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23 February 2015 - What's new

23 February 2015
  • News Review on the new fashion for open submissions, a Comment from new writer Tony Schumacher, MslexiaStylish and lively site for quarterly UK literary magazine read by 12,000 'committed' women writers. Good range of quality writing, information and advice with news, reviews, competitions and interviews, all presented in a friendly fashion. Praised by Helen Dunmore as 'astute, invigorating and above all an excellent read.' www.mslexia.co.uk's Women's Short Story Competition and links of the week which are thoughtful and sometimes alarming.
  • 'Are things changing in terms of publishers accepting submissions or is the latest fashion for ‘open submissions' just a fashion? Big publishers abandoned what was rudely called ‘the slush pile' some years ago, so why are some imprints now having open submission periods, mostly of only two weeks or so?... News Review - Open submission - a fad or an opportunity?
  • The Mslexia Women's Short Story Competition 2015 is open to women writers with previously unpublished stories of up to 2,200 words. The entry fee is £10 and it's closing on 16 March - this week's Writing Opportunity also has three free writing workshops, open to everyone.
  • Our agent listings cover the UK, US and International, and there's a separate listing for Children's Agents. Here's where you can find out how to submit and what the agency is looking for.
  • ‘I think my most stunning failure was that I managed to get a U in my English O level. I was devastated. I cried on my way home, because I thought the one thing I wanted to do, the one dream I'd always had, the one glimmer of hope I could hold on to, had been taken away from me. I wanted to be a writer but I'd blown it...'Our Comment this week is from Tony Schumacher, author of The Darkest Hour, in the Observer magazine.
  • A new page entitled Which Report? gives the details of the three reports we offer: the full Editor's Report, the basic Reader's Report and the most substantial Editor's Report Plus. There's also our specialist Children's Copy editing, part of our Children's Editorial Services. If you want a professional editor's assessmen of your work, here's the place to start.
  • The web as a research tool is a useful page showing you what a great research tool the web is for writers, helping you find a great many sites packed with information.
  • Our links this week: in a thoughtful article Porter Anderson looks at the way we use terms in the book business and proposes a new meaning for Hybrid Publishing, In The Hothouse Of Publishing, Our Terminology May Need Pruning | Thought Catalog; an alarming new report which details a continuing decline in Americans reading, with poetry readership nearly halving, Just 54% of Americans Read a Book Last Year, says NEA - Publishing Perspectives; and an interesting debate between two writers about the importance and role of book reviewing, Is Book Reviewing a Public Service or an Art? - NYTimes.com.
  • Also, have you always wondered about that short novel of yours? - Now there's a publisher to champion it, Tor.com Explains Why Novellas Are The Future Of Publishing; does on screen reading enable you to absorb and remember, or is it just the opposite? Why Reading On A Screen Is Bad For Critical Thinking | Naomi S. Baron; and do you mostly only read the first chapter? -  a scary report about what subscription services and others are doing with your data, Our Ebooks, Ourselves: What's Happening with Our Ereader Data? - Publishing Trends.
  • 'If you go too far in fantasy and break the string of logic, and become nonsensical, someone will surely remind you of your dereliction....Pound for pound, fantasy makes a tougher opponent for the creative person.' Richard Matheson in our Writers' Quotes.