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Success stories

'A new star-in-the-making'

19 August 2013

This week has brought the debut of a new star-in-the-making - or should she be described as having leapt straight to stardom? Samantha Shannon, whose first novel The Bone Season is published in the US and the UK this week, seems like an ordinary kind of superstar.  Read more

Rowling to publish adult novel

27 February 2012

The publishing world has been electrified by the news that J K Rowling has written her first adult novel and it is expected to be published later this year, although there's no title or date yet.  Read more

J K Rowling ditches agent and sells ebooks direct

4 July 2011

Rather to the amazement of the publishing world, J K Rowling, long a bye-word for her loyalty to her agent and publishers, has cut out her publisher Bloomsbury and set up a new site to sell ebook versions of her books direct to her readers.  Read more

Australian writer hits the jackpot

10 May 2010

Every so often a completely unknown writer hits the headlines after years of trying to break through and the dream come true provides fresh hope for many others.  Read more

Has Dan Brown hastened the tipping-point?

21 September 2009

Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol has dominated the press headlines this week. The big numbers hog the airwaves, but there are plenty of other reasons why this story makes compelling reading.  Read more

Dan Brown frenzy in September

31 August 2009

You can't have missed the news that Dan Brown's latest thriller, The Lost Symbol, will be released worldwide on 15 September. As readers queue up to place advance orders for one of the most eagerly anticipated books in history, there are also anxieties about how this one book will distort the performance of the book trade.   Read more

New Brown mega-seller coming this autumn

4 May 2009

The surprise announcement of a new novel from Dan Brown to be published in the autumn has emphasised yet again the importance of big bestsellers to the book world.  Read more

Large print breakthrough

6 April 2009

Working with the Publishers' Licensing Society, the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the UK has initiated and funded Focus, an £800,000 ($1,187) project to publish large print books. It is publishing the books in association with BBC Audiobooks, Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins.  Read more

Dragons and 'a sense of awe and wonder'

1 December 2008

Christopher Paolini is a publishing sensation to rival J K Rowling. In these difficult times his is an inspiring story of raw talent with a large dose of hard work and a dash of luck.   Read more

A new superseller

18 August 2008

A new star has burst upon the publishing firmament. Stephenie Meyer, whose new book Breaking Dawn already has 1.3 million copies in print in the US, recorded the largest-ever first-day sale when it was published there on August 4th. The book is the 745-page fourth book in her high school vampire series The Twilight Saga.   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.
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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