Writers' Newsletter
Issue #217
April 2021
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With no new edition of Writer's Market, writers are flooding to The Writers' Handbook
firstwriter.com – Wednesday April 14, 2021
In 2019, the publisher of Writer's Market, F+W Media, filed for bankruptcy. The last edition of Writer's Market was published the same year. It was called the "2020" edition, but in reality no edition was published in 2020, or since.
In the absence of this long-standing stalwart (had an edition been published in 2020, it would have the 100th annual edition), writers have been flooding in their droves to try the new kid on the block, The Writers' Handbook, which claims to offer an improved level of data by using technology similar to that used by Google to constantly monitor the activities of publishers, magazines, and literary agents. But is this new book a worthy successor to the old Writer's Market?
"Well, it's not intended to be a copy," says editor, J. Paul Dyson. "I don't think copying the gameplan of a bankrupt company is necessarily the best idea! Of course, everyone respects what was achieved by The Writer's Market -- nearly 100 annual editions is nothing to be sneezed at -- but it was a bit of a dinosaur and hadn't really adapted to the realities of modern technology. It had also become a bit of a jack of all trades and master of none. There are much better how-to books on writing, often tailored to specific genres (like G. Miki Hayden's Writing the Mystery for mystery writers), and the listings were poorly researched and out of date. With our book, we made a conscious decision to leave the how-to material to the specialist books already publishing in those areas, and instead focused on offering quality listings data powered by 21st century technology."
The technology Dyson refers to is an automated program called a web crawler, or "spider", like that employed by Google to build its search results. This program monitors thousands of pages of contact details and submission guidelines, and when changes are detected to key pieces of information these are immediately flagged for the attention of researchers, who then amend and update the listings as necessary.
"I know how Writer's Market operated," continues Dyson. "They used to list our magazine and competitions -- and once you'd submitted your information they'd just republish it over and over again. Every few years you might get asked to review and update your information, but if you didn't respond they'd just assume nothing had changed and republish it anyway. They wouldn't take your failure to respond as a red flag, or bother to visit your website to see what was going on. They carried on listing our competitions and magazine years after they'd stopped running! We're much more hands on than that -- much more pro-active about seeking out information without having to rely on someone else telling us."
So far, the approach seems to be working. The 2021 edition of The Writers' Handbook is enjoying record sales this year, and has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon. It has been available to buy in print since November, and is now also available as an ebook from various online retailers. To order your copy in digital format or in print, click here
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Finding Ideas To Write About
By Marcella Simmons
Freelance Writer
firstwriter.com – Monday March 29, 2021
Ideas are everywhere. They are in your home, your car, at your work - you can find ideas at the park, the grocery store, the doctor's office, at school or in your bed. Ideas happen everyday, non-stop and you can use them in both fiction and nonfiction as well as poetry. Look around you.
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Writers' Handbook 2025 - Out Now!
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News |
Some of this month's news for writers from around the web.
Winchester Writers' Event to be virtual, says Sara Gangai
hampshirechronicle.co.uk – Sunday April 18, 2021
WINCHESTER Writers' Weekend is being held virtually once again after a successful inaugural event in 2020.
Originally planned to be held in the city in-person, director Sara Gangai decided it was safer to hold it online until Covid eases.
The event provides opportunities for writers to hone their craft, rub elbows with published authors and other writers, and meet one-to-one with literary agents for feedback.
Ms Gangai said: “Last year we had around 250 people take part in the event but this year bookings are already exceeding expectations as we have two amazing keynote speakers, including Diana Gabaldon, author of the hugely popular Outlander series, and Chris Riddell, best-selling children’s author/illustrator."
Janet Fillingham Associates rebrands to cement Weston partnership
thebookseller.com – Tuesday April 13, 2021
Literary, directors’ and composers’ agency Janet Fillingham Associates is rebranding to Fillingham Weston Associates (FWA), cementing a decade-long working relationship between agents Janet Fillingham and Kate Weston.
The move comes ahead of the agency’s 30 year-anniversary next year.
FWA will continue to represent writers, directors and composers in the fields of TV, film and theatre. Clients work across film and television drama, comedy drama and animation in the UK and overseas, as well as theatre including musical theatre and opera.
