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Log of the weekly changes on the site on 2005
This week's changes 2001
2002 2003
2004 2005
2006 2007
Some of the links are broken when items are archived - Please check the
page address (url) and it should be fairly easy to find the original page
or section.
19 December 2005
 | '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. |
| If you're interested in this, check out
Preparing for Publication
for a run-through of what will happen after you find a publisher, with
specific information on the stages your manuscript goes through on its way to
publication. |
| Author of six unpublished novels Sarah Wray has hit the jackpot by
winning the WOW competition. Her book, The Forbidden Room, sounds a bit of an unlikely
winner, but perhaps that’s precisely why it beat off the opposition.
News Review investigates. |
|
Making an Index using Word If you wan to create your own index for
your book, you can do it using Word by following the instructions. |
|
'I don't begin a book until I have an idea that really excites me. I
open my imagination and wait for it to come. Up till now, it always
has. But I never get a new idea when I'm writing. P D James
in the Sunday Times,
quoted in our Comment column. |
|
T S Eliot Prize
Readings Poetry lovers who are within reach of London can
look forward to an annual treat on January 15th, when the shortlisted poets
will read from their work. |
|
'i never think at all when i write nobody can do two things at
the same time and do them both well.' Don
Marquis, quoted in our Writers' Quotes. |
12 December 2005
| The Waterstone’s bid for Ottakar’s has been referred to the Competition
Commission by the Office of Fair Trading.
News Review looks at this
surprising turn of events. |
| Bob on noms de plume,
using other people's identities and the way newspaper articles are, well,
based on other people's newpaper articles - a tendency which
proliferates on the web: 'A TV programme about how to use eBay actually
recommended creating a false identity for oneself. That way no one can get
hold of your real email address, personal details, credit card, etc.' |
| Identity
fraud Watch out for the Christmas fraudsters! Chas Jones give some clear
guidelines on how to deal with this threat. |
| We have adopted Book Aid International
again as our Seasonal charity. Take a look at their brilliant Reverse Book
club, which enables you to join a book club where the books are sent to people
who really need them. |
| 'Huge financial investments are staked on the gut feelings of one or two
people who sometimes get it right but more often get it wrong... sooner or later, the money men will
demand a better strike rate, which will trigger a rush to understand what
consumers really want from their reading.' Damian Horner, writing in
the Bookseller about book acquisition, quoted in our
Comment column. |
| Check out our fifteen part Inside
Publishing series, which tells you what's really going on in publishing.
Articles range from Advances and Royalties
to Subsidiary Rights, from
The Relationship between Publishers and
Agents to Children's Publishing. |
| From our Writers'
Quotes: 'If publishers and authors don't worry about our language, it will
be drained of moral content.' Nick Webb, author of
The Dictionary of Bullshit: Self-defence for English Speakers,
just published by Robson Books. |
5 December 2005
|
The launch of
the Poetry Archive: the world's premier online collection of recordings of
poets reading their work goes live with 80 poets already recorded. |
|
News Review looks
at deep discounting in the high street, and layoffs and cuts in publishers'
output in the run-up to Christmas. |
| Offering advice which is useful to any writer,
the sixth excerpt from Novel Writing
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.' |
| 'in our Comment column:
'I think they're just considered too subversive. But it's a very
conservative climate there now and children's books are invested with great
power; there's this idea the child might copy something.'
Francesca Simon, American author of the Horrid Henry series, on why her
books have been published in 20 countries but not in the States. |
|
'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, from the Editor of
Writers' Forum magazine. |
| 'Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on
paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down.’ John
Steinbeck, quoted in our Writers'
Quotes. |
| 'It has a great resource section.'
Rave review
of WritersServices. Philippa Johnston, Director of
literaturetraining.com, chose WritersServices as her top website. |
28 November 2005
| Bob muses on when writers
are in their prime: 'Unfortunately most writers (and their wives) are poor
judges of their own work... there’s no rule that says we get better as we get
older.' |
| 'Recent events at the Crime Writers Association read a bit like the
plot of a conspiracy thriller but behind it all may lurk no more than a
preference to support British – or at least English language - talent.'
