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Writers' Market 2010 | Reviews

Writers’ Market UK and Ireland 2010

Your Guide to Making Money from Your Writing

Edited by Caroline Taggart

David & Charles Paperback 976 pages

£12.99


 

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'This packs a lot of information into its 976 pages and is very good value for money at £12.99.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writers’ Market has an overtly commercial and practical aim, which is to help you find a publisher.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'The result is a useful handbook for any writer, which delivers a great deal of useful information in an easily accessible form.'

This huge book is a relatively new addition to the range of reference books for UK writers. Published by David and Charles, it is based on the formula used by their parent company, F & W Media, in their book with a similar title covering the US.

This packs a lot of information into its 976 pages and is very good value for money at £12.99. At the front of the book there are 25 useful articles from a wide range of writers and publishing professionals, amounting to a systematic series of pieces grouped together. They cover subjects such as ‘Learning to Write’ (Simon Brett), ‘Writing from Experience’ (Caro Fraser), ‘Creating Believable Characters’ (Sophie Hannah), ‘Poetry Publication’ (Neil Astley), ‘The Publishing Process’ (Caroline Taggart) and so on.

The listings are very full and detailed, and are clearly laid out. The ‘Inside Info’ often contains some really useful insights and the tips are also sometimes very helpful. The book is comprehensive, with listings, for instance, of poetry and music publishers.

With its sub-title ‘Your Guide to Making Money from Your Writing’ Writers’ Market has an overtly commercial and practical aim, which is to help you find a publisher. This clear angle of approach makes the book rather brisk and also useful to authors who are going for this route, although it does not cater much for self-publishers.

The editor Caroline Taggart points out that only about 20% of people who describe themselves as writers earn all of their income from writing and 10% of the writers earn 50% of the overall money, so there’s not much left for anyone else. If you want to work out how to sell your own writing more successfully, Writers’ Market is a good place to start.

Although it is the 2010 edition this was published in spring 2009. The result is a useful handbook for any writer, which delivers a great deal of useful information in an easily accessible form. It doesn’t yet have the status of its established rivals, the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and The Writer’s Handbook, but is beginning to give them a real run for their money.

 

Reviewed by Chris HolifieldManaging director of WritersServices; spent working life in publishing,employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups; track record includes: editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley Head, publishing director for start-up of upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of Britain’s biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She is also currently the Director of the Poetry Book Society; During all of this time aware of problems faced by writers, as publishing changed from idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'occupation for gentlemen', into corporate business of today. Writers encountered increasing difficulty in getting 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.

© Chris Holifield 2009

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