Bigger and Better Things For Our Writers

Hi Everyone,

We're looking forward to a fantastic New Year with all of our members and visitors.

First, we're excited about the kickoff of our new CelebWire. Brand new short stories by New York Times bestselling authors, and other top authors! Short stories you've never read before. Do check it out at www.authorlink.com/celebwire.

In our January 2008 edition , you can see a video interview with New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin. Also, this month there are interviews with authors Patricia Schultz, Lisa Schroeder, and Amulya Malladi.

Then you can hone your own skills by reading this month's columnists. Lisa Lenard Cook writes about "letting go." Lisa Dale Norton talks of bringing characters to life, and Rochelle Shapiro explores point of view. Also don't miss Mark Hosack's screenwriting column, Character is More Than Just Witty Dialogue--an excellent piece.

And do check out our interactive online writing classes with top publishing pros. Bestselling author Bonnie Hearn Hill launches another popular Advanced Novel Writing class on January 19, followed on January 23 by Lisa Dale Norton in a one-hour group discussion. And catch Lisa Lenard Cook and Penguin editor Stacey Barney in classes beginning February 16. See the details at www.authorlink.com/classroom/classroom.php.

If you have questions about our classes, feel free to e-mail me. They're quick and easy to join, and completely interactive. And all you need is your computer and the Internet to enroll and access our classes.

This Week: See video interviews with bestselling authors

Thousands of articles and interviews with authors and publishing professionals
AUGUST 1-31, 2007 EDITION

BookFlixVideo/August 2007
Authorlink Inaugurates New BookFlix Streaming Video Section With
Intimate Interviews of Top Authors

• Mick Brown, author of Tearing Down The Wall of Sound, The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector


• #1 New York Times Bestselling author David Baldacci on his latest thriller, Simple Genius


• New York Times Bestselling author Gayle Lynds on her latest thriller, The Last Spymaster (Takes a moment to load file)


• Oscar-Nominated actor Bruce Dern on Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have.
  

BookBitesAudio/August 2007

Writing to Change the World, an Inspiring Guide for Transforming the World With Words
An Authorlink Exclusive AUDIO Interview With Mary Pipher, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Reviving Phelia on her latestbook, Writing to Change the World (Riverhead, May 2007) July/August 2007

BookViewsText/August 2007

Self-Taught Novelist Marx Advises Newcomers to Tap Their Inner Voices An exclusive Authorlink interview with Patricia Marx, authorof Him Her Him Again The End of Him
by Ellen Birkett MorrisAugust 2007

Carolyn MacCullough Writes For the Teenager Inside of Her An exclusive Authorlink interview with the author of a trio of award-winning children's books.
by Susan Van Hecke August 2007

SKILL BUILDING

• The Art of Fiction: Revision Toolkit: Part 3 by Lisa Lenard Cook August 2007


• Narrative Nonfiction Playing With the Narrative Voice of Memoir by Lisa Dale Norton August 2007


• Reading as a Writer by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro August 2007


• Jump_Cut: On Screen Writing "Reel Time" and Three-Act Structure (cont) by Neil Flowers
  

Authorlink Virtual Classroom:

Mastering Point of View. Coming in October! Eight-week course with four intensive one-on-one private sessions

Instructor: Bonnie Hearn Hill, bestselling author of six thrillers for Mira. Read all about signing up! Watch for Bonnie's FREE introductory class, coming soon.

Creating a Novel a Publisher Will Buy , September 15, 2007 - October 6, 2007. Hands-on Guidance from a New York Editor Four-week intensive course with two one-on-one private sessions. Sign up now! Class space limited!

Instructor: Stacey Barney, editor at Putnam Booksfor Young Readers/Penguin Group USA Sign up now for early-bird discount!

Also: Crafting a Manuscript That Sells. Single-session discussion with Authorlink. CEO Doris Booth. FREE to members. Read all about signing up!

New Story Link Enables Member Writers to Earn Daily Short Story Royalties Read all about signing up!

Feed Shark

News update for writers and publishers

News Updated Every Thursday
Last Update: July 26, 2007

Hi Everyone,

Among items of particular interest this week for our writers are the expansions of two small presses. Fulcrum Publishing has acquired Speck Press, expanding its line, and Pegasus Books, a well respected New York-based small publisher is now churning out 40 books a year.