News Review investigates. |
| 'If Google succeeds with this project... it will be
able to offer the most seductive information service on the planet... (but) by
plundering history, it undermines the economic basis of a market that in its
bumbling and inefficient way has served as a repository of culture and
learning... for centuries.' Nick Webb, publisher turned author, comments
on the debate in Googleworld.
|
| Chas Jones's Google
Print article offers a different perspective, updating writers
publishing their books through WritersPrintShop on how Google Print will help
to sell their books.
|
| ‘Supporting young people as they find their creative
voice is an inspiring business. All of us - writers, teachers, and project
co-ordinators - are thrilled by the sheer adventure of it. Mandy Coe and
Jean Sprackland in the foreword to their book Our thoughts are Bees:
Writers Working with Schools, quoted in our
Comment column.
|
| 'A good book is the precious life-blood of a master
spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.'
John Milton, quoted in out Writers'
Quotes.
|
21 November 2005
| Press releases and how to write them
- we reproduce Chas Jones's
Writers' Forum article with guidelines for producing an effective press
release which will get coverage for your book. |
| 'I cannot abide those writers who go out of their way to make what we
do sound deeply magical; who, in doing so, mystify the craft of writing, going
so far as to suggest that it is a vocation rather than a job.' Mark
Billingham, in the Bookseller, quoted in our
Comment column. |
| Droit de Suite - new UK
legislation will give artists the right to ongoing income from their work.
Chas Jones investigates. |
| Irish writers' tax exemption is under threat. But is it justified
for writers and other artists to escape paying taxes, so they are subsidised
by everyone else? News Review
looks at the issues. |
| 'An autobiography is an obituary in serial from with the last
instalment missing.' Quentin Crisp, quoted in our
Writers' Quotes. |
| Check out our really useful article on
using the
web as a research tool. |
14 November 2005
| The Da Vinci Code has sold 8 million copies sold worldwide, 2.7 million of them
in the UK, and has been translated into 42
languages. Now author Dan Brown is being sued for plagiarism.
News Review investigates. |
| Bob on script editors and
what they can achieve, films, theatre, the TV adaptation of Dickens'
Bleak House: 'Maybe it is another explanation of why we need art, why we
have the irresistible urge to produce music, paintings, stories, though they
appear to do nothing useful. For brief moments they give us a kind of peace. ' |
| 'As a retailer you are not just competing against other bookstores, you
are competing against everyone else on the high street. It is about how you
can convince someone to buy a book rather than a pair of jeans.' Scott Pack
of Waterstone's, quoted in our Comment
column. |
| 'Trained
to murder standard' Andrew Barrett, Scenes of Crime Officer turned writer,
offers free help for crime writers wanting to make sure that the SOCO
descriptions in their novels are correct. |
| For something to lighten your day, check out our downloadable
poster collection,
including Getting it Wrong and
Computers. |
| 'Some writers achieve great popularity and then disappear forever. The
bestseller lists of the past fifty years are, with a few lively exceptions, a
sombre graveyard of dead books.' Carlos Fuentes, quoted in our
Writers' Quotes. |
| Our new
Coaching Service is offered by Julia McCutchen,
author of The Writer's Journey: From Inspiration to Publication This
new service offers you the opportunity to develop your writing with the
benefit of individual feedback, personal guidance and practical advice. |
7 November 2005
| News Review looks at the 'Google
Wars' and how publishers are seizing the initiative in the face of huge
schemes capitalising on book digitisation from Amazon, Google and
Microsoft. |
| The fifth excerpt from Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
deals with Surprising the Reader - the importance
of introducing surprises into your storyline: 'For me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of reading a novel is
being surprised. I love nothing more than to be shocked by a revelation
or story development. I think most readers feel this way.' |
| 'But there's another kind of block, which is structural, when
you've written tens of thousands of words, but can't figure out which are
superfluous and what goes where. Something's wrong, but you don't know
what it is, and that can make you desperate…' Blake Morrison on why editors
can help in the Guardian, quoted in our
Comment column. |
| John Jenkins' column from
Writers' Forum magazine on why women writers are already widely
read and why, in spite of all the doomsaying and grumbling, conditions have improved for writers:
'Research is now much easier with the World Wide Web, the agony of editing
and re-typing is no longer the problem it once was and the number of books
published each year continues to increase.' |
| Need your contract checking through but don't have an agent?
