Bookarazzi is the public face of BloggersWithBookDeals, a group of published writers / artists who spend half our lives on the internet.
There are almost 50 of us, and our books range from surreal comedy to commercial women's fiction to graphic novels and disgusting recipes.
This is where we come to pool our collective abilities and provide stuff for you to read and use. Whether you're a budding writer, a bored net surfer or are just feeling nosy, there should be something for you.
Oh, and we might plug our books occasionally too.
To find out more about some of us, see the member bios and links sections. For FAQs, go here. For regular blog entries, this is the place and for features and articles go here.
If you would like us to link to you, please feel free to email us. Enjoy.
See this post from Danuta Kean re self-publishing. It may be from her archives but it's still relevant.
Take heart - it may be harder than ever to get that elusive deal, but it's also true that there have never been so many other ways of getting your words out there.
The aim of the group is to raise the awareness and profile of female crime writers and provide a forum for the discussion of crime fiction by enthusiastic crime fiction addicts. It also furnishes a lively friendly atmosphere in which authors and readers can meet and exchange ideas. If you are interested in Crime Fiction then Mystery Women has lots of interesting information for you on events, reviews and interviews.
Given the current state of publishing (see here and track back all the links to previous posts for the full picture) it's no wonder so many writers choose to self-publish. On the one hand, it's never been harder to get a traditional deal ... On the other, there have never been so many alternative ways of getting your words out there yourself. Here's an example: YouWriteOn had formed a partnership with Legend Press offering packages for self-publishing writers, covering editing, text-setting, cover design, registration, sales and marketing. See here for details.
I was saddened to hear that Julian Rathbone has passed away. I'll never forget some words from his keynote speech at the Winchester Writers' Conference in 1998 - writers need to be vain. I used words to that effect in one of my stories because they just wouldn't go away. What he meant was, I think, was that we had to be vain in the sense of being proud of our craft and getting our work out there. During the Conference, he would hang out with his students, encouraging them to have a go at the open mic sessions, sitting with them at mealtimes. A recent article in The Guardian mentions many of his books, but my favourites are Intimacy and Blame Hitler. He was a very generous man and good fun, too; I'll never forget his red shoes.
The programme is online for the 2nd Vienna Lit Festival which will be held from 17-20 April 2008 in Vienna, Austria. There'll be English-speaking authors from Austria and abroad. Come and meet a range of engaging novelists, poets and spoken-word artists. Apart from readings and lots of poetry, there'll also be workshops. Tickets are already selling and they are really affordable.
I was thrilled to hear that the new Australian Government had set up a literary award that was open to Australian writers anywhere in the world who’d had a book published in 2007, even expats. It’s colossal – 100,000 AUD – that’s enough to be able to write for at least three or four years. Of course there’ll be competition, but it’s a prize that’s like the Olympics – and I want to be in it.
And then in the guidelines I saw the one thing that would block me from entering. The print run had to be at least 750 books published. Now a terrific inclusive award was starting to look exclusive in that many small independent publishers, mine included, wouldn’t be able to play.
I've been contacted by the lovely people at Artswom asking me to pass on some booky bits that I'm sure will be of interest. Click here for a post about Sky Arts' Book Show, where guests are asked to choose one book they wish they had written themselves. Each book is being put in a prize pot for one lucky viewer to win at the end of the series in April. Artswom have also come up with their own initiative. They're inviting bloggers to share their recommendations for the last book to read before the end of the world.
Admittedly, this is something of a morbid topic, but when the end comes and this fragile orb finally cracks, it may be too late to panic buy, too inappropriate to copulate, and just too ironic to pray – so what else is there to do other than settle down and read a quality novel.
Caroline Smailes is working on a project of such fabulousness I can scarcely find the necessary superlatives. First, she's written a book - a wee book, a novella - called Disraeli Avenue. That is the name of the street where the central characters lived in her excellent debut novel, In Search Of Adam. The novella is made up of 32 flashes from the houses in the street. 'Tales of debt, infidelity, love and loss all combine and weave into a mosaic of working class life,' says Caroline. But that's not all...
