Literary and commercial fiction and non-fiction. Contemporary and historical novels, crime, thrillers, women's fiction, memoirs, history and biography. No reading fee. Will suggest revision.
Commercial and literary fiction and non-fiction (home 15%, overseas 15%, film/TV 15%). Fiction: thrillers, crime/mystery; women's literary and contemporary. Non-fiction: biography; history and current affairs.
Send synopsis, first 3 chapters and sae (essential). No disk or email submissions. No reading fee.
Commercial literary agency based in central London representing commercial fiction and personality-led, media or current affairs based non-fiction in the UK, US and foreign language markets.
Handles rights in the majority of territories directly rather than via sub-agents, ensuring career development with publishers worldwide including film and TV rights.
Literary and commercial fiction, children's fiction; general non-fiction including current affairs, biography and memoirs, history, lifestyle, health and personal development; film and music, graphic novels.
Children's fiction and non-fiction; ages 9-12, teenage fiction, young adult, series fiction.
Also accept adult fiction and non-fiction. Read more
Fiction: general, literary and crime. Non-fiction: current affairs, social issues, travel, biographies, history.
No plays, poetry, textbooks, children's, technical, legal or medical books.
Submitted work must be double-spaced, single-sided, numbered, typed or word processed with clear contact details. Do not send an SAE as all rejected material is recycled. Read more
Specialises in fiction (no science fiction, horror or fantasy), biography, autobiography, show business, personality books, law, crime, politics, world affairs. Full-length MSS (home from 10%, overseas from 15%).
Will suggest revision. No reading fee, but preliminary letter essential.
Serious popular non-fiction, particularly science, history and current affairs, by academics and journalists; also novels of ideas (home 15%, overseas 20%).
Fiction and non-fiction (home 15%, overseas 20%). Commercial fiction: thrillers, mysteries, children's, romance, women's, ethnic, science fiction, fantasy and general fiction; also literary fiction with a strong narrative. Non-fiction: current affairs, health, science, psychology, cookbooks, new age, spirituality, pop-culture, adventure, true crime, biography and memoir. Read more
‘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.
Michael Morpurgo has denied a Sunday Times report that he "refused" to include The Merchant of Venice in a forthcoming Shakespeare anthology for children due to antisemitism. Read more
Pitching a manuscript isn't for cowards, the thin skinned, or those with no endurance. Believing your project is worthy, truly believing in it, is required, as is the patience of a saint.
Poets & Writers wrapped up its 50th anniversary in 2020 by announcing a $250,000 contribution from Barnes & Noble founder-and longtime P&W supporter-Len Riggio. The donation from Riggio and his wife, Louise, will be used for new initiatives to extend the organization's support of Black and marginalized writers.
George Saunders once said, ‘when you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you'...but what is the best way to start? Read more
George Orwell died at University College Hospital, London, on 21 January 1950 at the early age of 46. This means that unlike such long-lived contemporaries as Graham Greene (died 1991) or Anthony Powell (died 2000), the vast majority of his compendious output (21 volumes to date) is newly out of copyright as of 1 January. Read more
It might be a picture of gloom and doom for most business sectors in 2020 though surprisingly, the publishing sector has come out unscathed from the vagaries of the pandemic. Sales have largely been positive across all segments of the book industry, which includes printed books, eBooks, and audiobooks.
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.'
‘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
‘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.
In my latest romance novel, How to Catch a Queen, my heroine finally achieves her lifelong dream of becoming a queen following an arranged marriage-only to find herself in a country where the voices of women aren't respected, and queens are powerless. Read more
'There ain't nothing more to write about and I'm rotten glad of it, because if I'd knowed what a trouble it was to make a book, I wouldn't a tackled it.'
'I have to know where I'm going'
‘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