Publishing contracts can be a bit mystifying, so our
contract vetting service may
be just what you need. |
| 'There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money
either.' Robert Graves, quoted in our Writers' Quotes. |
| Thinking about subscribing to one of the writers magazines?
WritersServices is the only place you can find
full reviews to help choose the
right one for you. |
| The November Magazine is ready! |
31 October 2005
| Check out Chas Jones's latest
new software review: 'Attaché can help
you to organise your sketches, ideas, exercises and essays in a way that
will help you extract articles. Attaché is not going to help you write
your literary novel but it might be excellent for a work of non-fiction.' |
| Our Reviews section includes 26
reviews of books for writers,
plus
reviews of all the writers' software we've seen including
Storybase and
New Novelist. |
| Seven million adults in the UK have serious problems with
reading and two million can barely read.
News Review looks at the new
World Book Day Quick Reads initiative. |
| 'Being a romance writer is good and bad news... these are the
books women are buying. I know I’m not going to change the world but I am
going to brighten your weekend.’ Debbie Macomber at the last Romance
Writers of America convention, quoted in our
Comment column. |
| Try our Problem page to see if we've dealt with your problem - or
write to us about it. |
| 'The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nation's well-being.'
John Buchan, quoted in our
Writers' Quotes. |
24 October 2005
| We know that 90% of you use MS 'Word', so we have a new series showing
how to use some of the more obscure, but potentially useful, facilities.
We start off with Auto-correcting.
|
| Bob confides the problems
of writing a thriller in his journal. 'We are in the world of intending to commit a
crime, the world of Minority Report, the world of pre-crime.' |
| The Frankfurt Book Fair themes of business, culture and politics are
discussed in News Review,
together with the Association of American Publishers' surprise filing of a
suit against Google Print. |
| WritersPrintShop challenges the
so-called 'free offers' to self-publishers. |
| Writing is a risky business but working at your keyboard
need not damage your health. |
| ‘The wastepaper basket is the writer’s best friend.’ Isaac Singer in our
Writers' Quotes. |
17 October 2005
| Our new competition draws on the
2006
Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, which supplies
the agents' listings on the WritersServices
site. If you get all three questions right you will go into a draw
to win copies
of the new edition of the book. |
| We have revamped our WritersPrintShop
and relaunched it in its new improved form this week. 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. |
| The Man Booker Prize - a triumph for a distinguished author or 'the
worst, certainly the most perverse, and perhaps the most indefensible
choice in the 36-year history of the contest'
News Review looks at the
furore surrounding this year's Prize. |
| What makes an agent decide to take on a new client?...
'You've just got to fall for it in such a big way that you're bowled over,
you have to run with it, it thrills you.' Sophie Hicks of the Ed Victor Agency in Publishing News,
quoted in our Comment column. |
| If biography is your bag, This week's
Writing Opportunity is
the Biographers Club Prize for first-time biographical writers, which is
open to those who are previously unpublished or uncommissioned writers. |
| 'If they give me the bloody prize, why can't they say nice things
about me?’ John Banville, on the BBC, the morning after
unexpectedly winning the 2005 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, in our
Writers' Quotes. |
10 October 2005
| Bob, finding it hard to sit tight and wait to hear from EastEnders,
is finally getting down to his TV thriller and looking at the characters:
'He’s a sympathetic chap, so have decided to kill him off in final reel.