Wales' popular Wrexham-based literary festival goes digital with new chapter
leaderlive.co.uk – Monday April 12, 2021
Are you sitting comfortably, then we'll begin...
A highly entertaining programme has been put together for one of Wales' premier literary festivals, and due to the pandemic, is all available from the comfort of your own home.
The Wrexham Carnival of Words, now in its seventh year, has become a fixture in the literary calendar in Wales and the borderlands, attracting a broad range of well-known authors.
This year the festival, held from April 17-24, will be even more accessible, with events being broadcast online on the Carnival of Words' own YouTube channel.
| Click here for the rest of this month's news > |
Listings |
A selection of the new listings added to firstwriter.com this month.
New Book Publisher Listing: Sublunary Editions
firstwriter.com – Wednesday April 14, 2021
Started as a small-scale, DIY project in early 2019. For the first several months, the press's sole output as a regular envelope of new writing mailed (the old fashioned way) to subscribers. Since then, the press has expanded to publish 8-10 brief books every year, and, as of early 2021, a quarterly magazine
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New Magazine Listing: The Undercommons
firstwriter.com – Tuesday April 13, 2021
Dark fantasy magazine. Each issue includes one novella, one short story, and one poem.
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New Agent Listing: Karmen Wells
firstwriter.com – Tuesday April 13, 2021
Looking for published or to-be-published books to represent to producers for film or TV adaptation.
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| Click here for more of this month's new listings > |
Articles |
Some of this month's articles for writers from around the web.
Ethics, Envy and Egotism: Chris Power’s Guide to Writing a Novel
anothermag.com – Wednesday April 14, 2021
As a writer, Chris Power has lived many lives. He entered the industry as an incisive literary critic, writing for broadsheets like the Guardian and the Times. He then shifted to advertising, taking work as a creative director and corporate copywriter. But something about these roles never felt quite right. “I was constantly feeling frustrated by the fact that I wasn’t writing fiction,” the Surrey-born writer says today. “I reached some sort of breaking point, where my unconscious was like, well no, you’ve really got to do this.”
In the years since this breaking point, Power has become one of Britain’s most esteemed short story writers. His 2018-published debut anthology Mothers was an acclaimed, cross-continental study of emotional longing, examining the psychic residue of lost loves and forgotten pasts. And this month, Power is moving beyond short stories to release his first full-length novel: a taut, tense thriller titled A Lonely Man.
Spectra: The Poetry Movement That Was All a Hoax
daily.jstor.org – Tuesday April 6, 2021
The January 1917 issue of the literary magazine Others was devoted to the poets of the Spectric School of Poetry, a new literary movement, which, as its members described, “push[ed] the possibilities of poetic expression into a new region.” Others was a perfect fit for this experimental work, explains modernist-poetry scholar Suzanne W. Churchill. The journal “had earned a reputation for extremism by publishing daring and experimental poets such as Mina Loy, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams.” There was just one problem: Spectra was a hoax.
Jacqueline Wilson's guide to getting started writing children's books
stylist.co.uk – Monday April 5, 2021
Children may have a world of technology at their feet nowadays and they countless ways to find entertainment online – but they are still reading. In fact, they are using many technological resources to do so. Research by the Publisher’s Association found that sales of digital children’s books in the UK rose by 50% in 2020 and a survey of 58,346 children undertaken by the National Literacy Trust found that more than a quarter of children and young people said they were enjoying reading more because of lockdown.
So, if you have always wanted to write for children, now is as good a time as any to start – and Jacqueline Wilson would agree. Although she wrote her first book at the age of nine in 1954, she has now written 112 novels for children and her most recent novel, The Runaway Girls, was released only last month. “I cannot imagine not having a book in my mind all the time,” Jacqueline says. “It would feel so peculiar and empty.”
Jacqueline has sold over 40 million books in the UK and her most well-known novel, The Story of Tracy Beaker, has inspired three spin-off series on CBBC since its publication 30 years ago.
It’s safe to say, then, that Jacqueline Wilson knows a thing or two about writing children’s books and she has some advice for aspiring children’s authors – from how to structure a novel to how to get a publisher, to dealing with complex issues in a way that is accessible to children. Here, she give Stylist’s Curiosity Academy the inside track on getting going.
| Click here for the rest of this month's articles > |
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