Granite Noir short story competition launched to ‘unearth’ and celebrate north-east talent
pressandjournal.co.uk – Tuesday December 12, 2023
A brand new writing competition in the spirit of Granite Noir has been launched to encourage budding north-east writers.
Have you ever fantasised about the murky world of crime or how best to carry out a murder? Hypothetically of course.
If the answer is yes, Granite Noir might have a new challenge to put your shady skills to the test.
The popular Scottish crime writing festival is returning in February with another year of impressive events but with a delightful twist.
For the first time, a short story writing competition has been launched.
Crime creatives from all over the north-east will have their chance to put their hand at creating a work of suspense and intrigue.
For Sharon Burgess, chief executive of Aberdeen Performing Arts (APA), she hopes this will be a chance to “unearth” – not bodies for all you murky-minded people – but rather talent.
Burnham-On-Sea Book Festival 2024 writing competitions are now open for entries
burnham-on-sea.com – Monday December 11, 2023
Burnham-On-Sea Book Festival’s 2024 writing and book-cover competitions are now open for entries.
The 2024 festival – which is set to return from May 17th-19th – is inviting local people to get involved with the new competitions.
Sponsored by Burnham’s best-selling crime author Damien Boyd, entries are now open and close on midnight March 4th, 2024.
Book festival treasurer Jonathan Pinnock says there has been a change this year to the competitions: “Damien has upped the prizes in the children’s categories, hoping to inspire more young people to write. We’ve also made the decision to offer £100 to the winner of the book cover competition.”
“There are competitions for short-story writers and poets in three age categories: 11 and under, 12 – 18, and 19+ (Adults); the book cover competition is open to all ages. There’s a maximum of three entries per author/illustrator in each category.”
Nosy Crow announces multi-year Unicorn Academy publishing deal
thebookseller.com – Saturday December 9, 2023
Nosy Crow has announced a multi-year deal for Unicorn Academy, covering a wide range of formats to be published in the next decade.
Kate Wilson, group c.e.o. of Nosy Crow, worked with Katie Woolley, Nosy Crow’s head of brands and licensing, to buy publishing rights for children’s books in all languages, excluding German, from Spin Master Entertainment. Nosy Crow’s first TV tie-in novelisation, Sophia’s Invitation, was published in October, in time for the global launch on Netflix on 2nd November.
The series is adapted from books originated and published by Nosy Crow, written by Julie Sykes and Linda Chapman and published in North America by Penguin Random House.
Leeke joins the Madeleine Milburn Agency
thebookseller.com – Wednesday December 6, 2023
Jessica Leeke is joining the Madeleine Milburn Literary, Film & TV Agency as literary agent.
She will start on 8th January, specialising in upmarket and book club fiction with global appeal.
Leeke began her career in advertising in New York before spending more than 15 years as an editor at Bloomsbury, Simon & Schuster and most recently Penguin Michael Joseph, where she was fiction publisher.
Shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn Prize, she has acquired and edited authors who have become bestsellers and been shortlisted for prizes such as the Booker, Costa, Desmond Elliott, and Irish Book Award as well as securing picks for Richard & Judy, Radio 2 and the US TV book club.
Leaver launches Gemini Books Group
thebookseller.com – Monday December 4, 2023
Marcus Leaver, formerly president of Sterling Publishing, c.e.o. of The Quarto Group and co-founder of the Welbeck Publishing Group, has formed Gemini Books Group, with the acquisitions of Imagine That!, Palazzo Editions, Ad Lib Publishers, Mardle Books and Pimpernel Press.
The announcement said Gemini “will build a publishing business focused on the UK and North American markets through the acquisition of established companies and by incubating start-up businesses in scalable areas of the market”. Gemini’s focus will be on non-fiction gift books and children’s books.
Jon Rippon, currently managing director of Palazzo and Ad Lib/Mardle, will transition to a new role as group finance director of Gemini.
Woke books bought by publishers for hundreds of thousands FLOP after disastrous sales
gbnews.com – Sunday December 3, 2023
Woke books which received huge advances have flopped commercially following dire sales, industry experts claim.
Insiders suggest "ideological fanatics" who allow politics to dominate professional decisions have seen profits plummet.
Among the books which have suffered huge losses includes a memoir by actor Elliot Page about his journey transitioning.
"Pageboy" was bought for a $3million advance but has sold just 68,000 copies.
Bentley and Singh join TGLA as literary agents
thebookseller.com – Tuesday November 28, 2023
Amandeep Singh and Kerry-Ann Bentley have joined The Good Literary Agency (TGLA) as literary agents and both will be building their lists across fiction and non-fiction. Author Arden Jones has also joined as submissions co-ordinator.
Singh has worked in publishing for seven years, beginning her career at Hamish Hamilton before working at Canelo. She became an assistant at The Blair Partnership before joining Ebury, HarperCollins and Penguin Press, where she collaborated on books by Greta Thunberg, Grace Dent and Nikita Gill. She published only debut authors during her time at HarperCollins, including Taz Alam, Oloni and Bretman Rock. She is primarily looking for literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, memoir and essays, as well as poetry, politics, cookery and food writing.
Northern Writers’ Awards open for entries in 25th anniversary year
newsroom.northumbria.ac.uk – Wednesday November 22, 2023
The Northern Writers’ Awards will celebrate their 25th anniversary year in 2024, with many of the award categories now open for entry until 12 February 2024.
Founded and produced by New Writing North, with support from Northumbria University and Arts Council England, the Northern Writers’ Awards are the largest and longest-running writer development programme of their kind in England, with a reputation for identifying some of the country’s best unpublished writing. Previous winners include Katie Hale, Kit Fan, Benjamin Myers, Okechukwu Nzelu, Andrew McMillan, Helen Mort, Sharma Walfall and Hannah Hodgson.
By supporting writers at an earlier stage than most literary awards – usually before an agent or publisher is involved – the Northern Writers’ Awards offer crucial support for writers at a pivotal stage of their careers, as well as providing a pipeline of new talent to the publishing and broadcast industries.
Indie Press Network launches to connect small indie publishers
thebookseller.com – Tuesday November 14, 2023
The Indie Press Network has launched with the aim of connecting independent publishers with each other, as well as with booksellers and readers.
The open network will offer promotion opportunities for established presses’ titles and authors, as well as free, open-access resources for those starting out.
The Indie Press Network was founded by Will Dady of Renard Press, and is launching with an inaugural cohort of 10 member presses. It is open to all small publishers with five or fewer employees and aims to encourage and support new "would-be" publishers.
According to Renard Press, the network seeks to build on the work being done by other membership organisations to "decolonise publishing and to raise the profile of smaller presses who don’t have big marketing budgets".
Loch Long crime writing residency launched
thelochsidepress.com – Friday November 10, 2023
A new two-week residency for crime writers has been launched by Cove Park.
The fully-funded programme is for Scotland-based writers developing new work in crime fiction and scheduled to run in late March next year.
The writer will receive a total residency fee of £1,100 (£550 per week) and a travel allowance of up to £75 from the arts centre on the Rosneath Peninsula.
To apply, writers must be based in Scotland and have published at least one book with a traditional publisher.
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