Nothing quite like a bit of blatant emotional manipulation to hammer home a
message.' |
|
Checking your email header Chas Jones shows you how to work out where
your email has come from to help you identify - and be on guard against -
spammers. |
| News Review looks all the
activity surrounding the short story and wonders whether it will succeed
in changing people's perceptions and creating a readership for them.
|
|
'You’ve got to think of your reader – even if you haven’t got one yet. For so
many people, the act of writing seems to be enough and I don’t think it should
be.’ Charlotte Bingham in
Writers' Forum, quoted in our Comment
column. |
| Sign up for our email newsletter
to get regular updates about new material on the site, covering news
from the book business, comment from writers, new pages and other
interesting developments. |
|
'While thought exists, words are alive and literature
becomes an escape, not from, but into living.'
Cyril Connolly, in our Writers' Quotes
|
| If you're getting your work rejected, cheer yourself up with
Rotten Rejections, including our
favourite, 'It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA’ (on
Orwell's Animal Farm). |
3 October 2005
| News Review looks at how
National Poetry Day and the relaunch of the Children's Poetry Bookshelf
are working to make children's poetry fun. 'And does all this activity
make a difference? Well, yes, it really does.' |
|
Google Print
- Invasion of copyright or service to authors? Chas
Jones delves into the Google Print controversy and explains why
WritersPrintShop will be offering
this as a facility for writers using our self-publishing service. |
| The fourth very helpful excerpt from
Novel Writing looks at Getting Off to the Right
Start by
understanding the classic structure of the novel and determining your
novel's ideal length: 'without some kind of plan, a map of the route
your story will take, you’re practically guaranteed to start with a bang and,
sooner or later, look up and say, ‘Now what?’ |
| 'We need to remind our country that we have an enormous rich and living
heritage of writing and illustration for children. It is second to none in the
world.' Philip Pullman in the Bookseller, quoted in our
Comment column. |
| John Jenkins on why Neil Simon's story of signing away the rights
on Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple was a mistake; why
writers should always back up: Terry Pratchett's tips about being a writer;
and the battle for Ottakar's. The Editor's View, written by the Editor of
Writers' Forum magazine. |
| ‘If you want a definition of poetry, say: "Poetry is what makes me laugh
or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or
that or nothing" and let it go at that.' Dylan Thomas, quoted in our
Writers' Quotes. |
| Are critical and creative writing at odds with each other?
Where do the roles of writer, critic and teacher overlap? Or collide? Which
comes first, your critical or creative self? These are the issues being
addressed at this year's NAWE
conference. |
| The October Magazine is ready!
|
26 September 2005
| The updated agents'
listings from the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2006 go up on
the site this week. There's the usual fully updated list of
UK agents and also a new list of
international agents, which range from
Australia to Russia, from Germany to South Africa., and also
a large listing of US agents.
|
| See also the information about the 2006 edition of
the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, with the
latest listings of publishers around the world and 57 articles about
getting published, making it 'a must for established and aspiring
writers'. (Society of Authors)
|
| The Authors Guild of America, with four authors, has taken the
extraordinary step of filing a class action suit against Google over its
unauthorised scanning and copying of books through its Google Library
programme. News Review has
the story. |
| Bob, just back from a
belated honeymoon in South Africa, waits impatiently for the next
commission for EastEnders and gets back to basics:'What pleasure
is there in writing that can match the
pleasure of eating a sweetcorn one has grown oneself?' |
| 'We need to broaden, not narrow, the gates through which new books,
new authors and new ideas must pass before readers can find them.'
Anthony Cheetham in the Bookselller on why we need an independent
Ottakar's, quoted in our Comment
column. |
| ‘Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show
you a fool, a clever fool – perhaps – but a fool just the same.’
