Mark Charan Newton

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Entries Tagged as 'backstage'

Interview With My Editor: Julie Crisp

March 12th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Despite the impression we authors like to give, publishing isn’t just about us. There are people who work behind the scenes and they work extremely hard in producing novels each month, and what’s more, they get little acknowledgement. These are the people who help shape careers, as well as an industry, yet they don’t often [...]

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Tags: backstage · discussions · genre stuff

Bantam Spectra Proofs

March 8th, 2010 · 10 Comments

Americans! Feast your eyes on this. Fresh from the offices of Bantam Spectra, we have the advance reading copies of the US debut of Nights of Villjamur. Always exciting to share a picture or two.

Incidentally, the typewriter in the background is purely ornamental, and I couldn’t actually find a free space to pile the [...]

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Tags: Nights of Villjamur · backstage · genre stuff · news

Let Them Eat Cake

March 5th, 2010 · 2 Comments

I said to Julie that I would send cake to Tor UK in order to celebrate the new novel deal for books three and four, and I am a man of my word. I recommend writers sending a cupcake with every submission to a publisher. Cake makes them happy.

Share: [...]

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Tags: backstage · cake

On Writing Advice

March 2nd, 2010 · 7 Comments

Fascinating article in the Globe and Mail about advice writing. (Via Bookninja.)
The market for fiction shrinks every year, the attention paid to novels by the media diminishes monthly, booksellers demand ever-lower prices, everybody in the industry says it’s the worst it’s ever been. And yet more academic or private creative-writing programs are created every year, [...]

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Tags: backstage · discussions · genre stuff

Fund Your Own Writing Project

February 23rd, 2010 · 3 Comments

If you’re looking to get funding to write a book, one option is to use Kickstarter, which was pointed out to me in the comments of a previous post.

I’m sure by linking to this, it’s going to annoy the hell out of some writers – those who think we’ve a god-given right to be doing [...]

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Tags: backstage · discussions · genre stuff · publishing

Crowdfunding

February 18th, 2010 · 14 Comments

Now here’s a novel idea:

It’s the unusual approach taken by Deanna Zandt, an American “media technologist and consultant to key progressive media organisations”. Last summer she issued a plea on her blog for donations to support her while she spent three months writing a book about social networking as a tool for social change and [...]

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Tags: backstage · discussions

Serious Fantasy Reviewing

January 26th, 2010 · 42 Comments

I notice that Strange Horizons is getting to grips with some of the shortlisted titles from last year’s Gemmell Award:
The question that presents itself, obviously, is: how easily can any of these books be judged on their own merits? This, certainly, is what the DGLA administrators are aiming for, as noted on their website: “[P]lease [...]

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Tags: and another thing... · backstage · discussions · genre stuff

Things I Don’t Like About Writing

November 21st, 2009 · 10 Comments

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing books, and wouldn’t want to stop doing it. You’ll have to take this MacBook from my cold dead hands. But the medium of writing is a curious one, and there are some parts about the process which I really dislike.
1) I don’t like that you can’t improvise with [...]

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Tags: backstage · discussions · writing

Tips For Getting A Novel Deal #3

October 19th, 2009 · 2 Comments

I hate giving writing advice.
There’s something distinctly awkward about it. I dislike the fact that some people can dictate any one system for writing. You have to do what works for you. That said, continuing the Tips series of posting, here are some things that come from the old editorial/bookselling side of my brain. [...]

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Tags: backstage · genre stuff · publishing

Tips For Getting A Novel Deal #2

October 13th, 2009 · 6 Comments

Continuing from the previous post, here are some more rough notes. This time, on submitting to agents and what kind of things to put in a synopsis.
The submission stage

• Use professionalism, first and foremost. Treat this like you would other business – that means, be polite to people.
• Lose your ego! You’d be surprised at [...]

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Tags: backstage · genre stuff · publishing

Tips For Getting A Novel Deal #1

October 11th, 2009 · 1 Comment

This is me talking as an ex-bookseller, one-time editor with a mass market SFF imprint, and a fantasy writer with a commercial deal. This is not me spouting rubbish about how to write, because, well, there’s something distinctly awkward about giving such advice. You do what you have to do.
So I sometimes use these notes [...]

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Tags: backstage · genre stuff · publishing

More Things I Didn’t Know About Being A Writer

September 15th, 2009 · 9 Comments

The last post proved popular. Here are a few other things I didn’t quite know about being a writer. Perhaps I’ll be a little more open. You might not like what’s said.
1) Spin matters more than you think. Sometimes it matters which major magazine or newspaper reviewer is given your book. Like a lot in [...]

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Tags: backstage · genre stuff · publishing · writing

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