A collection of essays from today’s most acclaimed authors—from Cheryl Strayed to Roxane Gay to Jennifer Weiner, Alexander Chee, Nick Hornby, and Jonathan Franzen—on the realities of making a living in the writing world. In the literary world, the debate around writing and commerce often begs us to take sides: either writers should be paid for everything they do or writers should just pay their dues and count themselves lucky to be published. You should never quit your day job, but your ultimate goal should be to quit your day job. It’s an endless, confusing, and often controversial conversation that, despite our bare-it-all culture, still remains taboo. In Scratch, Manjula Martin has gathered interviews and essays from established and rising authors to confront the age-old question: how do creative people make money? As contributors including Jonathan Franzen, Cheryl Strayed, Roxane Gay, Nick Hornby, Susan Orlean, Alexander Chee, Daniel Jose Older, Jennifer Weiner, and Yiyun Li candidly and emotionally discuss money, MFA programs, teaching fellowships, finally getting published, and what success really means to them, Scratch honestly addresses the tensions between writing and money, work and life, literature and commerce. The result is an entertaining and inspiring book that helps readers and writers understand what it’s really like to make art in a world that runs on money—and why it matters. Essential reading for aspiring and experienced writers, and for anyone interested in the future of literature, Scratch is the perfect bookshelf companion to On Writing, Never Can Say Goodbye, and MFA vs. NYC.

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

"I had a real romance with this book." —Miranda July A highly anticipated collection, from the writer Maggie Nelson has called, “bracingly good...refreshing and welcome,” that explores the myriad ways in which desire and commodification intersect. From graffiti gangs and Grand Theft Auto to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, in these essays, Chelsea Hodson probes her own desires to examine where the physical and the proprietary collide. She asks what our privacy, our intimacy, and our own bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing. Starting with Hodson’s own work experience, which ranges from the mundane to the bizarre—including modeling and working on a NASA Mars mission— Hodson expands outward, looking at the ways in which the human will submits, whether in the marketplace or in a relationship. Both tender and jarring, this collection is relevant to anyone who’s ever searched for what the self is worth. Hodson’s accumulation within each piece is purposeful, and her prose vivid, clear, and sometimes even shocking, as she explores the wonderful and strange forms of desire. Tonight I'm Someone Else is a fresh, poetic debut from an exciting emerging voice, in which Hodson asks, “How much can a body endure?” And the resounding answer: "Almost everything."

Meet Nigel: digger of latrines, shoveler of poop, and the single greatest threat to all the humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings of Esteria. Desperate to escape from military school and return to his carefree life as the village no-goodnik, Nigel sees the king's declaration of war on the gorks as the perfect opportunity to flee, since he's pretty sure his latrine-digging skills aren't going to do much good on the front line. But his escape efforts have a habit of backfiring, and by the time he and his arch-frenemy are banished from the kingdom and sent on an impossible quest for a (probably bogus) magical artifact, the humans of Amerigorn find themselves longing for the good old days when they were merely being annihilated by Lord Smoron. The Dragon Squisher is a fantasy novel for teens that spoofs the tropes of the genre and will appeal to teens, young adults, and adults who love the humor of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. If this is the kind of book you've been searching for--and who hasn't?--look no further than Book One of the Nigel Chronicles: The Dragon Squisher. Funnier than Lord of the Rings! Shorter than Harry Potter! This coming of age fantasy novel is an epic fantasy treat for all fans of humorous fantasy.

Not loaded with theory, Skip's invaluable book contains concise, easily understood and applied advice for both writing and marketing any kind of book, article, story, play, screen-play, report, proposal or anything else you can think of.How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write is for every writer or wannabe who needs to sort out his or her desires, capabilities and strengths and, even more importantly, learn the particular formats for the kind of writing in which he or she is interested.

THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER What can you change today, and not put off until tomorrow? Dr Alex is on a mission to empower us to make our own health choices, take positive control and feel equipped and inspired to make those small changes today that energise and future-proof for life. 'Health and happiness come from the cumulative effects of many small and positive daily changes to our lifestyle. It's about building sustainable and healthy habits - taking small and purposeful steps to a healthy future. By the end of the book, I hope my readers have developed their own "bespoke health toolkit" to be used across every aspect of their lives, and to make long-lasting and meaningful change.' What you do consistently has a direct impact on your day-to-day health, your immune system, your mental health, your metabolism, your bone density, your heart health, your blood pressure, your energy levels and how you fight disease generally. Your lifestyle is often your body's biggest support system and the more robust you can make that the more you can rely on it to get you through every day. Think of it like your life insurance policy. Live Well Every Day addresses the very modern health challenges of today's world - anxiety; social pressure and mental health; immune system health; how to be fit, flexible and eat well in a sedentary world; sexual health; gut health and more... Get the facts, pick your goals and take action with Dr Alex. Small changes. Big results.

This text teaches freelance writers how to break into previously attainable markets by eschewing the old way of doing things. It explains that freelancers can negotiate for more money and better terms, without risking their careers.

Living in Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo only to be near his lover, an idealistic journalist, novelist James Gillespie becomes caught up in the terror, violence, and corruption that marks that country's slide into civil war in the early 1960s. Reprint.

After an earthquake destroys California and a tsunami wrecks the luxury cruise ship where he is a summer employee, high schooler Shy confronts another deadly surprise.

Before Ralph Ellison became one of America’s greatest writers, he was a musician and a student of jazz, writing widely on his favorite music for more than fifty years. Now, jazz authority Robert O’Meally has collected the very best of Ellison’s inspired, exuberant jazz writings in this unique anthology.