Raymond Chandler, perhaps a little partial, quoted in our
Writers' Quotes. |
19 September 2005
|
The
problems and possibilities of print on demand Chas Jones looks at how
POD is gradually gaining ground and explains why it is so attractive:
'Corporations, driven by the demands of the balance
sheet, have recognised that printing small quantities of a title can make
financial sense. ' |
| 'Though twice as many women as men are writing, they are 50 per
cent less likely to send off their manuscripts to publishers or agents, or
to apply for writing grants.' Debbie Taylor, Editor, in
Mslexia, quoted in our Comment
column. |
| If you're starting a creative writing course or teaching one, check
out the nearly 80 pages of resource material in our
Education Resource Centre, including Michael
Legat's Factsheets, the
Inside Publishing series,
Health Hazards for writers and masses of
other information to help writers get published. |
| 46,000 unpublished writers entered Richard and Judy's How To Get
Published competition - but seven authors 'won' a contract.
News Review reports. |
| The latest writers' opportunity we're highlighting is
the annual Prose and
Poetry Prizes from The New Writer magazine. |
| 'Truth may be stranger than fiction, but fiction is truer.'
Frederic Raphael, quoted in our
Writers' Quotes. |
12 September 2005
| New
Coaching Service The author of The Writer's Journey: From
Inspiration to Publication, Julia McCutchen,
joins WritersServices this week with the launch of our new Coaching service.
This new service offers you the opportunity to develop your writing with the
benefit of individual feedback, personal guidance and practical advice. |
|
How coaching can
help writers If you're wondering exactly what coaching is, Julia McCutchen's article shows you how individual coaching can help a writer by
giving the opportunity to work with a publishing professional, since, given the
right circumstances, we can all access our true writer’s voice and have a deeply
rewarding experience of writing. |
| Bob on the importance of a
writer's environment, getting hooked on turning crime novels into TV drama and
the amazing fact that there are 200,000 online blogs, which, like diaries, will
get few readers: 'See no essential difference between an on-line diary and a
hard-copy one... In either case the only readers you’ll get are precisely the
people you don’t want: your friends or your mother.' In his
Journal |
| 'With perseverance, you can do anything you want. Just don't give
up - you've got to stick with it. When I started writing I sold my first
book very quickly. But after that, no one bought my next five books...'
Danielle Steel, in her book The Most Important Lessons in Life,
quoted in our Comment column |
| ‘Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing
on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down.’ John
Steinbeck, quoted in our Writers'
Quotes |
5 September 2005
| The third excerpt from
Novel Writing looks at creating your lead and drawing up a
character fact list: 'Your lead is your novel’s most important character, the hero or
heroine of your story. Every novel needs a lead; a novel without a lead
is like a movie without a star.' |
| 'We who earn our living by the pen hold the poets in especial awe.
We know that in a hundred years’ time, when students of literature are
saying "Eh? Martin Who? A N Who? Salman What Did You
Say?, they will be reading Geoffrey Hill.' A N Wilson in the
Telegraph, quoted in our Comment
column. |
| John Jenkins looks at Le Figaro's submission of
Madam
Bovary to 5 vanity publishers, not one of whom recognised it, and the fact
that reading makes more difference than anything to educational attainment:
'Surveys so far in Britain indicate that reading has a far greater
bearing on academic success than economic and social factors.' In the
Editor's View from Writers' Forum
magazine. |
| Worldwide publishing deals have been achieved for an author who is
still only sixteen and for a redundant globe-trotting graphic designer.
News Review looks at the
latest breakthroughs on the children's front. |
| 'Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the
middle of it.' P J O'Rourke, quoted in our
Writers' Quotes. |
| Have you been submitting your manuscript to agents or publishers
without success? Check out our tips for
Avoiding rejection to give
your work its best chance. |
| And the September Magazine is
ready! |
22 August 2005
| Bob on whether writers
should reflect the new culture since 9/11 - and whether he's
persona non grata at EasterEnders because of his article in the
2006 Writer's Handbook: 'A novelist only engages with real life
in order to tidy it up... Should never forget that novels, no matter how
‘engaged’, are primarily works of the imagination.' In his
Journal. |
| 'Open Access is not a business model. It is an expression of the
rights of everybody to have access to these resources... If users decide
that the work available in open access is not up to standard this model
will struggle to grow.' Chas Jones looks at how
the open access model really
works. |
| ‘God has a great sense of humour. If I hadn’t got my book deal,
I’d be living off £400 a month pension.’ G P Taylor, who has a
9-book deal with Faber, in our
Writers' Quotes. |
| In what the UK reckons to be the dog days of summer, the most
extraordinary dispute looks headed for open warfare...
