Romance Writing Festival
bournemouthecho.co.uk – Wednesday July 30, 2025
One-day festival celebrating romance writing, offering a mix of panel discussions, agent 1-2-1s, workshops, activities and networking opportunities.
Sunday Times bestselling authors Milly Johnson and Paige Toon will headline the inaugural Romance Writing Festival, taking place in Bournemouth on 18th October 2025. They join fellow Sunday Times bestseller Katie Fforde on an impressive programme featuring award-winning authors, editors, literary agents, and publishers.
The one-day event is dedicated to romance writing, offering a mix of panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities. Attendees can also book one-to-one sessions with agents and editors or take part in free activities designed to inspire writers at all stages of their journey.
Straight white author's career finally takes off after he tells woke publishers he's gender queer Nigerian
dailymail.co.uk – Thursday July 17, 2025
A poet said his career skyrocketed within the liberal literary scene by taking on minority personas to promote his work to publishers.
Aaron Barry, 29, of Vancouver, experienced the most success when he posed as writers with identities far from his own, even if the poems were blatantly 'trash.'
His reasoning behind the scheme was simple - to prove the poetry world is more concerned with writers' identities than the quality of their work.
'My thinking was that, if the industry - from small magazines to full-on publishing imprints - could get away with showing a clear preference toward certain groups and, in that same vein, a clear bias against other groups,' Barry began to DailyMail.com.
'Then there was nothing to say that such power couldn't be abused in the future, whether it be to adhere to shifting trends or politics, or to discriminate against additional demographics.
'Such treatment would leave writers in a state of peril and anxiety, forever having to look over their shoulders while navigating their careers.'
From 2023 to 2024, Barry had managed to fool 30 respected literary journals around the globe and got about 50 of his 'nonsensical' poems published.
He published dozens of pieces as Adele Nwankwo, a 'gender-fluid member of the Nigerian diaspora,' including one titled After Coming Out: A Wrestling Promo.'
The Novelry Offers $100,000 Prize to Break Publishing Barriers
publishersweekly.com – Monday July 14, 2025
The Novelry, an online creative writing school founded by Booker Prize–longlisted author Louise Dean, has launched a $100,000 writing prize aimed at reaching writers outside traditional publishing circles. With submissions closing July 31, the Next Big Story competition has already received over 5,000 entries and expects to reach more than 10,000 total submissions. An entry requires the first 1,500 words of manuscript and a $15 admission fee, submitted through Submittable.
Dean said the competition aims to reach nontraditional writers. "What I'm really interested in is reaching people who would exclude themselves from writing way before they got to apply for scholarships and bursaries," she told PW. "These are the sort of people who would have been where I was and made the assumption that to be a writer, you've got to be clever or posh. I don't think I had those, therefore, I won't. But I discovered that in fact, you don't need either of those, and they can be quite detrimental."
The competition requires only the first three pages of a novel concept, an approach Dean said targets "real people who probably love really high drama, high concept things" and "probably heavy consumers of genre fiction."
The Sunday Post short story writing competition is back for 2025
sundaypost.com – Sunday July 13, 2025
The word is out. The Sunday Post is on the hunt for Scotland’s best unpublished, amateur fiction writers and you may well be among them.
If you can spin a good yarn, if your imagination knows no bounds, if the characters in your head won’t rest until they’re on the page, then we want to hear from you.
Today The Sunday Post launches its hotly awaited annual Short Story Competition – the third since it began in 2023.
So popular was are the contests that the crème de la crème of Scotland’s writers – Sir Alexander McCall Smith, and Bloody Scotland festival founders Dr Alex Gray and Lin Anderson – are back to judge entries, along with The Sunday Post and P.S. magazine books editor and competition co-ordinator Sally McDonald.
So, if you’ve missed our previous contests, or entered and didn’t win, now is your chance.
Bestsellers LLC Unveils Data-Driven Publishing Model to Transform Authors into Industry Dominators
westernslopenow.com – Sunday July 13, 2025
SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES, July 12, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- New "Bestseller Blueprint" Guarantee Program Cuts Through Publishing Guesswork, Using Analytics to Land Titles on Amazon, WSJ, and USA Today Lists
Bestsellers LLC, the publishing industry's first data-engineering partner for authors, today launched its flagship Guarantee Program designed to propel books into bestseller rankings through algorithmic targeting, strategic launch sequencing, and hyper-optimized Amazon campaigns. Unlike traditional publishers or à la carte services, Bestsellers LLC treats every book as a "product launch," deploying market analytics to secure visibility, sales velocity, and category dominance.
