Drawing on her panoramic reading and her experiences of the authorly life cycle, Atwood surveys her trade with a mix of seriousness and gentle fun“You may find the subject a little peculiar,” warns Margaret Atwood, before she discusses the writer’s relationship with mortality. “It is a little peculiar. Writing itself is a little peculiar.” Atwood’s survey of her profession makes this seem like an understatement: after all, she argues, writers have been placed in close company with the devil and the dead; they have secret identities and hidden doubles; they are death-defying magicians, self-erasing nobodies, even – if you want to get “murky and pretentious” – shamanistic travellers. This book prefers to stay on the side of clarity and self-deprecation, combining evidence drawn from her panoramic reading – one chapter deals with The Tempest, The Wizard of Oz and Klaus Mann’s Mephisto – with her own experiences of the life cycle of an author. She tempers the seriousness of her questions – What is a writer? For whom do writers write? – by poking gentle fun at her trade, describing the machine-like publishing industry as “cog eat cog”, and quietly mocking endless discussion panels. Yet Atwood sees her kind reflected everywhere – from Gilgamesh to The Beast With Five Fingers – and works hard on their behalf: advocate, analyst and always, writer.•To order On Writers and Writing for £7.99 (RRP £9.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
In the 2010s, the publishing industry finally wrestled with its problems with diversity. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2019-12-22 13:00:22 UTC ]
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Picador commissioning editor Kishani Widyaratna (pictured) and Influx Press co-founder Kit Caless have launched a fundraiser for people in the publishing industry to donate money to the Trussell Trust with nearly £4,000 raised within five hours. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-16 19:29:32 UTC ]
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Now more than ever, the publishing industry finds itself on a quest for more effective ways to make money. For the past few years, the industry has been working through a regular cycle of taglines and keywords: ‘metered models,’ ‘memberships,’ ‘registration paywalls,’ dynamic paywalls,’ and so... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2019-12-11 16:35:15 UTC ]
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Discover the opportunities in buying and selling rights in Sharjah and the wider Arab Market at this free half-day seminar on Thursday 5 December 2019. The day, which forms part of The London Book Fair Market Focus Professional Programme will feature a fantastic line-up of speakers looking at... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-11-20 11:14:33 UTC ]
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At the 70th National Book Awards, held again this year at Cipriani Wall Street in lower Manhattan on Wednesday night, LeVar Burton presided over a smoothly run evening attended by a typically ebullient and dapper publishing industry crowd. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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In the modern media environment, publishers need a formula for success that they can depend on—not just for today, but one that will allow them to adapt for the trends of tomorrow. That means embracing three key ingredients that every publisher needs to ensure future-readiness, regardless of... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2019-11-19 17:38:05 UTC ]
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More small strides were made in 2018 toward addressing issues of pay disparity and diversification of the workforce. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-15 05:00:00 UTC ]
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From cultural appropriation to literary snobbery, campaigning author Kit de Waal is well known for holding the publishing industry to account. Her passionate, inclusive and activist spirit has seen her named 2019 FutureBook Person of the Year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-14 16:22:05 UTC ]
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As the writing challenge turns 20, it’s time for the publishing industry to challenge itself. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2019-11-01 09:45:13 UTC ]
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The publishing industry was up in arms over the summer when Google officially closed the loophole in its Chrome browser that allows website owners to detect whether a visitor has enabled Incognito mode to view their site. The complaint? It effectively undermined publishers’ efforts to prevent... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2019-10-31 16:47:22 UTC ]
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More than 33% of students at UK schools are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, but only 4% of the protagonists in children's books in the UK are BAME. The publishing industry has made big claims about its push for inclusivity both on and off the page, but some believe progress is... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-10-29 10:10:28 UTC ]
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The weather is cooler, the pumpkins are here, and it’s time for people with opinions to start publishing articles announcing what to watch for in the media and publishing industry in the coming year. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. The media industry is experiencing a flood... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2019-10-24 12:50:31 UTC ]
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Podcasts are ever so slowly pivoting to subscriptions. The broad move to consumer revenue in the publishing industry is spreading to podcasts, as publishers like Slate and The Athletic look to use the loyal audiences podcasts attract to drive paying subscribers and monetize this platform in new,... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2019-10-24 04:01:40 UTC ]
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Perhaps it was promising, years ago, to see the media industry booming thanks to investments by venture capital-backed funders and large media conglomerates hoping to cash in early on promising new digital media titles. But now, it's the time in the industry's life cycle for those same flashy... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2019-10-14 15:22:42 UTC ]
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Literary agents are gatekeepers of the publishing industry. Find literary agents open to submissions from under represented and unique voices in this post. List will be updated regularly. The post Literary Agents Seeking Under Represented and Unique Voices by Robert Lee Brewer appeared first on... Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2019-10-02 14:41:00 UTC ]
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Google is experimenting with contextual ads at "much lower costs" when it comes to marketing its own products—even as it leads the way as one of the most vocal proponents of the power of personal data for targeting ads online. Marvin Chow, Google’s VP of marketing, peeled back the curtain on... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-24 23:11:20 UTC ]
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Rogers, Coleridge and White’s Peter Robinson is leaving the publishing industry after 30 years of being an agent. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-24 06:39:15 UTC ]
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Literary agents are gatekeepers of the publishing industry. Find women's fiction literary agents open to submissions in this post. List will be updated regularly. The post Women’s Fiction Literary Agents Open to Submissions by Robert Lee Brewer appeared first on Writer's Digest. Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2019-09-18 13:00:29 UTC ]
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In his poignant and strikingly insightful novel of 1956, The Lonely Londoners, Samuel Selvon shapes his narrative through the eyes of Caribbean migrants (now commonly referred to as the Windrush generation) upon their arrival to London post-World War II. His Trinidadian characters, having been... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-09-12 11:00:55 UTC ]
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Literary agents are gatekeepers of the publishing industry. Find historical fiction literary agents open to submissions in this post. List will be updated regularly. The post Historical Fiction Literary Agents Open to Submissions by Robert Lee Brewer appeared first on Writer's Digest. Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2019-09-11 12:59:53 UTC ]
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