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11 February 2019 - What's new

11 February 2019
  • ‘I never planned to be a writer. It is a very odd way to make a living. Just telling lies... I do have a visceral sense of breaking through the shell of something when I walk into my study in the morning. Now I just go and do it. Sometimes it doesn't go well, but most often, I'll look up and it's time for lunch and I don't know what happened...' Anne Tyler, author of 22 novels, including Clock Dance, The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and Back When We Were Grownups in The Times. Our Comment.
  • From our 19-part Inside Publishing series, Subsidiary Rights: 'My first job in publishing was in a subsidiary rights department. I'm ashamed to admit that I accepted the job without having much idea what subsidiary rights were. Many writers may feel just as vague about this part of publishing, so here's a quick breakdown...' and Vanity Publishing: 'It is natural for writers to be eager to get published but it pays to be wary of the vanity publishers who will take your money and give you very little in return...' Vanity publishing is quite distinct from Self-publishing, you need to be aware of the differences.
  • The Moth Short Story Prize 2019 is open to any writer over 16 from anywhere in the world. The entry fee is €15 per story and the 1st prize is €3,000, 2nd prize a week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France plus €250 travel stipend and 3rd prize €1,000. There's plenty of time as it's not closing till 30 June.
  • Get some professional help. If you're self-publishing, you need good quality copy for the cover. Our Blurb-writing service can provide a professionally written piece of cover copy. Submitting to agents but finding it difficult to write your own synopsis? Commission a synopsis which will present your manuscript in the best possible light for submission.
  • Our links: it should come as no surprise that the long literary con of Dan Mallory began with a fake memoir. Fabricating pain for profit is, after all, a time-honored publishing tradition, All the sad young literary fakes | The Outline; before indie authors can market their book to foreign publishers or to agents and producers working in film, TV, and theater, they need know their rights, The Indie Author's Guide to Rights; line editors are not readers in the public sense; they are private practitioners, whose profession operates on a sense of both trust and authority, Is Line Editing a Lost Art? | Literary Hub; and from one of the the English language's finest crime writers-and finest writers, Christobel Kent on Murder, Morality, and Survival | CrimeReads.
  • Finding an agent, our tips for this key search: 'There are two types of agency: purely literary and multi-media agents. Look carefully at the entries and consider whether you would prefer to be represented by a big professional agency with all-singing, all-dancing film and TV departments to back up the book agents, or whether you would be better served by a small independent agency...'
  • More links: "It's always important to me, when I'm writing a book, that these characters have a pre-novel life," Marlon James Spins a Tale of Tales; the practice, known as Controlled Digital Lending (CDL), has come under fire from authors' groups in several countries including the US, SoA open letter demanding Internet Archive stops 'unlawful' lending gets 750 signatures | The Bookseller; the New York Times reviewer wrote: "Rosamunde Pilcher, where have you been all my life?" The Shell Seekers sat in the bestseller list for 49 weeks in hardback and was translated into more than 40 languages, selling around 10m copies, Rosamunde Pilcher obituary | Books | The Guardian; and "I found some of the scenes so unpalatable that I had to keep putting it down, Why are so many women writing about rough sex? | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett | Opinion | The Guardian.
  • Our new page Copy editing services covers our six services working on writers' manuscripts, a range which includes our top of the range Writer's Edit and Translation editing. We have just introduced 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.
  • 'Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.' Anne Lamott in our Writers' Quotes.