This news about the site was published by Bookbrunch on 18 July 2013
Relaunch for WritersServices from Bookbrunch
18 July 2013
WritersServices has launched a revamped website with more than 4,000 pages of information for writers. The service also offers a weekly update and a monthly magazine. Read more
Reading is the paradigm of mobile entertainment. The home, in transit and in work-breaks are all seized as opportunities to turn a few pages. Alarmingly, a dozen respondents read in their cars. One must hope they were passengers. Read more
With schools and colleges around the world heading back, WritersServices has provided over 80 papers in their Education resource Centre to help those running. The pages can be used freely by any student or course tutor. Read more
The image of a writer bashing away at a clunky typewriter is dead. Only two people admitted to employing a typewriter in the January survey of writing habits conducted by WritersServices. The desktop computer and laptop have taken over as the preferred way for writers to set down their words Read more
This article by Chris Holifield was published in the May issue of Writers' Forum magazine. It provides a history of the setting-up and development of the
Where to find 1,300 pages of advice for writers
WritersServices.com
It was the height of the dotcom boom. Made redundant in spring 2000, by early 2001 I was keen to set up my own business. A website seemed an obvious idea and what better target than aspiring writers? I had always thought publishers’ slush piles a barrier for authors. Read more
WritersServices was mentioned in the trade press in the Bookseller dated 21 February 2003, in an article about the websites of 2003 book fairs which was part of the series Bookworm on the Net written by Anne Weale.
WritersServices had another mention in the trade press in the UK weekly Publishing News dated 14 March 2003
'WritersServices, the writers' website, now offers an increased range of services, including assistance with scriptwriting and children's writing and, for non-English speakers, a 'manuscript polishing' service. Read more
WritersServices was mentioned in the trade press in the Bookseller dated 11 October 2002, when Chris Holifield wrote a letter to the Editor as a contribution to an ongoing debate about the slush pile and what writers can do to get published:
'The continuing correspondence about the slush pile has prompted me to write to you about WritersServices.com. Our website is dedicat Read more
WritersServices, the website for writers, is pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with Pan Macmillan to publish the UK and US literary agents' listings for the 2002 edition of The Writer’s Handbook. Over 300 agents are listed with advice on the type of work to send and how to approach each agent. Read more
'Technology is shifting more power to the hands of authors, who now have more options for what they can do with their manuscripts. Everything from the choice of publishing channels, to content formats, but also increasing the quality of their content using tools which perhaps would have been cost prohibitive to them in the past. Authors also want to reach as large an audience as possible.
When bookstores across the United States closed last spring, Tyrrell Mahoney, the president of Chronicle Books, braced for disaster as she watched revenue plummet. Then, months into the crisis, Chronicle found an unlikely savior: the rapper Snoop Dogg and his two-year-old cookbook. Read more
Another shoe falls today (April 15), as London Book Fair announces that it will, after all, resort to an all-digital 2021 evocation, giving up on what organizers had hoped could be a physical staging at Olympia London. The dates, having been moved from March to the early summer, are retained this year as June 29 to July 1, but earlier additional dates are being added. Read more
The Bologna Children's Book FairThe Bologna Children's Book Fair or La fiera del libro per ragazzi is the leading professional fair for children's books in the world. has cancelled this year's physical events and will go digital-only owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday, James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble, gave the keynote address at the Independent Book Publishers Association's annual IBPA Publishing University, where he was in conversation with Karla Olson, publisher of Patagonia Books and IBPA chair. Read more
I was talking, as one does, to the Reader on the Clapham Omnibus. I told him I was about to have a new book out after a 10-year gap. He was pleased to hear it, and he asked: "So, what made you decide to start writing again?"
"I didn't."
He looked a little confused.
I told him: "I never stopped."
His brow cleared. "Ah, it's one of these thousand-page doorstoppers?" Read more
In November 1971, a debut novel from a young author was published, to a small but not insignificant splash. Set in a world of tiny people who live in a carpet, it was described by the book trade journal Smith's Trade News as "one of the most original tots' tomes to hit the bookshops for many a decade", while Teachers' News called it a story of "quite extraordinary quality".
Growing up in 1980s Glasgow amid a working class beaten down by Thatcherism, Shuggie Bain watches as his family becomes increasingly broke and broken; his mother Agnes' alcoholism drags her into a pit of despair, no matter how hard poor Shuggie loves her. Oh, and Shuggie is clearly gay - even if he doesn't understand that at first - and is badly and endlessly bullied for it.
In 1972, Avon Books published "The Flame and the Flower," by Kathleen Woodiwiss - a hefty historical romance that traded chastity for steamy sex scenes. It arrived in the thick of the sexual revolution, and readers loved it: It was an instant bestseller that's credited with birthing the modern romance genre. Read more
Our resident online creative writing tutor Eliza Robertson shares five top tips for writing a short story and techniques for developing your writing skills.
All of the UK's children's laureates, including Cressida Cowell, Quentin Blake, Malorie Blackman and Michael Rosen, are uniting to call for the government to dedicate £100m a year to revitalising "deteriorating" primary school libraries across the country, amid fears that literacy levels have dropped severely during the pandemic. Read more
As someone who has published (twice) with a hybrid press, I've become aware that there's a lot of confusion about what the term means and how hybrid publishing really works.
‘Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials. He thinks he has enough to raise a large and stately edifice; but after he has arranged, compacted and polished, his work turns out to be a very small performance. Read more