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'You can’t have missed the news that Dan Brown’s latest thriller, The
Lost Symbol, will be released worldwide on 15 September. As readers
queue up to place advance orders for one of the most eagerly anticipated books
in history, there are also anxieties about how this one book will distort the
performance of the book trade. News Review investigates the biggest book of
the year.
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'The romance genre is doing very nicely, thank you, in spite of the
recession. When conglomerate publishers such as HarperCollins and Simon and
Schuster have been announcing sharp downturns in sales (see last week's News Review ),
Harlequin/Mills & Boon (the US and UK companies respectively) just go from
strength to strength.' News Review looks at a success story.
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'Recent results from two big international publishing companies show that
the recession is hurting quite badly.' News Review looks at the rather
dismal results from Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins.
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'Recent changes in the ranking of British publishers by market share show
how vulnerable even big publishers are to the recession and the extraordinary
effects of just one megaselling book... A year ago, just 0.2%
separated Hachette from its nearest rival Random House UK. Now the gap has
widened, Hachette has 16.1% of all book purchases and Random House has slipped
back to 13.1%.
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'Since News Review last reported on e-books and e-book readers in the
spring what’s
happened to the ‘big story’ of the book world? Well, everyone’s been pretty
preoccupied with what else is going on right now, with all eyes on the
developing recession and how this is affecting booksellers and publishers, but ebooks and the effects of digitisation are still the hot topics of the
moment.'
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'Some chapters on a hard drive in a spare room, increasing by 500-word
increments every day, will change the publishing landscape from 2012 and beyond.
That is a certainty.
And that’s what makes the business of books so thrilling.' Julia Churchill, UK children’s agent at The Greenhouse, in Writers’ Forum
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‘Some people think they know what my books are about when they haven’t
read them. They feel I’m in favour of bad behaviour or swearing. Some even
think I write about drugs. There’s nothing of that kind. Mostly, my
books are about outsiders, kids who don’t fit in.' Jacqueline Wilson,
bestselling children's author
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'I completely understand people’s reluctance to pick up a literary novel
that is not going to entertain them in the 30 minutes they have before they go
to sleep at night. I think the world of books forgets that because so
many of us do our reading during the day. That’s a luxury so many people
forget.’ Nick Hornby in the Bookseller
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‘Of course publishing companies should spend money and time on trying to
define how the new digital world will work, making it easy to read books on
whatever electronic devices appear. What I have a problem with is the inordinate
amounts of time spent on the touchy-feely side.' Trevor Dolby, Publisher of Preface, on Bookbrunch
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'It’s imaginary encounters with death that generate life on the page… ‘There are plenty of books that tell you how to become a writer, but not one
that suggests how, if you want a normal life, you might reverse the process.’
Hilary Mantel, whose latest book is Wolf Hall, in the Observer.
'Nobel Prize money is a lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who
has already reached the shore in safety.'
George Bernard Shaw (attrib)
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Our first regular monthly column from the former editor of Writers' Forum
is entitled 'Move over Harry Potter' and is about Joe Delaney, who
followed his agent's advice to switch to writing for children - and is having a
remarkable success.
In the second part of this series, Chris Holifield gives an update on recent changes in the
publishing
world, including conglomeratisation, the effects of recession and an even greater focus on
bestsellers.
First article:
Bookselling
'Before publication I wondered what the key was, the magic formula. I
attended conferences and literary festivals, nurturing a fading hope of
finding the answer. Here are the things I gleaned, helping me cross that
fine, elusive line dividing unpublished and published writers...'
First published in the spring issue of The Self-Publishing
Magazine, this article by Chris Holifield looks at what's going on
in the publishing world and why it might make sense to consider
self-publishing.
Danny found that WritersServices'
Synopsis-writing service
was just what he needed to get his submission package ready to go out to
agents.
Here's our index of
fictionalised stories, which explain how the services work and what
they might be able to do for you. Ranging from the
Editor's Report to
Private Publishing, these
provide a different picture of what the services can do for you.
by Robert J Ray
Maureen Kincaid Speller reviews this new book from the author of The
Weekend Novelist, concluding that:
'For the first-time redrafter, Ray’s methods provide a good foundation,
and most importantly, they use a clear timetable. Over eighteen weekends
(that is, four and a half months), a writer can carry out the work necessary
for an effective rewrite of a novel, and have the manuscript ready to go.'
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.
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
Submission to
publishers and agents
The
Slush-pile
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.
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It’s a common enough fantasy for writers: maybe now I can leave that dreary
job and devote myself whole-heartedly to writing... Perhaps you’ve even been
indulging in it as you lay on the beach this summer, or more likely spent your
precious holiday working on your latest novel.
A report from the Winchester Writers' Conference
'The road which led to Michael Morpurgo’s appointment as Children’s Laureate
did not get off to a good start. His primary schools in the 60s taught him to
fear words. But then, like many boys of that time, he discovered that there were
comic books that told all the classic stories with skilful imagery and a minimal
use of words which might be challenging to their young readers.'
by Joanne Phillips
'Writing is undoubtedly a creative art... But writing is also a
business, with invoices to raise, accounts to be submitted and records to be
kept. Writers, like artists, can find themselves floundering when it comes to
the ‘business end’ of the job. Read on for our easy-to-follow guide to the
business of writing...'
Our reviewer's view was that: 'This packs a lot of information into its
976 pages and is very good value for money at £12.99... The result is a useful
handbook for any writer, which delivers a great deal of useful information in an
easily accessible form.'
Our book review section
Saving Salt
Publishing
Salt's Just One Book campaign.
'There’s only one difference between published and unpublished writers and it
is this – the first group see their work in print on the shelves of Waterstone’s
or Tesco or online at Amazon; the second group are yet to have physical evidence
of the hours, weeks, years spent fashioning words into their patterns. You are
already a writer.'
From the Foreword to the Writers and Artists' Yearbook 2009.
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
Writing Crime Fiction
Agents' Listings
The agents' listings from
the 2009 Writers' and Artists' Yearbook can be searched:
UK
agents
US
agents
Agents
from the rest of the world
Children's specialist agents
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.
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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