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So how on earth have we reached this extraordinary situation where authors
may find their books have been digitised without their knowledge or consent,
just because copies of them are in US libraries? Just how has Google managed to gain the initiative and what
should authors do? The first thing is that if you want to opt out, you must do
so by 5th May. News Review reports.
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News Review looks at persuading the 20 million non-readers in the UK and
the one in 4 Americans who didn't read a single book last year to pick up a
book.
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This year's Books and Consumers study shows a worrying downward
trend in value sales in the UK over 5 years, whilst at the same time pointing up
an increasing dependence on heavy buyers. Internet and supermarket sales of
books are up, chain sales down. News Review reports.
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News Review looks at how the Focus list in the UK is making big-name
authors available to the visually impaired. New technology has made it much
easier to produce large print books and self-publishers can also bring out large
print editions of their books.
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'Although there were fears that the Bologna Children’s Book Fair was going
to be less busy this year as a result of the recession, the most important
annual rights fair for children’s publishers seems to have been business as
usual.' News Review on Bologna and children's books.
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News Review looks at libraries and how cuts in funding and book budgets
are balanced by successful promotions. We argue that we should support them
because libraries are a prerequisite of a civilised society.
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'The idea of what constitutes literary value has changed or become less
consensual. It’s harder to establish what is good and what is not, and
that is one of the things that forms the canon. Barnes, Amis, McEwan were
the last people through the door, and then the door closed, and then the
building fell down.’ Giles Foden in the Bookseller.
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‘All writers, unless they’re very fortunate, know how difficult it is to
get noticed, to become ‘discovered’. I became an ‘overnight success’ (I
clapped when I read the review that said it) after almost twenty years...
David Almond on SWBWI site.
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'I've nothing against popular culture, but the idea that there is
something divisive about bringing to people the greatest language ever written
is utterly wrong.' Josephine Hart, author of the Words that Burn book and CD.
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'There is some hesitancy with publishers fully embracing e-books. We
have a 'book love', the printed book is a gorgeous object. We need to
communicate that love with e-books, and there is something shiny and new and
mobile about them.' Stephen Page, CEO and Publisher of Faber, in the Bookseller.
'Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping
expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent
in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.'
Janet Frame
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Latest changes in the book trade
Chris Holifield gives an update on recent changes in the bookselling
world, including the effects of recession and an even greater focus on
bestsellers.
Here's our report from the 2009 Masterclass at the London Book Fair,
where a packed audience listened intently to a varied group of speakers in a
session chaired by journalist Danuta Kean. Bill Swainson, senior editor at
Bloomsbury and Simon Trewin, co-head of the book department at new
agency United Agents, were joined by authors Kate Mosse, Lola Joye and
Gareth Sibson.
Since many writers who come to the site are interested in writing for the
booming children's market, we are delighted, by kind permission of the
publisher, to be featuring two extracts from Linda Strachan's Writing for
Children:
'One of the most exciting things about writing for children is the sheer
diversity. You have different ages to choose from; you can write picture
books, easy readers, short books for more confident readers, or novels –
each quite different in length and often in content.'
Benjamin Zephaniah describes his fascinating route to being published in
an excerpt from the Writers and Artists’ Yearbook 2009.
WritersServices editor Kay Gale has many years of experience dealing with
the slush-pile. Here are her tips on how to get your submission
through it.
The eighth and final set of our new pages of tips for writers deals with
the all-important subject of submissions to publishers and agents.
Tips for Writers 1: Improving your
writing
Tips for Writers 2: Learning on the job
Tips for Writers 3: New technology
and the Internet
Tips for Writers 4: Self-publishing - is
it for you?
Tips for Writers
5: Promoting your writing (and yourself)
Tips for Writers 6: Other kinds of writing
Tips for Writers 7: Keep up to date
Think how much learning to touch-type would speed up your typing and help
you avoid errors! Our new list of free and very cheap software makes
it easy to access what's available online.
Our annual updated listing of the world's book fairs is now available on the
site.
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.
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New Categories series
This is the third article in a new series by Chris Holifield which will cover
the major writing genres. It looks at romance, which is dominated in the UK and
the US by Mills and Boon Harlequin, which brings out 120 books a month.
Study their guidelines before you get started or at least before you submit to
them.
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy looks at Science Fiction and Fantasy
and suggests how you should get started, what special considerations you should
bear in mind and what the market's like.
Writing Crime Fiction looks at the international market for crime novels and
shows what is working for this readership and how you can give your own crime
fiction its best chance of getting published.
Seamus Heaney won the ninth David Cohen Prize for Literature this week, while
Eric Carle celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Here's the winner and shortlist for the 2008
Diagram Prize. It's been another strong year.
So, was it Baboon Metaphysics, Strip and Knit with Style or
The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-miligram Containers of Fromage
Frais?
Agents' Listings
The new agents' listings are now available on the site. Coming from
the 2009 Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, these listings can be
searched and provide the most up-to-date information about literary agents
across the world:
UK
agents
US
agents
Agents
from the rest of the world
Children's specialist agents
Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2009
Our review of
the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook
Our Editorial
Services for writers
Check out the 16 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to
Copy editing, Typing to Rewriting.
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 huge section on technology and the web, and how writers can make use of
them, takes you from beginner-level articles to advanced technology.
Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site,
including Finding an Agent
and Making Submissions.
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