinks to the work cited, and automatically generated references contents. It’s also available to download and read for free if you have any trouble getting to sleep at night.
Rick Christian leaves literary agency that transformed Christian publishing
religionnews.com – Friday March 15, 2019
As a San Diego high school student in the early 1970s, Rick Christian was frustrated when he heard radio commercials for best-sellers that ended with the words “available wherever books are sold.”
The books he wanted to read — Bibles, concordances and other Christian works — were hard to find in regular bookstores.
“I thought, ‘Someday I would love for Christian books to be available wherever books are sold,’” he said. In 1989, he set out to make that dream a reality as founder of Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Alive Literary Agency.
Writer's Digest, Popular Woodworking publisher F+W Media files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
eu.usatoday.com – Tuesday March 12, 2019
The publisher of Writer's Digest, Popular Woodworking and other niche magazines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid plummeting subscriptions and advertising revenue.
New York-based F+W Media asked for court protection from its creditors on Sunday after it nearly ran out of money, according to a court filing.
The company's publications include more than 50 specialized titles in arts and crafts, writing, design, knitting and the outdoors. It also publishes books, holds consumer and trade events and sells products online.
Entering our crime writing competition? We want courage and audacity
bigissue.com – Wednesday March 6, 2019
Crime has become the most popular fiction genre in the UK. Book shops and libraries are bursting at the seams with decent page-turners. But it takes something special for a novel to stand out, to tell a tale which doesn’t just pull readers through to the end, but leaves them pondering stories and characters for days afterwards.
Crime fiction has many powers. There is nothing – no moral or political issue, no character type, no philosophical query – which cannot be served by a good crime story. Dostoevsky used crime to investigate the parameters of morality, Raymond Chandler to showcase his remarkable ear for dialogue, Agatha Christie to tie readers up in twists and turns, Ian Rankin to explore the dark corners of a historic, shadow-ridden city. Really, ‘genre’ is a lazy catch-all term for a subject matter which has been utilised by writers as diverse as Robert Louis-Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Muriel Spark, Patricia Highsmith, Douglas Adams, Henning Mankell, Val McDermid and Paula Hawkins.
WGA Mobilizing For Battle With Talent Agencies, Seeks Team Captains For “Agency Campaign”
deadline.com – Wednesday March 6, 2019
EXCLUSIVE: Mobilizing for war with the major talent agencies, the WGA West today called on its members to participate in its “Agency Campaign” to reshape the agenting business. In a message sent to members Tuesday, the guild is seeking volunteers to serve as team captains to act “as a liaison between a team of writers and the guild by updating writers on campaign developments, communicating questions and concerns and mobilizing fellow writers in support of the strategy.”
Competition launched to find new crime writer – and the prize is a two-year book deal
inews.co.uk – Monday March 4, 2019
A competition has been launched in a bid to find the next big crime writer, with the prize of a two year book deal up for grabs.
The Big Issue magazine has joined forced with Avon (part of the HarperCollins publishing house) to promote the venture, and submissions are invited from across the UK.
Max Edwards launches new agency Apple Tree Literary
thebookseller.com – Thursday February 28, 2019
Max Edwards has left Mulcahy Associates to form his own agency, Apple Tree Literary, focusing on non-fiction and genre fiction.
Edwards worked previously as assistant at United Agents and Rogers, Coleridge and White alongside agent Natasha Fairweather, before joining Mulcahy Associates at the end of 2017 as an agent.
Lindsay Literary Agency scholarship for 'under-represented' author returns
thebookseller.com – Thursday February 28, 2019
The Lindsay Literary Agency is sponsoring a place at the Winchester Writers’ Festival for a children’s author from an “under-represented” background for the second year running.
Launched last year, any author without an agent from the UK or Ireland can apply if they are LGBTQ+, from a BME background, disabled or from a ethnic, cultural or religious minority. Applicants can be unpublished but must be writing children’s fiction (YA or middle grade).
LAW and Factual Management launch The Soho Agency
thebookseller.com – Tuesday February 26, 2019
Literary agents Lucas Alexander Whitley and Factual Management have merged their staff together to form the Soho Agency.
The organisations initially joined forces in 2017 and said they had now brought together their literary and talent management into the new organisation. Staff will work out of the office in Wardour Mews, Soho, they first moved to eight months ago.
Blockbuster author James Patterson to visit UK for crime writing festival
home.bt.com – Monday February 18, 2019
American author James Patterson will make his first visit to the Theakston Old Peculier crime writing festival later this year, it has been announced.
The event, which is described as the world’s biggest celebration of the crime genre, will also feature an appearance by Bodyguard and Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio and will see Safe author Harlan Coben in conversation with Rebus creator Ian Rankin.
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