Writing and Publishing News

All About Love is a web-based publishing venture. The site will be launched on Valentine’s Day 2008 and will include the best the world has to offer, with a specialist interest in works with an African flavour

On Facebook? Then check out on the Facebook Review. The magazine aims to provide an accessible new platform for writers while allowing other members to instantly comment upon and share the work. Available, only on Facebook.

Some websites you may find of interest: www.librarything.com, http://wow.womenonwriting.com, www.onelook.com (this combines a dictionary search, word history, translation, pronounciation and spell-check capabilities all in one site). Also, www.thecraftywriter.com.

Radio stations for writers: www.shortstoryradio.com, www.oneword.co.uk and www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/

Self-published or published traditionally? Find out how Google can help you sell your books. Or not, depending on whose side of the argument you're on.

Put your work in front of a US Christian publisher. Visit www.faithinfiction.blogspot.com

Think all those books were actually written by 'celebrity' preachers? Think again

Your chance to put your book in front of Richard and Judy. Seems like they've opened a literary agency. Find out more.

An exciting new website, Shortbread, is about to be launched from which users can download short stories in audio form. Writers will submit their stories in written form (2000-4000 words) which then, after a selection process, will pass to a professional recording studio where they will be edited, narrated and recorded as audio files. They will then be sold as downloads from the website and the author of each story will receive a royalty from every download. Well-known authors such Alexander McCall Smith, Isla Dewar and Jamie Jauncey have warmly welcomed the inception of Shortbread and have agreed to contribute. If you wish to submit a short story, you can either do so by email to submit@shortbreadstories.com

A new BBC Website has been launched to celebrate the literature, cinema and other Arts in Africa and the Diaspora. The website will be a hub for information, discussion and exploration of African arts, beyond the geographical borders of the continent, and beyond any preconceptions about Africa and its culture. Find out more at www.bbc.co.uk/africabeyond

Publish with Hodder! Hodder will also be integrating its Religious Publishing division more closely with the General Publishing so that its lists would “benefit from a more coherent trade focus.” In other words, Christian books will not be banished to the specialist section of bookshops anymore. Good news!

http://www.thefridayproject.co.uk/ Bridging the link between technology and writing. Don’t quite know what to make of this site but it looks interesting.

http://www.macmillannewwriting.com Put your manuscript before a traditional publisher without an agent! Send off your masterpiece to Macmillan directly!

http://www.between-the-lines.org.uk/ Have a look at this site. I know the owner quite well. He has been known to send manuscripts to Christian publishers and he knows people.

Women. Have you checked out Woman Alive's (www.womanalive.co.uk) book club yet? I think it's one of their most exciting initiatives yet. Check it out and let them know what you think!

Christian Writer says goodbye to a much-loved friend and supporter Erina Khanakwa-Harrison. Intrepid Erina will travel around the world for 1 year collecting stories and generally being a nuisance to anyone who will listen. She will also research her family’s history in Uganda. Follow her travels in www.resedagboken.se. Look out for EN for the English version of the site. Her username is buttercup.

http://www.ebible.com/ Now why didn’t I think of this before?

I’m updating the Christian Writer links page. If your favourite writing links are not there, do let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Abidemi Sanusi, 15/09/2006