In the UK, publisher Little Brown has acquired Piatkus, so it will be interesting to see what grows from that merger.

Another new and potential market is bookseller Borders Group, Inc., which has now put itself in the publishing business, with Nick Santora's debut novel SLIP & FALL. We'll have an audio interview later this month with Nick, who has also written for the television shows Prison Break, The Sopranos and Law & Order and The Guardian, as well as multiple feature films. You'll want to see what he has to say in August about his writing journey. Stay tuned.

Headlines this week:

• Scholastic to Sue Distributors for Leak In Potter Distribution


• Harry Potter Sales Break All Records At Barnes & Noble


• Borders Names Two New Vice Presidents; Vanzura, Nasshan Depart


• Fulcrum Acquires Speck Press, Expands Lines


• Pegasus to Publish French Author Dumas's Long Missing Novel


• McGraw-Hill Second Quarter Income Soars


• Authorlink Introduces BookFlix Streaming Videos of Top Authors


• Try Authorlink's Virtual Classroom for Writers! FREE lesson sample!


• Authorlink Members Get FREE Current-Release Books. See how!
  

UK REPORT in alliance with PUBLISHING NEWS
Updated July 26, 2007

• PN Examines Big Week for Potter's Final Release


• Bertrams/THE Merger Gets Green Light


• Little Brown Acquires Indy Publisher Piatkus

___________________

Now! Advertise your published book or service here! Easy online upload and payment!

Book Sense BestsellersUpdated Weekly

Want to review books for Authorlink? E-mail credentials.

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Writers' News Alert: June 1, 2007

We have a wonderful lineup of author interviews and skill-building articles for writers this month. We hope you enjoy. We will soon be adding a senior New York editor to our teaching staff. Please e-mail me and let me know what topics you’d like her to address in exciting four-week sessions, including one-on-one instruction. Just e-mail me. But please wait until after June 7 as I’ll be in New York at BookExpo and visiting editors. For this week's news and other items, please visit our site at www.authorlink.com.

Best,
Doris

Thousands of articles and interviews
with authors and publishing professionals

JUNE 1-30, 2007 EDITION

"Sometimes the Past
Is Buried for a Reason"
An Exclusive Authorlink
AUDIO Interview
With David Morrell, Author
of Scavenger (Vanguard Press 2007)

David Morrell is considered by many to be the father of the modern action thriller. The movie character Rambo was based on his award-winning novel First Blood. David has written 29 books, most of them bestselling novels which have sold more than 18 million copies in 26 languages. His latest thriller, SCAVENGER, takes us on a desperate high-tech scsavenger hunt for a 100-year-old time capsule. Full Story (June 2007)

All It Takes
Is One "Yes"
An exclusive Authorlink interview
with Sara Gruen, author
of Water for Elephants
(Algonquin)

by Ellen Birkett Morris

Sara Gruen was a day away from starting another novel when she saw an article in the Chicago Tribune on Edward J. Kelty, a photographer who followed traveling circuses in the 1920s and 1930s.The photograph that accompanied the article, one of his Congress of Freaksseries, was so compelling that Gruen set aside her earlier idea and began working on the novel that would become WATER FOR ELEPHANTS. Full Story (June 2007)

From School Handout
to Chapter Book Seies

An Exclusive Authorlink Interview
With Brian Anderson, author
of The Adventures of Commander Zack Proton
(Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2006-2007)

by Susan Van Hecke

A zany space adventure series for seven- to ten-year olds, packed with wacky graphics to engage reluctant readers, especially boys? Leapin’ leptons! as Commander Zack Proton would say, sounds like a kidlit editor’s dream. But as science-guy-turned-children’s-author Brian Anderson – a piñata-making chemistry professor at University of Texas in Austin – remembers, his Adventures of Commander Zack Proton (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2006-2007) serial was hardly a shoo-in. Full Story (June 2007)

SKILL BUILDING

The Art of Fiction
Revision Toolkit: Part 1

by Lisa Lenard-Cook

The difference between a first draft and a polished manuscript is so monumental, beginning writers often mistakenly believe that published authors’ work must come out that way the first time. But the reality is that the better a fiction, the more time and effort the author has spent revising it. That’s why I’ll be spending my next few columns sharing my revision toolkit. Full Story (June 2007)

Narrative Nonfiction
Crafting a Narrative
From life Experience: Part 2

by Lisa Dale Norton

Reader Note: This column is the conclusion of a two-part series begun with the May column.
After you have chosen one of the events from your life, after which everything changed, you begin the work every memoirist must step up to: gathering your material. You chart the course you followed as you came to terms with that life-altering event, taking note of the potent memories that rise‹the people you encountered and the events that filled your days as you walked a new landscape, finding your way through a time of change and transition. Full Story (June 2007)

Authorlink Virtual Classroom:
New Classes Start in July!
Check them out!
Instructor: Bonnie Hearn Hill
Bestselling author of six thrillers
For Mira
Read all about signing up!

