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Archive for the ‘Writing News’ Category

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.

Alibi TV, in conjunction with HarperCollins and Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival, have launched a crime fiction contest for 2011. They’re looking for short stories of between 1,000 and 2,500 words with a regional setting and a strong sense of place. Entries by noon on 1 May. More details on the Alibi website.

The 2011 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition is now open for entries from writers born in or currently living in Wales. Stories must be previously unpublished, in English,  and no more than 2,500 words in length. There’s a first prize of £1000, with a further ten prizes of £100, plus an opportunity to have your work broadcast on BBC Radio. The judges are Trezza Azzopardi, Russell Celyn Jones and Siân Preece. The competition closing date is Friday 22 July 2011. More information on the Academi website.

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.

Brittle Star is a great little magazine of poetry and short fiction published three times a year – without a penny of subsidy –  by an indefatigable team of editors, among them Louisa Hooper who took part in last year’s Novelists’ Club. They will be launching issue 28 on Wednesday 30 March 2011 at the Barbican Library, Silk St, London, EC2Y 8DS.

There will be readings of poetry and short stories,  refreshments, a chance to meet the editors, and – most importantly – the opportunity to get the latest copy hot off the press. The event is free, but you need to book tickets through the Barbican Library (020 7638 0569) as numbers are limited.

Hilary Mantel, Michael Faber, Tibor Fischer and Susan Hill are among the well-known names on the longlist for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011. But the list also includes several newcomers, including former bus conductor Fabian Ackler and actor and puppeteer Erin Soros. The prize is open to authors of previously unpublished work or stories first published after 1st January 2010. The shortlist will be announced on 13th March and the winner revealed at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on 8th April. Each shortlisted author will receive £500 and the overall winner receives £30,000.

Judge A S Byatt said: “The stories we read this year were both varied and well crafted. We had considerable difficulty in narrowing the list to 20 . . . We have the fantastic and the precisely real, the shocking and the witty, the distressing and the invigorating. We have stories by famous writers and stories by the unknown. Some are succinct and some are elegiac. All were debated with passion.” More information about the prize can be found on the excellent STORY website.