A new publishing company thinks it might have found a way to encourage the next generation of novel writers to ditch the day jobs and start generating book-based content. It’s offering paid author jobs that put writers on a salary of around £2,000 a month, then sees what happens. Come on then, 100,000 words that make sense. By December.
The idea is that through a tough selection process publishing startup De Montfort Literature will pick out people who might make good writers but don’t have the time as they’re busy doing normal human jobs, then give them a salary and set them free to massively procrastinate on Twitter all day or, maybe, actually write a whole, entire book. The application FAQ says there will be a “psychometric test” to complete as part of the application and screening process, though. So I’m out. You’re stuck with me until management starts paying attention.
Fund manager and author Jonathan De Montfort is putting the money into the project – and using it to publish and promote his own debut novel – and said: “Securing a literary agent is a complete lottery, while self-publishing is costly and time consuming. De Montfort Literature is a totally new model and will be a game changer for the fiction industry. Our goal is to produce more great literature by creating an environment in which authors can learn and develop.”
Leave a Reply