Doris S. Michaels Literary Agency closes
The
Doris S. Michaels Literary Agency
Inc. was founded in 1994, in New York. After twenty years
of running her agency, Doris Michaels has decided to make
a "transition" in her life, resulting in the closure of
her agency and the transfer of her list to
Sheree Bykovsky
Associates:
"Sheree and Doris realized that they ran
their agencies in much the same way and Doris decided to
look no further in her search for the perfect home for her
list. It has been an extremely smooth transition, and they
both feel like this was meant to be.
Doris Michaels and Sheree Bykovsky have
been acquainted for over twenty years, and Michaels
describes Bykovsky as having acted as her mentor when she
was setting up her business. Bykovsky's specialties include
business and self-help books from professionals in their
fields of expertise; books in categories such as psychology,
current affairs, narrative, biography, lifestyle, social
sciences, gender, history, health, music, sports and women’s
issues; and literary fiction that has commercial appeal and
strong screen potential.
Sheree Bykovsky
Associates is actively seeking new clients. For more
details,
click here.
For the details of over 800
other literary agencies,
click here
firstwriter.com switches
to universal secure socket layer
This month,
firstwriter.com is pleased to announce that it has
switched to a universal secure socket layer for all of its
pages. Like most websites,
firstwriter.com has traditionally served most of its
pages over a normal internet connection (http://), and only
used a secure connection (https://) for pages containing
private information, such as payment pages and the private
subscribers' area at
https://www.firstwriter.com/subscriber.
However, as demand increases for improved security and
privacy on the internet, some websites are taking the
decision to serve all their pages over https:// as a matter
of course. The most obvious example is Google: any attempt
to visit
http://www.google.com will now automatically redirect
you to
https://www.google.com. While other
big websites like Bing,
the
Huffington Post, and the
BBC are all still using unsecured connections,
firstwriter.com has joined the likes of
Google,
Yahoo, and
Facebook, by
enforcing them across the board. So, as
with Google, any attempt to visit
http://www.firstwriter.com will now automatically
redirect to
https://www.firstwriter.com. The
change all happens behind the scenes, so there shouldn't be
any impact on users. The only thing you may find is that you
might have to update any bookmarks you have to
firstwriter.com to start with "https://", instead of
"http://". You may also find that some of
the pages show up as "mixed" security. This is perfectly
normal (it even happens on Google's news pages) and just
indicates that even though the page itself is transmitted
securely there may be elements on it (such as images) which
aren't. We'll be tidying this up as pages are re-released,
but rest assured that it's no reason for concern, and it's
still a higher level of security than is offered by most
sites!
firstwriter.com is a big site with many thousands of
pages. While we've made every effort to ensure that the
transition to a universally secure site has been as smooth
as possible, there is a chance that you may encounter
something hidden away on the site which has stopped working
as a result. If you do, please let us know about it through
our "Contact Us" page and we'll take a look. It will
probably just need an "s" adding after "http" somewhere!
New magazine open to
poetry and fiction submissions
Carbon Culture Review is a a new
magazine founded in 2014, which describes itself as being
at the intersection of technology, literature, and art.
The magazine is available in bookstores in the United
States and features monthly creative work, literature and
art as well as articles and reviews on exciting new tech
online alongside the annual print edition.
The magazine has already published its first issue, and is
now accepting submissions of fiction up to 7,500 words,
groups of three to six unpublished poems, and nonfiction up
to 5,000 words. It also accepts visual art, multimedia, and
translations. You can submit online via
the magazine's
website. For more information, see the full listing at
https://www.firstwriter.com/magazines/details.cgi?RecordNumber=2004
For the details of over 1,850
other magazines,
click here
Crime and Punishment 2015
Crime and Punishment, a weekend of
crime-writing masterclasses, is set to return on March
6-8, 2015. The line-up of speakers includes David Thomas
(Tom Cain), R.C. Bridgestock, Caro Ramsay and David
Headley, who is one of the United Kingdom's top agents.