Jump_Cut:
On Screen Writing
Chronology and Three-Act Structure

A monthly screen writing column
by Neil Flowers
Carey Abney is from Philadelphia, an active duty ITSN (Navy) residing in Newport News, VA, and a new reader of this column. He has sent in a question pertinent to all of us who write feature films and hope that they will be sold and produced. It will take two or three of columns to reply fully to Mr. Abney. Here's his question.

Dear Mr. Flowers,
I have a question about your most recent column regarding three-act structure. Since I'm new to screenwriting, I'm constantly studying and researching how to write a great screenplay. In many books about screenwriting . . . Full Story (May/June 2007)

The White Page

by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

What could set a writer’s heart pounding more than staring at a white page, worrying how to begin writing, what to say? No matter how much you’ve published, each time you start out, you feel like a novice all over again. Nothing you’ve ever done before seems to help. In fact, former accomplishments may get in the way because you worry that you’ll never be able to write anything as good as the piece that you just received a Pushcart Prize for. (Wouldn’t that be grand?) Full Story (June 2007)

New Story Link Enables
Member Writers to Earn
Daily Short Story Royalties
Read all about signing up!

Feed Shark

Doris Booth
Editor-in-Chief Authorlink.com
Manager, Authorlink Literary Group

dbooth@authorlink.com
(972) 650-1986
www.authorlink.com
http://www.authorlink.blogspot.com

May 1 Edition: Interviews and articles about writing and publishing

Hey, here’s the lineup of May articles and interviews. Don’t miss the audio interview with Christi Phillips, author of The Rossetti Letter, and many other interviews and how-to articles.


Thousands of articles and interviews

with authors and publishing professionals

MAY 1-31, 2007 EDITION

Spanish Conspiracy Inspires Debut Novelist Christi Phillips

An Exclusive AuthorlinkAUDIO Interview With Christi Phillips,

Authorof The Rossetti Letter (Pocket 2007)

Pocket has introduced a captivating new voice in debut novelist Christi Phillips, author of THE ROSSETTI LETTER. The literary mystery seamlessly moves between 17th century Venice and the present day with the connected stories of two women--the mysterious courtesan Alessandra Rossetti and Harvard University Ph.D. candidate Claire Donovan . . . Full Story (May 2007)

Literary Detective Work Yields Vivid Portrait of Harper Lee
An exclusive Authorlink interviewwith Charles J. Shields,

author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (Henry Holt)

by Ellen Birkett Morris

One of the first things Charles J. Shields did when he decided to write a biography of the famously reclusive author Harper Lee is log onto the web site www.classmates.com. The site helps people connect with high school classmates. Using this tool, Shields developed a list of 50 people who had known Lee in high school. . . Full Story (May 2007)

End of Penn's Dancing CareerLeads to New Calling as Novelist
An Exclusive Authorlink InterviewWith Audrey Penn,

author of A Kiss Goodbye (Tanglewood, May 2007)

by Susan Van Hecke

“I’m not one of those writers with imagination,” says ballerina turned author Audrey Penn. “If something doesn’t fall in my lap, I’m screwed.” It was what was sitting on the train tracks at a local park that inspired Penn’s New York Times bestseller The Kissing Hand (CWLA, 1993; Tanglewood, 2006), a tender picture book whose second sequel, A Kiss Goodbye (Tanglewood) hits bookstore shelves May 25th. Full Story (May 2007)

SKILL BUILDING

The Art of Fiction

Rules for Avoiding Rejection

by Lisa Lenard-Cook
Do you think you can skip sweating the small stuff (grammar, spelling, manuscript formatting), because that’s what an editor is for? If so, you’re in for a rude awakening come manuscript submission time. No editor will bother to give your manuscript a second glance if you don’t pay attention to the small stuff in the first place. But that’s not the only thing you can do to avoid rejection . . . Full Story (May 2007)

Narrative Nonfiction

Crafting a Narrative From life Experience: Part 1

by Lisa Dale Norton

Reader Note: This column is the first of a two-part series to be completedwith my June 1 column.

