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Submission

PhD editing service

Get your PhD edited by a professional editor to make sure you achieve the best result you can

Are you working to prepare your PhD for submission? Professional editing can help you improve the presentation of your work and iron out any grammar or spelling errors, so that you can achieve the best possible result.  Read more

© Chris Holifield 2013-19

Finding an Agent

Why would you, as an unpublished writer, want to find an agent?
  • An agent will represent your work and sell it to publishers.
  • Many writers see being taken on by an agent as the first step in getting taken on by a publisher, because it is so difficult to get publishers to pay attention to unagented writers.
  • Agents use their contacts and knowledge of the publishing business on their clients’ behalf, s
  Read more
© Chris Holifield 2002-19

Submission critique

Our Submission Critique can help you get your submission package into the best possible shape
  • Are you ready to submit your synopsis and sample chapters to agents or publishers, but worried about whether you are presenting your work in the best possible way? It's dispiriting to receive rejections just because your submission package is not up to scratch.
  • How you can give your work its best chance when you submit it to agents or publishers?
  Read more
© Chris Holifield 2001-19

Synopsis-writing service

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

© Chris Holifield 2001-19
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4 January 2021 - What's new

January 2021
  • ‘The thing I like about novels is that they are a more forgiving form. You can make missteps. It's harder to write a really good short story - I'm more aware of the flaws in my short stories.
  Read more

The 2021 International Book and Pamphlet Competition

Information

Closing date: 
1 March 2021
Entry: 
Open internationally. Entry fee £28, £25 to subscribers to The North
Prize: 
Publication by Smith|Doorstop Books; a share of £2,000 cash; a launch reading; publication in the North magazine; book vouchers from Inpress Books

The 2021 International Book & Pamphlet Competition is now open for entries

Judged by Daljit Nagra & Pascale Petit

DEADLINE: last post on Monday 1st March 2021, or midnight on Monday 1st March 2021 for online entrants.

ENTRY FEE: £28, or £25 for North subscribers, Friends of the Poetry Business and members of the Poetry Society.  Read more

'People have many cruel expectations from writers. People expect novelists to live on a hill with three kids and a spouse, people expect children's story writers to never have sex, and people expect all great poets to be dead. And these are all very difficult expectations to fulfill, I think.'

— C. JoyBell C.

'I have to know where I'm going'

4 January 2021

‘When I'm putting together a novel, I leave all the doors and windows open so the characters can come in and just as easily leave. I don't take notes. Once I start writing things down, I feel like I'm nailing the story in place. When I rely on my faulty memory, the pieces are free to move.  Read more

28 December 2020 - What's new

December 2020
  • ‘No one reads your book as closely as a translator does, which is something you learn very quickly. I'm in such awe of them. They also read beneath it and around it. They make me consider things I thought I knew the meaning of because I use those words in everyday dialect and that's how the characters express themselves.
  Read more