Tutors will be providing attendees with guidance on:
For more information, go to
http://www.crimeandpublishment.co.uk/fiction-writing-courses.html
New online literary
journal seeks poetry and fiction for young readers
BALLOONS Lit. Journal (BLJ) is a new
biannual online literary journal of poetry, fiction and
art, primarily for young readers aged around 10–16,
which is currently seeking content for its inaugural
issue. "We see
it an important mission to bring the art of literature,
and the creation of it, to our younger generation." The
journal, which is downloadable in PDF format, is free to
access. The magazine welcomes submissions from
people anywhere in the world and in all walks of life, in
particular school teachers: "We particularly welcome
school teachers to submit their work to BLJ because we think
(we're teachers ourselves!) that while we frequently encourage
our children to keep reading and writing, we should not forget to do the same!"
For more details, see the listing at
https://www.firstwriter.com/magazines/details.cgi?RecordNumber=2058
For the details of over 1,850
other magazines,
cliclick here
Write with an editorial
eye
By Marcella Simmons
Before I even start telling you what
you should do to become a better writer, let me tell you a
story about my latest book project first, and why what I
am about to say is so important. A writer needs to have an
editorial eye, that sixth sense, that expertise to make
that story, article or book as error-free as possible
before submitting to any publisher. For one, no-one knows
that work of art better than the writer. It takes more
than once, more than twice, even more than ten times
sometimes to produce a manuscript that is 100
per cent free of errors, typos, misspelled words, and
unfinished sentences or paragraphs.
Recently I had a book published. I wrote it, rewrote it at
least three times, edited and revised it at least five
times, and the publisher hired an editor to revise and edit
it, and then she returned it to me for further proofing
before going to press with it that one last time.
I almost lost my publishing contact because I not only
proofed it but rewrote two chapters in their entirety and
added several pages to it in certain chapters. I edited it
to the best of my ability, and hoped that it would get one
final proofing before going to press. Months later, both my
personal and professional experience as a reader and writer
sent shivers up my spine in the first chapter when typos
started cropping up. Where did that come from? Why wasn't it
corrected? Looking back over my last corrected proof, the
corrections were made on this end but apparently, the editor
and the publisher overlooked them when I sent in the final
copy.
I am ashamed to admit this is partly
my fault. I saw errors on the website of the publisher
before submitting my manuscript. Red flags soared in my
head. It was not only my duty to have a manuscript that
was next to perfect but my responsibility to do research
on the publisher as well. My book as a whole is very good
(toot my horn!).
But the errors inside it made me take
a second look as I was reading and made me want to put it
down. The reaction of my readers will be: why wasn't this
book edited before it went to print? Why didn't the author
proof it
better? Having said that, what's worse
is that it
will be on the market for five years before rights revert
to me. I can't fix it for five years.
Remember, "as is" is never good enough. Losing a contract is
not as bad as discrediting your writing ability and
qualifications. A writer needs to have an
editorial eye, or a sixth sense to detect writing errors on
their manuscript. Editors may detect most of it but those
working under deadline and sheer pressure may not have the
time to do their job efficiently. That's why it is our duty
– our responsibility to edit, rewrite and edit some more
until the manuscript is next to perfect. "As is" is
unacceptable! I can tell you one simple
fact if you want to be a writer: when you write, make sure
you edit and rewrite before submitting. The old adage that
you can write something to death may be true but the truth
that errors can kill your manuscript is even more true.
Don't accept "as is" quality – it is not professional and
will label you as sloppy and unprofessional. That is the best piece of writing advice
you may get all day. To get an
instant online quote for having your work professionally
edited, click
here About the
author
Marcella has
hundreds of articles published in over 350 newspapers and
magazines nationwide. You may read her blog at Family Life
Focus at
http://familylifefocus.com/
Resources for
writers at firstwriter.com
Go to firstwriter.com
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