When you first step up to writing a story about your life, it can feel pretty overwhelming because, well, there¹s just so darn much material! Where do you start? This conundrum is what keeps most people from even trying. Part of being successful at memoir writing is realizing from the get-go that you have to limit the material you cover . . . Full Story (May 2007)

Authorlink Virtual Classroom:New Classes Start in May! Check them out!
Instructor: Bonnie Hearn HillBestselling author of six thrillers For Mira Read all about signing up!

Skill

BuildingJump_Cut:

On Screen Writing Chronology and Three-Act Structure

A monthly screen writing column

by Neil Flowers

Carey Abney is from Philadelphia, an active duty ITSN (Navy) residing in Newport News, VA, and a new reader of this column. He has sent in a question pertinent to all of us who write feature films and hope that they will be sold and produced. It will take two or three of columns to reply fully to Mr. Abney. Here's his question.

Dear Mr. Flowers,
I have a question about your most recent column regarding three-act structure. Since I'm new to screenwriting, I'm constantly studying and researching how to write a great screenplay. In many books about screenwriting . . . Full Story (May 2007)

Using Digression To Enlarge a Story

by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

In the introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay (Anchor Books, 1995), p. XXXVII, Philip Lopate writes what is true for a lot of creative writing, not just essays. “The essayist tries to surround something—a subject, a mood, a problematic irritation—by coming at it from all angles, wheeling and diving like a hawk, each seemingly digressive spiral taking us to the heart of the matter.” Two pages later, he adds that digression “serves both structural and comic functions.” Full Story (May 2007)

Feed Shark

Doris Booth
Editor-in-Chief Authorlink.com
Manager, Authorlink Literary Group

dbooth@authorlink.com
(972) 650-1986
http://www.authorlink.com/
http://www.authorlink.blogspot.com/

News Alert

News Alert

Here are Authorlink’s top news headlines for the publishing industry.

News Updated Every ThursdayLast Update: April 26, 2007

HarperCollins Forms New Creative Division
Publishing Sales Rise in February, AAP Reports
Rosen Resigns B&N Board Over Stock Option Errors
Booksellers, Libraries Get More Creative
Supporters Fight to Save Atlanta Book Coverage
Iranian Indy Publishers Earn AAP Freedom Award

New York Book Festival Entry Deadline Near
Publishers Support U.S. Government Trade Suits Against China
BBC Audiobooks America Launches First Trade List

Check Out Authorlink's New Virtual Classroom For Writers

UK REPORT in alliance with PUBLISHING NEWS
Updated April 26, 2007

E-Momentum Building in the UK
Analysts Question WHSmith's Strategy to Boost Profits
Shore Takes Digital Role at Penguin
S&S UK Gets Boost With Gregory Deal
Minority Jobs in Publishing Remain Scarce

Feed Shark

News Alert

News Updated Every Thursday
Last Update: March 15, 2007

Hi Writers and Publishers,

Here are the Authorlink news headlines for March 15, 2007. Citizen journalists please feel free to click COMMENT and add your thoughts about our news columns. For all our news and articles, please go to http://www.authorlink.com/

• Random House Gets High Marks In New Widget Wars
• S&P Cuts Borders' Rating, Stockholders to Hear New Strategies
• National Book Critics Circle Awards Announced
• BISG Half-Day Conference to Focus On Digital Technology
• Bestselling Author Hornby to Publish First Young Adult Novel
• Del Rey Acquires Pulitzer Prize-Winner Chabon's New Book

The Only Query Letter You'll Ever Need!A FREE 45-Minute Authorlink Webinar With Bestselling Author Bonnie Hearn Hill

Simple Secrets for Negotiating a Better Publishing ContractA FREE 45-Minute Authorlink Webinar With New York Entertainment Attorney Jassin

UK REPORT in alliance with PUBLISHING NEWS
Updated March 15, 2007

• Reason for HMV's Waterstone Bookstore Closures Challenged
• British Minorities Seek Better Treatment From Publishers
• Diaries of Blair's Former Press Secretary Draw Media Attention ___________________
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