
Nosy Crow scoops five nominations for IPG Awards
thebookseller.com – Monday February 12, 2018

Nosy Crow and Bloomsbury have dominated the IPG Independent Publishing Awards shortlists alongside various radical publishers such as Verso and Zed Books.
Nosy Crow has scooped five nominations in four of the 12 categories, while Bloomsbury is nominated three times.
Class Publishing, Kogan Page, Otter-Barry Books and SPCK all have two nominations across the shortlists while 10 publishers—Boydell & Brewer, Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, Emerald Publishing, Hurst Publishers, Little Tiger Group, Old Barn Books, Otter-Barry Books, Pluto Press, Verso and Zed Books—appear on the shortlists for the first time.

Publishers call on Man Booker prize to drop American authors
theguardian.com – Friday February 2, 2018

Tensions over the decision to allow US authors to enter the Man Booker prizehave flared up yet again, with 30 publishers signing a letter urging the prize organisers to reverse the change, or risk a “homogenised literary future”.
The letter, which was intended to be private and has been seen by the Guardian, argues that the rule change to allow any writer writing in English and published in the UK to enter has restricted the diversity of the prize and led to the domination of American authors since it came into effect in 2014. Previously, the prize only allowed citizens from Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland to enter.

J.K. Rowling shares insights into her writing style
aninews.in – Wednesday January 31, 2018

Washington D.C. [U.S.A.], Jan. 31 (ANI): J.K. Rowling took out some time and took to Twitter to answer some of the questions asked by her followers.
There were questions about her writing style, her upcoming novels, her ideation process, and such.
She replied in her usual candid, tongue-in-cheek manner. Here are some of the excerpts.
When a user asked if she plans her story before she starts, she answered in affirmative.
She wrote, "I plan a lot. This particular novel's plan comprises a vast, complicated, colour-coded table showing all the suspects, with blue ink for clues and red ink for red herrings".
SleuthFest 2018 Announces Special Programming Geared Towards Helping Writers Succeed
markets.businessinsider.com – Saturday January 27, 2018
BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mystery Writers of America's Florida Chapter will host the SleuthFest 2018 Writers Conference March 1-4, 2018 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Boca Raton, Florida. One of the country's premier conferences for writers, SleuthFest is an intensive four-day conference featuring writing workshops, social events, and pitch sessions. SleuthFest includes four tracks of workshops, presentations, and panels on the craft of writing, business, traditional and self-publishing, marketing, and forensics. In addition, top literary agents and editors will be available to hear pitches from aspiring writers, offer troubleshooting sessions, and manuscript critiques. SleuthFest also features the annual Freddie Awards for Writing Excellence and the SleuthFest Author Auction, where attendees can bid on such once-in-a-lifetime experiences as one-on-one sessions, critiques, and character naming opportunities featuring the conference's guests of honor, agents, and editors.

ICM Partners Acquires Lit Outfit The Sagalyn Agency, Opens D.C. Office
deadline.com – Friday January 26, 2018

ICM Partners has acquired The Sagalyn Agency, the Washington D.C.-based literary agency that reps leading journalists, historians, biographers, scientists, thought leaders and novelists. The deal comes four years after ICM and Raphael Sagalyn’s company formed an alliance that melded Sagalyn’s strong nonfiction author list and ICM’s roster dominated by fiction authors.

firstwriter.magazine final issue - out now
firstwriter.com – Sunday January 21, 2018

This month sees the launch of the last ever issue of firstwriter.magazine.
firstwriter.magazine has been published twice a year since 2002, making it probably one of the longest-running online journals on the internet. All good things must come to an end, however, and issue 32 will be the last issue of firstwriter.magazine. Managing Editor, J. Paul Dyson, gave the following explanation about the decision to end the long-running publication:

Q&A: Kelvin Kong on launching K2 Literary agency
quillandquire.com – Friday January 12, 2018

After more than a decade working in various aspects of publishing, from managing print production to editorial to selling rights at Kids Can Press, Kelvin Kong has launched his own literary agency. K2 Literary represents a small list of authors including Matt Cahill, Andrew Wilmot, and Teri Vlassapoulos.
Q&Q asked Kong – who recently left his post as agent and rights manager at the Rights Factory, and who continues to teach literary rights management for Ryerson University’s publishing certificate program – about his new endeavour.

Europe's major publishing markets all grew in 2016
thebookseller.com – Tuesday January 9, 2018

Europe's major markets - the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy - all experienced growth in turnover in 2016, according to a Federation of European Publishers' (FEP) report. However, the dive in the British pound following the UK's decision to leave the European Union in June 2016 resulted in flat total annual sales revenue for publishers in the EU and EEA in comparison to 2015, due to strong exchange rate effects.

How Scotland's most successful young publishers are shaking up literary world from their spare room and finding famous fans along the way
dailyrecord.co.uk – Monday January 8, 2018

PUBLISHERS. Gouty old guys in tweed jackets, right?
Wrong.
The days of well-connected chaps who go for long lunches then fall asleep behind the slush pile are over for good.
Scotland’s most successful new publishers are young women with tattoos and Twitter accounts.
Heather McDaid and Laura Jones, the livewires behind 404 Ink, produced the biggest-selling title at the Edinburgh International Book Festival from Heather’s spare room.

Sue Grafton: Alphabet crime author dies aged 77
bbc.co.uk – Sunday December 31, 2017

US crime writer Sue Grafton, best known for creating the private eye Kinsey Millhone in her 'alphabet mystery' novels, has died aged 77.
Her daughter Jamie Clark said she died in Santa Barbara, California, following a two-year battle with cancer.
"She was surrounded by family, including her devoted and adoring husband Steve," she said.
Grafton worked as a television screenwriter before finding widespread success as a crime novelist.
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