The Hack Report - all the writing news

Author Victoria Hislop has turned down an offer of £300,000 from an American film studio for the rights to adapt her debut novel, The Island into a major movie. The book about a leper colony off Crete is making waves and the author has accepted a much smaller fee from a Greek television network to turn the book into a TV mini-series. The author said she was worried the Hollywood machine would ruin her story.

Now is the time to pitch winter based ideas for stories/articles to magazines - to allow for magazine lead in times it is always best to pitch ideas three or four months in advance so now is the time to be thinking of Halloween, Christmas, Bonfire Night, Winter and so on.

China Mieville has won the British Science Fiction Association's Arthur C Clarke Award for best novel with The City and the City. This is a record breaker as it's the third time the author has won the award.

eBooks now represent five per cent of total book sales in the UK - Figures released by The Publishers' Association report a 27% increase in digital book sales since 2007. Some £150m of eBooks were sold last year alone.

PARK AND READ - Norwich Council are turning some of their park and ride buses into mobile libraries. People who use the park-and-ride service will find a range of books available on the buses for borrowing while you travel into the city centre. Park and Read, indeed.

The Irish Writers' Centre are delighted to announce that they have received a new grant from the Arts Council Ireland under their Touring and Dissemination scheme. The grant of €27,000 will enable a programme of readings.