2 May 2016 - What's new
2 May 2016
- Book Aid InternationalSupplies much-needed books to developing countries, raising funds from publishers and general public; 'Reverse Book Club' is masterly idea-for just £5 ($10) month you can provide 48 books to go to where they're most needed, a charity which focuses on providing books for Africa, has developed a new programme. Inspiring Readers is a school-based programme that aims to improve the reading opportunities of a quarter of a million African children though the provision of book cupboard libraries in primary schools. Already tested, the scheme has shown that it makes a big difference. News Review
- 'Downton was a lovely adventure. We were on this incredible magic carpet ride. It was an extraordinary experience and when I'm old and dying it will be one of those things I remember and bore my grandchildren with... As a writer, you're supposed to be this incredibly sensitive person picking up every nuance of human behaviour. Yet you also need to be Attila the Hun with a skin as thick as a trunk...' Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, whose latest project is Belgravia, available as a serial in 11 episodes from the website or a downloadable app, in the Sunday Telegraph, quoted in our Comment column.
- Our series of six articles on writing in different categories covers a wide range of genre writing - Crime, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Romance, Non-fiction, Historical fiction and Memoir and Autobiography. So, if you're a genre writer, we've probably got an article on the genre you are interested in.
- Our links this week: the "novella" grey zone between a short story and a novel, Nick Earls on the unlikely rise of the novella, star of the ebook revolution | Books | The Guardian; One of my daily jobs was to assess the unsolicited manuscripts. We had a template rejection letter which I would sometimes annotate briefly. Occasionally we'd ask for the full manuscript, Writing Advice for Debut Authors; and you might think handing out awards for the best science fiction writing of the year would not be, ahem, rocket science. But you'd be wrong. The Hugo Awards: George RR Martin, Vox Day and Alastair Reynolds on the prize's future | Books | The Guardian; and, in what seems like very expensive freelance editorial work - Got a spare $3,300? Reedsy's math suggests that success in producing professional-grade indie books may depend on planting a project in some cash, What Does Self-Pub Cost? The UK's Reedsy Reads the Receipts.
- Do you want to self-publish your work? WritersServices offers a suite of services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish, which includes Copy editing, Blurb-writing. Poetry Collection Editing, Typing manuscripts. Services for Self-publishers
- More links: Building bridges is familiar work for Nigerian publisher and novelist Richard Ali, as he talks about the growth of African publishing, A Few Words With Nigeria's Richard Ali; the rather scandalous story of the Pulitzer Prize website failing to attribute publishers' copywrityers, Breaking News: Even the Pulitzer Prize Folks Can Slip Up on Attributions | Vanity Fair; Vinutha Mallya's essay this month describes India's market as a place of many strengths and many challenges, On Publishing in India: '21,000 Retailers Sell Books Here'.
- If you are trying to get your work into shape for publication, or for self-publishing, there's plenty of advice on the WritersServices website which you may find useful. Advice for Writers takes you to the links.
- 'Have something to say and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.' Matthew Arnold i our Writers' Quotes.
