13 January 2020 - What's new
13 January 2020
- ‘Writers make everybody nervous but we terrify Silly Service workers. Our apartments always look like a front for something, and no matter how carefully we tidy up for guests we always seem to miss the note card that says, "Margaret has to die soon." We own the kind of books that spies use to construct codes, like The Letters of Mme. de Sevigne, and we are the only people in the world who write oxymoron in the margin of the Bible...' Florence King, author of Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady and nine other books in our Comment.
- Our 19 Factsheets from the legendary Michael Legat are full of tips for the new writer or anyone who is trying to get their book published. From Literary agents to Copyright, from Libel to Submissions, this series is full of essential background information.
- Closing on 24 January, so you need to be quick about this one - Emma Press's open submission 2020. Calling for poetry pamphlet submissions and for children's poetry collection submissions. It's open to all poets internationally and the entry fee is £10. The prizes are publication.
- Other competitions which are still open.
- Are you struggling to get someone to look at your poetry? Our Poetry Critique service for 150 lines of poetry can help. Our Poetry Collection Editing, unique to WritersServices, edits your collection to prepare it for submission or self-publishing. Both can provide the professional editorial input you may feel you need.
- Our links: home to a vast warehouse of illegally pirated books, E-book piracy on LinkedIn SlideShare hurts smaller authors; in this decade, writers have found themselves at an unsettling and unpredictable moment in publishing as well as history, The New Rude Masters of Fantasy & Science Fiction - and Romance | The World Remains Mysterious; the Norwegian crime writer has sold more than 33m books worldwide, Jo Nesbø: ‘We should talk about violence against women' | Books | The Guardian; it is the nature of progress that what is now cutting-edge will, with the passing of time, become traditional, Reviving the Traditional Mystery for a 21st Century Audience | CrimeReads; and I realised I'm here now: I'm black British, TS Eliot prize-winner Roger Robinson: ‘I want these poems to help people to practise empathy' | Books | The Guardian.
- From our Endorsements page: 'Please extend my gratitude to the editor for his/her thoughtful and detailed edit. I could not ask for better work! Its value far exceeded the cost.' Jim, Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA)
- More links: a scary report - the mature stage of a book-to-film boom that is quietly transforming how Americans read and tell stories - and not for the better, They Made a Movie Out of It | James Pogue; are indie authors relying too much on Amazon? Indie Means Indie | Fiction Notes; the Olof Palme prize, an award given for an "outstanding achievement" in the spirit of the assassinated Swedish prime minister, John le Carré wins $100,000 prize for 'contribution to democracy' | Books | The Guardian; and a cheering story from a small bookshop, Oh what a night! Twitter brings £1,000 worth of orders to empty bookshop | Books | The Guardian.
- 'If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research.' Wilson Mizner in our Writers' Quotes.
