Weekly News Round-Up (June 24, 2022)

It's Friday, and while that means Robert Smith of the Cure is in love, for you and me it means it's time for yet another installment of The Underpublished's Weekly News Round-Up!

I know, maybe you really have been following along with me here in this space from the get go. That's fine. Maybe you're too busy and over-scheduled, and are a workaholic, and so on and so forth. That's fine too. I understand, I really, really do. But let me just tell you that there are some real gems in this week's list of articles. Of particular interest is the last item, which contains lines from rejection letters sent to famous writers. You simply must check it out.

Ok, that's enough flapping from me for now. As usual, I hope you enjoy this week's catch of writing, book business, and book-related news and, please, keep writing, publishing, and reading.

 

WRITING ADVICE:

Marcy Dermansky on Revising Without Losing Your Mind

What Is Food Writing? 4 Critical Keys to Becoming a Food Writer

Here are the 7 tools that will make you a better writer

Ashley M. Coleman: On the Importance of Writing Rituals

Give Your Fictional Characters a Psych Eval

Why Failure is Necessary for Creative Growth


THE BUSINESS:

The book that tore publishing apart: 'Harm has been done, and now everyone’s afraid’

V.V. Ganeshananthan Dishes on Blurbs, Jacket Copy, Cover Art, and All the Dark Arts of Publishing a Book

Dorothy, a (Successful, Experimental) Publishing Project

DC Spotlight: An Eclectic Publishing Region


MISC:

Binders Keepers Makes Eye-Popping Art from Old Books

Disturbing the Comfortable: On Writing Disability in Science Fiction\

June Gervais: On a Misfit Writing About Misfits

Leopold Bloom's Real-Life Model

The deracination of literature

Good God, I can't publish this…  

Weekly News Round-Up (June 17, 2022)

Greetings and salutations loyal readers! That's a joke. I have no readers ... aside from my big bro, who sends me emails to let me know when I've let loose a typo. If I did have readers, though, they could look down and see yet another list of the latest writing advice and publishing- and book-related news that I have graciously harvested from the vines of Internet and served up on a digital platter for your consumption. Where's my thank you? Where's my REWARD? WHERE'S MY GOD-DAMNED PARADE?

But I digress. Please, please, please check out the following cache of news you writers, publishers, and book lovers can use from this week. Help me spread the word about this. Tell a friend! And, of course, if you're aware of a piece of news from this week that should be here but isn't, drop me a line and tell me, tell me, tell me.

 Until next time ....

 

 WRITING ADVICE:

Catherine Lloyd on Writing Historical Characters with Progressive Views

Tom Perrotta on How to Keep a Story's Momentum Going

Tips for Handling Pacing in a Thriller Novel

Either/Both: Considering Literature's Pervasive Motherhood/Creativity Divide

Sometimes You Have to Get Lost to Find What You Really Need to Write

Utilizing Your Personal and Emotional Journey as a Catalyst in Your Writing (From Script)

Tom Perrotta on How to Keep a Story's Momentum Going

10 Asian American writers on the best (and worst) advice they've ever received.

9 Ways To Insert Your Own Voice and Style Into Research-Based Nonfiction Writing


THE BUSINESS:

How James Patterson Became the World’s Best-Selling Author

TikTok Users Are Showing Readers How To Game Amazon’s Ebook Return Policy

Netflix for Book Discovery and Other Problems

Why this book startup is taking a page from Glossier and Allbirds


MISC:

Fiona Barton: On Catching Someone in a Lie

All Tomorrow's Fables: How Do We Write About This Vanishing World?

Why Writing an Autobiography Is More Like Recording an Album Than Making a Single

 

Weekly News Round-Up (June 10, 2022)

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside ...."

 

Okay, there's nothing to come inside of ... I was just in an E.L.P. kind of a mood. What I do have to offer, though, is another batch of writing-, publishing-, and book-related news items for you to dig into, chew on, mull over, and perhaps think about as we roll on down this path. 

 

As usual, if you're aware of any news items that I don't have in this list but should, lemme know. Until next time, enjoy -- and keep writing, publishing, reading, or doing whatever it is you do.

 

"There behind the glass is a real blade of grass. Be careful as you pass. Move along, move along...." 

 

WRITING ADVICE:

 

Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Worrying About Format
 

How to Write a Memoir About Personal Catastrophe Without Sounding Pitiful

 

Why I Make Rules for My Writing Students—And Why I Break Them

Why Writers Need to Confront and Create With Their Most Unpleasant Emotions

When Writing a Novel, Forget the How and Focus on the What

A Different Angle: How To Revisit a Painful Past Without Re-Triggering Your Present

 

Clare Pooley: On the Power of Limitations

 

 

THE BUSINESS:

 

How To Get Your Self-Published Book Into Libraries With Eric Otis Simmons
 

New bookstore owners discover secret room and under the shop with tunnel down the street

 

 

MISC: 

18 of Our Favorite Books About the Craft of Writing

Writers Shouldn't Talk

11 Novels That Thwart Traditional Narrative Structure (to Brilliant Effect)

Messing With All of It: Poets Rodrigo Toscano and Sandra Simonds Talk Politics, Poetics, Work, and Class

Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 612

Weekly News Round-Up (June 3, 2022)

Hello and welcome to your weekly heavy metal history lesson! No, wait ... that's the intro for the show Bloody Roots on Sirius XM channel 40 (Liquid Metal). Sorry. This is your weekly news round-up of articles and op-eds pertaining to writing, books, the book business, publishing, and whatever other book- or writing-related info I feel like tucking in there. 

As noted in previous posts, the aim here is to give writers and independent publishers and book-lovers (or all of the above) the info they need on the things they love. And as also noted in previous posts, if you're aware of a book or publishing or writing-related news item from the past week that's not in the list below, send it my way!

WRITING ADVICE:

Madeline Kay Sneed: On Being Open to Constructive Feedback

Shop Talk: Lisa Unger on Waking Up Early, Carving Out Time, and Writing Longhand in the Target Parking Lot

David Yoon on How to Cultivate Creative Endurance

How to write like Edgar Allan Poe

Richard O’Rawe: On Enjoying the Writing Process

Sarah Sentilles on Writing about People You Know


THE BUSINESS:

How Amazon surrendered its war on bookshops

When Barbara Pym Couldn’t Get Published


MISC:

“Deciding to Put My Writing Out There Has Changed My Life.” A Conversation with Jillian Luft

Wallace Stegner and the Trap of Using Other People’s Writing

The Paris Review - Writing Is a Monstrous Act: A Conversation with Hernan Diaz