I've never seen this in the industry before
& Spring into action: The Bath Novel awards, News Rewired conference, Learn to pitch as a freelance, Words by the Water festival & International Women's Day
My dear wordsmiths,
Just a reminder to please share and subscribe! I hate asking but it’s appreciated.
Short and sweet this week as I’m off on a posh girls weekend to the glorious north east ahead of my birthday ( I’m taking books, obviously) but first I’m off to the theatre to see Ghost Story. I’ve felt like I’ve been in hiding recently so it’s great to be getting out and about. I’ll report back from both. There’s a little hint of spring in the air - it’s beautiful if muddy here in the Lancashire countryside - and you do feel more hopeful somehow in the spring with the snowdrops popping up as pictured. It’s even sunny today, miraculously.
Before those little treats, however, I’m in work mode and off to the Convention of the north tomorrow to listen and discuss the ‘shared agenda for the future of the north’. Should be interesting. Say hello if you are there (which seems unlikely but you never know).
Pink Link Ladies - International Women’s Day
For the second year running I’ve kindly been invited to speak at this event to celebrate International Women’s Day at the Hogwarts-esque Leighton Hall in North Lancashire. Always an honour to be asked and hopefully I’ll be of some use to the incredible business women who gather to network and talk - I’ll be talking media and podcast. Many other experts in their field will be there for talks and workshops. I’m predicting cake. I’ve linked all the event details in the headline if you would like to get involved. Friday 7 March 2025, 9.30am to 4.30pm at Leighton Hall, Carnforth, Lancashire
It’s been an interesting week in journalism as for the first time ever the news stands and many online news brands all resonated with the same logo and headline ‘Make it fair’. It’s not unheard of for rival media to work together on campaigns for impact but this was a little different as national and local media worked with other creative industries to battle a very real threat. This includes authors - who could see their work scraped and stolen with the rest of us.
Although I no longer work in print ( I spent 20 years in newspapers including as a daily title editor and now lead digital brands), it was quite an astonishing sight to see the news stands colour-drenched with wraps on all the newspapers. I’ve never seen this before! This is just a selection of some of the National World brands.. (I work for National World) but most of national newspapers carried it too.
‘Tech companies are using creative content - from news to books to music to film - to train their generative AI models. We think doing so without proper controls, transparency or fair payment is unfair and threatens livelihoods. Tech giants should not profit from stolen content. We are calling on the Government to make sure creatives are rewarded properly.’
#makeitfair
News, opportunities and events
Books and writing
The Bath Novel Award is a £5,000 international prize for adult and YA manuscripts in every genre. The prize is open to unagented writers, who are unpublished, self-published or independently published without advance. We welcome writers of every age, gender, nationality and residency. Recipients include Abi Daré for the manuscript of international bestseller The Girl with the Louding Voice, new James Bond author Kim Sherwood for the manuscript of Testament and AP Firdaus for BBC Between the Covers pick Remember, Mr Sharma. The Bath Novel Award 2025 entry fee is £29.99 per novel, with sponsored places available for writers on a low income. Closes 31 May.
Words by the Water, in collaboration with Bookends, returns to Theatre by the Lake this March with a glittering line-up this year with a huge variety of speakers and expanded programme. Festival favourite James Rebanks will explore what it means to have roots in the land, the much anticipated new book by climate activist Mike Berners-Lee will be explored in the festival and Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, will deliver readings of both his published work and new poems. Writer and broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles will discuss his latest murder mystery in the festival finale.
Popular North-Eastern crime fiction queens, Ann Cleeves and L.J.Ross will both be at the festival and this year's Booker long-listed Sarah Perry will be interviewed by Cumbrian novelist Sarah Hall.
Journalism
Join the Journalism.co.uk team for its 33rd flagship journalism conference, covering topics like sustainable business models, practical uses of AI in the newsroom, SEO in the age of AI, monetising newsletters, B2B publishing, managing and retaining talent, and innovative ways to create audience revenue. May 22 in London, UK
Women in journalism: How to pitch arts and culture stories to national newspapers
Donna Ferguson, a multiple award-winning journalist for The Guardian and The Observer and a committee member of Women in Journalism, will be hosting masterclasses which aim to empower as many of you as possible to make a huge success of your freelance careers. From £7.50
Thanks for reading! N
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