October 2010 - Writers Magazine

News Review

• 'The recent Children’s Bookseller Conference in London focused on a part of the publishing industry in relatively good health. Children’s book sales have suffered less than adult books as a result of the recession and they are only down 2% in the UK against an overall figure of 4%. To be fair, this is partly because the sales of the Stephenie Meyer titles (which are categorised as young adult) have bumped them up, but there is still a greater sense of confidence in the children’s sector...' News Review reports


• 'The winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize has been a compete surprise to everyone, including the author. Howard Jacobson had never even been shortlisted before, and his book The Finkler Question was the bookies’ least favourite title on the shortlist. It’s very nice to see this important prize going to an author who has paid his dues, with 16 titles which are reckoned only to have sold 90,000 copies in all. News Review investigates


• 'The Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. seems to have engendered a mood of optimism, in spite of the uneasy world economy and the particular preoccupations which are making book publishers feel as if the ground is shifting under their feet. The numbers were up, with 7,533 exhibitors, an increase of 3%, and 522 agents registered in the Literary Agents Centre, 4% up on last year. This shouldn’t be exaggerated as a factor, but some publishers who didn’t make it to London because of the volcanic ash seem to have felt that a trip to Frankfurt was a necessity, although most of them would have been going to the German book fair anyway.' News Review on the big book fair.


• 'It’s been a gift for the media. ’A comedy of errors for author of The Corrections.’ (The Times) ‘Jonathan Franzen's 'book of the century' pulped over error.’ (the Guardian) ‘ Franzen’s new novel recalled to be pulped.’ (Evening Standard). So what really happened to Jonathan Franzen’s highly-anticipated new novel, Freedom, and why did the UK edition have scores of errors, which were so serious that the publisher has reprinted the corrected version and asked buyers to return their copies to be pulped?' News Review has the story.

Comment

• 'I can think of no end of talented authors who are today poorly or even negligently represented. Is it fair to deny them the possibility of better representation simply because the more atherosclerotic parts of our industry consider competition to be ungentlemanly? The lifeblood of business is competition. Other industries thrive on it: we can too.Peter Cox of Redhammer Management

  Specialises in works with international potential.

  Unpublished authors must be professional in their approach and have major international potential, ideally book, film and/or TV.

  Submissions via agents website

  Children's clients include Donna Ballman, Peggy Brusseau, Gary Bushell, Brian Clegg, Maria (MG) Harris, Lucy Johnson, Amanda Lees, Michelle Paver, Kellie Santin, David Yelland.

  and Litopia, in the Bookseller.


• 'I believed right from the start it would work powerfully on stage because it's the story of one man, with a very strong central narrative drive, questioning what it means to be human, I don't know a more dramatic question than that. Also, for me, it says that no matter what happens, there is always the possibility of redemption. I hope the play will make you cry, but make you come out wanting to live... Unknown playwright Rachel Wagstaff on dramatising Sebastian Faulks' First World War novel Birdsong.


• ‘Recently, Newsweek ran an article about the brave new world of self-publishing. Its title asked the question "Who Needs a Publisher?" Well, the short answer is, I do. The bigger answer is: we all do. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that self-publishing has evolved from stigma to respectability. I love that worthy authors who might be overlooked by the major houses can now be read. It's great that writers with a special niche, an established following or an entrepreneurial bent can make more money self-publishing than they would in royalties. But I'm also concerned about the future of books and the larger issue of assuring the flow of reliable information. Philip Goldberg in the Huffington Post.

Writers' Quote 

'Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success.'

James Baldwin