Call for entries: 2024 next gen indie book awards
authorlink.com – Thursday February 8, 2024
If you would like to receive greater recognition, monetary prizes, awards and exposure for your books, here is an opportunity not to miss. Enter the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
Calling all indie book authors and publishers – including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors who have a book written in English released in 2022, 2023 or 2024 or with a 2022, 2023 or 2024 copyright date to enter the most rewarding book awards program.
Offering 80+ Categories – More than 80 Awards – with over 80 monetary prizes totaling over $10,000 in cash, including $1,500 cash prizes plus trophies for best fiction book and best non-fiction book, $750 cash prizes plus trophies for second best fiction book and non-fiction book and $500 cash prizes plus trophies for third best fiction book and non-fiction book!
Fern Press launches £3k Fern Academy Prize for essays
thebookseller.com – Thursday February 8, 2024
Fern Press and How to Academy have partnered on a new essay award worth £3,000, in association with Tortoise Media, for unpublished authors.
Fern Press was launched by Vintage last year, while the annual non-fiction essay prize is "for those working at the frontier of creativity and thought", organisers said.
The prize is designed to find and nurture emerging non-fiction talent and will be awarded to an essay of literary merit with an international and multicultural interest. The prize encourages essays that shine a light on the universal human experience – on a micro or macro scale – and “which speak clearly to the times we live in", organisers said. The prize is open to unagented and unpublished writers from around the world, writing in the English language.
Sarah Ballard joins C&W after 16 years at United Agents
thebookseller.com – Wednesday February 7, 2024
Sarah Ballard has joined C&W as an agent, representing a wide range of both fiction and non-fiction writers.
Ballard was an agent at United Agents for 16 years before joining C&W, part of The Curtis Brown Group, on 5th February. “I’m thrilled and honoured to have been asked by Clare Conville and by my good friend Sophie Lambert to join the team at C&W," she said. "I’m grateful to my friends and colleagues at United Agents whom I have been privileged to work with, and am excited for a new challenge.”
RCW's Claire Wilson steps up to AAA president
thebookseller.com – Thursday February 1, 2024
The Association of Authors’ Agents (AAA) vice-president Claire Wilson, of RCW Literary Agency, has stepped up to president.
Wilson was formally appointed at an association meeting on Tuesday (30th January) and praised outgoing president Catherine Clarke of Felicity Bryan Associates for her “thoughtful, dedicated and highly effective leadership”.
Hellie Ogden, of WME London, joins as vice-president, and Karolina Sutton, of CAA, joins as an ordinary member, after Madeleine Milburn, of the Madeleine Milburn Literary, Film and TV Agency, stepped down.
New Sci-Fi/Fantasy Publisher Gungnir Hopes to Hit Its Target
publishersweekly.com – Thursday January 25, 2024
Gungnir, a new sci-fi/fantasy publisher helmed by two comics veterans, will launch in April 2024.
In Norse mythology, Gungnir was the staff of the god Odin, which always hit its target. The name relates not only to the publisher’s sci-fi/fantasy orientation, the publisher said, but also to its ambition to foster a new creative ecosystem for writers and artists. The company has partnerships with Herø Projects, a creative studio headed by former Heavy Metal publisher Matthew Medney that will publish graphic novels through Gungnir, and Iconic Arts, a multimedia studio that will develop the properties for games, film, television, and more.
Gungnir plans to publish four to eight titles a year, primarily in the science fiction and fantasy categories, with a mix of graphic novels, prose novels, and art books. Distribution to the book channel is via Diamond Book Distributors, and Gungnir will publish digitally via Globalcomix.com and release audiobooks via Amazon’s Audible.
Marion Boyars Publishers acquired by Equinox Publishing
thebookseller.com – Thursday January 25, 2024
Marion Boyars Publishers and its food history and cookery imprint Prospect Books have been acquired by Equinox Publishing.
Marion Boyars was founded in 1975. Boyars’ daughter, Catheryn Kilgarriff, took over when Boyars died in 1999. Kilgarriff, who had been running the company single-handedly, is now retiring.
She said she was “delighted to have found such a good home for the ground-breaking Marion Boyars titles, the social science list which includes the works of Ivan Illich, and for the prestigious food history imprint, Prospect Books” adding "I am sure that Janet Joyce and her colleagues at Equinox Publishing will enjoy the future as these books find wider audiences".
Influx Press ends acquisitions hiatus
thebookseller.com – Friday January 19, 2024
Independent publisher Influx Press has ended its acquisitions hiatus, with several new titles scheduled for 2024 and a plan to resume full operations by 2025.
Co-founders Kit Caless and Gary Budden founded Influx Press in 2011, seeing significant success with the James Tait Black-winning Attrib. by Eley Williams in 2017, Eliza Clark’s Boy Parts in 2020, and Percival Everett’s Booker Prize-shortlisted The Trees in 2022.
Caless is stepping back from day-to-day operations to pursue academic interests, but will remain on board as editor-at-large.
Budden will be spearheading a new list and new direction for the press. He said: “I’m delighted to have made the decision to continue Influx, after a necessary period of rest and reflection deciding the future direction we wanted to take the press in. I am very excited about our 2024 titles and to be continuing our commitment to publishing bold and innovative literature."
Papatango Announce 2024 New Writing Prize
theatreweekly.com – Thursday January 18, 2024
Papatango today announce that their 2024 New Writing Prize will open for submissions at noon on Wednesday 17 January, until noon on Monday 11 March. This Prize launches a new partnership with Park Theatre, who will co-produce the winning play with Papatango in a full run on their main stage.
Judged anonymously, the Papatango New Writing Prize was the UK’s first, and remains the only annual, opportunity guaranteeing a new writer a full production – for 2025 in Park200 at Park Theatre, publication by Nick Hern Books, a royalty of 8% of the box office, and a £7,500 commission with full developmental support.
In addition, every entrant receives feedback on their script – a commitment made by no other company, especially significant as the Prize averages more submissions on a yearly basis than any other playwriting award.
Buckley joins Hannah Sheppard Literary Agency after three-year break
thebookseller.com – Friday January 12, 2024
Louise Buckley will join the Hannah Sheppard Literary Agency (HS-LA) this month as associate agent, returning to publishing after a three-year break.
Working alongside its founder, Hannah Sheppard, Buckley joins the agency on 15th January and will build a new list of authors with a focus on upmarket and book-club fiction, as well as further developing the agency’s links with co-agents. Both Buckley and Sheppard will be at London Book Fair in March, a year after the agency was launched.
Buckley was most recently an associate Literary Agent at Zeno Agency Ltd where she represented a roster of commercial and literary fiction, including Anne Griffin’s When All is Said (Sceptre), which spent five weeks at number one in Ireland and sold into 17 territories.
2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is now open
cbc.ca – Tuesday January 2, 2024
The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is currently accepting submissions until Friday, March 1, 2024 at 4:59 p.m. ET.
Keep reading to learn about the prize, what you can submit and what you can win!
Who can enter?
The prize is open to all Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada.
There is no age requirement, but if you are a minor, there is a box to check on the entry form. You will need a parent or guardian's signed authorization only if your entry makes the longlist.
What can you submit?
You can submit original, unpublished nonfiction that is up to 2,000 words. There is no minimum word requirement. Nonfiction includes memoir, biography, humour writing, essay (including personal essay), travel writing and feature articles.
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