Traditional Publishing
Self-Publishing
Share

Writers' News

Mother and son Suzi Wooldridge and Cameron Toman launch Synergy Publishing

thebookseller.com – Wednesday October 2, 2024

Suzi Wooldridge, the c.e.o. of Bridge Logos in the US, has set up a lifestyle book publisher, Synergy Publishing, in the UK with her son, Cameron Toman.

Wooldridge took over the helm of Christian publishing company Bridge Logos, which was formerly owned by her parents.

Synergy Publishing’s first title, Invincible Not Invisible by Fiona Lambert, was published in August. The publisher’s spring 2025 season includes titles from Nicky Hambleton-Jones, Andrew Barton and Sharry Cramond.

[Read the full article]

The Bent Agency's Gemma Cooper launches Gemma Cooper Literary

thebookseller.com – Thursday September 26, 2024

Gemma Cooper, director and literary agent at The Bent Agency UK (TBA), is launching her own agency, Gemma Cooper Literary.

She takes her full list of authors, including Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Younger Readers winners Robin Stevens and Jessica Townsend, as well as B B Alston and Sibéal Pounder, Carnegie Medal shortlisted author Sophie Anderson, and Waterstones Crime Thriller of the Month author Katy Watson.

Cooper will continue to represent authors from across the world, and sell their work directly into the UK, US and Australia. She will be working with Rich Lit Rights for foreign rights.

[Read the full article]

Les Nouveaux Editeurs announces creation of first publishing house

thebookseller.com – Wednesday September 25, 2024

Les Nouveaux Editeurs, the freestanding group of publishers launched by ex-Hachette Livre chief Arnaud Nourry at the end of May, has announced the creation of its first publishing house.

Called La Tribu, it will specialise in French fiction and non-fiction and will be managed by its founder Julia Pavlowitch. “She is a shareholder” in the company, and will have “full editorial independence", Nourry said in a statement.

Pavlowitch has spent 12 years as an editor for independent publishers, Les Arènes, L’Iconoclaste and Phébus. She plans to release about 15 titles a year in what she describes as a “personal project that brings together all the conditions for encouraging literary creation”.

[Read the full article]

BBC 500 Words creative writing competition returns for children across the UK

bbc.com – Wednesday September 25, 2024

The UK’s most successful writing competition for children, BBC 500 Words, opens today (Tuesday 24 September).

The competition, which is supported by BBC Teach, encourages children of all abilities to dive deep into their imagination and write the story they would love to read in 500 words or less, without fear of spelling, grammar or punctuation errors.

Open to ages 5-7 years and 8-11 years, the competition is being launched by Children’s Laureate and 500 Words judge Frank Cottrell-Boyce, with a message from Her Majesty The Queen, on The One Show this evening (Tuesday 24 September, BBC One, 7pm).

Frank Cottrell-Boyce says: “The thing I most love about 500 Words is how unpredictable it is. When I open the envelope of stories I never know whether I’m going to laugh, cry or shiver with horror. The best feeling is when a child has put something of themselves into the story. Then it’s like meeting a new person.”

[Read the full article]

Emma Layfield launches Children’s Books North Agency in Manchester

thebookseller.com – Wednesday September 25, 2024

Emma Layfield has launched the Children’s Books North Agency (CBNA), which is based in Manchester and represents writers and illustrators from the north of England and Scotland.

Layfield has worked in publishing for 25 years, and will run CBNA alongside the Children’s Books North network.

CBNA represents writers and illustrators of picture books, fiction and non-fiction. The launch list includes bestselling writer, illustrator and animator Michael Whaite, from Lancashire; author Bethan Clarke from Cheshire; FAB Prize winner Lucy Farfort from Newcastle; Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award winner Rachel Plummer from Edinburgh; Oscar’s Book Prize shortlistee Francis Martin from Lancashire; and debut illustrator Jess Mahy from Yorkshire.

