After she was dropped by her agent, Alex Aster turned to a books-obsessed corner of TikTok to gauge interest in her YA novel … and now Lightlark is one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the yearHaving finally published her first novel, Alex Aster was feeling disheartened. The book had tanked during the pandemic and she had been dropped by her literary agent. Then, on 13 March 2021, she decided to take to TikTok, asking her followers if they would: “read a book about a cursed island that only appears once every 100 years to host a game that gives the six rulers of the realm a chance to break their curses.” One of the rulers must die, the short video revealed, “even as love complicates everything” for the heroine, Isla Crown.Aster didn’t expect much, especially when she checked in a few hours later to see that her post had only clocked up about 1,000 views. Maybe the books world was right, she thought. Maybe there wasn’t a market for Lightlark, a young adult story she had been writing and rewriting for years, to no interest from publishers. The next day, however, she woke up to see her video had been viewed more than a million times. A week later, Lightlark had gone to auction and she had a six-figure deal with Amulet Books. Last month, Universal preemptively bought the film rights for, in her words, “more zeros than I’ve seen in my life”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-08-16 13:32:30 UTC ]
The Booker winning author talks about how his most recent work was inspired by Hilary Mantel, and the way the books world has changed since his debut was published more than 40 years agoToo many people have been dying lately,” Julian Barnes reflects over the phone from his home in north London.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-16 08:00:25 UTC ]
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American screenwriter and producer behind the creation of the hugely successful soaps Dallas and Knots LandingDavid Jacobs, who has died aged 84, was an aspiring novelist when he created the show Dallas, a worldwide phenomenon and US television’s first peak-time soap success since Peyton Place.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-23 13:56:48 UTC ]
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My cousin Carol Smith, who has died aged 84, was a literary agent and author best known for her thrillers Kensington Court (1996) and Unfinished Business (2000).Born in London to Winifred (nee Mapleston), a teacher, and David Smith, a businessman, Carol attended the North London Collegiate,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-25 15:31:17 UTC ]
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Letting a Wild Ride Be a Wild Ride: A Conversation with Amy Spangler, by Ipek Sahinler & Iclal Vanwesenbeeck Interviews [email protected] Wed, 07/05/2023 - 14:43 Amy Spangler is the co-translator (with Nermin Menemencioğlu) of Leylâ Erbil’s A... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-05 19:43:55 UTC ]
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Sound too good to be true? Well I have news for you, dear aspiring writer, you can get yourself a phone call or a manuscript critique from a fancy literary agent by bidding at this year’s Literary Agents of Change Auction. The LAOC is an organization that believes that advancing the publishing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-15 17:12:39 UTC ]
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Caroline Raphael, who has died of Parkinson’s disease aged 85, was for 20 years editor-in-chief of The Good Hotel Guide. She had worked on every edition from the first, in 1978, until her retirement in 2021, when the 2022 edition had gone to press.The Guide was launched by the literary agent... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-28 16:03:11 UTC ]
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After New Leaf "amicably" parting ways with literary agent Jordan Hamessley on May 12, authors affected by the agent's departure took to Twitter to express concern over how the transition was handled as the agency defends their actions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel died last September at age 70, but a memorial service just this week revealed something of use to those who miss her words. The Guardian’s Saturday Paper will be publishing excerpts from an unpublished project mashing together Jane Austen’s works. “She was having the greatest fun... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-21 16:03:28 UTC ]
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Wolf Hall trilogy author remembered at memorial service at Southwark cathedral on ThursdayHilary Mantel, the celebrated author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, was working on a “mashup” of Jane Austen novels when she died suddenly, her literary agent told a packed memorial service at Southwark... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-20 17:46:20 UTC ]
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In the latest “Craftwork” episode, a deep-dive conversation about literary agents with Carly Watters, herself a longtime literary agent and the co-host of the popular writing podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. Carly is “very online” with a keen understanding of the digital... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-03 08:53:09 UTC ]
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The Women’s Prize Trust hopes to make the first award in 2024, after research showed female writers were far less likely than men to be reviewed or win prizes The Women’s prize is to launch a non-fiction award to sit alongside its long-running fiction prize, in response to research that found... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-08 08:00:10 UTC ]
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Sabaa Tahir, author of the YA novel 'All My Rage,' knows for sure that her fateful Zoom call from the Printz committee came on Tuesday, January 24, because the following day she went to Disneyland with her family; the novel, which tells the story of a working-class Pakistani American family in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A former assistant to Toni Morrison, Ahearn was the steward of Baldwin’s archives and managed the film rights to his books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
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If you're looking to inhale a YA novel — or just read large chunks of it — these YA books that take place in a single day are perfect. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-11-23 11:30:00 UTC ]
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Sabaa Tahir received this year's Young People's Literature prize for her YA novel 'All My Rage'; during her tearful acceptance speech, Tahir noted, "I am the first Muslim and Pakistani American woman to win this award.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The 2022 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Khadija Abdalla Bajaber for her debut YA novel The House of Rust. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-11-10 19:36:19 UTC ]
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Unsurprisingly, George Saunders is kind of a chaotic reader. | Lit Hub Ross Gay sings the praises of adult braces, feeling needed, and kissing a very small dog one million times. | Lit Hub Memoir “It is this uneasiness that helped me nurture such a wild and fucked-up imagination—an imagination... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-18 10:30:42 UTC ]
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As Tony Montana would probably say if he were a literary agent: In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the memoir. That’s right! Al Pacino is reportedly in talks to sell his first memoir […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-05 14:49:52 UTC ]
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The uniquely enduring literary agent who worked for years to find a publisher for Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and over the following decades arranged deals for everyone from true crime writer Joe McGinniss to the creators of the Berenstain Bears has died Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2022-09-04 21:08:59 UTC ]
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Twenty years after publication, the YA novel is the century’s most relevant dystopia—and that’s not even the most interesting thing about it. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2022-08-25 13:00:00 UTC ]
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