Issue 51 - University of Surrey's Student Union

20 LITERATUREThe Stag | Wednesday 14 th November 2012literature@thestagsurrey.co.ukCould a forgotten manuscriptbe your ticket to wealth?By Sophie Vickery, Literature TeamRejection, criticism, disregard;common outcomes for thenaive writer seeking publication, toresult in disappointment, dejectionand through self-destruction.There are those writers who showthat a successful title can earnmillions. J.K. Rowling’s earningsequated to £5 a second and lastyear Patterson’s thrillers earneda healthy $84 million, yet it is acommon acknowledgment that onlya minuscule number of submittedmanuscripts actually make it to thebookshelves. Unfortunately, thisdiscourages many talented writers inpursuing a writing career; howeverthere may be some hope for thosehoping to turn words to pound signs,thanks to the e-book.At the Kindle UK store thereare around 650,000 titles for sale,with another one million free titlesavailable to wide audiences using theKindle, PC, Mac, iPhone and manyAndroid devices. With adherenceto simple e-book characteristics,publication can soon be embraced.It’s wise to adopt a crime, thriller,fantastical or romantic genre, witha captivating description to attractreaders in just 4000 characters.Yet no matter how thrilling orentertaining a book is, there arestill processes required to increaseprofits, but the e-book makes thesemuch more accessible than thosewithin a competitive paperbackworld . Amazon offers two royalties;70% of the cover price if the booksells between £1.49 and £6.99, and35% for titles priced at 75p. Therefore,it’s advisable to price titles as lowas possible, often below a £1. Onceon sale, promotion is key. But thisdoesn’t mean hiring marketingconsultants or purchasing expensiveadvertisements. Social networkingsites and blogging enable easy selfpromotion,while specific magazinesor websites are often looking to spotnew releases, promising excitementand thrill.There are now an estimated700,000 authors e-publishingworldwide. For many buddingwriters this means a greateroptimism in unfinished manuscriptsas the e-book offers a simpler wayto writing success, without thedaunting prospect of bookshelfrejection.Children’s spelling hits all-time lowBy Emily Smart, Literature EditorOxford University Press (OUP) has recentlyengaged in research to discover new waysto help children spell correctly. The researchfollowed the introduction of new spelling tests,conducted by the Government, which found thatsurprisingly many children aged seven to thirteenwere unable to spell common words such as “until”and “differently.” Whereas, in an analysis of morethan 33 million words written by students of thesame age group, unusual words like “denarius,” (aRoman silver coin) and “cerulean”, (a term for awide range of colours), were spelt correctly nearlyevery time.Although the latter is highly impressive, onemight question whether a generation, brought upin a society abundant in technological, need tolearn how to spell when they have spell checker ata click of a computer mouse. However, as always,technology has to fail in some way. It has beenrevealed by the OUP that “children still needspelling support in spite of spell checkers” as ITequipment is unable to pick up on slight mistakessuch as “their/there/they’re”.Pleasingly, children still desire to learn tospell in order to enhance their writing. This isextremely promising and many also have aninterest in reading, which will enable them toimprove spelling further. Meanwhile, authorssuch as Tolkien and Rowling have brought anexciting change to literature which will hopefullymotivate those destined to write and produce thenext literate generation.The Screwtape Letters by C.S.LewisC.S Lewis’ The Screwtape LettersBy Alice Lincoln, Literature TeamC.S.Lewis, though best known for his children’sbooks (especially The Chronicles of Narnia),was also an ardent Christian.This is seen in the character of Aslanthroughout the Narnia Chronicles, particularlywhen Aslan dies on the stone table and isresurrected; his cry of “Ever on, ever up!” alsosupports the reading of Aslan as a Jesus-likefigure.C.S.Lewis also wrote adult books in which hisChristianity is far more apparent; for instance,The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ.However, a short story of his (of which Iwould recommend to adults), Christian or not,is The Screwtape Letters. This book is availablefree online and is written as a series of missivessent by a senior devil to a junior one, detailinghow he should aid a corrupt human.Though it is strongly Christian, its humouris spot on. If anyone reading this article cannotpicture the M25 as having been created by thedevil, what are you doing at university?!?It’s a great read – short, and well worth thetime.Nanowrimo, GO!By Tessa Heenan, Literature TeamNo, it’s not a pokemon; it’sNational Novel Writing Month!It is often thought that everyonehas a novel inside them and now isthe time to let your inner-authorfree.Nanowrimo is a month longwriting project, encouragingparticipants into ‘literary abandon’over the 30 days of November. Theaim is to write 50,000 words (a 175page novel) before December begins.Even if you’re a bit late to start, itdoesn’t matter, you can still submityour novel at the end of the month.Last year over 200,000 peoplerose to the challenge and just over36,000 beat the 50k target; earningofficial verification of their noveland a beautiful winner’s certificate.Participants can sign up online atnanowrimo.org and receive benefitsincluding word count scoreboardsand pep talks from authors such asNick Hornby.Alternatively, you can take partunofficially or race your friends.There are no rules regarding content,although repeating the same wordover and over is obviously prohibited.So if you’re lacking in facial hairfor Movember, why not try your handat writing instead? Go forth, reader!Write your magnum-opus.