Category: publishing

The ‘First Chapters’ contest seeks aspiring first-time authors and members of www.gather.com to post manuscripts on the social-networking Web site. “If online readers like the manuscript’s first chapter, the author is voted through to the next round. Two more chapters are posted and the public narrows the field in the same fashion.”

“Representatives of a consortium of six medium-sized Canadian-owned publishers are scheduled to meet today in Toronto with members of the Canadian Booksellers Association to try to resolve a dispute over a controversial book-marketing ‘pilot project’ scheduled to start next month and largely targeting Chapters/Indigo stores.”

“Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has promised to publish a book by a first-time author who wins a contest on Gather.com, a social-networking site that might be described as MySpace for grown-ups… Unpublished writers can enter free by submitting a manuscript for a full-length work of fiction.”

“Authors write books. Screenwriters write screenplays. And while there are strong exceptions to every rule (Herman Wouk, Larry McMurtry), a savvy author tends to know when to step aside and let the filmmakers take charge — or, in some cases, the sausage makers. For some reason, authors tend to refer to pork products when discussing Hollywood.”

The Chilean student who shot to fame when she wrote her own Harry Potter story, has published a debut novel. “Francisca Solar began her writing career when she found she was so disappointed with JK Rowling’s fifth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order ff the Phoenix, that she wanted to write her own sequel to it. The Decline of the High Elves became a massive online smash, generating 80,000 views and positive reviews from Harry Potter fans around the world.”

“Love letters written by Sylvia Plath’s husband to his mistress have been acquired by Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library. Despite writing to Assia Wevill to ‘please burn all my letters,’ the collection includes more than 60 letters from British poet laureate Ted Hughes to Wevill and six from her to him – as well as a number of notes, sketches, fragmentary diary entries and a few photographs of Wevill.”

“Once a hot trend that saw everyone from celebrities and politicians to housewives and neighbors getting together to read and dish, the book clubs of today are evolving, forgoing the Oprah Winfrey model of read-and-discuss and getting creative about how they meet, read and socialize over books.”

The controversial Solbol Prize, which offered $100,000 and a publishing contract to the winner, has been canceled for lack of interest. “First announced last September, the Sobol prize was immediately attacked by agents, bloggers and other critics for the entry fee and for requiring that Sobol officials serve as the winners’ literary representative. Industry policy prohibits agents from charging money to read manuscripts.”

“Plutoed” has been chosen the 2006 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society at its annual meeting. “To ‘pluto’ is ‘to demote or devalue someone or something’ much like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto did not meet its definition of a planet.”

Two prominent independent UK publishers have announced plans to merge. “The deal brings together two of publishing’s most outspoken and independent characters – Profile founder Andrew Franklin and Serpent’s Tail founder Pete Ayrton.”