Whats been happening in the writing world recently...

Fifi Colston at www.fificolston.blogspot.com mentioned the YA manuscript competition Text Publishing in Australia are running, closing date 31 July with $10,000 prize money (www.textpublishing.com.au/ ). Of course I'm only 10,000 words into my YA novel and there's no way I could finish that in time to send it off. Drat and double drat. I keep telling myself that even if I could write that fast I wouldn't be sending in a terribly polished version which would do the story a disservice. I do wish I could write faster though. There are so many things I want to work on but I can only really concentrate on one thing at a time unless the other thing is short like a picture book or short story but i haven't had any of those kinds of ideas recently. I guess i just have to work with wot i got.

Justine Larbalestier has a nice little comment about rejection in her blog today in response to a commenter not yet brave enough to submit her own material anywhere. Justine says:

'Rejection is a huge part of this business whether you’re published or not. I know some people say that if you’re neurotic about rejection you shouldn’t try to get published. But I can’t think of a single writer I know who isn’t neurotic about it. Obviously, some more than others, but we all feel the sting of rejection. We all fear it.'

I agree. Nobody likes rejection. Its just a part of the job you have to somehow cope with. But the desire for publication outweighs the fear because no matter how many rejections we get we keep sending our writing out.

Justine has also been blogging about the proposal for parallel importing of books into Australia which poses a threat to the local publishing industry there. I wish i could explain it better. If you want to read more about it you'll need to check out Justine's blog because its a complex issue i don't know enough about. Its scary though as I wonder can/does it happen here in NZ and could we cope with any more threats to our already hard pressed industry.

At least booksellers here are doing okay right now with the Paper Plus chain investing in upgrading their stores and Dymocks opening some new shops, including one in my neighbourhood. Both companies say business is good and are happy to be investing for the long term. Yay. I'll be checking out that they stock my books.