seventhhousepublishing.com

Once you believe you have written your manuscript, have a final read over the document and look at the story as a whole. Check that your structure is balanced and that your story has started in the correct place. Don’t risk not getting published by starting the story too early or by providing too much background information which can get a bit boring.

Your novel needs to evoke all the senses. Check if you have used a passive voice where an active voice would have made more of a stronger impact. In addition to this, check if your story can be saved by completely removing the first chapter and starting right at the action point!

When I am reading a book it really gets on my nerves when I finish the novel and I think back over the plot and there are some sections which have not been fully finished off. For example, the last book I read, the character’s aunty died and there was no closure, ie. No funeral and no grieving for their loss of a relative, etc.

It is important that you leave your reader feeling satisfied that the whole story has been told. If you leave any unintentional loose ends, like the one I mentioned above your reader will be dissatisfied and unlikely to read any of your books again.

From the author who brought the world American Psycho, Less than Zero, Glamorama, The Rules of Attraction and Lunar Park (as well as their cinematic spin-offs) comes a new novel, Imperial Bedrooms.

Bret Easton Ellis is back with a brand new offering, albeit continuing the thread from Less than Zero written twenty-five years ago when the author was still in college. Set to be released to the masses in June, Imperial Bedrooms picks up with Clay, Trent, Blair and co many years after the events depicted in the first novel.

If you want to know what Imperial Bedrooms is like, it’s pretty much along the same lines as the way literary critic Benjamin Alsup sees the rest of Ellis’ work:

“This is Ellis’s career-making insight: Fame and money and ass and murder make the world go round. True in 1985. True today.”

Despite the publishing industry’s concerns that digital technology (Google Books, e-book readers and the iPad) are taking over all forms of entertainment and culture, new statistics suggest that many loyal people are still remaining true to traditional forms such as books, CDs and DVDs.

According to a new survey by technology company Hewlett-Packard (HP), around 95 per cent of British consumers prefer reading old-fashioned books compared to their digital and online counterparts. The HP survey and others like it also found that:

• 70 per cent of UK people aged between 16 and 60 believe digital film and music will never replace the real thing – hard copies

• 75 per cent prefer to watch films on DVD than online

Excellent news for the publishing industry then – books have not been deserted!

According to the latest reports, Pope Benedict XVI has finished writing his second book, the follow-up to his bestselling Jesus of Nazareth. Expected to be released sometime in the next few months, the Vatican are describing it as:

“…dedicated to the Passion and the Resurrection (of Jesus), and starts where the first volume finished,”

The book has been written in the Pope’s native German and sent to publishers Manuel Herder as well as the Vatican Publishing House. The Vatican have explained the delay on the book’s release saying it will take time to translate it into many languages accurately. It also would have been completed sooner – early in 2010 – had the Pope not broken his wrist back in July 2009.

The children’s book that the late Boyzone star Stephen Gately finished shortly before his tragic death in Spain is set to go straight to the top of bestseller lists. Entitled Tree of Seasons, the book is 300 pages long and is a fantasy novel designed for children of all ages.

Due to Stephen’s immense popularity in Ireland, the book’s publishers Hodder & Stoughton are expecting the book to fly off the shelves. Around 15,000 copies have already been ordered in advance in the UK and Ireland, leading the publishers to say:

“We think it may be one of the biggest children’s titles this year.”

Tree of Seasons has been officially released today (May 13th).

Following the runaway success of ‘Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’, the bizarre ‘mash-ups’ of Jane Austin novels published by Quirk Books, a sequel to the latter title is planned and it reportedly has a proper film trailer to promote it.

Written by Seth Grahame-Smith, the sequel is called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. Quirk have taken the pioneering step of making a tongue-in-cheek trailer for it, featuring primly dressed madams with saucy expressions practicing their zombie-smashing ninja skills (yes, you read that correctly) as well as a cheeky Scottish Widows type in red scampering around the misty moors having a good pop at the undead.

In my opinion, this is not the future of book publishing, although it is an amusing idea as a one-off. Reading a book is about using your imagination, which I think would produce very interesting results in the case of this particular publication. Why spoil it with a movie cliché? It isn’t actually a film!

Major publishing company Random House are set to release former US President George W. Bush’s memoirs in November of this year, and it looks like it may be an interesting read (we can be sure the spellchecker was thoroughly exhausted).

In the book – entitled ‘Decision Points’ - the former President discusses what was going through his mind through major crises such as 9/11, the 2000 election and the Iraq war. Crown Publishing, the subsidiary of Random House that is to release the book, describes the memoir as

“a groundbreaking new brand of memoir”.

This said, Random House have previously published such ripping titles as include “The Lies of George Bush” and “My First persidentcy: A Scarpbook by George W. Bush”, making this new release somewhat inconsistent with the publisher’s track record on the subject of Bush.

According to an analysis of the day’s deals published by The Bookseller Daily, non-fiction was the key focus of the 39th London Book Fair. The analysis shows that:

• A total of 36 rights deals were done during the fair
• Of these, 21 were non-fiction and just 15 were fiction
• Successful agents included PFD, AP Watt and United Agents

Top of the non-fiction deals included the acquisition of ‘This is a call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl’ by HarperCollins and a new history publication by Max Hastings, snapped up by HarperPress. Also confirmed was Transworld acquiring the rights to Britain’s Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle’s memoirs.

The much-hyped and long-awaited Apple iPad is set to be released soon, and many are hoping it will give the publishing and media sectors a much-needed boost. But is this really the case, or will it completely obliterate traditional media forms to the detriment of book-lovers and authors alike?

Book reader applications for the iPad are proving exceedingly popular, with 250,000 digital book downloads on the very first day of the devices’ US release, and publishers are hoping it will drastically improve their fortunes revenue-wise.

However, many claim the iPad cannot save traditional forms of media such as newspapers and books. In fact, it may actually make things worse. Newspapers will not receive as much revenue from subscriptions, circulation or advertisers, and will only make small savings on printing and distribution.

As much most of like to read news online, I personally believe there will never be an adequate replacement for the traditional book.