Comics/Graphic Novel Sales Jumped 62% in 2021
publishersweekly.com – Saturday July 2, 2022
Sales of comics and graphic novels rose 62% in 2021 over 2020, according to a new joint estimate by ICv2's Milton Griepp and Comichron's John Jackson Miller. Total comics and graphic novel sales to consumers in 2021 in the U.S. and Canada were approximately $2.07 billion, the report found, a sales level that is 70% higher than sales in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
Consumer sales of graphic novels, driven by manga, jumped 76% in the year, to an estimated $1.47 billion, while sales of comics increased 53%, to $435 million. Sales of digital comics, which had a big gain in 2020, rose slightly in 2021, to $170 million.
New Literary Agent Listing: Bethany Lucas
firstwriter.com – Friday July 1, 2022
Enjoys reading a wide range of genres and is interested in stories that put new spins on old ideas. She especially loves books with fully fleshed out characters, vibrant worlds, and endings that pack an emotional punch.
Verve Promotes Noah Liebmiller & Jessica Zou To Agents
deadline.com – Wednesday June 29, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Verve has upped coordinators Jessica Zou and Noah Liebmiller to Agents in the Motion Picture Literary Team.
The agency, which has a tradition of surprising staffers with promotions, last week tasked Liebmiller and Zou with putting together a video as part of a signing exercise. I understand they were told that the video was not only important but needed to convey the theatrical gravitas of the signing pursuit. During a recent all-company staff meeting, the video was played to great reception and the promotions were announced by the co-heads of the Motion Picture Lit Team who reflected on how deserving both Liebmiller and Zou were of their new titles.
Jason Mott on the Power of Routine, and Tackling Writer’s Block by Writing Badly
lithub.com – Wednesday June 29, 2022
Literary Hub: What time of day do you write?
Jason Mott: I write first thing in the morning. I get up at 5:30 am and head straight to the computer because I’ve found that the best time to write is when the rest of the world is sleeping. There are just fewer distractions and interruptions first thing in the morning.
LH: How do you tackle writer’s block?
JM: I write. I have a theory that writers block isn’t real. In my opinion, writers block is simply the fear of writing bad. So, on those tough days, I just go ahead and write badly. Eventually, my brain always figures out what it wants to say.
New Publishing Imprint Listing: Blue Jeans Books
firstwriter.com – Wednesday June 29, 2022
Romance genre imprint, non-Christian based.
How I write: Screenwriter Kathryn Burnett on why a writing career is a marathon not a sprint
stuff.co.nz – Tuesday June 28, 2022
Kathryn Burnett has won the Best Drama Script at the NZTV Awards, for her co-writing of the tele-feature The Tender Trap (TVNZ On Demand). Kathryn is an award-winning professional screenwriter, playwright, public speaker and writing mentor/coach. Her latest play, The Campervan, is being produced by Tadpole Productions in September and will have an all-star New Zealand cast and is set to be directed by industry stalwart Simon Prast.
Clare Pooley on Writerly Perseverance and Knowing When To Give Up
lithub.com – Monday June 27, 2022
“You must never give up on writing itself. But sometimes you need to give up on what you’re writing.”
We’re often told that the key to becoming a published author is perseverance. “A professional writer,” according to Richard Bach, “is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
It takes a certain type of dogged determination—some might call it self-delusion—to get up before dawn for days, months, years on end and drag approximately 90,000 words out of your imagination onto a blank computer screen.
When I sat down to write my second novel, I thought that this time it would be easier. I knew I could do it—my debut, The Authenticity Project, had been a New York Times bestseller—and I already had fabulous publishers, in New York and London, waiting eagerly for the manuscript. No more wild flinging of submissions, with increasing desperation, into the farthest regions of the world wide web for me. Oh no.
The creative muse, it transpires, saves her most hysterical laughter for those of us who think it’s going to be easy.
Clarion Launches New Imprint Headed by Linda Sue Park
publishersweekly.com – Sunday June 26, 2022
HarperCollins Children’s Books has announced the launch of Allida, a new imprint at Clarion Books led by author Linda Sue Park and Anne Hoppe, v-p and editorial director at Clarion. Park is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning A Single Shard and the bestselling A Long Walk to Water, which has sold more than three million copies, among many other acclaimed works for young readers, including picture books, novels, and poetry. Clarion is Park's longtime publisher.
A solution to writer’s block: Transcribe yourself
austinkleon.com – Friday June 24, 2022
Stewart Brand once said to Brian Eno: “Why don’t you assume you’ve written your book already — and all you have to do now is find it?”
In a similar vein, I enjoyed this story of how KC Davis, author of the brilliantly-titled How To Keep House While Drowning, wrote their book:
I had long stared at blank word documents, unable to get my thoughts on the page. I’m actually not a great writer — but I am a pretty good speaker. So I went back through my social channels and transcribed every short form video I had ever done on this topic and that left me with all these disjointed paragraphs. I spent another two months trying to decide how to connect these little vignettes into a “real” book and finally realized that my choices were to publish an imperfect book or not publish the perfect book. So I decided to make each section its own chapter — some only a page long.
On Writing Unlikeable Characters
crimereads.com – Thursday June 23, 2022
When I set out to write my young adult novel Never Coming Home, my number one goal was to create a killer mystery. My number two was to write a cast of characters that the reader just couldn’t wait to see die. Never Coming Home is a contemporary, social media-based retelling of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, the story of 10 strangers who are all invited to a mysterious island under sketchy circumstances. Once they arrive, it isn’t too long before they’re hit with the big M: murder.
While Queen Christie’s masterful storytelling and deft deployment of the red herring definitely drew me to the idea of reimagining this story, what really hooked me was that many of the characters in it were deliciously awful. Take beautiful, dumb Anthony Marston, whose selfishness is so pure that it’s almost to be admired. Almost. Or Emily Brent, a pious, self-righteous spinster who regularly indulges in the deadliest sin (pride, that is). Philip Lombard is the closest the book has to a hero, and he’s as morally gray as they come (though any quick scroll through #booktok will inform you that a morally gray hero is actually what the boys and girls want these days).
Get the free newsletter | Submit a news item or article | Get Writers' News for your website
