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Royalties

Beijing International Book Fair 'substantial rights deals and significant orders'

20 August 2018

For the first time, British publishers will form the biggest contingent at the upcoming Beijing International Book Fair. There will be 33 companies on the collective stand and 56 firms in all represented at the Fair, reports the Bookseller.  Read more

Is your agent your manager?

30 November 2015

Lizzie Kremer's amusing article about being a nerd, which we link to this week, disguises a greater truth about agents, which is that behind the showmanship and flair that many of the better-known and possibly more successful ones show there is a great deal of attention paid to the detail of their clients' affairs, particularly their royalty statements and subsi  Read more

Battle of the titans

1 February 2010

This has been one of those weeks when there’s been so much happening that it’s difficult to cover it in a single column. Apple has broken the news of its iPad and, amidst the focus on that, Amazon has already started to fight back. This could be a turning-point and how publishing, books and authors come out of all this is hard to predict.  Read more

E-books spark crisis

21 December 2009

This has been a week of dramatic developments in the publishing world, as publishers scramble to work out how to navigate a completely new playing field. The debate centres around four crucial issues: who controls e-book rights, the timing of e-book editions and what the prices and royalty rates for e-books should be.  Read more

Authors' advances slashed

28 September 2009

Authors' advances are being cut radically as a result of the recession. Together with the cancelling of contracts because a delivered manuscript is 'not good enough' or is late, this is all part of publishers' attempts to cut their costs. The cutting of publishing lists to reduce investment in books has been the main feature of the recession to date, so far as far as authors are c  Read more

Authors' copies and discounts

6 July 2009

Authors should get better discounts on the books they buy direct from publishers, claims Philippa Milnes-Smith, the President of the UK Association of Authors: 'If an author can make significant sales on his/her behalf should this not be actively facilitated?'   Read more

Amazon stand-off continues

14 July 2008

The stand-off between the Internet retailing giant, Amazon, and the biggest trade (general) publisher in the UK, Hachette, is continuing. It's a full seven weeks since News Review looked at Amazon's massive growth and huge ambitions (News Review 26 May) but in all this time, to the amazement of observers, Hachette titles appearing on Amazon's pages   Read more

The latest despatch from the Turf Wars

9 June 2008

No sooner had the dust settled on Bertlesmann's surprise appointment of German print supremo Markus Dohle to succeed Peter Olson as CEO of Random House US, than another unexpected change hit the American publishing world. Jane Friedman, the successful and popular head of HarperCollins, also announced her immediate departure.  Read more

Writers' income under pressure

24 March 2008

Writers' income is under increasing pressure. The recent meanness of the British government in cutting the amount paid to authors whose books are borrowed from libraries as part of the Public Lending Right scheme has highlighted this trend.  Read more

The e-book arrives - or does it?

18 February 2008

This week has seen two big publishers announcing initiatives to prepare for the e-book world. At the same time, battle has been joined on e-book royalties.  Read more

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4 January 2021 - What's new

January 2021
  • ‘The thing I like about novels is that they are a more forgiving form. You can make missteps. It's harder to write a really good short story - I'm more aware of the flaws in my short stories.
  Read more

The 2021 International Book and Pamphlet Competition

Information

Closing date: 
1 March 2021
Entry: 
Open internationally. Entry fee £28, £25 to subscribers to The North
Prize: 
Publication by Smith|Doorstop Books; a share of £2,000 cash; a launch reading; publication in the North magazine; book vouchers from Inpress Books

The 2021 International Book & Pamphlet Competition is now open for entries

Judged by Daljit Nagra & Pascale Petit

DEADLINE: last post on Monday 1st March 2021, or midnight on Monday 1st March 2021 for online entrants.

ENTRY FEE: £28, or £25 for North subscribers, Friends of the Poetry Business and members of the Poetry Society.  Read more

'People have many cruel expectations from writers. People expect novelists to live on a hill with three kids and a spouse, people expect children's story writers to never have sex, and people expect all great poets to be dead. And these are all very difficult expectations to fulfill, I think.'

— C. JoyBell C.

'I have to know where I'm going'

4 January 2021

‘When I'm putting together a novel, I leave all the doors and windows open so the characters can come in and just as easily leave. I don't take notes. Once I start writing things down, I feel like I'm nailing the story in place. When I rely on my faulty memory, the pieces are free to move.  Read more

28 December 2020 - What's new

December 2020
  • ‘No one reads your book as closely as a translator does, which is something you learn very quickly. I'm in such awe of them. They also read beneath it and around it. They make me consider things I thought I knew the meaning of because I use those words in everyday dialect and that's how the characters express themselves.
  Read more