News Review looks at W H Smith's v the publishers. |
| New in our Showcase:
Aurora
has to leave her family to go to Saudi Arabia to work as a housemaid; an
excerpt from
Christine
Lucas's fantasy novel,
The Rose of Eden; and chapters from
Robert Curzon's epic fantasy
The
Mythologiser. |
| 'So, in 2004, do we need science fiction? Some features of the
world of 2004 resemble science fictional dreams of the past; some science
fiction scenarios are obsolete.' Stephen Baxter in The Times,
quoted in our Comment column. |
8 August 2005
| Bob on Shakespeare and
the English language - and how it got where it is now: 'We can no more
freeze our language (Chaucer's? Shakespeare's? the Queen's?) and call only
that English, than we can freeze some arbitrary collection of
characteristics and call it 'being British'.' In his
Journal |
| ‘In America, there’s a huge schism between literary and commercial,
created largely by marketing and by chain bookstores. ' Jodi Picoult in Publishing News,
quoted in our Comment column |
| Praise for WritersServices 'This is a site that I use a lot in my work with literaturetraining,
giving information and advice on professional development to writers and
literature professionals... It has a great resource section...' Philippa
Johnston. Director of literaturetraining.com. |
| Check out the other WritersServices news releases in our
Media Centre. |
| News Review looks at
the wonderful 'books for babies' scheme: Bookstart youngsters were six
times more likely to be library members and confirmed that the effect of
the early exposure to books lasts and helps with the children's attitudes
to reading throughout their schooldays.' |
| 'No author is a man of genius to his publisher.'
Heinrich Heine in our Writers' Quotes |
1 August 2005
| The second excerpt
from Novel Writing looks at beginning to define your lead and
developing your 'Suppose' through what literary agent Even Marshall
calls 'the three three crisis criteria': 'The situation the crisis creates must intrigue you. You’ll be with this
novel a long time. If you get bored while you’re writing it, you may not finish
it...' |
| 'It's not surprising that many publishers now rate Amazon as
their most important outlet as far as backlist is concerned. It is
believed to account for up to 75% of Amazon's book sales.'
News Review looks at the
latest from the Internet giant. |
| John Jenkins on the star-studded line-up at the Cheltenham
Festival and what judges of writing competitions are looking for. 'So are the characters memorable? Is the dialogue crisp? Could the
beginning and ending of the story be polished?' In
the Editor's View from Writers'
Forum magazine. |
| 'I feel that anyone who wants to write historical fiction needs
to love the genre, rather than be tempted to have a go at historical
novels just because they seem to be fashionable right now... But most
of all, new novelists need to enjoy what they are doing, because this
enjoyment will show in their writing.’ Jude Morgan, author of
Passion, writing in Writers’ Forum, quoted in our
Comment column. |
| ‘All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography
is, of course, fiction.’ Wise words from P D James in our
Writers' Quotes. |
| If you're new to the web, check out our
Writers' Web Watch for many useful articles, including
Looking after your files
and Email attachments.
|
25 July 2005
| Bob on language
development in Big Brother, why he doesn't need to buy novels and Tom
Stoppard's theory on what is true and what is good. Plus:'the most
borrowed author from the UK’s 4,200 public libraries between 2002 and 2004 was
Jacqueline Wilson. And I have absolutely no idea who she is.' In his
Journal. |
|
Selling books beyond the traditional bookstore -
Chas Jones investigates how self-publishers can extend the market for
their books: 'pursuing some of these avenues
brings you much closer to your readers and should allow you to learn a lot
more about your market'. Part of our
WritersPrintshop self-publishing service.
