30 December 2019 - What's new
30 December 2019
- ‘The thing I like about novels is that they are a more forgiving form. You can make missteps. It's harder to write a really good short story - I'm more aware of the flaws in my short stories. There's pleasure in being able to spend that much time with people and ideas in novels, but if you write a short story, the magical period of an idea to the excitement of composition and the first draft is short, but deeply pleasurable in a way novels are not...' Elizabeth McCracken, author of Bowlaway, Thunderstruck and four other books of novels, short stories and a memoir, in the Observer. Our Comment.
- From our 19-part Inside Publishing series, Subsidiary Rights: 'My first job in publishing was in a subsidiary rights department. I'm ashamed to admit that I accepted the job without having much idea what subsidiary rights were. Many writers may feel just as vague about this part of publishing, so here's a quick breakdown...' and Vanity Publishing: 'It is natural for writers to be eager to get published but it pays to be wary of the vanity publishers who will take your money and give you very little in return...' Vanity publishing is quite distinct from Self-publishing, you need to be aware of the differences.
- The 2020 International Book & Pamphlet Competition is open to all poets. Entry fee £28. Four winners will published by Smith|Doorstop books. All winners will also receive a share of £2,000, publication in The North magazine and a reading at The Wordsworth Trust. There's a chance of a collection being published too. Closing 1 March.
- Which service should I choose to help me get my work into good shape for submission or self-publishing? This is the question our page Which service? answers and it then goes on to give a quick rundown on our 20 editorial services for writers, which we think is the biggest and most comprehensive you can find on the internet.
- A good crop of links this week, with lots of valedictory articles about the past decade and year: starting with new year reading reolutions, 'I'm on the hunt for humour and hope': what will authors be reading in 2020? | Books | The Guardian; in 2019 we were obliged to say goodbye to far too many members of the worldwide literary community - from the universally beloved to the highly controversial, Notable Literary Deaths in 2019 | Literary Hub; it stood ready to supply them with plenty of action, cliffhangers, supernatural beings, mustache-twirling bad guys, and true love, Young adult literature entered the decade like a lion, but now it seems to be eating itself alive; and let's just start with the women, Female novelists replaced white male authors in the 2010s.
- Are you thinking of submitting your book to an agent? Try our Finding an Agent page or Your Submission package. Our Submission critique service may also help, as it's essential to get your package into the best possible shape before you start submitting.
- More links: the first 400 words of my novel, Adjustments, were written mostly to prove to my publisher, who had asked for the story, that I had no novel to write, The Joys (and Perils) of Serial Novel Writing | Jane Friedman; an unusual debut novel by a retired wildlife biologist named Delia Owens had an odd title and didn't fit neatly into any genre, so it hardly seemed destined to be a blockbuster, The Long Tail of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing' - The New York Times; so here's the more global version, The Rising Stars of Crime Fiction in the 2010s: International Edition | CrimeReads; and is TV better than film, whether big changes work, and more, Which Oft-Rebooted Story Yields the Highest Tomatometer Scores? We're Breaking Down the Ultimate Reboots << Rotten Tomatoes - Movie and TV News.
- 'Coleridge was a drug addict. Poe was an alcoholic. Marlowe was killed by a man whom he was treacherously trying to stab. Pope took money to keep a woman's name out of a satire, then wrote a piece so that she could still be recognized, anyhow. Chatterton killed himself. Byron was accused of incest. Do you still want to be a writer - and if so, why?' Bennett Cerf, founder of Random House, in our Writers' Quotes.
