Every now and then I encounter people who can’t suspend disbelief. They ask how I can write about ‘such terrible things’Feeling unappreciated is your lot as a writer. Few readers; no readers. Scathing reviews; no reviews. Publishers saying, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” or not taking a punt on your second book because the first sold poorly. The fat American and English imports on display at the front of many bookshops, a tiny Australian section in the back corner. Beverley Farmer finding her short-story collection Milk shelved with books on nursing mothers; me finding my novel The Stencil Man shelved in Art and Craft.Most of these indignities occur while you’re still at your desk. They multiply once you appear in public. Elizabeth Jolley, signing books at a department store in Perth, was scrutinised by a beady-eyed woman who eventually approached and asked, “How much is the table?” A bookseller stuck the first page of a US thriller under my nose and said, “Once you can learn to write as good as this …” Related: Harold Bloom’s defence of western greats blinded him to other cultures | Kenan Malik If I say, 'Worse things happen in real life than I invent, just read a newspaper,' I learn they don’t read newspapers Related: Peter Handke's Nobel prize that dishonours the victims of genocide | Ed Vuilliamy Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-11-03 17:00:27 UTC ]
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Ten young writers have been shortlisted for the Guardian Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bonnier children's publisher Hot Key Books has become the latest publisher to join the boom... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Perhaps the muse only came to you at the same time those first few gray hairs popped up on your head. But when you pick up the odd book review or magazine, you are disturbed by the cult of youth.You’re a writer of a certain age. Perhaps you started a family when you were younger, and now your... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The shortlist for the 2012 Educational Writers’ Award has been announced today (19th... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Piatkus senior commissioning editor Donna Condon is moving to Harlequin UK as its new editorial... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Can fraudulent writers, aka Johah Lehrer, ever be forgiven? Or should they simply be cast into permanent exile from the literary world? Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of writers are quids in following an experiment to sell a bundle of DRM-free ebooks. Sales of The Humble Bundle, which included works from authors Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman and the much-loved xkcd comic strip, have been anything but humble, with over 84,000 bundles sold, earning the... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One of the writers behind disaster-prone Spider-Man Broadway musical, Glen Berger, will reveal all in a "fly-on-the-wall" book. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Friday Project has signed up a self-published crime writer who sets her novels among London... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber and Stylist magazine have picked a winner in their crime fiction competition, with the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Syrian writer Samar Yazbek, author of A Woman in the Crossfire (Haus Publishing), has been chosen... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Diaz, reporter David Finkel, and writer Dinaw Mengestu were honored by the MacArthur Foundation, each receiving a $500,000 grant. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers have become book writers for a popular science project from Icon Books. Icon’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Allison & Busby has acquired two crime writers for this November. Publishing director Susie... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hamish Hamilton has signed up a novel from South American writer Daniel Galera, a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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To him, the world was both subject and spectacle. Yet he remained, always, an author difficult to categorize.Gore Vidal, who died Tuesday night at age 86, was a fixture on the American cultural landscape for so long that it seems hard to imagine our literature without him. From 1946, when his... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sphere is setting up an online hub for crime, thriller and mystery ebooks, commissioning new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Glaswegian writer Denise Mina has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The foundation behind a proposed museum honoring American authors has published a plan for the building. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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