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11 June 2012 - What's new

11 June 2012
  • Last week's Bookbrunch carried an interesting report on the recent Reader Organisation Conference. Jane Davis set up the first Get into Reading group in 2002, for young single mothers at a library in Birkenhead, Wirral, so creating a model that allows people of all reading abilities to come together to enjoy great literature, and to use that literature as a launch-pad for personal discussion...' News Review on a very worthwhile organisation.
  • Another very worthwhile thing is International Short Story Day, coming up fast on 20 June,  week on Wednesday.  Go to their website to find out how you can get involved.
  • Don't procrastinate! - 'Do you find it difficult to get started on your writing? Is it always easier to put off finishing that research/ starting that novel/embarking on the second draft? You are not alone, for many writers suffer from procrastination.' Chris HolifieldManaging director of WritersServices; spent working life in publishing,employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups; track record includes: editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley Head, publishing director for start-up of upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of Britain’s biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She is also currently the Director of the Poetry Book Society; During all of this time aware of problems faced by writers, as publishing changed from idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'occupation for gentlemen', into corporate business of today. Writers encountered increasing difficulty in getting books edited or published. Authors create the books which are the raw material for the whole business. She believes it is time to bring them back to centre stage. looks at how to get yourself going.
  • 'After a few years of enjoying and thinking about electronic books, paper still has a very specific place in my world - in fact, it has regained some ground. The depthless grey of my Kindle screen and the gloss brightness of the iPad or iPhone are fine and good, but they are not the hearth-and-home experience... ' Nick Harkaway in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.
  • 'So you want to write historical fiction? Your timing is good, because historical fiction is fashionable again after many years in the doldrums. In fact it's so popular that it has virtually reinvented itself as a category...' The last article in Chris Holifield's Categories series explores the market and approaches to Writing Historical Fiction.
  • Other articles in the series cover Writing Romance, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, Writing Crime Fiction and Writing Non-fiction.
  • 'What obsesses a writer starting out on a lifetime's work is the panic-stricken search for a voice of his own.' John Mortimer in our Writers' Quotes.