|
|
News Review
assesses the Harry Potter phenomenon: 'Rowling has had many critics and many
imitators, but none have managed to surpass the sheer page-turning
quality of her books. This is the magic which keeps children coming back for
more.'
|
|
'The
business is so f***ing hard now, and there's so much pressure on those
working inside it, that either they don't have the time for (shall we say)
pro bono discourse about (say) how to do some of the little things better; or
they feel that giving away what few secrets they possess will put them at
the sort of competitive disadvantage that might, soon, cost them their jobs.’
Blogger Mad Max Perkins of BookAngst 10, quoted in our
Comment column.
|
|
There’s still just time to enter the
Foyle Young Poets of the
Year Award, Britain’s most prestigious poetry prize for young
writers between the ages of 11-17, but the closing date is 31 July!
|
|
'Well, great authors are great people, but I believe that
they are best seen at a distance.'
Mrs Mitford in our Writers' Quotes
|
18 July 2005
| New this week, the fourth in our
series of writers' magazine reviews
on Mslexia: 'for women writers who take their
writing quite seriously and are aiming at the more literary end of the
spectrum but who want good practical advice, offered in an accessible and
friendly way, Mslexia is perfect. ' |
| News Review reports on how
Londoners have got back to work after the bomb blasts: 'It’s been an
extraordinary couple of weeks in London... Londoners, hardened to terror by
the IRA campaigns of the past and the clear knowledge that the city was a
likely Al Qaeda target, were mostly stoical. ' |
| Bob Ritchie ponders on
the influence of writers and decides that it doesn't amount to much any more:
'Would you rather be a writer in a country where you might be sent to jail for
what you wrote, or would you rather live in freedom but have your work greeted
with total indifference?' In his
Journal. |
| 'To an outsider the British publishing industry can seem like a
conspiracy intent on depriving English-speaking readers of the majority of the
good books written in languages other than their own.' John Carey, Chair
of the judges of the Man Booker International Prize, quoted in our
Comment column. |
| Had your book accepted for publication -r just dreaming about it still?
Check out our page on preparing
for publication to understand what's going on. |
| 'The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.'
Anthony Burgess in our Writers' Quotes.
|
11 July 2005
| Fay Weldon on the writer's role: ‘The reader is looking to you to
provide some meaning and shape to the chaos of real life... The
writer’s job is to provide a pattern.' In our
Report from the Annual Writers' conference in
Winchester. |
|
Here comes Harry Potter! Outrage has been expressed in the book trade
about the ‘wasted’ discount that all book retailers are giving away on a
book which is so much in demand that many feel there is no need to cut the
price. In News Review. |
| 'Book reviews should inspire reading. They should excite, stimulate,
agitate and empower readers to discover new books and avoid bad ones... But
let's be honest. They don't, do they?…' Scott Pack of Waterstone's,
quoted in our Comment column. |
|
'The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof lie
detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.' Ernest Hemingway,
in our Writers' Quotes. |
| Do you want to know how WritersServices was set up? Check out Chris
Holifield's article on our early history. |
4 July 2005
| This week we have the first
excerpt from Novel Writing by Evan Marshall on why you should
first work out which genre you want to write in: 'In today’s sophisticated
market of superclassification, the midlist is gone, and every novel must fit
into a niche... But a novel written without a genre in mind can be difficult
if not impossible to sell.' |
| News Review looks at the
changing face of bookselling: 'the net effect is fewer bookshops and more
power concentrated in the hands of fewer big groups, both booksellers and
publishers. Books, like other businesses, are suffering from globalisation.' |
| In The Editor's View, the Editor of
Writers' Forum magazine, John Jenkins, looks at the
creation of Penguin paperbacks:
'Penguins were an immediate success and sold a million copies in four months
with sales climbing to 17 million in the first three years...IF YOU were Allen
Lane starting today which 10 recent novels would you choose?' |
| 'Somebody once said that one's real life is often the life that one
does not lead... the story of the boy and the wolf sat in my filing cabinet,
and came to life only when I realised that this was the world I had lost. This
was the life I hadn't led. Michelle Paver, author of Wolf Brother,
in The Times in our Comment
column. |
| Our WritersPrintShop Q & A section answers
questions such as Can I have just one book printed?
