Weekly News Round-Up (July 22, 2022)

 Friday, July 22. It was warm in Laurellia. I was working the Underpublished blog in the creative division. My partner's Allen. The boss is the creative impulse, the urge to put things on paper or on the Internet. My name's Joe3.

It was 9:34 when I uploaded the latest batch of writing-, publishing-, and book-related news into the Blogger content management system interface and got ready to hit publish. As I did every week, I hoped that somewhere out there, someone besides me would find this stuff useful and interesting. It continued to be a tough slog, but I'm a glutton for punishment.

WRITING ADVICE:

“I Did Not Get Anywhere Until I Became a True Literary Citizen.” Courtney Maum on Making a Writing Career

Jennifer Chiaverini: On Sharing Nearly Forgotten Moments in History

What Is The Difference Between Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller Novels?

Danielle Jackson: On Characters Taking Control of the Story

Verlyn Klinkenborg on Writing More Clearly

THE BUSINESS: 

Publishers Want To Test Seller-Defined Audiences, But Buyers Aren't Interested While Third-Party Cookies Are Still In Play

Amazon Self-Publishers Eye Emerging Legal Arena to Fight Piracy

DAW Books Acquired By Astra Publishing House

How Crypto Is Evolving the Future of Books and Publishing

Independent publisher gives short stories their due with 'Storybook ND' series

MISC:

Past Lives of the Paragraph: The backstory on why it is so hard to say what exactly defines and governs this curious convention

How Many Words Did Shakespeare Invent?

The Politics of Craft: Charles Baxter on How His Essays on Writing Respond to a Changing World

Can poetry possibly matter in a time like this? Harvard’s Tracy K. Smith knows the answer.

Weekly News Round-Up (July 16, 2022)

Where does the time go? Next to "What's for dinner?" this has to be one of the most-asked questions in the world.

One minute, it's Friday. The work day is over, and my thoughts turn to kicking back and doing what I want to do for a change. Next thing I know, dinner's over, I've watched a few episodes of my favorite British detective show, and it's time to go to bed. Then Saturday arrives, but it's not any easier. After a few cups of coffee, it's time to shower, dress, and then scoot off to pick up your daughter from the cap she's been attending for the past week. Then it's out for a late breakfast/lunch downtown, going back home to clean up the house, and a few drinks with friends. Next it's dinner and another detective show and then, boom, it's Sunday. More coffee, a quick breakfast, and then it's out to mow the lawn before the thunderstorms roll in at 3 pm. Where does the time go?

Of course, all of this is just an excuse to say that, once again, I'm late with this week's round-up of writing-, publishing-, and book-related news. Of course, since I still have no readers, I guess it really doesn't matter. 

Enjoy this week's haul, and if do happen to stumble across this site and you enjoy it, please tell your friends. You're the best!

 

WRITING ADVICE:

A Beginner's Guide to Using (and Exploding) Horror Tropes

What Makes Autobiographical Writing Good?

Alice Elliott Dark on How to Let Characters Change

How to Get Started in Food Writing

7 Tips for Writing Novels People Want To Read


THE BIZNEZZ:

How Colleen Hoover Became The Queen of BookTok

Publishing Gets the Reality Show Treatment with 'America's Next Great Author'

Writer's Digest's Best Publishing News and Resource Websites 2022
 

MISC:

Library shares the random stuff they find in their books

Repeat After Me: “I Am Not the Great American Novelist.”

Apparently, those who read literary fiction—but not other kinds—have a more “complex worldview.”

Simon Toyne: On Loving What You’re Writing From the Beginning
 

Weekly News Round-Up (July 8, 2022)

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, no, it wasn't. It was an early morning hot on the heels of a late night full of sleepus-interruptus. 

For reasons I don't quite recall, I stayed up until 12:15 am on Thursday evening/Friday morning, and was then wakened by the sound of my wife barfing her guts out at 1:30 am. I was gonna ride it out, but our puppy (who was downstairs in his crate) heard my wife moving around and started barking his head off. Figuring there wouldn't be any peace until the dog quieted down, I went downstairs pillow-in-hand to sleep on the couch near his crate. That stopped his barking ... until around 5 am, when he and the other dogs have breakfast. 

Assuming my wife has an even worse night of sleep than I did, I got up to take care of the dogs and then stayed up -- until about 9 pm Friday when I crashed out. That's why this issue of The Underpublished's Weekly News Round-up is a day late, but since I really have no readers, it probably doesn't matter that much.

So here it is, your weekly news round-up of the latest writing-, publishing-, and book-related news that found its way in front of my eyeballs over the past seven days. I hope you enjoy it and, please, get some sleep.

 

Writing Advice:

Choosing Which Movements To Put in Your Fight Scene

5 Research Tips for Writing Historical Fiction

Writing Advice from Rachel Yoder: Take a Break, Hug a Tree

Shop Talk: James Kestrel on Writing Novels During Lunch in Quiet Honolulu Bars

Sopan Deb on Taking Writing Lessons from Improv


The Biznezz:

How to choose your book-publishing path

How TikTok helped "We were liars" and "The Atlas Six" become bestsellers


Misc:

In One of Her Last Interviews, Joan Didion Talks to Hari Kunzru About Loss, Blue Nights, and Giving Up the Yellow Corvette

How Much Time and Money Does it Take to Maintain a Little Free Library?

Sunday Reading: Writers at Work

The Paris Review - Why Write?

Is it possible to be a mother and pursue a creative life? Yes, but it is never easy

Weekly News Round-Up (July 1, 2022)

Hidey-ho Race Fans, and welcome to another installment of writing-, publishing-, and book-related news and information from your friends (or friend) at the Butter Lamb Reference Library and Alternative Incite magazine.

As in installments past, I've rounded up another informative, intriguing, and engaging collection of news items, op-eds, and other fare penned to tickle, inform, and entertain your writing bone. I've been at this for a few months now, but I feel like batch of words is a particularly good one. (The last item about "Why I'm Not a Writer" is a particular gem.) But beyond that, it has occurred to me that, as the weeks go by, I'm building an impressive archive of writing-, publishing- and book-related news and resources for all of us to learn and benefit from. If you agree tell your friends!

Word-up.

WRITING ADVICE:

How to Write a Memoir About Family Tragedy (That People Want to Read)

Clare Pooley on Writerly Perseverance and Knowing When To Give Up

On “Creative Cross-Training.” How Bartending Helped Me Write My Novel

Jason Mott on the Power of Routine, and Tackling Writer's Block by Writing Badly

Writing Resources

 

THE BUSINESS:

Why I Write: My Book Came Out and Nothing Happened

Writing a Book? Start Amplifying Your Personal Brand Now

[Sort of related to the previous item]

Nine Top Tips for Writing High-Quality Social Media Posts

One publisher called my book repellent’: the first self-published author up for the Miles Franklin

Interview with an Indie Press: Seagull Books

Self-publishing trend surges amid pandemic demand for new literature

The Top 5 Strategies for Promoting a Book on Social Media [Infographic]

Gen Y Speaks: I've spent large sums to self-publish 2 books. Though only a handful have been sold, I'm not giving up

Amazon's e-book return policy comes under criticism from authors


MISC:

Baxter Black, Who Elevated Cowboy Poetry to Folk Art, Dies at 77

“Warnings Imply You Have a Choice.” Rebecca Solnit in Conversation with Margaret Atwood

When a Novel Re-imagines a Nation

Does Artificial Intelligence Really Have the Potential to Create Transformative Art?

The lost art of letter writing needs a revival

Why writing by hand needs to be revived

Why I Am Not a Writer