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'The two big spring book fairs in Europe, Bologna
and London, have both gone rather well, with packed aisles and a lot of solid
business being done. This is all the more surprising because the book
business internationally is in something of a crisis. The two big English
language markets are both down on book sales, the UK by 3% and the US by a
worrying 9%. Although sales of ebooks are growing, especially in the States,
this is not yet compensating for the lost print sales.' News Review
reports.
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'Self-publishing has been much in the news recently,
with bestselling self-publisher Amanda Hocking deciding to sign up with a
publisher, whilst author Barry Eisler has decided to continue self-publishing in
spite of receiving a big offer.' News Review looks at the pros and cons of
going it alone or signing up with a publisher.
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'The recent Books and Consumers conference showed
some surprising trends in British book-buying, which is catching up on the US as
regards e-books. Ebook sales, whilst much talked-about, were still only
1% of the total in 2011. But Kelly Gallagher, Vice President Publishing Services
of PubTrack Bowker, the US parent company of Book Marketing Limited, which
presented the research, observed that in the US ebook sales had enjoyed a
"hockey stick" moment, with a steep rise in sales once devices had become
prevalent. News Review at the Books and consumers conference.
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'In a stunning final judgement, Judge Denny Chin has
this week rejected the Google Book Settlement, some 13 months after its final
fairness hearing, saying: "In the end, I conclude that the [Settlement
Agreement] is not fair, adequate, and reasonable." Chin set a date of April
25th for a status conference, and suggested his concerns with the agreement
could be overcome with one simple change. "As the United States and other
objectors have noted, many of the concerns raised in the objections would be
ameliorated if the ASA were converted from an opt-out settlement to an opt-in
settlement. I urge the parties to consider revising the ASA accordingly."
News Review on the Google Settlement.
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'World Book Night was brilliant and World Book Day
its usual effective self. But what about the literacy campaign which lies behind
the whole operation?
It is a shocking statistic that one in six people in the UK struggle with
literacy. The figure is better in many European countries and worse in the US
and many others. What is clear is what a terrible loss this is for them, how it
reduces their life chances in every way, barring them from decent jobs and
sapping their self-confidence.' News Review reports.
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'World Book Night is practically upon us, and
thousands in the UK will help celebrate it this coming Saturday, 5 March. This
year the organisers have broken away from the traditional Quick Reads and book
tokens for children - although the traditional programmes are still there - to
go for a much larger promotion.' News Review reports.
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'Borders’ filing for bankruptcy this week was the
expected outcome of the long slow decline of the second-biggest US bookstore
chain, as it gradually ran out of impetus and money. The book retailer has been struggling for months, with
Ingram as the chain's main supplier of books, and most publishers putting them
on stop. Borders had proposed that publishers receive interest-bearing notes
instead of payment but publishers, not surprisingly, were cool on that proposal.'
News Review on this week's bad news.
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'Pay a fair price, e-whingers: Talent and experience
should cost a just amount of money in a commercial marketplace. Professionals
deserve a fair reward. This whingeing, petty, adolescent sense of entitlement to
culture and entertainment for free has almost proved the death of recorded
music. It must not happen with books.’ Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor, in the Independent
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'"Consider the nature of what happens when we read
a book... in private, unsupervised, unspied-on, alone. It isn’t like a lecture;
it’s like a conversation. There’s a back-and-forthness about it. The book
proposes, the reader questions, the book responds, the reader considers. We
bring our own preconceptions and expectations, our own intellectual qualities,
and our own limitations too, our own experience of reading, our own temperament,
our own hopes and fears, our own personality to the encounter."' Anthony Horowitz quoting Philip Pullman.
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‘Very often I'm brought to a halt by some
ridiculous mistake that hasn't been picked up by an editor, which makes me think
there can't be much line-by-line editing going on in publishing houses these
days. I don't know that it matters all that much. It makes a lot of people
absolutely furious so they can hardly enjoy reading. But for me if what is being
said comes clearly across that's what matters. It is a bit pedantic to fuss too
much about the editing of detail. On the other hand, it does offend my personal
instincts, having been trained in the old-fashioned ways, which meant our texts
should be perfect.' Diana Athill, author of
Somewhere Towards
the End in the Guardian
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'Sometimes writing is easy and sometimes not. You
have to be sitting at your desk; if you wait to want to do it you might wait for
ever. But you generally find that once you're doing it, you want to. Early
morning is best. I write in my dressing gown, because when you're writing
fiction the nearer you are to your subconscious, your sleeping state, the
better. My theory is that once you dress, that's the end of work for the day.
The real world surges in and takes over. Fay Weldon in The Times.
'And as to
experience--well, think how little some good poets have had, or how much
some bad ones have.'
Elizabeth Bishop
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Historical Writers' Association
Novelist Manda Scott has formed the Historical
Writers’ Association as a forum for writers and to promote the genre. The
internet-based group already boasts around 100 members including authors, agents
and editors, and is open to writers of historical fiction and non-fiction.
Poetry Book
Society fights Arts Council England funding withdrawal
The tiny Poetry Book
Society is fighting back against the Art's Council's shocking decision to remove
its funding completely in one year's time.
