Lit Agent Brooks Sherman Leaves Agency, Dropped by Authors
publishersweekly.com – Sunday February 21, 2021
Literary agent Brooks Sherman is no longer affiliated with Janklow & Nesbit Associates, where he has worked since 2017. He has also recently been dropped by a number of his clients, most prominently Angie Thomas, whose bestselling YA novel The Hate U Give has been added to school curricula around the country and was made into a film that grossed $35 million at the box office—and whose sale, at auction for a rumored six figures, cemented Sherman as a major player in the children's publishing world.
“We have parted ways,” Thomas told PW yesterday by telephone from her home in Jackson, Miss., confirming that the break took place within the past week. She declined to disclose why she parted ways with Sherman or who initiated the split, but Sherman told PW in an email that Thomas fired him, adding, “It was an honor to have an opportunity to work with her for the past five years.”
Why your favorite magazines are morphing into books
edition.cnn.com – Saturday February 13, 2021
Shopping in the pandemic often means buying supplies for working, cooking and exercising at home. But consumers are also looking for ways to pass the time, and for some, that means picking up a magazine while they're out and about.
Those who braved a drug store, supermarket or newsstand this past month may have seen in the magazine section copies of Better Homes & Gardens' "Secrets of Getting Organized," Delish's "Keto Comfort Foods" and Time's collector's edition on the Korean pop band, BTS.
But these are not traditional magazines. They are what some in the media industry call "bookazines" — a blend of books and magazines — and in recent years, they have become more crucial to publishers' success.
Agents Kingsford and Campbell part ways
thebookseller.com – Friday February 12, 2021
The agency Kingsford Campbell is splitting up, after Julia Kingsford and Charlie Campbell decided to separate their activities after seven years of working together.
Kingsford will continue to represent her clients, as Julia Kingsford Ltd, while maintaining her involvement in The Good Literary Agency, which she co-founded with Nikesh Shukla in 2018, as well as her consultancy work for publishers, writers and production companies. She can be found at juliakingsford.com and julia@juliakingsford.com.
Saint Patrick Centre launches international writing competition to celebrate 20th anniversary
irishnews.com – Thursday February 11, 2021
A CO Down centre which tells the story of Ireland's patron saint has launched an international writing competition to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
The Saint Patrick Centre in Downpatrick is inviting young people to write about issues such as human trafficking and faith.
The International Spirit of Patrick Writing competition is open to young writers aged 16 to 20, as St Patrick himself was trafficked to Ireland, as a young person, around 400AD.
St Patrick is believed to have been trafficked at age 16 and held captive in Ireland for six years before he miraculously escaped, having found God in his isolation and suffering.
Exposing Audiblegate
thebookseller.com – Tuesday February 9, 2021
A few months ago, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)’s watchdog desk, which which monitors the self-publishing sector, rates the best and worst services, and offers a partner membership to approved services, downgraded Amazon ACX/Audible’s rating as a self-publishing service from "Recommended" to "Caution”.
This was done with a heavy heart. Unlike other publishers, indie authors have good reason to be grateful to Amazon for the tools and platforms that underwrite the author-publishing revolution. That gratitude remains but independent authors know, better than anyone, that Amazon’s publishing platforms are not perfect, and ALLi has always encouraged its members to publish widely through other distributors, aggregators and retailers, and their own websites, as well as Amazon. The ACX platform has been a cause of particular concern for some years, its payment percentages, exclusivity conditions, and licensing terms the worst in the self-publishing sector.
That concern started to intensify in the last quarter of last year, when a company glitch at ACX gave author-publishers a peek behind what had, until then, been a thick curtain of non-transparency.
Major UK publishers’ ebook sales up 15%
booksandpublishing.com.au – Monday February 8, 2021
In the UK, the top six trade publishers recorded a total 15.5% rise in ebook sales in 2020, the first double-digit percentage bump in seven years, reports the Bookseller.
Collectively, Hachette, Penguin Random House (PRH), HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Bloomsbury and Simon & Schuster sold 54.5 million consumer ebooks through UK retailers in 2020, up from the 47.2 million in 2019.
Class-Action Lawsuit Alleges Amazon Colluded with Publishers to Fix Ebook Prices
tidbits.com – Saturday February 6, 2021
Remember 2013, when the US Department of Justice and 33 states prevailed in an antitrust suit against Apple and five major publishers? Back then, a common complaint from Apple fans was, “What about Amazon?” Our comprehensive coverage in “Explaining the Apple Ebook Price Fixing Suit” (10 July 2013) pointed out that the case was about Apple’s behavior, not Amazon’s, while also explaining Amazon’s instigating role and suggesting that the online bookseller might face its own antitrust charges.
Purdy launches Two Piers Literary Agency
thebookseller.com – Tuesday February 2, 2021
A Brighton-based literary agency launches this week, headed by former Curtis Brown editor Rufus Purdy.
Two Piers Literary Agency will represent writers from all over the world and sell their work into the UK, US and international territories.
While at Curtis Brown, Purdy (pictured) worked on Alex Gerlis’ bestselling spy novels The Best of Our Spies, The Swiss Spy and Vienna Spies, and songwriter Chris Difford’s memoir Some Fantastic Place. In 2018, Purdy set up the Write Here novel-writing school, which, until the pandemic, ran affordable novel-writing courses in cities across the UK. The company now runs a £99 online novel-writing course, as well as offering editorial services.
Calling all Young Writers: The Page Turner Awards
firstwriter.com – Tuesday February 2, 2021
Page Turner Awards is inviting young aspiring writers and budding authors in the students’ community to join their community of writers and get involved in the Page Turner Awards 2021.
The Page Turner Awards is an inclusive writing and book awards with one goal – “to change the lives of as many writers as possible. While traditional writing awards are often steeped in elitism, the Page Turner Awards passionately believes that talented writers can be from any background, age, race, religion, or interest.
The Page Turner Awards five award categories consist of a Writing Award, Young Writer Award, Writing Mentorship Award, Book Award and Screenplay Award.
Students contain talented writers and undiscovered literary gems. Whether you have a guide to making the most out of your first year at university, a gasp-inducing thriller or the next-big-thing comedy screenplay, Page Turner Awards can’t wait to pass your story to their panel of influential literary judges, publishers and film producers.
February Is National Haiku Writing Month
kjzz.org – Monday February 1, 2021
According to Michael Dylan Welch, “The weight and the length of what you’re writing in 17 syllables in English is too long compared to the meaning and the content of the Japanese haiku. It’s not easier. It’s actually a harder challenge to write a shorter poem than 17 syllables. Some people say they like the challenge of counting the syllables, but it’s the most trivial of haiku’s challenges.”
He’s a technical writer by trade who hails from Washington. Every February for the last 11 years, he’s engaged haiku poets around the world on social media with NaHaiWriMo and chose this month because it’s the shortest, just as haiku is the shortest for of poetry.
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