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Insider tip
Enthusiasm is infectious... It is essential to convey enthusiasm for your work and for the job of meeting people and selling to them. Art is a luxury, so people need to enjoy buying it. The Artist's Guide to Selling Work by Annabelle Ruston-
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Apple’s iPad, e-reading and you
With news of the iPad reaching fever pitch, I’ve been gadget watching, observing commuters and their reading. Today it was paperbacks nil, iPhones 3 (these were games – Poker, Peggle etc – not books), and eReaders 1 (held aloft on the down escalator at London’s Liverpool Street).
My journey into work is mercifully brief but nonetheless I am seeing habits in transition. The eBook reader as travelling companion can work, thanks to long battery life, multiple titles and pageturning with one hand.
So as an author, do you need to concern yourself with eBooks and eReaders, what they are and what they do, and how to write the perfect e-seller? Read more
What presents did you get?
Filed under: Writing Advice
I hope you had a lovely Christmas and that you managed to give and receive some thoughtful gifts.
I think the ideal gifts for a writer are notebooks to jot ideas in, book tokens to enable a relaxing hour or two browsing in a favourite bookshop, tasty nibbles to have to hand as you write, and much more!
I did discover that Margaret Atwood has a gift list for beginning novelists, which would work equally well for birthdays too, while this Bookaholic blogspot features some interesting items – such as bookshelf wallpaper!
What gift did you most want this Christmas, what did you get, and what did you give this year to your writer friends? Read more
Ebooks: love ‘em or hate ‘em?
Filed under: Digital publishing
A quick definition: ‘ebook’ (electronic book) is commonly used to mean a literary work that is published and stored in digital form and designed to be read on computers or hand-held devices.
The makers of Star Trek predicted them back in the 1970s (along with hypospray and matter transporters) but despite ebook technology being available since the 1990s, it’s only recently that demand has really taken off. All the major publishers now launch hundreds of ebook titles every month. And despite resistance from traditional book lovers, ebooks are set to become a firm feature in our reading (near) future. Not convinced? Keep reading … Read more
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
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.-
Win, Win, Win! We are giving away 5 copies of Qatari Voices, a collection of essays which will inspire new writers. For details of how to enter this giveaway go to 'The Accidental Writer' >
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 »