What’s the Selling Attitude?
By G. Miki Hayden
Instructor at Writer's Digest University online and private writing coach
firstwriter.com – Saturday April 1, 2023
I had a client at one time (writing of course) who forever insisted she was going to sell. Someone must have told her to be relentlessly positive, but her words rang out a false note when she pursued that stance. I couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but not only did I disbelieve her, but I found her Mistress of the Universe tone somehow irritating. She seemed to be hammering away at the question of placing her work rather than the issue of how to write a novel that was worth selling—pursuing her craft.
Don’t get me wrong. After writing a good novel, the objective is placing the novel and receiving the payoff. We all want that. The money (some money, anyway), the accolades…the money. We want readers.
But is being positive enough after writing a pretty darn good novel?
New Magazine Listing: Yours Fiction
firstwriter.com – Friday March 31, 2023
Publishes 26 stories per issue. Stories can be of any genre, but we especially keen on romance, murder mystery, historical fiction, ghost stories, sagas and stories to make you smile. Any length between 450 and 2,700 words.
New Literary Agent Listing: Kiya Evans
firstwriter.com – Friday March 31, 2023
I’m looking for fiction and narrative non-fiction which is commercial, literary, or something that feels like the best of both. Above all, I’m drawn to strong voices, honest, memorable writing, and books which can confidently explore interesting, universal dynamics and experiences.
New Publisher Listing: Nine Arches Press
firstwriter.com – Thursday March 30, 2023
Publishes poetry collections. Accepts submissions during specific submission windows. See website for details.
‘Normal People for married people’: How to land a book deal for your first novel
irishtimes.com – Wednesday March 29, 2023
Lauren Mackenzie is just the latest writer to benefit from the Irish Writers Centre’s Novel Fair, which helps pair new talent with literary agents
Kevin Barry once said he’d wager that “some of the most brilliant writers who ever lived have never been published”. He was making a case for the importance of discipline over talent. (In his scenario, the brilliant writers hadn’t managed to complete any work.) But what of those brilliant and disciplined writers who have gone undiscovered, their manuscripts sitting latent on a laptop?
Over its first 12 years the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair has uncovered a great many such writers and manuscripts. The speed-dating-style pitching event, whose 2024 edition is launched today, seeks to bridge the gap between yet-to-be-discovered talent and industry professionals.
First, writers are chosen by a panel of judges, based on the opening 10,000 words of a manuscript. Next, these writers polish and submit their completed novel. After that comes a seminar, where the budding authors are briefed on the pitching process. Then comes the fair itself, at which they pitch their novel to agents and publishers in the hope of securing representation, a book deal or both.
Among the fair’s past successes are Michelle Gallen (Big Girl, Small Town), Caitríona Lally (Eggshells), Kevin Curran (Beatsploitation), Olivia Fitzsimons (The Quiet Whispers Never Stop) and, recently, Lauren Mackenzie, whose debut novel, The Couples, will be published by John Murray in July.
Books: As demand for sex fiction hots up, UK bookshelves will soon be heaving under weight of steamy titles
inews.co.uk – Tuesday March 28, 2023
Readers can expect a stream of erotic fiction, memoir and relationship guides to appear in book shops, and for titles to have a greater focus on inclusivity than traditional mainstream offerings
Things are about to start hotting up between the covers for British bookworms after publishers predicted bookshelves across the country will soon be heaving with steamy titles.
A host of offerings centering on sex, relationships and intimacy is due to be released in the coming months to cater for readers starved of physical closeness and affection during the Covid-19 pandemic and seeking escape from the bleakness wrought by the cost of living crisis.
Readers can expect a stream of erotic fiction, memoir and relationship guides to appear in book shops, and for titles to have a greater focus on inclusivity than traditional mainstream offerings – which have typically focused on heterosexual monogamous relationships – publishers, literary agents and authors have revealed.
How Annette Lyon Went From Writing "Sweet Romance" to Suspense
crimereads.com – Wednesday March 22, 2023
People who know me as a romance writer might see my new suspense novel as something that came out of nowhere. At first glance, my history would bear that out.
When my first novel was published by a small press, I really didn’t like the title they picked. It sounded too romantic for a book where, to me, the entire point was something else: the concern of a mother for her child. I made some tweaks so the title would point to that underlying theme. It had a suspense subplot, but there wasn’t really a way to get that across in the title or cover.
My second novel also had a romantic arc and a suspense subplot. My third was my first foray into historical fiction, which scared me. Readers said it was my best work yet, which told me that stretching myself had probably made me grow as a writer. That story also had a mother deeply concerned about her daughter. It didn’t have a suspense subplot, but it did open with a house burning down.
What I thought would be my fourth was a murder mystery, but the publisher suggested I do more historical, as my last book had outsold the others. I set the mystery—and my suspense ideas—on a shelf to gather dust with the many creepy resource books I’d collected about poisons, death, injury, firearms, and more.
Does it pay to be a top author?
rnz.co.nz – Sunday March 19, 2023
Does it pay to be a great novelist in New Zealand? The Detail talks to two authors about how they make a living spinning a good yarn.
Catherine Chidgey
Catherine Chidgey has been writing novels for almost 30 years - and she's one of our most celebrated writers on the scene at the moment.
Every morning, she's up at 6, writing. She does the school run, goes to her day job as a lecturer in creative writing at Waikato University, gets home, dinner, and then she's in bed - again, writing.
"It's insane," she laughs. "I don't recommend this schedule for anyone out there. Basically I have no other life."
She's just cracked the shortlist for the Jann Medlicott Acorn prize for fiction in this year's Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, for her 2022 novel The Axeman's Carnival.
It's a prestigious prize, too - carrying a $64,000 pay-out to the successful author.
But Chidgey's not in it for the money. She's in it for the passion.
Sheppard leaves DHH to establish new literary agency
thebookseller.com – Wednesday March 15, 2023
Hannah Sheppard is leaving the DHH Literary Agency to launch a boutique agency with a focus primarily on commercial adult fiction and children’s fiction from middle grade through to YA. The Hannah Sheppard Literary Agency (HSLA) will be opening to submissions from 14th March 2023.
While at DHH, Sheppard worked with authors Dee Benson, Sarah Bonner, Abi Elphinstone and Chris McGeorge among others, and will continue to represent the majority of her client list at her new agency. With HSLA, Sheppard aims “to consciously build a community of authors who celebrate diverse and joyful representation and also commits to opening the agency’s virtual doors to aspiring authors for a monthly Zoom drop-in to help demystify publishing”.
Words of wonder: A look behind the scenes of Ireland's thriving literary magazines
irishexaminer.com – Wednesday March 15, 2023
The Moth may be departing, but there's no shortage of other outlets for writers seeking publication. Here are profiles of a few of them
Who, in their right mind, would start a literary magazine? Plenty of people, it would seem, if the growth in publishing outlets for new writers, particularly online, is to be believed. While they’re often seen as a kind of cottage industry, small literary magazines are part of a bigger picture.
They provide a temperature check of the cultural climate, they’re a resource for talent-scouting publishers and a first stop for the big names of the future. Sally Rooney’s work, for example, first appeared in The Stinging Fly (see panel) so their influence is often way out of proportion to their size.
We spoke to three journal editors at varying stages of the process to find out what possessed them to enter the perilous world of literary publishing.
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