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'So are agents really feeling the pinch now? Long
regarded as the fats cats of the industry, there are signs that the London
agency constituency is really beginning to join in the pain. You cannot
escape the conclusion that there will be redundancies, closures and mergers of
agencies. Independent agents have few enough overheads in any case and will cut
back on the new authors they take on. But some of the larger agencies have
become quite big businesses and they will find it difficult to sustain their
cost bases. News Review examines the latest news from the agency world.
-
There's better news from the UK book trade. 2009 was down just 1.2% down in value and only 0.5%
down in volume in a year which has seen a contraction in the overall economy of
5%, so the book trade can justifiably claim that book sales have held up
reasonably well. News Review reports.
-
'Americans are buying fewer books because of the economic downturn, and purchase
cheaper books when they do buy... Knocking on the head a favourite publishing theory
that books do well in recession, only 2% of consumers said that they were
choosing to buy books as an alternative to more expensive kinds of
entertainment. So, green shoots of recovery notwithstanding, the American book
trade is still experiencing tough times.' News Review looks at the American
book business.
- 'This has been a week of dramatic developments in the publishing world, as
publishers scramble to work out how to navigate a completely new playing field.
The debate centres around four crucial issues: who controls e-book rights, the
timing of e-book editions and what the prices and royalty rates for e-books
should be.' News Review reports from the battlefield.
- 'Is it possible that the short story is at last getting a new lease of
life? The form, long beloved of writers, seems to be reaching new audiences
through the Internet and benefiting from new opportunities in the form of
prizes. ' News Review investigates the latest good news.
-
'We all know the adage of 'everyone has a book in them'
- but how many truly have the commitment, courage, tenacity - and skills - to
write a series of novels? Writing a novel is not about ‘burning ambition’ -
where ambition is solely about publication or money or fame. For a novel to be a
good novel - and worthy of the generous readers who part with their cash to buy
it - it can only arise from the author’s absolute desire to write that story out
of their system - and being blessed with the necessary talent to do so...'
Freya North, in a Bookseller blog
-
‘Self-publishing has taken a huge leap forward in
recent years. It’s always existed, but with all the technological changes from
desk-top publishing systems to POD to blogging and so forth it’s now more
acceptable than ever before... The trend is hardly surprising: mainstream publishers have cut back and
cut back, so that even authors who had niche titles published and might have
been in print for some years now find it harder and harder to keep their books
available.'
Eileen Campbell, Mind, Body and Spirit expert and
author of 6 books, in
Bookbrunch
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'My life changed when I took control of my time.
Instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, I sit down to write for three
hours every day. It's much more effective - it's about giving yourself the
space for creativity to come. Esther Freud, author of Love Falls in the
Sunday Times' Style magazine
-
'As a screenwriter you have to be succinct and cut out any extraneous words or
descriptions so when I started writing prose for the first time it was really
difficult to make it last. I'd write Chapter One (and it would take up)
three-quarters of the page!' Belinda Bauer, author of Blacklands, in the
Bookseller
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'I am concerned about those very young people being trained up in creative
writing courses and universities around the country; being taught how to
present, how to sell as if they were heading for careers in advertising, being
snapped up by agents and scraping it all in the first - only? - book.' Sadie Jones, author of
The Outcast in the Sunday
Telegraph
'Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry
is given to us by those who do.'
Cyril Connolly
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Our updated line-up of the year's book fairs across the world, a
unique feature of the site which is much in demand. Is there a
book fair near you? It might be worth planning to attend it if so.
John's January column looks at a Robert Altman film, the Gingerbread
Man, based on a discarded story by John Grisham:
'Although it wasn’t Grisham’s best story, I enjoyed it. But the moral of this
story is: never throw anything away.
I realise that Grisham could probably sell his laundry list to a publisher but
for your new year resolution, dip down into that drawer and see what you can
salvage. You may find a gem.
And after you have done that go through stories and features you have sold in
the UK and see if you can sell them on for the American and other rights.'
This week's success story is the talented Evie Wyld, who has just won the
prestigious John Llewelyn Rhys Prize with her novel After the Fire, A
Still Small Voice.
New Categories series
So you want to write historical fiction?
Well, your timing is good, because historical fiction is fashionable
again after many years in the doldrums. In fact it’s so popular that it
has virtually reinvented itself as a category.
Our latest article in this series explores the market and approaches
to writing historical fiction.
Writing Romance
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writing Crime Fiction
Writing non-fiction
We feel very honoured that the British Library has asked to archive
www.writersservices.com in its web archive.
The UK Web Archive is a corpus of websites selected by leading UK
institutions for their historical, social and cultural significance in the UK.
Also listed in
this article
on their
archive are other international web archives.
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.
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
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In the fifth part of this series, Chris Holifield gives an update on
writers' routes to their audiences:
It is a supreme irony that at time when creative writing courses are
turning out large numbers of keen writers and almost everyone seems to think
they have a book in them, it has never been so hard to find a publisher.
First article:
Bookselling
Second article:
Publishing
Third article: Print on Demand and the
Long Tail
Fourth article: Self-publishing - career
suicide or 'really great'
Read the two winning poems from the gifted young 7-8 and 9-11
year-old poets who have won first prizes in this international competition.
John is on feisty form this month as he attacks the 'log-rolling' of
reviews and the silly results from best books of the year round-ups - for
which he gives his own suggested list.
Zoe Jenny, who was born in Switzerland but is shortly publishing her
first book written in English:
'Now that I am writing in English I have to start all over again, earning
my credentials in a new market. I am essentially back to square one. But
maybe that is the most exciting place to be.'
My Say 7: Timothy Hallinan on the Writing
Session.
My Say 8: Jae Watson on the magic formula which
enables writers to 'cross that fine, elusive line dividing unpublished and
published writers'.
Fauzia Burke is founder of a an Internet marketing firm specializing in
creating online awareness for books and authors. Her article shows how
successful niche publishers are reaching communities of readers on the web.
Joanne Phillips' article on Indexing looks at why non-fiction books need
them, why it's a specialist job and why computers can't achieve the same result
as a skilled indexer.
A professional index is essential for any work of non-fiction. Readers expect
to find a useful, well-presented index at the back of a book, and can get very
frustrated if the index doesn’t quickly lead them to the information they seek.
- Are you an author planning to compile your own index?
- Have you been asked by your publisher to provide an index for your
book?
- Are you self-publishing your work? If so, don’t let your readers
down by offering them a sub-standard index.
A professional index will set your work apart from other self-published
books. Indexing need not be expensive – and an effective index is the key to a
good non-fiction book.
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.
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