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Inspired by Colin Robinson's recent article
in The Nation, News Review takes another look at Amazon, still
growing fast and now the largest bookseller in the world, with all that
entails. Are they using their power wisely? What effect do
they have on publishers? There's a stop press too, relating to the
latest big story on e-books.
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News Review looks at the big international
publishing companies and what a recent study shows about how they have
fared in the rankings in the last year. Trade publishing is not top of
the charts and it is the companies which have a global approach which
have grown the most.
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'Following on from our look at prizes and
what effect they have last week, this week’s column will be devoted to
new prizes. There has been a proliferation of new prizes launched over
the last few years, so there’s quite a lot to evaluate. Some of them
focus on new work but only a proportion of them are open for entries
from unpublished writers.' News Review looks at new prizes.
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'The literary world is awash with literary prizes,
with new ones being set up every year. But what effect do these prizes have and
do they actually sell more books?... The answer is mixed. Some of the biggest prizes do
have a major effect on sales but others have surprisingly little impact. The
€100,000 International IMPAC
Dublin Literary Award, which bills itself as the world’s largest prize for a
single novel, was won recently by a novel in translation which will probably not
sell in really significant numbers...' News Review investigates.
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'An article in a recent edition of the Bookseller
has highlighted the ongoing pressure on acquisitions in publishing houses,
which has now become acute.
Helen Garnons-Williams, Bloomsbury fiction editorial
director said: "Our entire business is based on confidence, whether among the
publishers or the agents, and pretty much everyone is wobbling because no one
knows what will sell." Auctions have often faltered because the recession is
causing a massive loss of confidence and publishers are becoming increasingly
risk-averse.' News Review has the story.
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‘Any bookseller who might be considering whether to
order more copies of Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel, which last
week (in May) took the Independent Foreign Fiction prize, should look at this
week's charts. Astonishingly, translations currently account for 40 per cent of
Britain's top-ten bestsellers...
Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor of the Independent
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'I think there was what people sometimes call 'a
gap in the market' because I wanted to get away from the fantasy and
sensationalism of James Bond and the Ludlum-esque stuff... after a while
too much fantasy has a bludgeoning effect: you accept that the guy can fly, or
defuse a bomb with bare hands, or whatever.' Jason Elliot, author of The Network,
in the Bookseller.
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'Only now that the book is out have I fully realized
what the most frightening part of the is process is. The questions: How will
the reading public respond? Do ads work? Do people even read much anymore,
beyond vampire books? Is the sophomore slump real? Is the sales rank on
Amazon.com a true indicator?... I want people to buy and read my book, but the
reasons for this want lie not in sales rank or blog hits. The reasons lie where
they always have for the artist. If we do our job right, writers can, in the
words of Muhammad Ali, shake up the world. Glenn Taylor, author of The Marrowbone Marble
Company on Publishing Perspectives.
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'A multi-media strategy pays
richer dividends to busy, versatile authors for whom film adaptations, TV slots,
press columns and the like come easily. For focused literary types who simply
want the best deal for their words, other agents still keep faith with books
alone.'
Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor, in the Independent.
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'I've always loved short stories. The process is
probably less anxious than writing a novel. There's something about the
intensity of a short story that I love... You can reinvent them all the time
(whereas) with the novel there's the huge weight of tradition. There's something
about modern life that suits the short story. It's a bit snipped up and jagged
and raw and I think stories are like that...' Michele Roberts, author of Mud,
in the Bookseller.
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'Books are not dead.
They may appear besieged, ever more so as fragile retailers hunker down to
re-examine their own business models. There may be fewer new titles published
over the next several years... but I am confident that the book business
will evolve, as it has done for hundreds of years, and will occupy a
considerable position as a ongoing and valued medium.' Laurence Orbach, CEO
of Quarto, in the Bookseller
'Poetry is not a career, but
a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value
of what he has written, he may have wasted his time and messed up his life
for nothing.'
T S Eliot
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In the face of a changing situation as
English becomes ever more established as the international language,
Chris Holifield has revised this article in the
Inside Publishing series, which
consists of 19 articles which take you inside the publishing world.
Our reviewer Maureen Kincaid Speller
concluded that:
'This book is aimed at people who are
taking, or thinking of taking, a writing workshop, at workshop teachers,
and even at those who prefer the solitary writing life but also seek
some of the benefits of the workshop experience...
