London Writing Workshops

Archive for the ‘Places to Publish’ Category

The Bookseller reports that publishers Gollancz  have agreed a five-figure deal for two books with self-published author Michael J Ward. The books are part of a series called ‘Destiny Quest’ and have similarities with interactive game book series from the 1980s where the reader controls the path of the story by rolling a dice or choosing the next actions of a character. Ward self-published the first book in the series, The Legion of Shadow, in February, and it has sold more than 1,800 copies, according to the publisher. Gollancz will republish in May 2012 as a £14.99 trade paperback, which will include the original self-published version, extra material and a new mini-adventure. Book two in the series, The Heart of Fire, will follow in November 2012. Gollancz is an imprint of the Orion Publishing group.

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The Short Story is a new website designed to showcase the best short stories from around the world. They’re currently running an open submission competition to find the best story of 2011. Three cash prizes will be awarded. The deadline is Sept 15.

More info on how to submit work from The Short Story website.

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Next week is the closing date for  a prize for unpublished writers that is beginning to develop quite a reputation for launching careers. Roshi Fernando, whose novel Homesick won the Impress Prize For New Writers in 2009, will now be published by Bloomsbury in the UK and Commonwealth, and in the US by Knopf, an imprint of Random House. Ginny Baily’s debut novel Africa Junction, which was shortlisted for the Impress Prize in 2007, has been published in 2011 by the Random House imprint Harvill Secker.

Roshi Fernando was also shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award this year.

More information about entering the prize here: Impress Prize

Brighton-based publisher Myriad Editions has launched a competition for a first graphic novel in progress, with a view to working with the winner to complete and publish the title. The judging panel includes author Ian Rankin, Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell, author and cartoonist Ed Hillyer, graphic novelists Hannah Berry and Bryan Talbot, and Myriad Editions creative director Corinne Pearlman.

Entrants are asked to submit a one-page synopsis and between 15-30 pages of a graphic work in progress. More information from the Myriad Editions site.

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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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Sampad, a Birmingham-based organisation promoting south Indian art and culture, is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of  the hugely influential poet Rabindranath Tagore with an international writing competition. The competition is run in partnership with the British Council. Any writer from the age of 8 onwards, with an interest in South Asian Culture, can enter.

More information from the SAMPAD website.  The closing date is 31 January 2012.

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Mslexia Magazine has launched a  new competition for novels in any genre for adults or young adults written by previously unpublished (female) authors. Entries should be the first 5,000 words of the novel, which must already have been completed and must total at least 50,000 words. Closing date: 30 September

Entry fee: £25. First Prize £5,000

See the Mslexia website for more information about how to enter.

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