A special report from the 2006 Masterclasses at the London Book Fair
In four packed sessions at the London Book Fair, the Daily Mail Masterclasses provided excellent coaching for aspiring writers. Our second report deals with writing fiction. Read more
A special report from the 2006 Masterclasses at the London Book Fair
In four packed sessions at the London Book Fair, the Daily Mail Masterclasses provided excellent coaching for aspiring writers. Our third report deals with writing for children. Read more
You’ve made an interesting choice because, although a lot of people scoff at romance, it is the most stable genre of all and has continued to keep its faithful readers when other categories have changed radically and sometimes lost their audiences. Read more
Well, your timing is good, because historical fiction is fashionable again after many years in the doldrums. In fact it's so popular that it has virtually reinvented itself as a category. Read more
Commission a synopsis which will present your manuscript in the best possible light for submission
Are you ready to submit your synopsis and sample chapters to agents or publishers, but worried about whether your synopsis is letting you down? A good synopsis is an essential part of the submission package, as very few agents or publishers will look at a complete manuscript. Read more
Even if-as per my last essay for Lit Hub-we know how to read, there remains the equally vexed question of what we should read. If the 21st century is notable for anything much at all when it comes to literature-and I use the term in its broadest sense, as will become clear-it's the spiking of formerly big literary guns, and the dismantling of what used to be understood as the canon. Read more
Book-to-screen deals are reported by the Hollywood trades in pieces that dutifully mention the novelists, directors and actors involved but often leave out the people who actually made it happen - the agent or manager who hooked up the players, the producer who optioned it years ago, the book scout whose secret source shared the proposal before book publishers had even seen it.
There is a new app. It distills books, both classics and modern bestsellers, into brief, accessible summaries. You can listen to audio versions of summaries, or read them on your phone. The app is called Instaread-or it's called Blinkist, or it's called GetAbstract or Joosr or 12Min or StoryShots or SumizeIt or CatchUp. Read more
When Sarah Pinborough's thriller Behind Her Eyes was published in 2017, even she described it as a "Marmite book". Her publisher slapped on equally dire warnings, hyping it with the hashtag #WTFthatending.
'Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.'
‘Poetry is definitely having a renaissance.There's been a real sea-change in terms of how it's seen, especially in lockdown. Poetry is the perfectly transportable art form. Owning a book is all you need to experience it. Poetry doesn't necessarily give us the answers, but it does give us the tools to think with and helps us process issues. Read more
'It is all for the taking. All the manuals by frustrated fictioneers on how to write can't give you the first syllable of reality, at any cost, that any common conversation can.
The Amazon founder's relentless quest for ‘customer ecstasy' made him one of the world's richest people - now he's looking to the unlimited resources of space. Is he the genius our age of consumerism deserves?
This week, Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos will no longer be chief executive of the corporation but will instead take the position of "executive chairman". Andy Jassy, who runs the highly profitable Amazon Web Services cloud computing division, will take the title. What will Amazon founder Jeff Bezos do next? Read more Read more
Cards on the table: I think the decision to leave the European Union was a catastrophe for Britain, a setback for the EU, a challenge to democracy, a threat to Western values of human rights, and an example of political expediency over moral governance. Read more
A bitter feud pitting thousands of movie and television screenwriters against the major Hollywood talent agencies came to an end on Friday, nearly two years after it had begun.
William Morris Endeavor became the last of the major agencies to reach a new franchise agreement with the two Writers Guild of AmericaAssociation of writers in motion picture, broadcast, cable and new media. http://www.wga.org unions, saying it had done so on Friday afternoon.
Delusional poetry aside, I ended up having to supply the author photo for my first book. My friend Dave, who considered himself a pretty good nature photographer, volunteered to give it a whirl. I wore no makeup. He had no special lighting. I didn't know whether I should look at the camera, or look away as if dreaming up my next brilliant story. Read more
'Poetry is definitely having a renaissance'
‘Poetry is definitely having a renaissance.There's been a real sea-change in terms of how it's seen, especially in lockdown. Poetry is the perfectly transportable art form. Owning a book is all you need to experience it. Poetry doesn't necessarily give us the answers, but it does give us the tools to think with and helps us process issues. Read more