'This is an unconventional book about writing,
inspirational as much as it is practical, and focusing on an aspect of
the writing process that isn’t much discussed. It would, I think, prove
a valuable addition to the writing bookshelf if you are at all
interested in the workshopping process and what it involves.'
Chas Jones looks at technical issues
relating to WiFi, explains how it works and investigates the security
issues which are involved.
Charles Jones looks at the fascinating
subject of the dark web and asks why you might want to make your website
invisible.
USB
Chas Jones guides us through this useful
gadget:
| 'Released in
April of the millennium year, this connection has been a part of
a revolution in the way we connect items to our computers.
Before USB connecting was an unreliable process but coupled with
the arrival of USB we had versions of Window that could support
'plug and play' which made the business of attaching things to
your computer at least an order of magnitude simpler.... '
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John looks at the recent decision by
Rupert Murdoch to take the Times Online private. But will
this work, or are we all just too used to getting things for free
online?
The Digital
Rights Management debate
Chas Jones looks at the way the views on
digital rights management are changing. Is generosity a good sales
strategy and what about piracy?
If you want to write a memoir you’re in good
company – lots of writers want to try their hand at this category. In the latest
in our new Categories series Chris Holifield looks at how to set about
writing your memoir and how to publish it.
Other articles in the series:
Writing
Historical Fiction
Writing Romance
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writing Crime Fiction
Writing non-fiction
Are you having difficulty deciding which service might be right for you?
This useful new article by Chris Holifield offers advice on what to go for,
depending on what stage you are at with your writing.
Our huge section on technology and the web, and how writers can make use of
them, takes you from beginner-level articles to advanced technology.
If you're thinking
about self-publishing, this is the place to find out what's
involved. If you're ready to go ahead, our high quality service is second
to none and there's an economy version for those who want to
tackle some of the work themselves. You can
estimate
the cost for yourself.
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John's view is that 'you can do
everything with dialogue: let your characters tell the story'. He
illustrates what he means by this in his July column.
Do you want to make a Table of contents
for your book? It looks good to provide one, especially when you prepare
a large document. It does not take long and the benefits make it well
worth doing.
If you are using Microsoft Word, or most other word-processing packages,
it is remarkably easy to get a professional-looking table which is
generated for you by the software. Not only will the table look good but
the headings are ‘active’; so people reading the document on a computer
can click on the TOC and jump to the place in the text.
Chas Jones shows you how.
This year’s Bulwer-Lytton
Prize, the annual award for the worst opening sentence, has gone to
Molly Ringle's comparison of a lovers' kiss with the sucking of a
thirsty rodent.
Given annually since
1982, the competition, sponsored by the English department at San Jose
State University, is inspired by the melodramatic first sentence of Sir
Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford.
Our reviewer, Maureen Kincaid Speller,
said: 'Many people want to write about someone’s life, perhaps their
own, and there are courses to suit every level of interest, from
university masters degrees to local college qualifications.' and
concluded that it was: 'a brisk and helpful guide on how to set about
writing a life story... It is a sensible account of life writing from
experienced practitioners of what is both art and craft, and I recommend
it!'
Amanda Pollard, illustrator of An
Illustrated History of 1066, attends a London Book Fair Masterclass
to find out what part authors can play in organising their own bookshop
events.
Our brand-new, up-to-date agents'
listings have been compiled from agents' own websites and other
information they publish about what they're looking for. You can use
them to research which agents to submit to.
The listings cover UK and US agents,
with separate listings for children's agents in the UK, and
international agents from all over the world.
Chas Jones looks at how writers can
benefit from using the web as an advertising medium, including using
Google ads and display ads to promote your book online.
Improving your writing, Learning on the job, New
technology and the Internet,
Self-publishing - is it for you?,
Promoting your writing (and yourself), Other kinds of writing, Keep up to date
and Submission to
publishers and agents
In the seventh part of this series, Chris Holifield
looks at the subject of Creative Commons and how these special licenses
might transform authors' capacity to the license use of their books for all
sorts of purposes.
First article:
Bookselling
Second article: Publishing
Third article: Print on Demand and the
Long Tail
Fourth article: Self-publishing - career
suicide or 'really great'
Fifth article:
Writers' Routes to their audiences
Sixth article:
Copyright
Our Editorial
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Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site,
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and Making Submissions.
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