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About us
Chris Holifield runs WritersServices. She has spent her working life in publishing, employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups. Her track record includes working as editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley HeadRandom House imprint, publishing director for the start-up of the upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of what was then Britain's biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She was also for many years the director of the Poetry Book SocietySpecialist book club founded by T S Eliot in 1953, which aims to offer the best new poetry published in the UK and Ireland. Members buy at 25% discount. The PBS has a handsome new website at www.poetrybooks.co.uk.
During all of this time she has been aware of the problems faced by writers, as publishing has changed from an idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'an occupation for gentlemen', into the corporate business of today. Writers have encountered increasing difficulty in getting their books edited or published. Authors create the books which are the raw material for the whole business. She believes it is time to bring them back to centre stage and that that is exactly what the many opportunities offered by self-publishing and the internet are bringing about.