Bournemouth to host romance writing festival for writers
bournemouthecho.co.uk – Saturday March 29, 2025
The Romance Writing Festival will be taking place on October 18.
The event will feature Sunday Times bestsellers Milly Johnson, Paige Toon and Katie Fforde.
The programme is filled with panel discussions, workshops and networking opportunities.
Writers will also have the chance to book one-to-one sessions with agents and editors.
The festival will take place at Royal Bath Hotel, where attendees can explore a marketplace to connect with industry professionals.
DK ventures into children’s fiction with new imprint DK flip
thebookseller.com – Sunday March 23, 2025
DK has launched its first children’s fiction imprint, DK flip, “dedicated to publishing flippin’ marvellous fiction”, having previously only published children’s non-fiction.
DK flip will publish across chapter books, early middle-grade, middle-grade, teen, graphic and YA. There are 14 titles scheduled to publish in 2025 on the DK flip list with 18 scheduled so far for 2026.
Acquisitions to the list will be made by Arabella Stein, trade strategy director at DK, and Francesca Young, associate publishing director, with support from the wider editorial and design team in-house at DK Children’s.
In addition, the DK+ division under managing director Mark Searle has a growing team of editors and designers now focused also on fiction. DK’s current rights, sales, marketing and PR teams will work closely with the DK flip design and editorial team.
Hayward poet Pat Doyne holds free metaphor workshop
tricityvoice.com – Wednesday March 19, 2025
On Saturday, March 22, award-winning poet and Hayward resident Patricia Doyne will conduct a free Zoom workshop on the power of metaphor. “Ever since we read ‘Fog comes in on little cat feet’ in grade school, we have been aware that words can have meanings beyond the literal,” Doyne says. That means hooking into figurative language in all genres—non-fiction and fiction as well as poetry—to make writing clear, strong and unforgettable.
Doyne will discuss the use of metaphors to establish moods and images. This is an interactive workshop. Participants will practice creating metaphors and may share them if they choose. The event is sponsored by Fremont Area Writers and is open to all.
Pat Doyne holds an MA in creative writing from San Francisco State. Her first book of poetry, Regeneration Isn’t Always Spontaneous, was published in 1976, after which her career as a poet went on hiatus while she taught in the Castro Valley Unified School District and raised her children.
Authors await overdue payments as publisher Unbound goes into administration
theguardian.com – Tuesday March 18, 2025
Authors have been left unsure whether their books will be published and when they will receive outstanding payments after crowdfunding publisher Unbound went into administration last week.
The unique selling point of the publisher, launched in 2011 by QI researchers John Mitchinson and Justin Pollard, and Crap Towns author Dan Kieran, was that it allowed writers to pitch ideas online directly to readers. If enough people pledged financial support, the author would write the book, with supporters receiving various perks, such as early access to the book or a special edition.
Unbound confirmed last week that the business had been acquired by the newly-formed Boundless Publishing Group. A statement on its website said “Boundless will be moving forward with the majority of the Unbound projects”, instructing readers who have made pledges to “check back at the end of March when our new website will be live and you will have access to your account and order status”.
Boundless will be led by Archna Sharma, who was appointed as Unbound’s new CEO in January, with Mitchinson as a director. “This is the beginning of a bold new era,” said Sharma in a statement. “Boundless looks forward to forging exciting new connections between authors and readers.”
New Spotify Audiobooks publishing programme for independent authors
podcastingtoday.co.uk – Sunday March 16, 2025
Spotify Audiobooks has partnered with various publishers and authors to license and produce hundreds of titles.
A new website has been launched for independent authors to submit short-form stories for audiobook creation and publishing consideration by Spotify.
Leah Kleynhans, Spotify Audiobooks Producer says: “Spotify Audiobooks is thrilled to be opening submissions for short-form content written by independent authors who are as passionate about audiobooks as we are.
“We know Spotify users will love exploring these intense, bite-sized listens, and expanding our audiobooks catalogue in this way gives fans even more choice in the content they love to consume on our platform.”
Publisher Unbound Slides Into Administration
timeextension.com – Saturday March 15, 2025
"I might have accidentally destroyed an entire publishing house!"
Update [Fri 14th Mar 2025, 2:15pm]: The Bookseller has reported that troubled on-demand book publisher Unbound has gone into administration.
