January 2006
The website for writers
News Review
- News Review reports on UK authors, agents and publishers working together on digitisation. ‘We’re going to have to change our perceptions of time and timeliness if we are to succeed in helping our authors reach out to readers electronically as well as in print – and the authors will need to work with us to achieve this.’ Richard Charkin.
- News Review has taken the unusual step of reporting on the same story two weeks running because it appears that the general conclusion we reached last week was wrong, but concludes by asking: 'What price truth over celebrity?'
- 'The astonishing story of James Frey seems like a fable for our times... "it's hard to know which is worse: a writer who acts as though there is no distinction between a novel and a memoir, or a publisher who does not care"' News Review looks at objective truth versus ‘emotional truth’.
- 'The trial of the distinguished Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk has raised fundamental issues relating to writers’ freedom of speech in a frightening instance of nationalism run riot and embodied in law.' News Review investigates
- News Review looks at 2005 and the prospects for 2006: 'in the UK this will by then (2020) give us more authors than nurses, soldiers and miners combined. For writers the future really is going to look very different from the past.'
Comment
- ‘It's been a hard slog... You can have a bestseller after a year or 50 years - but by then it's too late.' Pete Ayrton of Serpent's Tail on setting up a small publishing house, in the Bookseller
- ‘I think book retailing passed a tipping point this Christmas, from ‘competitive’ to ‘ludicrous’ pricing. That tipping point was when bestsellers were sold at less than half price. Nigel Jones of Ottakar’s in Publishing News
- 'This private secret space, this hidden empire that opens out between the book and yourself, is precious.' Philip Pullman on children and reading
- 'Stories go back as far as humankind, for the good reason that the world is incomprehensible without them. By establishing relationships between things, a story permits meaning and memory.' Simon Caulkin, writing in the Observer
Writers' Quote
- 'If a publisher declines your manuscript, remember it is merely
the decision of one fallible human being, and try another.'
Sir Stanley Unwin
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Writing Handbooks
Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
Offering advice which is useful to any writer, the sixth excerpt from this title from the A & C Black Writing Handbooks series deals with finding the time to write and managing the creative flow:
'Make a promise to yourself that, whenever possible, you’ll take advantage of the pieces of writing time you’ve carved out for yourself throughout the day.'
Review of Whitesmoke software
'So, if you are looking for a tool to improve your productivity writing business emails and short letters, Whitesmoke has a great deal to offer.'
Readability scores
Chas Jones looks at the various ways of measuring readability, an important consideration for any writer, and shows how MS Word can help.
Writers and literature workers' websites
There are a number of excellent publicly funded organisations in the UK which have helpful websites which can be useful for writers. Their usefulness may extend way beyond the UK writers and literature promoters and professional they are intended for.
American copy editing
Divided by a common language - American copy editing versus English. Chris Holifield looks at the needs of American and British writers, and also considers what kind of copy editing you might want if you are writing in English but it is not your native language.
International Book Fairs
We have revised our list for 2006. Check it out to see if there's one you can get to, as it's a good time to see the publishing world in action.
Identity fraud
Watch out for the Christmas fraudsters! Chas Jones give some clear guidelines on how to deal with this threat.
Copy editing and proof-reading
'Perhaps, as an author, you feel you do not understand what copy editing is, or why you should need it.' The 16th article in the Inside Publishing series looks at copy editing and proof-reading and when writers need them.
Bob's Journal goes into its 5th volume
Bob on EastEnders, e-books and writing whilst drunk:
'Despite having been crossed off the list over six months ago, still am asked what’s going to happen to Sharon and Phil...They don’t want to hear that the exciting world on which they eavesdrop every other day is actually a fiction invented by people like me.'
London Book Fair Masterclasses
Led by top authors, the London Book Fair/Daily Mail Masterclasses are running again this year in conjunction with The Arvon Foundation. The LBF is much earlier this year, so the Masterclasses are on Saturday 4th March at ExCel, the Fair’s new venue in Docklands.
Superfluous words and phrases
It is amazing how many tautologies we use every day. You only need to look carefully at the words, often so familiar to us that we never do examine them, to see that they are tautologies. Pleonasms are harder to spot, but Chas Jones provides a helpful list.
If you want to create your own index for your book, you can do it using Word by following the instructions.
John Jenkins gives his view of this year's Booker winner, a plea for readable books and less literary snobbishness:
'If you had won the Booker prize and your name had been plucked from relative obscurity to national prominence what is the last thing you would do? Answer: change it...'
The Editor's View, written by the Editor of Writers' Forum magazine.
WritersPrintShop
We have revamped our WritersPrintShop website with lots more information. If you're thinking about self-publishing, this is the place to find out what's involved. If you're ready to go ahead, our high quality service is second to none and there's an economy version for those who want to tackle some of the work themselves. You can estimate the cost.
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We Watch the web for writers
Rave review of WritersServices
Philippa Johnston, Director of www.literaturetraining.com, chose WritersServices as her top website.
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WritersServices.com Magazine January
2006
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