New specialist kids agency launched
booksandpublishing.com.au – Thursday November 1, 2018
Lawyer and writer Justine Barker has launched a new literary agency focusing on children’s and YA books.
Mayfair Literary Agency will represent authors writing picture books, junior fiction, middle-grade and YA titles, and is only open to Australian writers. The agency is currently accepting submissions by previously published authors, and also has a pre-submission pitching service open to unpublished authors.
US trade sales increase despite a fall in publishing revenues
thebookseller.com – Wednesday October 31, 2018
Publishing revenues declined 1.4% in the US in the first three quarters of the year, despite a rise in trade revenues of 4.4%, according to the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
Trade publishing revenues increased 4.4% to $228.3m compared to the same period in 2017 and adult books - the largest category - experienced a rise of 4.4%. Publishers revenue for children’s and young adult books (+3.5%) and religious presses (+7.6%) also increased.
61% of Canadian publishers are producing audiobooks, up from 16% in 2015
booksandpublishing.com.au – Monday October 22, 2018
In Canada, 61% of publishers are producing audiobooks, up from 16% in 2015.
According to a recent study on audiobook use published by BookNet Canada, the average audiobook listener in Canada identifies as female, is aged between 25 and 34, and listens to audiobooks between one and ‘several’ times per week. Audiobook listeners over the age of 55 grew by four percent from the previous year.
Literary-minded phishers are trying to pilfer publishers’ manuscripts
nakedsecurity.sophos.com – Monday October 15, 2018
A scammer has been trying to steal manuscripts by spoofing their email address to make it look like messages are coming from literary agent Catherine Eccles, owner of the international scouting agency Eccles Fisher.
The scammer is targeting literary agencies, asking for manuscripts, authors’ details and other confidential material, as the industry publication the Bookseller reported on Thursday.
The attack on Eccles Fisher is just part of a broader, global spate of phishing attacks that’s prompted Penguin Random House (PRH) North America to issue an urgent warning to all staff just as the five-day Frankfurt Book Fair began, the Bookseller then reported on Friday.
Publisher warnings as cyber criminals attempt to pilfer manuscripts
thebookseller.com – Friday October 12, 2018
A spate of global phishing scams attempting to access agencies’ and publishers’ manuscripts and other sensitive information prompted Penguin Random House (PRH) North America to issue an urgent warning to all staff as the Frankfurt Book Fair began.
The company sent an email to staff on Wednesday (10th October), when The Bookseller revealed scouting agency Eccles Fisher was hit by a phishing scam. Owner Catherine Eccles said someone was purporting to be her in emails and attempting to access manuscripts, authors’ details and other confidential material. The PRH email was circulated with the subject line “Important: New Phishing Alert” and reads: “We have recently seen an increase in attempts to steal our manuscripts. This has occurred in multiple locations across the globe. The individuals attempting to access these manuscripts have a sophisticated understanding of our business. We need to protect ourselves from these threats.”
Sally Willcox Joins Paradigm As Literary Agent
deadline.com – Wednesday October 10, 2018
Sally Willcox, the longtime CAA literary agent who most recently oversaw acquisition and development at Tobey Maguire’s Material, has landed at Paradigm, the agency said Tuesday. She will oversee media rights and be based at the agency’s Beverly Hills headquarters.
“Sally excels at discovering and developing intellectual property and it is her passion to find inspiring opportunities for her clients, making her the perfect person to drive and expand our media rights division,” said Adam Kanter, co-head of Motion Picture Literary, and Andy Patman, co-head of Television Literary, in a release announcing the news.
New Women's Prize longlist fee could pose 'serious barrier to entry', fear indies
thebookseller.com – Saturday September 29, 2018
The Women’s Prize for Fiction has introduced a new £1,000 fee for publishers whose books make its longlist of 16. Reaction online to the rule change reveal concerns the fee could pose "a serious barrier to entry" for smaller presses.
Independent publisher Galley Beggar Press took to Twitter yesterday to share it had just noticed the new rule which could prove "catastrophic for small publishers" in its estimation. "£1000 isn't small change to us," said Galley Beggar Press. "Our author won this prize a few years ago when we were even smaller. It would have been near impossible for us to enter with these rules."
Edinburgh independent Stirling Publishing said: "That’s us out. Perhaps we could have an alternative prize, The Poundland Women’s Prize?"
Abrams Artists Agency Acquired By Group Including Longtime Execs, Adam Bold
deadline.com – Wednesday September 26, 2018
Venerable entertainment talent and literary agency Abrams Artists Agency has been acquired, led by a group that includes two of the New York- and Los Angeles-based company’s longtime executives Robert Attermann and Brian Cho, and entrepreneur-producer Adam Bold.
Writers' Handbook 2019 now available as an ebook
firstwriter.com – Tuesday September 25, 2018
Following last month's release of the print edition of firstwriter.com's 2019 edition of its Writers' Handbook, the digital editions are now also available from various outlets around the world. These include:
FutureBook teams with The Pigeonhole for writing competition
thebookseller.com – Friday September 21, 2018
FutureBook is partnering with social reading app The Pigeonhole to run a short story competition exploring the future of the book. The winning author is to be hosted at the FutureBook Conference, 30th November.
Judges will be Molly Flatt, author and associate editor of FutureBook; Anna Jean Hughes, founder of The Pigeonhole; and Tom Hunter, director of the Arthur C.Clarke Award for Science Fiction.
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