Writers' careers

Social media is one of the best ways to connect with readers, build a large, engaged audience - and promote your books. Whether you're an author working on your own social media, or a publisher developing a social media presence for one of your authors, it pays to think strategically about what you want to achieve.

Dear Polly,

Recently, after years of being afraid to confront this reality, I accepted that I want to be a writer. Specifically, a YA novelist. I work full-time as a designer, but I've been diligently working on my manuscript every night for at least three months now, and am about 25 to 30 percent done.

Today would have been the 98th birthday of Ray Bradbury, the greatest sci-fi writer in history, who (by no small coincidence) also happened to know a thing or two about writing. Like many American children, I grew up on Bradbury-"The Veldt" remains my favorite of his stories-but as I became a writer myself I began to cherish not just the great author's work, but his attitude towards it.  Read more

I've been both a children's book editor and author for roughly a decade. This means that I'm sometimes trying to defend an author's behavior to my publishing friends, or trying to explain an editor's moves to my writer friends.  Read more

A record-breaking year for publishers has been greeted with renewed demands for authors to receive a bigger slice of income and investment, as sales of books passed the £5.7bn mark in 2017.  Read more