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Insider tip
Ensure that no key elements of your work, particularly your signature, will be concealed by a frame or mount. Paintings should be signed at least 15mm into the canvas/paper.
Artist's Guide to Selling Work-
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Crazy cake for book lovers
Filed under: Authors and Books
From guest blogger editorial consultant Cressida Downing
Do you REALLY love a book? Ever thought of having a cake made of it? Have a look at this hilarious attempt on the famous cake-wreck blog spot http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/04/twilight-of-our-discontent.html
What book would you like to see as a cake?
Yours, Cressida
Do authors need publishers?
Filed under: Digital publishing, Marketing Yourself
Will you still need a publisher in a digital, multi-channel world where you can engage directly with your audience?
The answer is yes. So long as publishers continue to add value, our services are useful, no matter what format you choose to deliver your content in.
The role of a publisher is more wide-ranging than you might think. A publisher will make sure your content is available in every potential outlet worldwide. Authors who attempt this themselves tend not to reach the market as widely. Publishers, through the process of careful selection, editorial input and marketing, are turning undiscovered talent into international success stories. Read more
Short Story Competition 2009: everything you need to know
Filed under: Competitions and Offers
We’re so pleased that our short story competition had such a huge response and we’re still getting lots of you coming to the blog looking for info and adding your thoughts about it all, which is lovely to see.
Anyway, I thought you might like a quick round-up of where to go for all the best bits, so without further ado:
- This year’s winning entry, ‘In the Wendy House’ by Rosey Darbishire, appears in full here on our website
- Winning writer Rosey Darbishire shares a little bit about herself in a special guest post called What Inspires Her?
- Jo Herbert, editor of the yearbook, discusses what it means to be a judge and how the judging process was fraught with danger!
- The final shortlist in full, with additional comments from the judging
Happy reading!
Claire Fogg
(Publisher, Yearbooks, A&C Black)
247 Tales: the first winner
Filed under: Competitions and Offers
Over at 247 Tales the challenge is on… It’s a Bloomsbury competition for children, and right now, the first winning story, When I Grow Up (246 words) by Tomas, age 8, is up on the website for all to admire and read.
Each month, a different Bloomsbury author will pen 247 words on the theme de month. Their stories also feature on the site and 10 runners-up each receive a signed copy of the latest book by that author.
I think it’s a marvellous idea. And I’ll bet that squeezing an idea in 247 little words is a lot harder than you’d think. I’m wondering if this month’s author Julia Green found it difficult? I’m going to try to find out … Read more
How to write fiction like Wells Tower
There’s been a real buzz about the short story experiencing a revival and for this we largely have the hotly tipped (and impossibly named) Wells Tower to thank. His debut collection, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, has 9 stories sharing the theme of lonely people looking for someone or somewhere to seek shelter.
The New York Times is among those praising Tower, saying that his style has ‘tensile strength’ while his syntax is ’supple enough to wrap itself around several shades of meaning in the same sentence’. Read more
Get that tricky sentence structure sorted!
Currently I’m copy-editing a Danish non-fiction book which has been translated into English. It’s easy to get bogged down in long sentence structures and forget the overall sense of what is on the page. I’ve found that the best way to check a sentence is just to read it quickly out loud. Often that’s all it takes to realise what’s missing or what needs changing. You could try this with your writing today.
Yours, Cressida
(Freelance editorial consultant)
The future is digital, but where’s the money?
With music companies finding their market has disappeared, newspapers giving away their content for free (and finding the ad revenue siphoned off by Google) and the film and broadcasting industry facing increasing piracy – what hope is there for the publishing industry?
There is opportunity there, it turned out, as four CEOs and the BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas took centre stage in discussions at the London Book Fair seminar Digital Publishing – Where’s the money? . Read more
In bed with… the Cambridge Wordfest
Filed under: Festivals and Events
Today I’m going to the Wordfest in Cambridge. Writing and working with books can be a very solitary business, and literary festivals are a wonderful way to get out there and meet up with like-minded people. Have a look on the internet for festivals in your area. I’m booked to see Susie Orbach talk about her latest book and I’m really looking forward to it.
I’m intrigued by this ‘In Bed With…’ reading of erotic short stories which I’m sadly unable to attend. Do you get tempted to try to write erotica? It sounds like you’d be in good (anonymous) company!
Yours, Cressida
(Freelance editorial consultant)
Publishing in the year 2020
Filed under: Digital publishing, Festivals and Events
What will be happening to books 10 years from now and what will that mean for authors and publishers?
Those were the questions put to a panel of experts at the London Book Fair. Future-gazing is always tricky, but some conclusions emerged. The traditional ‘linear’ model of publishing: author delivers manuscript to agent or editor, the publisher develops it into a book, sells it to the retailer who sells it to the consumer – is going to change. Read more
Nominate the next poet laureate
It struck me that Poet Laureate Andrew Motion is nearing the end of his 10-year reign. As of May, we’ll have someone else penning poetry for majestic occasions, and no one much outside No.10 knows who it’s going to be.
So who’s up to the challenge? Is there someone out there with a brilliant gift for words? I’m ruling Morrissey out for writing The Queen is Dead and living in LA, but other than that anyone from Pete[r] Doherty to Stephen Fry goes. My vote goes to comedian Stewart Lee for his services of cynicism to the nation.
If you were in charge, who would you pick to be next poet laureate?
Claire Fogg
(Publisher, Yearbooks, A&C Black)
Buy the 2011 Yearbook
The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook is available at a discount from our online bookshop. Get all the information, contacts and advice you could need.On camera: Jon McGregor
"Being longlisted for the Booker Prize changed everything - it was the launchpad for my writing career." Click to view our video with novelist Jon McGregor »
On camera: Justin Cartwright
"Just write... If you're any good you may not know it, but certainly someone else will." Click to view our video with novelist Justin Cartwright »
On camera: Julie Myerson
The novelist and journalist Julie Myerson on how she got that all-important first publishing deal. Click here to view our video exclusive »