Entries Tagged 'AWM' ↓

Speakeasy is very excited to be part of the Queensland Writers Centre blog tour. I am currently away at the Hachette manuscript development retreat, immersed in all things writerly, so the timing is perfect…

QWC: Where do your words come from?

There is a part of my brain that I can’t consciously reach (but which alcohol targets like a guided missile – so I don’t drink) where the magic word potion is brewed. It’s fueled by reading, observation, and play.

QWC: Where did you grow up and where do you live now?

I am a total Brisbaniac. I also spent a large portion of my teenage years on the Cold Ghoast, where my fair-skinned and curvacious brunette form was much under-appreciated.

I like to live where tee shirts are emblazened with political slogans rather than advertising ones.

I know more than anyone should about the lived consequences of white-shoe business dealings across the Great South-Beast. In my stories, I like to take revenge for residents of cultural deserts with poorly planned infrastructure. But then, I also have a thing for Monster Trucks, so what do I know?

QWC: What’s the first sentence/line of your latest work?

‘All boobs and bones.’

QWC: What piece of writing do you wish you had written?

My next book already.

QWC: What are you currently working towards?

I am taking full advantage of the critical feedback from the lovely people at Hachette, as well as the intelligent encouragement of Bec Sparrow, and writing my patootie off up here with the gang of eight at the O’Reilly’s retreat. I plan to have completed a second draft of my humourous crime novel within two months. Then I’ll continue with my next project (refer above).

QWC: Complete this sentence: The future of the book is…

… giving me lots of interesting ideas.  Marieke Hardy’s serialised Mbook is an exciting poject to watch unfold. The capacity for digitally enriched content and online community engagement is a rich creative wellspring!

This post is part of the Queensland Writers Centre blog tour, happening October to December 2009. To follow the tour, visit Queensland Writers Centre’s blog The Empty Page

The brand spankin’ new edition of The Australian Writer’s Marketplace  was launched on Saturday at Melbourne Writers Festival! Hooray!

John Marsden was our wonderful, much-appreciated guest speaker, and he gave a great talk on how to be a working writer in Australia. The crowd was way bigger than expected – about 70 people turned up – which was awesome. It was great to have so many people there, although I wish we’d expected it, cause we could have catered accordingly (so sorry, if you missed out on the canapes). 

Now that it’s been released, you should be able to purchase the book from any good bookstore (they’ll be able to order you a copy if they don’t have it on hand), or you can buy one from your local writers centre.

Well, we’ve finally done it. The data for the tenth edition of The Australian Writer’s Marketplace has just gone to the printers. And not a moment too soon; if there had been one more listing we had to update, we probably would have given up and cried into our Weet-bix. Or beer, depending on the time of day.

It’s a tough job, really. Well, no, not tough. But it’s a little odd phoning up Animals Australia Australian Sporting Shooter one after the other. Or calling Australian Parenting, and then Australian Penthouse. And of course, your boss always looks over just as you’ve Googled Australian Hustler, trying to find their phone number…

But we’re done. Now it all goes to the typesetter, then we get copies to proof and send back again. There’s indexing, layout changes, inserting the advertising. Once, at the eleventh hour, we realised a listing had somehow been duplicated; deleting it meant every page after it changed. I think our poor typesetter nearly had a nervous breakdown that day. Finally, everything goes to the printers, gets bound up in a sexy cover, the AWM staff have a celebratory beer, and it’s all over for another couple of years.

We haven’t made too many changes to this edition, other than the usual updates to somewhere between 50-70% of listings. The cover’s a little different, and we’re mixing the New Zealand/International listings in with everything else (don’t worry, they’ll be indexed). Good news; there seem to be more paying magazine markets than ever. And our sexy new cover certainly is sexy. You saw it here first!

Just a quick note to let you all know that we’ve started updating the database for the upcoming print edition of The Australian Writer’s Marketplace, so updates on the blog might be a little slow. Or nonexistent.

But it’s all in a good cause – this will be the 10th edition of the hardcopy, and we’ve already got a really sexy cover design (I know that’s not the most important part of publishing a book, but come on. This is virtually a phone directory; a hot cover helps.)

So we haven’t abandoned you; we’re just busy phoning up the 2,400-and-something listings we have in our database, and asking them if we have the right phone numbers. And if you have a listing, or know anyone who has a listing, please get them to update it. Or call me, and I’ll do it for them. One less phone call, a little less RSI…