Tip: How UK freelance journalists can use ALCS to earn more money from their work
journalism.co.uk – Sunday December 5, 2021
If you have written for any UK-based magazines or journals in the last three years, you could be due a payout
Authors’ Licencing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a membership-run organisation founded by a group of journalists and authors in 1979. The aim of the organisation is to help all types of freelance writers by collecting the money for secondary uses of their work. That includes photocopies, cable retransmission, digital reproduction and education recording.
Writers' Handbook 2022 now available to buy
firstwriter.com – Sunday November 21, 2021
The 2022 edition of firstwriter.com’s bestselling directory for writers has just been released, and is now available to buy both as a paperbook and an ebook.
The directory is the perfect book for anyone searching for literary agents, book publishers, or magazines. It contains over 2,500 listings, including revised and updated listings from the 2021 edition, and over 400 brand new entries.
Lowis moves to Viney Agency
thebookseller.com – Saturday November 20, 2021
Amberley Lowis has been appointed literary agent at the Viney Agency.
Lowis previously worked as an agents' assistant at Abner Stein for five years and as an editorial assistant at Kyle Books.
She said: "I feel very lucky to have worked with such brilliant colleagues at Abner Stein and have learnt so much from them. I'm delighted to be joining the Viney Agency and I very much look forward to working with Charlie and further expanding the agency over the coming years."
Agency founder Charlie Viney said: "Amberley’s experience and drive stand her in very good stead to substantially add to the agency in the future and I’m thrilled that she is joining us."
Lowis will take up her new role in December.
Follow the journey of the story with this short story writing workshop
ygknews.ca – Wednesday November 10, 2021
Who better to learn short story writing from than Patricia Robertson, former Kingston Frontenac Public Library Writer-in-Residence?
Robertson will lead Sentence by Sentence: the Journey of the Story on Tuesday, November 23 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
If you have no writing experience or are worried that you don’t already have a detailed outline in mind before you begin writing, that’s not a problem. Learn how the very process of writing can help you discover what you want to write about.
“It’s a misnomer to describe writing as ‘discovering what you want to say.’ The fact is that you don’t know what you want to say in advance of the journey,” explains Robertson. “You’re taking a leap into the unknown. All you know is what to take with you — your laptop, a cup of coffee, and your imagina tion. Believe it or not, whole novels have been written using this method.
Varuna launches publisher and agent program
booksandpublishing.com.au – Tuesday November 9, 2021
Varuna, the National Writers’ House has launched a program to connect Australian writers with the publishing industry.
Pitch Me! provides the opportunity for writers ‘to cut through the complex business of literary representation and to have their work assessed by agents and publishers’.
‘Finding a way into the industry and creating those opportunities to have your work reviewed for publication can be hard, and an obstacle for many talented writers,’ said Varuna creative director Amy Sambrooke. ‘The intention of Pitch Me! is to create opportunities for writers who have already been selected for a highly competitive Varuna Fellowship, who have completed a draft manuscript, and who are now looking for editorial feedback and connections in the publishing industry.’
Writing competition: Win professional coaching and be published in The Herald
heraldscotland.com – Sunday November 7, 2021
IS the pen mightier than the sword? Without a doubt. More people have attached themselves to Sir Walter Scott, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Burns, Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton and Charles Dickens than ever embraced Attila the Hun! The sword might threaten into submission but the pen leads us willingly into all sorts of worlds and adventures for sheer pleasure.
Mighty Pens must be even mightier then – but never more so than when partnering The Herald in a great new writing competition. So, are you looking for something to do as the winter draws in? Well, the last writing competition jointly presented by The Herald and Mighty Pens was so successful that we could not resist creating another chance for readers to become writers.
Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency opens first UK branch
thebookseller.com – Thursday November 4, 2021
The Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency will open a London branch in 2022, marking its first UK presence.
The new outlet, which follows branches in Amsterdam and Stockholm, will open on 1st January 2022 in response to the agency receiving a higher volume of fiction written in English.
Agency founder Paul Sebes said: "After a branch in Amsterdam and a second in Stockholm, this is a logical step. Both the Dutch and Scandinavian branches are doing very well, and we have been getting so many manuscripts originally written in English – not just from English-language countries but also from other parts of the world – that starting a London branch made sense.
Harper UK to Buy Pavilion Books
lunch.publishersmarketplace.com – Saturday October 30, 2021
Harper Collins UK will acquire Pavilion Books, including six of its imprints: Collins & Brown, Pavilion, Portico, Robson, National Trust and Pavilion Children’s. Pavilion owner and publisher Polly Powell will keep two imprints, Batsford and Pitkin, and operate under the name BT Batsford. (That’s the previous name, under which Batsford operated until going into receivership […]
AI Comes to Audiobooks
publishersweekly.com – Saturday October 30, 2021
Could this be magic? Over the past decade, audiobook sales, driven by digital audio, have exploded. Sales in 2020 exceeded $1.3 billion, up 12% over 2019. The percentage of Americans 18 and older who have listened to an audiobook is now 46%, up from 44% in 2019. One thing hasn’t changed, however: the arduous production process for audiobooks.
But what if it could be done in a fraction of the time, weeks instead of months? And what if it could be done for a fraction of the cost, hundreds of dollars instead of thousands?
Introducing AI-enabled automated audiobook creation.
How Amazon Changed Fiction As We Know It
esquire.com – Tuesday October 19, 2021
During my interview with literary historian Mark McGurl, I glanced out the window to see an Amazon truck rumbling down my block. It was a fitting metaphor for our conversation about Everything and Less, McGurl’s provocative new literary history about how Amazon has reorganized the universe of fiction. “Amazon has insinuated itself into every dimension of the collective experience of literature in the United States,” McGurl writes. “Increasingly, it is the new platform of contemporary literary life.”
Get the free newsletter | Submit a news item or article | Get Writers' News for your website
