1 June 2020 - What's new
1 June 2020
- '1. Write like you'll live forever - fear is a bad editor. 2. Write like you'll croak today - death is the best editor. 3. Fooling others is fun. Fooling yourself is a lethal mistake. 4. Pick one - fame or delight. Ron Dakron, author of the novels Hello Devilfish, Mantids, infra and Newt and three collections of poetry. Our Comment.
- An essential read for children's authors is Suzy Jenvey's special series for WritersServices, the four-part Essential Guide to Writing for Children. The first article looks at the all-important question of age groups and what you should be aware of in writing for each one. The second part is - Before You Write: What is My Story Going to be? The third part deals with Starting to Write and the fourth part is about Submitting Your Work to Agents and Editors. This series by a hugely experienced children's editorial director and agent helps you get started on your own story or develop what you're already working on.
- Our Copy editing services covers our six services working on writers' manuscripts, a range which includes our top of the range Writer's Edit and English Language Editing. We provide free samples and free short written assessments on most of these services, which are provided by our skilled professional editors. We are transparent about our rates and our high quality copy editing services are also very good value.
- A bumper crop of links this week: authors are frantically rewriting existing projects to reflect a world turned upside down by the pandemic, No pubs, no kissing, no flying: how Covid-19 is forcing authors to change their novels | Books | The Guardian; "Why horror? Why can't you write nice things?" Literature Is Built on a Foundation of Horror | CrimeReads; an evocative account of how one writer found her story, Finding My Story in the Colonial Past of the Andaman Islands | Literary Hub; pulp literature loves its heroes and villains, Noir Fiction: When the Real Is Too Raw | CrimeReads; we still crave stories with waves crashing on the shore, Summer reading has a fraught history. But if there was ever a time to delight in escapism, it's now. - The Washington Post.
- Writing Biography & Autobiography is a serialisation from our Archives of the book by Brian D Osborne published by A & C BlackClick for A & C Black Publishers Publishers References listing. In the first excerpt, Managing the matters of truth and objectivity, the author says: 'Just as you need to remember that letters, reports, census forms, legal documents and so forth were not created simply for our convenience, so you also need to remember that what is written in them may not be true...'
- More links, focusing on how the pandemic is changing the book world: spring and summer books are now on track for fall, when authors will be fighting for attention in the midst of a presidential election and an ongoing crisis, Fall Is Now Jam-Packed for Book Publishers. That Could Be a Problem. - The New York Times; "the channels that are open have over-performed", Bloomsbury has transformed 'surprisingly well' despite severity of pandemic hit, says Newton | The Bookseller; action against 'purposeful collection of truckloads of in-copyright books to scan, reproduce, and then distribute digital bootleg versions online,' Publishers Charge the Internet Archive with Copyright Infringement; Kiwis commit to buying local to resuscitate the economy following seven weeks of lockdown, Like Christmas: New Zealand's post-Covid books boom | World news | The Guardian; and encouraging forecast from CEO of Waterstones and Barnes & Noble, Waterstones will emerge from crisis despite shopper caution, Daunt tells IPG | The Bookseller.
- If you're aiming at traditional publishing, Finding an agent and Working with an agent are two practical checklists to help set up and maintain this vital relationship. 'Try to find an agency which is ‘hungry' for new clients. To keep their workload under control, an established independent agent might take on something like four new authors a year, but only to replace four departing clients. This may seem obvious, but whether or not an agent is actively looking to build their list of clients is probably the single most important factor affecting how closely they are looking at unsolicited submissions...'
- Even more links: an opportunity to directly submit adventure thrillers to a new imprint, Head of Zeus launches adventure imprint Aries | The Bookseller; high court ruling in favour of author's daughters and the estate, Watership Down author's estate wins back all rights to classic novel | Books | The Guardian; musings on the future of the form, On Travel Writing - Guernica; and Fang Fang, a 65-year-old Chinese novelist who lives in the city of Wuhan has had her diary of the pandemic translatd into English, Will China's entry into U.S. publishing lead to censorship? - Los Angeles Times.
- 'Your first book is the only one that matters. Perhaps a writer should write only that one. That is the one moment when you make the big leap; the opportunity to express yourself is offered that once, and you untie the knot within you then or never again.' Italo Calvino in our Writers' Quotes.