[Read the full article]

Felicity Bryan Associates hires agent James Gill

thebookseller.com – Wednesday September 25, 2024

Felicity Bryan Associates (FBA) has hired James Gill, a founding member of United Agents Ltd, who has worked in publishing and literary representation since 1995. He is set to join FBA on 16th October.

His authors have been Sunday Times number one and top-10 bestsellers in fiction and non-fiction, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Baillie Gifford Prize, the Nibbie Novel of the Year Award and the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year, as well as past winners of the Wolfson History Prize, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, the Whitbread Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Wainwright Prize and the Ondaatje Prize.

[Read the full article]

Eleanor Birne joins RCW as literary agent

thebookseller.com – Tuesday September 24, 2024

RCW Literary Agency has announced that Eleanor Birne has joined the company as a literary agent.

She was previously an agent with PEW Literary, and prior to that, a publishing director at John Murray before becoming an agent first at David Godwin Associates and latterly at PEW Literary where she has built a strong list of authors including Mary Costello, Louise Kennedy and Michael Magee.

Birne said: "I have loved my time at PEW Literary working with such talented, creative people. I have always admired RCW and the extraordinary list of writers it represents and am very excited to be joining such an impressive team."

[Read the full article]

Literary festival aims to inspire young writers

bbc.co.uk – Saturday September 21, 2024

A festival of women's writing named after the famous literary Brontë sisters aims to inspire those taking part "to keep reading and writing", its organisers have said.

The three-day Brontë Festival, which is now in its 13th year, is due to get under way in Haworth later, with leading female authors giving talks throughout the weekend.

Young adult writer and Sunday Times bestseller Bea Fitzgerald and former Children's Laureate Dame Jacqueline Wilson are among the speakers expected to take part in the festival based in and around the Brontë parsonage.

Angela Clare, programme officer for the museum, said: “It has been a joy to bring together such fantastic guests for the festival."

The theme of this year's festival is literature inspired by and created especially for children and young people.

[Read the full article]

New magazine announced for writers and readers in Wales

thebookseller.com – Thursday September 19, 2024

A new literary periodical for Wales called Folding Rock focused on creative prose will launch its first issue in Spring 2025. The new magazine, which plans to support new writing in and from Wales, will launch after securing funding from the Books Council of Wales.

Co-founders of the publication—editor and designer Robert Harries and writer, editor and creative producer Kathryn Tann—describe it as "a magazine to pay attention to", similar to the likes of The Stinging Fly in Ireland, England’s Granta, and Gutter in Scotland.

Folding Rock: New Writing from Wales and Beyond aims to be "the catalyst needed to usher in a new era for Welsh literature". The founders are aiming to "tirelessly develop talent, grow skills, advocate for authors and open as many doors as we can, this magazine will give the UK-wide publishing industry—and reading population—no choice but to pay attention".

[Read the full article]

Launching Discoveries 2025

womensprize.com – Thursday September 19, 2024

Entering its fifth year, Discoveries our pioneering writers development programme launches with the search to uncover the writing stars of tomorrow.

Run in partnership with Audible, the Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency, and the Curtis Brown Creative writing school, Discoveries aims to inspire unagented and unpublished women in the UK and Ireland to write their first novels, providing a host of resources designed to support women at all stages of their writing journey, with an ongoing commitment to reach writers currently underrepresented in the UK publishing industry.

The 2025 judging panel will be chaired by Kate Mosse CBE FRSL, the international bestselling writer, playwright, performer and Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. Kate Mosse is joined this year by author and musician Claire Kohda (Woman, Eating); international bestselling and award-winning author Dreda Say Mitchell MBE (Say Her Name, Trapdoor, Gangland Girls series, DI Rio series, Flesh and Blood series and Spare Room with Ryan Carter); journalist, author and podcaster Chloe Timms (The Seawomen); Curtis Brown literary agent Jess Molloy; and Founder and Managing Director of Curtis Brown Creative, Anna Davis.

[Read the full article]

Page of 106 14
Share