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March 2009

The website for writers

News Review

• '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.

• 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.

• 'How is the economic slowdown affecting books? We’ve managed to stay off the subject of the recession for over two months, so now is the time to have another look at how it is affecting the book business. The first thing to say is that things look bleaker in the US than they do in the UK, although no-one is having a particularly comfortable time... News Review finds that the news from the sharp end is not all bad.

• News Review summarises the triumphs of World Book Day 2009, including Reading Aroud the World, Books to Talk about and Quick Reads

• News Review looks at the recent relaunch of the Kindle and what it means for the book business, with its challenge to the traditional book and possible infringement of authors' audio rights.

Comment

• 'Writing is a very emotional thing, especially when words come in a way that you know is right.  At the heart of the writer’s life there can be a great sweetness.  And it’s also a great adventure: your whole life, from book to book, is a constant adventure.’ Graham Swift in the Observer.

• 'It is through the power and music and magic of stories and poems that children can expand their own intellectual curiosity, develop the empathy and awareness that they will need to tackle the complexities of their own emotions, of the human condition in which they find themselves.' Michael Morpurgo in The Times.

• 'If backlist sales decline significantly - notwithstanding the questionable "Long Tail" argument - will publishers have to rely on frontlist and ancillary revenues?...  We're in an industry that produces perhaps 100,000 new consumer titles every year. We publish as many consumer titles in a day as Hollywood releases movies in a year, each supported by marketing budgets book publishers cannot emulate.' Lawrence Orbach CEO of Quarto, in the Bookseller

• 'I think readers who aren’t used to reading contemporary poetry are surprised to find it’s about our world now, our experience; it talks about movies and pop music and stuff. It’s not some fuddy-duddy thing, and most of it contains a good deal of imaginative brilliance.'
  John Stammers, poet

• 'Just get it all down without being too self-conscious.  I carried a notebook, but I kept losing it; so I just store ideas in my head.  With the first draft you should get it all out, then revise later.  I never know what will happen when I sit down and that's what keeps me hooked on writing.  I want to know how it will end.' Catherine Alliott on her own writing and her advice to writers, in the Sunday Telegraph's Stella

Writers' Quote

'This before all: ask yourself in the quietest hour of your night: must I write? Dig down into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be in the affirmative, if you may meet this solemn question with a strong and simple, I must, then build your life according to this necessity.'
Rainer Maria Rilke

 

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?

Sell, don't tell

Some do’s and don’ts if you want to sell a script

If you want to turn your book, dream or idea into a performance script for film, stage or radio, it is going to be a very tough pitch. There are a some pretty strict ‘rules’ which you need to follow if you are to maximise your chance of success. Chas Jones's two part article shows you how to make a successful pitch. Part 1 and Part 2

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

Changes in the book trade

This new series by Chris Holifield looks at the book trade and investigates how fundamental changes in how it works are affecting writers. 

The first article is on Bookselling, the second on  Publishing, the third on Print on demand, the fourth on Self-publishing - 'really great' or career suicide?, the fifth on Writers' routes to their audiences, the sixth at at copyright under pressure and the seventh deals with Creative Commons.

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Previous serials & extracts

• Novel writing
• How Not to Write a Novel

WritersServices.com Magazine March 2009

Competitions

Surveys

The future of self-publishing

Getting a publishing deal results