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Archive for the ‘Places to Read New Fiction’ Category

Join Granta Magazine at Foyles, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EB, on May 18, 6.30pm, to celebrate the launch of their latest issue, ‘The F Word’, which explores  the legacy of feminism in literature.

Contributors Rachel Cusk and Taiye Selasi talk about the writers who inspired them and what the word ‘feminism’ means to them today. Granta‘s publisher Sigrid Rausing will host the discussion. With readings from the issue and drinks. The event is free but you need to email events@granta.com to reserve a place.

This week, ‘super agent’ Ed Victor announced that he is setting up a new digital and print on demand publishing venture, Bedford Square Books, which will release six titles by authors his agency represents this September, with another six planned for January 2012. Authors’ royalties will be 50% as opposed to the 26% traditionally on offer from publishers for ebooks.  Now, The Bookseller reports that agencies Curtis Brown and Blake Friedman are planning to follow his example. Agent Sonia Land has already made 100 of Catherine Cookson’s out of print titles available as e-books, apparently frustrated by the lack of interest from the traditional publishers. She reacted to the news of Bedford Square Books by warning publishers to “rethink their legacy operation”.

In July last year, US literary agent Andrew Wylie (AKA ‘the Jackal’), created an imprint called Odyssey Books and struck a deal with Amazon to make a number of classic titles by some of his extremely famous clients –  for example, Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint, Nabokov’s Lolita – available on Kindle. Random House reacted furiously by declaring that it now regarded the the Wylie Agency as a direct competitor. In the end Wylie was forced to scale down his plans, although books like Brideshead Revisited and The Naked and the Dead are still available on Odyssey.

As yet, Ed Victor’s move has not attracted such ire. The CEO of the Publishers Association, Richard Mollet, wished Victor luck and added that he “hope[d] he would consider joining the PA”.

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Is it a book? Is it a film? No it’s a networked novel.

Kate Pullinger, novelist and Reader in Creative Writing and New Media at de Montfort Univerity, Leicester, and Chris Joseph, electronic writer and artist, have produced a novel with music and images to be read online.  It explores what happens when diverse worlds collide and an airplane stowaway crashes in on the life of a suburban London housewife. Click here to experience FLIGHT PATHS.

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Heartening to see that  independent Brighton-based publishers Myriad Editions scooped three awards in one week.  The Spider Truces by Tom Connolly  was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, London Triptych by Jonathan Kemp won the Authors Club Best First Novel prize and Elizabeth Haynes’ Into the Darkest Corner won the first round of the Amazon Rising Stars prize for 2011.

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There’s an interesting article on e-publishing in the Irish Times by Declan Burke who recently bought back the rights to his own conventionally published debut novel and then re-published it on Kindle.

Burke argues convincingly that the arrival of the ebook won’t make printed books obsolete, but it will have a fundamental impact on the way mainstream publishers operate in the future. He quotes Stephen Leather, a best-selling author of conventionally published crime thrillers who has recently begun publishing his backlist in electronic form: “Publishers will [..] have to take back the role that they relinquished to agents over the years,” he says, “and start to look for new talent again. In America, Amanda Hocking has gone from selling more than a million self-published vampire and zombie ebooks to signing a $2 million deal with a leading publisher. I think the smart publishers will all now be looking for the next Amanda Hocking. And the best place for that is to take a look at the ebook bestseller list.”

Read the full article here: Irish Times

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Three debut novels are on the 16th Orange Prize shortlist, which was announced this morning (11th April) at the London Book Fair. They are ‘Grace Williams Says It Loud’  by Emma Henderson (Sceptre), ‘The Tiger’s Wife’ by Tea Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicholson) and ‘Annabel’ by Canadian author Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape). The other shortlisted titles are ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue (Picador), ‘Great House’ by Nicole Krauss (Viking) and Aminatta Forna’s ‘The Memory of Love’ (Bloomsbury). The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced on June 8th.

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The Short  Review has news of the Edge Hill Prize – the UK’s only literary award for published collections of short stories. Titles on the longlist reveal an intriguing mix of major publishers such as Penguin, Random House and Bloomsbury, and very small independents like Tindal Street, Impress Books and Salt (the latter has just been told it has lost its Arts Council funding). The shortlist will be announced in May. Click on any of the titles in orange to go to the Short Review website for the review of that particular book.

Edge Hill Longlist:

• Martin Bax – Memoirs of a Gone World (Salt Publishing).
• Alan Beard – You Don’t Have to Say (Tindal Street Press).
• Peter Bromley – Sky Light and Other Stories (Biscuit).
• Jo Cannon – Insignificant Gestures (Pewter Rose Press).
• Roshi Fernando – Homesick (Impress Books).
• David Gaffney – The Half-life of Songs (Salt Publishing).
• Vanessa Gebbie – Storm Warning, Echoes of Conflict (Salt Publishing).review coming soon
• James Kelman – If it is Your Life (Penguin).
• Andre Mangeot – True North (Salt Publishing). review coming soon
• Jay Merill – God of the Pigeons (Salt Publishing).
• Magnus Mills – Screwtop Thompson (Bloomsbury).
• Graham Mort – Touch (Seren).
• Nik Perring – Not So Perfect (Roast Books).
• Susannah Rickards – Hot Kitchen Snow (Salt Publishing). review coming soon
• Michele Roberts – Mud, Stories and Sex and Love (Virago).
• Polly Samson – Perfect Lives (Virago). review coming soon
• Helen Simpson – Inflight Entertainment (Random House).
• Fiona Thackeray – The Secret’s in the Folding (Pewter Rose Press).
• Tom Vowler – The Method and Other Stories (Salt Publishing).
• Susie Wild – The Art of Contraception (Parthian).

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Iota Magazine, a long-established poetry magazine, is currently publishing its first fiction/non fiction issue and welcomes submissions of short fiction in any genre, including life writing and memoir, for its second issue.

Please send short stories of between 2000 and 6000 words or proposals (150 words) for features or essays to fiction@iotamagazine.co.uk
The closing date for the third Fiction & non Fiction issue is 31 July.
http://www.iotamagazine.co.uk/Submissions.html

To celebrate the publication of her volume of short stories, A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, Margaret Drabble (pictured left) will be in conversation with the UK’s leading exponent of the form, Helen Simpson (pictured right) on Thursday 26th May, 6.30-8.30pm, at London’s Free The Word Centre. Both authors will read from their work, and discuss the unique qualities of the short story as a form. The event is organized by the Literary Consultancy. Visit the Free the Word website for more details or to book tickets.

One of the many interesting snippets of information on the Guardian‘s new website dedicated to Children’s Fiction is the news that Bloomsbury is offering £75 worth of children’s books to the best short story written by anyone between the ages of ten and 16  – but it can’t be longer than 247 words.  More details here: Guardian Children’s Books.