Category: News and Editorials
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African Fiction in China, Writing Retreats, and more…
How Two Friends Started A Top Writing Retreat In France (Forbes) Created and hosted by Tyley and Slack, two friends living in France who devised the retreat over a glass of wine, Slack is an experienced journalist and communications consultant, while Tyley is the author of Spaghetti Head, as well as a series of poetry and short stories.…
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New Year, New Waking Writer!
Dear Reader, As we ring in 2019, we are all probably thinking about what we would like to do differently this year. Here at Waking Writer, we have had a great couple of years interviewing fabulous indie authors, showcasing new books, sharing writing tips and news from the literary world. Don’t worry…Waking Writer plans to…
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Finishing Your Novel, Fan-Fiction, Writing Sex Scenes, and more…
The One Direction Fan-Fiction Novel That Became a Literary Sensation (The Atlantic) Without pausing to proofread, Todd uploaded a chapter a day to Wattpad, a free site that has earned a reputation as the YouTube of ebooks for its success in giving prose the social-media treatment. (Readers can chat with writers and discuss books with one…
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Wattpad, New Goosebumps Books, Woke Sci-Fi, and more…
$400M Fiction Giant Wattpad Wants To Be Your Literary Agent (Forbes) It’s not a revolutionary idea. Blogs, Tumblr posts and Twitter accounts have all been turned into additional forms of media over the years—with varying degrees of success. Wattpad’s greatest competitive advantage is, simply, its scale. It may never hit on the next Fifty Shades of…
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French Bookshops Revolt, Dressing Your Characters, and more…
How do you choose an outfit for a fictional character? 5 authors explain. (Vox) I asked the authors of five buzzy novels to select one important look they’ve created for a specific character and dissect what the ensemble means to the character. How does she choose to dress herself, and what does that signify about…
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Feminist Dystopias, African Fiction, Harry Potter, and more…
Why are feminist dystopias so hot right now? An author sheds light (EW) Alongside fellow recent feminist dystopias like Siobhan Adcock’s The Completionist and Leni Zumas’ Red Clocks, Vox reflects ongoing conversations around the mistreatment of women through a near-apocalyptic lens. In this case, Dalcher imagines a near-future U.S. in which women have been banned from speaking more than 100…
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Fan Fiction, Authors Earning Less, and more…
How free should novelists be to imagine radically different lives? (The Guardian) My new novel may need justifying. Half of it is narrated by Sofia, a 17-year-old girl born in Cairo; I’m a 47-year-old man who has never lived outside the UK. More to the point, the story opens with Sofia arriving in Syria to…
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Racist Sci-Fi, Novels Steering Boys Away from Toxic Masculinity, and more…
Inside the World of Racist Science Fiction (NY Times) Most of the books are self-published. Others are distributed by small, activist imprints or the publishing arms of white nationalist organizations. They are sold online, at gun shows or person to person. This scattershot distribution system makes it hard to track sales, but the more popular…
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To Write Fan Fiction or Not, and more…
A Published Author Told Me To Stop Writing Fan Fiction — But The Lunar Chronicles Author Marissa Meyer Disagrees (Bustle) Undoubtedly this woman meant well — and there is, of course, some truth to her words. Unless you’re the rare exception, à la 50 Shades or After, odds were my Star Wars and Spider-Man fics…
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Publishers Underpaying Authors, Morality Clauses for Authors, and more…
Editors resign over decision to retain author Junot Diaz (STL Today) Three editors at the Boston Review are resigning over the political and literary magazine’s decision to retain author Junot Diaz despite allegations of sexual misconduct. Poetry editors Timothy Donnelly, Barbara Fischer and Stefania Heim said on Twitter last week they’re “dismayed” at the logic…
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