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January 2009
30 January 2009
Peter Carey warns of dire threat to Australian publishing
It would be "cultural 'self-suicide'", says Peter Carey. A tragedy which would force many Australian authors to stop writing, adds Kate Grenville, while Thomas Keneally believes it would cause "irreparable harm". The Australian books world, from major authors such as Carey, Grenville and Keneally to publishers, booksellers and agents, is up in arms about a government review of Australia's copyright laws.
Let's hope the Government listens to these voices.
30 January 2009
Murder Your Darlings
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was the originator of this well-known writer's directive. It came to mind today during my final(?) edit of Madam, MBA when I realised I'd been hanging on to a lengthy explanation about brothel procedure. Gaining this information had taken me some time and so I was keen to share it with readers. Uh-oh, that should have been a warning sign in itself. Happily, I've now trimmed it back and it didn't hurt one bit.
Much worse was my first draft when I wrote over 8,000 words describing how my heroine met her boyfriend and the way in which their relationship developed. The online novelists group to which I belong thought it was a fascinating tale, but without exception they said it was largely irrelevant. A more experienced writer would have taken the hint. However, I loved the story and kept that section in its entirety in the second draft. When I got exactly the same reaction (what was I thinking?) as before, the message finally sank in and I took the online scissors to it. Since then it has sat somewhere on my hard disk waiting to be resurrected - I know it never will be. In fact, every time I've murdered a darling and kept a copy on file, I've never gone back to it.
Perhaps any choice piece of writing is nothing more than that. If it doesn't move the story along, it has no reason to exist. Discard it and move on.
30 January 2009
Proof that We Get Lost in a Good Book
Scientists are using brain-imaging to show what it means to be lost in a good book.
It appears that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements described in a textual narrative while simultaneously activating brain regions used to process similar experiences in real life. Mmm, perhaps I should be paying more attention to those aspects of my writing...
29 January 2009
Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab
I came across this snippet in this New York Times article on the rise of self-publishing:
Indeed, said Robert Young, chief executive of Lulu Enterprises, based in Raleigh, N.C., a majority of the company’s titles are of little interest to anybody other than the authors and their families. “We have easily published the largest collection of bad poetry in the history of mankind,” Mr. Young said.
This also amused me:
“For every thousand titles that get self-published, maybe there’s two that should have been published,” said Cathy Langer, lead buyer for the Tattered Cover bookstores in Denver, who said she had been inundated by requests from self-published authors to sell their books. “People think that just because they’ve written something, there’s a market for it. It’s not true.”
25 January 2009
How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs if You Ever Want to Get Published
Interesting review of a book by Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark.
The teaching of creative writing just entered a whole new era with the publication of How Not to Write a Novel. Heavens, what a joy this book is.
Its two smart young American authors, having evidently wasted little time pausing to study the existing literature, have a simple aim: to identify 200 “mistakes” commonly made by unpublished fiction writers and to hammer home their points with hilarious section headings and spot-on illustrative examples. Their get-real, tough-love sarcastic tone ought to be grating, but it isn't. It is extremely funny. “Employing any of the plot mistakes that follow,” they assure readers, “will guarantee that your novel will be only a brief detour in a ream of paper's journey to the landfill.”
20 January 2009
Canadian year-end book sales up 6%
I'm one of those who believe that people seek escapism during bad times, and that books and films help to provide that release.
17 January 2009
Fiction reading increases for US adults
"The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts" conducted by the United States Census Bureau in 2008, reports that the percentage of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen for the first time since 1982 (to a little over half).
16 January 2009
Comic TV writer has new book
From the home studio of "America's Sweetheart" Jesse Thorne, meet the comedic guru Ben Karlin. In this interview for Jesse's show, The Sound of Young America, Karlin tells us how he went from making peanuts as The Onion's Chief Editor to becoming an eight-time Emmy Award winning television writer/producer. Jesse talks to "the man" about being lead writer on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and his new endeavor as an author of a book called "You Too Will Get Crushed" which, if we judge by past successes is poised to be the next step to Karlin's total takeover of comic media.
Karlin is the author of a collection of essays entitled Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me.
Sound America: Karlin interview video
15 January 2009
A Kindle trick changes the reading experience
I recently read the novel "The Pillars of the Earth" and discovered a new trick - on the Kindle, Amazon's digital book reader. It's something entirely basic and simple in the digital world, but readers have had no easy way to do this, to date, with print-based works. Any e-book reader worth its salt should be able to do it…
14 January 2009
Instruction Manual for Life
Make of this elaborate metaphor what you will…
12 January 2009
Macmillan US looks after its authors
If this publsher's video is to be believed (and who would not believe a publisher), eighteen proofreaders will work on your novel. I'm convinced:
09 January 2009
The best of times, the worst of times
A quarter-century ago, a Britain of dole queues, urban riots and political venom also saw the rise of a great generation of novelists. Boyd Tonkin asks if this slump might also have a literary lining of silver…
08 January 2009
4th Estate's 25th anniversary video
This delightful video ad celebrates 25 years of British imprint, 5th Estate.