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17 March 2014 - What's new

17 March 2014
  • Maria Maloney is the publisher of Lodestone, a new imprint which offers a broad spectrum of subjects in YA/NA literature: 'Compelling reading, the Teen/Young/New Adult reader is sure to find something edgy, enticing and innovative. From dystopian societies, through a whole range of fantasy, horror, science fiction and paranormal fiction, all the way to the other end of the sphere, historical drama, steam-punk adventure, and everything in between (including crime, coming of age and contemporary romance)...' Talking to Publishers 9, the latest in the series.
  • Our Manuscript Polishing service provides a polishing service for the writer who is not a native speaker and anyone who wants additional help to prepare their work for publication. Does your manuscript need improving to get it into shape for submission or self-publishing? Or are you just concerned that your English may not be quite up to producing a publishable manuscript without some assistance from an editor? This service, one step up from Copy editing, might be what you're looking for.
  • Three new recently-launched websites show how publishers are trying to get to grips with readers and book-buyers directly. Off the Shelf, which has been set up by the American publisher Simon & Schuster, is intended to revive and publicise backlist books by offering daily reviews, which can be received as an email, of books which are at least a year old. The reviews will be written by S & S staffers and will show the passion they feel for the books they are writing about. What's more, the site will be publisher-agnostic, so it's more about spreading the good news about favourite books than about selling their own titles. News Review - Publishers launch groundbreaking new websites.
  • Our Publishing Glossary is a really helpful way of finding your way about the business.
  • ‘The fantasy arrived when I was 13. I was in Reykjavik for a summer and it never got dark. There was a whole library of English books and I was a great reader. I suddenly had access to books that were too hard for me before. Lots of Dickens. Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights. Jane Austen. I couldn't stop. I read the abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo. I read some of Mark Twain. While reading David Copperfield in the middle of the night...' Siri Hustvedt, author of The Blazing World, in The Times, quoted in our Comment column, 'When did you know you were a writer?'
  • This week's links: the counterblast to Hugh Howey in Hugh Howey Gives Toxic Advice for Self-Publishers and Paperback Pioneers, a nostalgic trip into the past when the paperback was king from Futurebook.
  • If you've got past the need for Finding an Agent, you might be interested in Working with an Agent. Or there's always our agency listings to help with your research.
  • 'A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating.' Oscar Wilde in our Writers' Quotes.