"The publishing industry runs on hope; we run on data," said the CEO of Bestsellers LLC. "Most authors invest thousands into editing and cover design, only to sell 50 copies. Why? No customer targeting, no Amazon SEO, and no launch science. Our engineers map niches, reverse-engineer algorithms, and deploy precision ads, turning manuscripts into revenue-generating assets."
404 Ink publishing house to close
list.co.uk – Sunday July 13, 2025
Ten years since its inception, award-winning Scottish book publisher 404 Ink has announced it will close next summer. Established in July 2016 by Heather McDaid and Laura Jones-Rivera, 404 Ink has published books by authors including Chris McQueer, Helen McClory and Nadine Aisha Jassat. Last July, the publisher released Victor & Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium by Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson. When we spoke to Laura in February, she talked about some of the struggles the industry is facing.
The publishers described their first book, Nasty Women (inspired by Donald Trump’s infamous description of Hilary Clinton during the US presidential debate in 2016), as ‘a collection of essays, interviews and accounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century’. Acclaimed author Margaret Atwood backed the book's Kickstarter appeal, describing it as ‘an essential window into many of the hazard-strewn worlds younger women are living in right now.’ We awarded 404 Ink the top spot in our annual Hot 100 in 2017.
Their ambitious, non-fiction Inklings series, described as ‘small books with a big impact’, is responsible for dozens of titles covering subjects as diverse as colonialism, foot fetishism, Doctor Who, women in hip hop, and the relationship between apocalyptic fiction and contemporary society.
Agents Help YA Authors Find Crossover Success
publishersweekly.com – Sunday July 13, 2025
Not long ago, authors were generally encouraged to stay in their lanes, writing-wise, in order to build name recognition and audiences. Not so anymore.
“We’re seeing more YA authors step into adult spaces—and when that move is intentional and well aligned, publishers are paying attention,” says Regina Brooks, president of Serendipity Literary Agency.
There might be more than one reason for the shift. “For certain genres—such as fantasy and romantic fantasy—the borders between YA and adult have seemed to blur,” says Peter Knapp, an agent and partner at Park, Fine & Brower. “We are finding we often have projects that might land on either a YA list or an adult list.”
Is category hopping only for high-profile authors? Not necessarily. “A strong voice and loyal readership can travel across categories, but it’s not a given,” Brooks says. “Even established YA names have to show that their adult work stands on its own. Brand equity can buy you creative freedom—but not a blank check. Publishers are still weighing risk, and they’re most receptive when the pivot feels organic and makes sense for the market.”
Submission Grinder Delists Analog
locusmag.com – Saturday July 12, 2025
Analog Science Fiction & Fact has been delisted on The Submission Grinder due to new terms in the magazine’s recent contracts. Steven Salpeter of parent company Must Read Books has responded that they “are going to be in touch with the folks at the submission grinder to try to resolve the issue.”
According to the the listing, The Submission Grinder has concerns about Analog contract terms “including sublicensing to unnamed other publications, and waiving of moral rights”. This is consistent with the site’s FAQ, which includes “A publication asks for the right to sublicense the work to other publications without…specific approval from the author” and “A publication asks the writer to waive their ‘moral rights'” as possible reasons for delisting.
Reading Force is delighted to welcome submissions from adults, children and young people to its 2025 Memoir Writing Competition
cobseo.org.uk – Monday June 30, 2025
Reading Force is delighted to welcome submissions from adults, children and young people to its 2025 Memoir Writing Competition. First prize is a publishing contract with Pen & Sword Ltd.
The shared-reading charity has launched its 2025 writing competition and warmly welcomes entries from anyone and everyone in the tri-service community, including spouses and partners, children and young people, serving personnel, and veterans. Entries can be submitted until 31st August and winners will be announced in January 2026.
Reading Force is thrilled to have launched another writing competition because they were so impressed and moved by the entries in their first competition in 2022, and wanted to give another opportunity for the Forces community to voice their stories – be they about moving home, memorable events in service, special friendships and relationships, children and young people’s experiences of military life, the ups and downs and everything between.
Calling all aspiring authors! Here's your chance to win a one-to-one session with a literary agent - plus £1,500
goodhousekeeping.com – Thursday June 26, 2025
Do you have a brilliant idea for a book but need help getting it down on paper? GH has teamed up with literary agent Nelle Andrew from Rachel Mills Literary agency to give readers the chance to win valuable feedback on their writing, plus support in finishing their novel.
We’re after someone whose work is unpublished and is without a literary agent. Entries can be in any genre of adult fiction (not children’s or YA, short stories, poetry, drama or plays, or any non-fiction). The winning entry will be the one that grabs our attention, shows the most promise and leaves us wanting to read more.
First prize is £1,500, plus a one-onone, hour-long mentoring session with Nelle, and an extract will be published by GH online. Six readers will get written feedback from a literary agent. So get writing!
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