Free writing course for aspiring novelists
enfielddispatch.co.uk – Wednesday September 28, 2022
Indie Novella is launching a new writing course in October, alongside literary agency Watson Little (credit Deepesh Thobhani, Indie Novella)
Our North London-based publisher Indie Novella is launching a brand new form of writing course for new, aspiring and experienced writers.
What makes this writing course different to those currently out there can be summarised as follows: it is the only publisher and literary agent led writing course that is completely free and available to anyone.
Longrigg to retire from MBA Literary Agents after 25 years
thebookseller.com – Wednesday September 28, 2022
Laura Longrigg is retiring at the end of September 2022 after 25 years at MBA Literary Agents as an agent and director of the company.
Longrigg started her publishing career as assistant to Mic Cheetham at Abner Stein, before becoming an editor at HarperCollins, Hutchinson Heinemann and Penguin. In 1994 she joined Jennifer Kavanagh’s agency.
Since 1997 she has been a literary agent at MBA, where her clients have included Clare Morrall, Alex Dahl, Cathy Woodman and Rosanna Ley.
Save Our Books campaign urges government to keep UK copyright exhaustion scheme
thebookseller.com – Friday September 23, 2022
The Publishers Association (PA) has written to the new secretaries of state for digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) and business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) to urge them to continue with the UK’s current copyright exhaustion scheme.
The PA, alongside its Save Our Books campaign partners, including the Association of Authors’ Agents, Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and Society of Authors, want the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to stick to the current regime when it makes a final decision in March 2023.
The IPO consulted on changes to the UK’s copyright exhaustion regime last year, including considering a move to an international exhaustion regime. The Save Our Books campaign fought to retain the UK’s current regime, arguing that the proposed changes “would cause a projected loss of up to £2.2bn to the publishing industry, disincentivise the UK’s thriving book exports, and flood the UK with international copies of books tailored to other international audiences, typically American”.
Loughman swaps Bev James for The bks Agency
thebookseller.com – Thursday September 22, 2022
Literary agent Morwenna Loughman is departing Bev James Management to join The bks Agency.
Loughman has previously worked as an editor at Ebury, Bonnier and HarperCollins with authors including Hilary Mantel, Nigel Slater, Anna Jones, Marie Kondo, Brené Brown and Tim Ferriss, as well as commissioning books such as Body Positive Power by Megan Jayne Crabbe (Vermilion) and Ask Me His Name by Elle Wright (Lagom). She has since worked as a literary agent at Bev James Management.
Loughman said: “I’m over the moon to be joining the brilliant team at bks. I’ve long admired their spirit, warmth and tenacity, which, when combined with their unparalleled industry expertise, makes an unbeatable combination. The fact that they are also some of the loveliest people in publishing is the icing on the cake.”
Thwaites becomes head of books at Curtis Brown as new children’s division announced
thebookseller.com – Tuesday September 13, 2022
Senior literary agent Steph Thwaites has been appointed head of books at Curtis Brown amid a raft of promotions within the agency’s book division, and she will be setting up a new children’s division.
In her new role as head of the Books Department, she succeeds Sheila Crowley and Gordon Wise, joint managing directors of the Book Department over the past three years, who continue in their book board and senior agent capacities.
Writing Science Fiction: Win a place on the Curtis Brown Creative Writing Course with Adam Roberts
scifinow.co.uk – Saturday September 10, 2022
Writing Science Fiction is a six-week online course from Curtis Brown Creative – the renowned writing school led by the major literary agency. Since launching in 2011, over 170 students have become commercially published authors.
Join prolific science fiction author Adam Roberts for a six-week voyage into the genre. Adam shares wisdom acquired from writing his 23 published novels, most recently Purgatory Mount (Gollancz 2021; shortlisted for the Prometheus Award) and The This (Gollancz 2022). You’ll work through six modules comprising teaching videos and substantial notes from Adam. You’ll learn how to develop your novum (‘new thing’), build a compelling world, people it with extraordinary characters, and write a story that transports your readers to somewhere that’s entirely yours. Topics include worldbuilding, narrative structure and navigating beloved tropes of the genre while avoiding clichés.
International Living is Looking for Writers…
internationalliving.com – Wednesday September 7, 2022
Here at International Living, we believe in one simple idea…in the right places overseas, you can live better, for less.
A healthier, safer, freer, more affordable retirement can be yours in one of the many retirement havens around the world.
We live in a world full of opportunities…for fun…pleasure…financial security and profits…romantic discoveries…and adventure. It’s a world full of things you can do to make your life more exciting—and more profitable—and we’d like you to write about them for us.
Sterling Lord, uniquely enduring literary agent, dies at 102
uk.sports.yahoo.com – Monday September 5, 2022
Sterling Lord, the uniquely enduring literary agent who worked for years to find a publisher for Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and over the following decades arranged deals for everyone from true crime writer Joe McGinniss to the creators of the Berenstain Bears, has died. He had just turned 102.
Lord died Saturday in a nursing home in Ocala, Florida, according to his daughter, Rebecca Lord.
“He had a good death and died peacefully of old age,” she told The Associated Press.
Sterling Lord, who started his own agency in 1952 and later merged with rival Literistic to form Sterling Lord Literistic Inc., was a failed magazine publisher who became, almost surely, the longest-serving agent in the book business. He stayed with the company he founded until he was nearly 100 — and then decided to launch a new one.
When is a bestseller not necessarily a bestseller?
bbc.co.uk – Friday September 2, 2022
Authors and publishers all want to sell enough books to have a bestseller. But is a bestseller always actually a bestseller? Not necessarily if a publisher has paid to get on a shop's bestselling shelves, or staff base the rankings on what they predict might be popular.
Books are big business, and 2021 was a boom year. With more people buying and reading books during the pandemic, sales reached a record £1.8bn.
BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme has found that publishers often pay booksellers to be in their stores and, in one case, on its bestselling list.
WH Smith has racks of books in numbered positions under the heading "new and bestselling".
One publisher shared an email trail with Front Row that details its negotiations with the high street chain over a new book.
In the email, WH Smith asked for £2,000 in exchange for promotional space, including a position in the fiction chart - for as long as sales warranted it - and the book of the week slot.
The chain says its book charts are not solely based on how many copies have been sold.
When is a bestseller not necessarily a bestseller?
bbc.co.uk – Friday September 2, 2022
Authors and publishers all want to sell enough books to have a bestseller. But is a bestseller always actually a bestseller? Not necessarily if a publisher has paid to get on a shop's bestselling shelves, or staff base the rankings on what they predict might be popular.
Books are big business, and 2021 was a boom year. With more people buying and reading books during the pandemic, sales reached a record £1.8bn.
BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme has found that publishers often pay booksellers to be in their stores and, in one case, on its bestselling list.
WH Smith has racks of books in numbered positions under the heading "new and bestselling".
One publisher shared an email trail with Front Row that details its negotiations with the high street chain over a new book.
In the email, WH Smith asked for £2,000 in exchange for promotional space, including a position in the fiction chart - for as long as sales warranted it - and the book of the week slot.
The chain says its book charts are not solely based on how many copies have been sold.
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