Carol Ann Duffy, the UK
Poet Laureate, was widely quoted in the press last week: "This news goes beyond
shocking and touches the realms of the disgusting. The PBS was established by T
S Eliot in 1953 and is one of poetry's most sacred churches with an influence
and reach far beyond its membership. This fatal cut is a national shame and a
scandal and I urge everyone who cares about poetry to join the PBS as a matter
of urgency."
The Creative Process
'We came close to inventing a quantum theory of
creativity during a poetry reading by Professor Philip Gross of Glamorgan
University at Kellogg College, Oxford.
Rather like Schrodinger’s cat, the debate that
followed suggested how the creative process was changed, if not actually killed
off, when it is examined. Does the keeping of notebooks, for example, change the
quality of the creative impulse that the words try to capture?'
Applying
text style
In this useful article, Chas Jones shows you how to
apply text style to your manuscript. All word processors offer you the chance to
apply a layout style to sections of the text. When preparing your manuscript for
submission or for the printer, this is how to go about it.
John Jenkins' February column
In this month's column John Jenkins deals with the
all-important subject of creating characters. How good are you are
creating characters? John shows you how to go about this.
International Book Fairs 2011
Bang up to date, our list of the key international
books fairs for 2011. Some are growing in this competitive sector, some
have vanished, and others are still a bit vague, but here's the list as it
stands at present.
My e-book reader
Chas Jones relates his own experience with a new
e-book reader and looks at what's going on in the e-reader world.
Great review of WritersServices
We're complimented by Stuart Aken's review of our site in his blog:
'It is the Resources pages that really make this site stand out from the
crowd. Here you’ll find reviews of books and software, listings of agents,
self-publishing facts, educational matters, health and safety advice, and
there’s a new feature, reviewing writing magazines. You’ll see there is a
great deal of information on this site. It’s well presented and easily
navigated, which is as well, considering the number of pages. It’s a site I
browse often and I think you’ll benefit from a good look at this one.'
Read more.
Writing Memoir and
Autobiography
Writing
Historical Fiction
Writing Romance
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writing Crime Fiction
Writing non-fiction
Are you having difficulty deciding which service might be right for you?
This useful new article by Chris Holifield offers advice on what to go for,
depending on what stage you are at with your writing.
Our huge section on technology and the web, and how writers can make use of
them, takes you from beginner-level articles to advanced technology.
Our Editorial
Services for writers
Check out the 17 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to
Copy editing, Typing to Rewriting. Previous magazines:
March
February
January
Magazine index
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If you are
looking for copy editing online, it is difficult to ensure that you are getting
a professional copy editor who will do a good job on your manuscript.
WritersServices has now made its copy editing
service unique, as it will offer as standard two versions of your script, one
prepared using 'track changes' and one with all the changes accepted.
Ideas for stories begin in many different places:
A snatch of dialogue
A character
A title
Sometimes from a news fragment from TV or
newspapers.
Whatever the start point, the crucial question –
whether from Aristotle to Shakespeare or Sam Goldwyn to Stephen Spielberg is:
What’s the big idea?
And here's this year's winner.
Here's the shortlist for the 2010 Diagram Prize.
It looks like it's going to be another strong year.
My favourite competition of the year is run by columnist Horace Bent in the
Bookseller (the UK book trade weekly) with input from dedicated odd title
hunters from all over the world.
The prize, set up in association with the
Diagram Group, has been running since 1978 and is a joyous celebration of the
barmy side of publishing.
Publicising
your book
Gaining publicity is one of the biggest hurdles a new fiction or non-fiction
writer faces. After all, without it, no-one will even know your book exists.
Here, media agent Alison Smith-Squire offers some top tips…
Writing
Historical Fiction
Our revised article on Writing Historical
Fiction brings this subject up to date.
Other articles cover
Writing Crime Fiction,
Writing Science Fiction and
Fantasy, Writing Romance,
Writing Non-fiction
and
Writing Memoir and
Autobiography.
Inside Publishing
series
This extremely useful 19-part series is in the
midst of being revised to take account of changes in the publishing world. The
introduction, How the publishing business
works,
Advances and royalties,
The Relationship between agents and
publishers,
Subsidiary rights,
The English-speaking publishing
world and
The Marketing
department have all just been brought up-to-date.
This second week we're on to
The Frankfurt Book Fair,
the Sales Department,
the Production Department,
Pricing and
Distribution.
And the third week it's
Books clubs and
Direct selling. The fourth
covers Creative Commons.
Agents'
listings
Our agents'
listings have been compiled from agents' own websites and other
information they publish about what they're looking for. You can use
them to research which agents to submit to.
The listings cover UK and US agents,
with separate listings for children's agents in the UK, and
international agents from all over the world.
Improving your writing, Learning on the job, New
technology and the Internet,
Self-publishing - is it for you?,
Promoting your writing (and yourself), Other kinds of writing, Keep up to date
and Submission to
publishers and agents
Previous magazines:
Magazine index
Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site,
including Finding an Agent
and Making Submissions.
WritersPrintShop
If you're thinking
about self-publishing, this is the place to find out what's
involved. If you're ready to go ahead, our high quality service is second
to none and there's an economy version for those who want to
tackle some of the work themselves. You can
estimate
the cost for yourself.
Our book review section
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