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May 2008
The website for writers
News Review
- 'Amazon has dominated the headlines in the book trade press over the last few months, as it has taken a more aggressive approach to its plans for growth.' News Review has the (quite alarming) story.
- News Review looks at Susie Dent's forthcoming Words of the Year and concludes that: 'Writers for whom English is their native language have a huge advantage in reaching a worldwide market'.
- Are print encyclopedias dead? It rather looks as if they might be. News Review looks at Brockhaus and Britannica.
- J K Rowling's recent appearance in court to protect her copyright raises key issues relating to infringement and 'passing off'. News Review investigates.
- News Review on the Bologna and London Book Fairs: 'In summary, these were two lively and upbeat book fairs, showing that the global book business is in surprisingly strong shape.'
- Agent Pat Kavanagh: 'You can’t be thinking about what’s happening to the share price, or whether shareholders are going to be cross with you. All that matters is doing the right job for your writers, even if it means turning something down that’s very lucrative.’ News Review focuses on the agency world.
Comment
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'Book lovers are financially astute. They have appropriate levels of borrowing and have kept their credit cards under control.' Polly Jaffe at the London Book Fair, in the Bookseller.
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‘I try to write so much a day. I set myself a small target, ie to write for an hour or perhaps 250 words and not to do anything else. You find once you start that you’ve written for hours or 1,000 words.' Celia Rees, author of Sovay in the Bookseller
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'When it comes to women's fiction, critics have a condescension chromosome. The demeaning label chick-lit says it all.' Kathy Lette in The Times
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‘All prizes have eligibility criteria: nationality, or ethnic origin, or language, or country of residence, or subject matter, or religion. For those who see the world in negative terms, prizes celebrate the achievements of one group at the expense of another.' Kate Mosse defends the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction
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'Done badly, fantasy is more risible than any other genre, perhaps because there is such a fine line between heroic endeavour and bathos.' Amanda Craig in The Times
Writers' Quote
'To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.'
William Shakespeare
Digitisation at the London Book Fair 1
and 2What is the digital future and has it already arrived?
This is a two-part report on the excellent LBF seminars on digitisation, the subject of the moment as far as the book world is concerned. Chris Holifield's two articles provide a summary, and focus on issues most relevant to writers.
Ten Tips for nonfiction writers
Julie Wheelwright, programme director, MA Creative Writing Nonfiction, City University, London gives a helpful checklist for nonfiction writers.
The ABC Checklist for New Writers: Professionalism
We've published six extracts from The ABC Checklist for New Writers: How to Open Doors and Get Noticed the First Time Around by Lorraine Mace and Maureen Vincent-Northam, published by Orana Publishing. This useful book gives succinct answers to the many problems writers face, making it an indispensable reference for the budding writer.
1 Agents - when and how to approach them
2 Editors: Who they are and what they do
National Poetry Competition winner
Sinead Morrissey is the winner of this year's Competition. Read the winning poem here.
An Editor's Advice
This new series is based on the advice Maureen Kincaid Speller, a long-serving WritersServices freelance editor, has given writers over the years. The series covers dialogue, doing further drafts, genre writing, planning, points of view, autobiography and presentation.
Choosing a Service
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 Editorial Services for writers
Check out the 16 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to Copy editing, Typing to Rewriting.
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 fourth article looks at the advantages and pitfalls involved in self-publishing and asks whether self-publishing is 'really great' or career suicide.
The first article is on Bookselling, the second on Publishing and the third on Print on demand.
Success story
Our latest success story looks at Colin Cotterill's unusual route to authorship and his entertaining website.
Rotten Rejections
We've added some new quotes from publishers' rejections to this record of how they got it wrong. On Jack Kerouac:
'His frenetic and scrambled prose perfectly express the feverish travels of the Beat Generation. But is that enough? I don't think so.'
Creative Commons explained
When WritersServices first covered Creative Commons in Inside Publishing, we felt that we hadn't explained how it worked as clearly as we'd hoped to do. Now Frances Pinter, who works as a consultant on the project, explains this highly significant new approach to the licensing of rights.
Writer's success story
Russell Ash's entertaining book Potty, Fartwell and Knob, Extraordinary but True Names of British People has been promoted by a website which shows how the admittedly amusing material in the book can be used to good effect online.
The 2007 Diagram Prize
Here is the announcement of the winner for the oddest book title of the year - a barmy winner from a vintage crop.
WritersPrintShop
We have revamped our WritersPrintShop website with lots more information. 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.
Help for Writers
Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site.
We Watch the web for writers
Our huge section on technology and the web, and how writers can make use of them.
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WritersServices.com Magazine May 2008