and Who sets the price?. Check it out
to find more about self-publishing. |
| 'Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve
one either.' Jean Cocteau, quoted in our
Writers' Quotes |
| The July Magazine is ready! |
27 June 2005
20 June 2005
| Take a look at what the experts say about dealing with criticism in a
positive and constructive way in Be
positive: coping with criticism. |
| News Review looks at two
BookExpo panels discussing corporate synergies and world right deals.
Stephen Page of Faber thinks: ‘I want to take a big baseball bat to the
idea of global publishing. It is fantasy.’ |
| Calling all black and Asian
poets! Your chance to make your views heard in a new survey funded
by Arts Council England. But hurry - you've only got till 30 June! |
| ‘My advice to budding authors is always the same: go the distance on
the story. Work over it again and again. Hone your writing until it flows like
running water... Above all, develop your own voice.' Tom Bowler in
Writers' Forum, quoted in our Comment
column. |
| Check out the discussion groups in our
WritersForum for good and bad news on agents, money matters for
writers, advice and cooperation and good ideas, website recommendations etc. |
| 'Writing is just having a sheet of paper, a pen and not a shadow of an
idea of what you are going to say.' Francoise Sagan in our
Writers' Quotes. |
13 June
| Bob is struggling with
draft three of his current EasterEnders script:'despite four hours
of detailed discussion, still have not faintest idea how to rewrite main story
so it climaxes convincingly in a fight. And filming starts in three weeks.’ In
his Journal. |
| At BookExpo ‘There's a lot of schmoozing going on, but real work gets
done and you can really set up books coming down the pike.’ But new titles in
the US soared last year to 195,000, whilst unit sales were down. In
News Review. |
| We've updated the technical
glossary
and list of acronyms in our Writers Web Watch
section. |
| 'There's never been a better time for publishers, authors and the book
trade... Yet I can't help feeling the industry is still dragging its feet and
slow to embrace new ideas.' David Freeman in the Bookseller on
why publishers are not using their most powerful marketing tool, quoted in
our Comment column. |
| Interested in finding an agent for your work? Check out
our page of tips for giving
yourself the best chance. |
| 'Of making of books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of
the flesh.' Ecclesiastes 12:12 in our
Writers' Quotes |
6 June
| John Jenkins looks at unpublished writers' need for stamina and
determination: 'How does anybody take 10 rejections
and come back to succeed with number 11?... I wonder if authors ever fully
cost the time it takes to write a book? In the
Editor's View from Writers' Forum magazine. |
| 'Writing a novel, I discovered then, in that initial fumbling stage, is
a test of absolute faith and absolute endurance.' Diana Evans, on
writing her first novel 26a, in the Observer, quoted in our
Comment column. |
| The third of three excerpts from
Writing Biography and Autobiography looks at planning the work and
finishing it: 'When you do tackle a particular section or chapter it is
tempting to sit down before a blank screen, or a blank sheet of paper, and
simply start writing. However, a bit of pre-planning can make for a much more
productive process...' |
| News Review looks at the
success of a children's author who is already well-know for her writing: 'We can look forward to a
splendid sequence of films – and to the chance to read the books which have now
been plucked from the obscurity of the backlist.' |
| Check out our list of
picture
libraries if you need to find some pictures for your book. |
| 'Once a writer is born into a family, that family is doomed.’
Czselaw Milosz. In our
Writers' Quotes. |
30 May 2005
|