Allister Manson and Charles Turner of Opus Restructuring were appointed administrators of the company on 10th March 2025.
Author Steven Goodwin, one of the many writers who hasn't been paid by the publisher, has posted the following message on Linkedin:
I might have accidentally destroyed an entire publishing house!
At the end of 2023 I released a book "20 GOTO 10" via the publisher Unbound. (4.4 stars on Amazon!) It sold tens of thousands of copies, and yet, I was not paid for any of them. I waited. Politely emailed. Looked past their emails of "any day now" and waited some more.
ChatGPT firm reveals AI model that is ‘good at creative writing’
theguardian.com – Wednesday March 12, 2025
As tech firms battle creative industries over copyright, OpenAI chief Sam Altman says he was ‘really struck’ by product’s output
The company behind ChatGPT has revealed it has developed an artificial intelligence model that is “good at creative writing”, as the tech sector continues its tussle with the creative industries over copyright.
The chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, said the unnamed model, which has not been released publicly, was the first time he had been “really struck” by the written output of one of the startup’s products.
In a post on the social media platform X, Altman wrote: “We trained a new model that is good at creative writing (not sure yet how/when it will get released). This is the first time i have been really struck by something written by AI.”
AI systems such as ChatGPT are the subject of a running legal battle between AI companies and the creative industries because their underlying models are “trained” on reams of publicly available data, including copyright-protected material such as novels and journalism.
Details on the New Owners of Analog, Asimov’s, and F&SF
locusmag.com – Wednesday March 12, 2025
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction have been acquired by Must Read Magazines, a division of a new publishing company, Must Read Books Publishing. All editorial staff from the magazines have been retained in the acquisitions. Jackie Sherbow has been promoted to editor of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. P.L. Stevens joins the group as publisher.
From Stevens’ statement to Locus:
There are writers who have posted online asking if the magazines have somehow been taken over by unusual interests and we want to reassure people that’s not the case. Ultimately the magazines’ content will remain editorially driven as they have always been, and they might be interested to know that one of our largest single outside financial backers, Michael Khandelwal, is a lifelong regional con attendee (more below). We feel these magazines are extremely important to the legacy and future of these genres, and hope to continue each magazines mission while updating the business behind the magazines in order to reach more readers and writers. The acquisitions were necessary for the magazines to survive and hopefully thrive in the changing publishing economy….
In recent years, magazines have faced significantly rising costs and lower payments from certain retailers.
The company plans to bolster the magazines by expanding their distribution in trade bookstores, increasing their digital footprint, investing more in marketing the magazines to new readers and writers across channels, and using their platform to promote genre fiction authors in general….
As always, the creative missions of the magazines are driven by their longtime editorial staff.
Bournemouth Writing Sanctuary launches for authors
bournemouthecho.co.uk – Tuesday March 11, 2025
A new three-day writing experience for authors at all stages of their journey is launching in Bournemouth.
The Bournemouth Writing Sanctuary will offer dedicated time, expert guidance, and creative inspiration to writers from Friday, June 27 to Sunday, June 29.
The event will be held at Patch in Bournemouth and is designed to provide a distraction-free environment for authors to focus on their manuscripts.
The sanctuary will offer a blend of structured workshops, independent writing time and networking opportunities.
Claire Fuller, winner of the Costa Novel Award and finalist for the Women's Prize for Fiction, will lead the Friday session, guiding writers in honing their storytelling craft and key plot points.
New SFF imprint Bloomsbury Archer 'out to make some real publishing magic'
thebookseller.com – Tuesday March 11, 2025
Bloomsbury is launching a new science fiction and fantasy imprint, Bloomsbury Archer, which it says will cross "the constellation of speculative fiction", helmed by publishing director Vicky Leech Mateos. The ‘Archer’ derives from the existing Bloomsbury emblem of Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt, and references the new imprint’s "pursuit of the very best storytelling and new stars".
Leech Mateos will build a list that covers fantasy, science fiction, crossover stories, speculative romance, horror and mythological retellings. The US branch will be led by publishing director Noa Wheeler (editor of Bloomsbury’s current biggest brand, Sarah J Maas) and senior director of marketing and publicity Erica Barmash.
The list kicks off with Samantha Shannon’s Among the Burning Flowers, a prequel to the Roots of Chaos series, which will be released in September 2025. Shannon’s full backlist will also move under the new imprint.
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