The new edition of the Writers’ and
Artists’ Yearbook does its usual thorough job of listing every
conceivable useful thing for writers and artists. The listings are
thoroughly updated every year and provide an invaluable source of
information about publishers and writers, with overseas listings, as well
as British, of publishers and agents.But what makes the book an
outstandingly good buy is the many articles about every aspect of getting
published. Existing articles are added to each year to broaden and
deepen the coverage and new articles this year include ‘Notes from a
passionate poet’ by performance poet Benjamin Zephaniah and ‘Ebooks’ by
founder and CEO of EBooks corporation.
Just dipping into the book reveals its riches, which include famous
writers on the genre they write in and articles on writing for magazines
and newspapers. ‘Understanding the publishing process’ comes from Bill
Swainson of Bloomsbury and Michael Schmidt of Carcanet covers ‘Getting
poetry published’.
A classic piece from the late Giles Gordon covers ‘The role of the
literary agent’ and Philippa Milnes-Smith, President of the UK’s
Association of Authors’ Agents, writes on ‘How to get an agent’.
In the 832 pages of the Writers and Artists’ Yearbook you will
find everything you might want to know about the business of getting
published.
This year’s Foreword is by Kate Mosse, the author of Labyrinth,
who offers this advice: ‘Just write. Start now. And, if you’re lucky, the
rest will follow.’
Highly recommended for all writers and artists, this really is an
essential companion for all writers.
