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'Stieg Larsson notwithstanding, what are the chances
of a translated author selling well in the big English-speaking markets of the
US and the UK? The received wisdom has always been that translations into
English are tough going financially, with it proving virtually impossible to
make the figures work without an English-language publisher on both sides of the
Atlantic to pay for the costs of translation.' News Review looks at writers
in translation in the headlines.
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'The Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation have launched an interesting
new charitable venture, designed both to get children reading and to encourage
them to become charitable givers. When a child
reads a book online, they are able to donate another book to be sent to a
reading charity and can choose from four options as to where their this book is
sent. The site is free, so the child reads a book, as well as giving one.
News Review reports.
-
'The case of Robin Price, a Devon-based literary
agent who has just appeared in court charged with stealing over half a million
pounds from a number of clients, is a salutary one for unpublished authors. Over
a period of several years, Price had bamboozled sums as large as £293,603 out of
hopeful authors... ' News Review looks at fraudulent agents and why you
should beware of vanity publishers.
-
'Every so often a completely unknown writer hits the
headlines after years of trying to break through and the dream come true
provides fresh hope for many others. Recently it was the turn of Australian Rebecca James,
whose new book Beautiful Malice was sold to Allen & Unwin, making her
literally cry with joy. The timing couldn’t have been more propitious, as she
and her partner had just closed down their struggling kitchen design business. This was just the beginning though. A week later Faber acquired the UK
rights, then the German auction went through the roof. News Review reports.
-
'Unable to make it across the Atlantic to
deliver a speech in London because of the ash, Mike Shatzkin asked
someone else to deliver his speech and it can be found on his blog. And
uncomfortable it certainly is this time. In a sobering analysis of the
next 20 years, he says there is one inexorable truth: ‘The price
consumers will be willing to pay for content is going to go down because
of the laws of supply and demand.’ News Review investigates.
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'I know it's somewhat of an unpopular opinion, but I
think it's unrealistic to expect that you can support yourself solely as a
writer in this economy... In the end, the
better you make the book, the better the chances that you'll get a healthy
advance, and the harder you work with your publisher to promote the book by
publishing stories or nonfiction essays to raise your profile, by blogging and
keeping your website active, by thinking outside of the box in terms of
marketing and publicity, the better your book will do. But at the end of the day
it's the quality of the work that matters the most.' US agent Julie Barer on
mediabistro
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'My job is to entertain. There is a contract between
the reader and the writer. The readers give me their hard-earned cash and I
have to entertain them... It's my role to come up with the goods. I work in an
entertainment industry. I tell stories, people read them and enjoy the stories,
so I get paid, and get to write more stories...' Jasper Fforde, author of Shades of Gray,
in the Independent on Sunday
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'This analogy between
music and books is something that keeps popping up. Many people are saying that
digital file sharing "killed" the music industry and that if the book industry
isn’t careful, the same thing will happen to publishing. But the book industry
is not the music industry... Books... are already their own device with no
need for any sort of player.'
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'The sudden rush of Kindles, tablets and readers
strikes me as strangely illogical. Reading is supposed to be in danger, in
decline. And yet somehow these devices are going to make it more attractive...
Call me old-fashioned or just call me old. But you
can keep your e-book ancillaries. Stories are enough for me.'Anthony
Horowitz, author of The Power of the Necropolis in the Bookseller.
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'Writing fiction is
inevitably much more personal. Not necessarily autobiographical, but much
closer to your way of seeing the world, and much more demanding. I find it much
harder... It’s a personal form of expression as opposed to a screenplay where I
think you’re second-guessing the director or the producer or the audience.’
David Nicholls, author of One Day and many TV scripts, in the
Bookseller
'All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes
reasonably easily. Plumbers don't get plumber's block, and doctors don't get
doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a
special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for
it?'
Philip Pullman
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Chas Jones looks at technical issues
relating to WiFi, explains how it works and investigates the security
issues which are involved.
Charles Jones looks at the fascinating
subject of the dark web and asks why you might want to make your website
invisible.
John looks at how to kickstart writing a
biography or family history, now a very popular thing to write and
something you can easily set out to do. His May column shows how to get
yourself started with websites, books and magazines.
USB
Chas Jones guides us through this useful
gadget:
| 'Released in
April of the millennium year, this connection has been a part of
a revolution in the way we connect items to our computers.
Before USB connecting was an unreliable process but coupled with
the arrival of USB we had versions of Window that could support
'plug and play' which made the business of attaching things to
your computer at least an order of magnitude simpler.... '
|
The Digital
Rights Management debate
Chas Jones looks at the way the views on
digital rights management are changing. Is generosity a good sales
strategy and what about piracy?
Become
a biographer
Chas Jones looks at why you might decide
to become a biographer, covering searching out the right subject,
dealing with celebrity and whether you should make your book fact or
fiction, footnote of history or a piece of literature.
Also on the site:
Writing a
biography or autobiography
Writing Memoir or Autobiography or see below.
John Jenkins' April column
John ruminates on what writers can learn
from the great Anthony Trollope and concludes:
His success is an inspiration to those
who feel they have failed early in life and fear failure more than
failure itself... he would set himself a target
of 5,000 words a day – or 28,000 words a week – and keep to it.
2009 Diagram Prize winner
The winner of the wonderfully barmy
Diagram Prize for 2009 has just been announced. And here's where
you can find the
shortlist.
Chas Jones looks at the tricky subject
of defamation, the defences against it, defamation and free speech, and
how it works in different parts of the world. It's all too easy to
defame someone, so authors should be wary about the risks.
If you want to write a memoir you’re in good
company – lots of writers want to try their hand at this category. In the latest
in our new Categories series Chris Holifield looks at how to set about
writing your memoir and how to publish it.
Other articles in the series:
Writing
Historical Fiction
Writing Romance
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writing Crime Fiction
Writing non-fiction
|
Amanda Pollard, illustrator of An
Illustrated History of 1066, attends a London Book Fair Masterclass
to find out what part authors can play in organising their own bookshop
events.
Our brand-new, up-to-date 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.
Chas Jones looks at how writers can
benefit from using the web as an advertising medium, including using
Google ads and display ads to promote your book online.
In the seventh part of this series, Chris Holifield
looks at the subject of Creative Commons and how these special licenses
might transform authors' capacity to the license use of their books for all
sorts of purposes.
First article:
Bookselling
Second article: Publishing
Third article: Print on Demand and the
Long Tail
Fourth article: Self-publishing - career
suicide or 'really great'
Fifth article:
Writers' Routes to their audiences
Sixth article:
Copyright
Fauzia Burke explores the online
activities you can do in real time -- from status updates on Facebook,
to microblogging on Twitter to uploading photos and videos on other
social media sites. If you want to explore how social networking can
help you market your book, her article provides a starting-point.
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
Our Editorial
Services for writers
Check out the 17 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.
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.
Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site,
including Finding an Agent
and Making Submissions.
Our latest review covers the 4th Edition
of Giles Clark and Angus Phillips' useful book. Reviewer Chris Holifield
commented that it had been substantially revised and that it 'provides
an excellent introduction to anyone with a professional interest in
publishing... No writer equipped with this book need ever feel
like an ignorant outsider again.'
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