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October 2005 - Writers Magazine

News Review

  • Seven million adults in the UK have serious problems with reading and two million can barely read. News Review looks at the new World Book Day Quick Reads initiative.
  • Frankfurt Book Fair and the globalisation of the publishing business
  • The Man Booker Prize - a triumph for a distinguished author or 'the worst, certainly the most perverse, and perhaps the most indefensible choice in the 36-year history of the contest'   News Review looks at the furore surrounding this year's Prize.
  • News Review looks all the activity surrounding the short story and wonders whether it will succeed in changing people's perceptions and creating a readership for them.
  • News Review examines how National Poetry Day and the relaunch of the Children's Poetry Bookshelf are working to make poetry fun. 'And does all this activity make a difference? Well, yes, it really does.'

Comment

  • 'Being a romance writer is good and bad news...  these are the books women are buying. I know I’m not going to change the world but I am going to brighten your weekend.’ Debbie Macomber
  • 'What makes an agent decide to take on a new client?...  'You've just got to fall for it in such a big way that you're bowled over, you have to run with it, it thrills you.'Sophie Hicks of the Ed Victor Agency in Publishing News
  • 'You’ve got to think of your reader – even if you haven’t got one yet. For so many people, the act of writing seems to be enough and I don’t think it should be.’  Charlotte Bingham in Writers' Forum
  • 'We need to remind our country that we have an enormous rich and living heritage of writing and illustration for children. It is second to none in the world.  Philip Pullman in the Bookseller
  • 'We need to broaden, not narrow, the gates through which new books, new authors and new ideas must pass before readers can find them.'  Anthony Cheetham in the Bookselller on why we need an independent Ottakar's

Writers' Quote

  • 'The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nation's well-being.'
    John Buchan

WritersPrintShop

Our design, print and distribution service for self-publishers.  The latest addition to the service is our WritersPrintShop online bookshop, which will sell your book for you on the Internet as soon as it's published.

Writing Handbooks

Novel Writing by Evan Marshall

The fourth very helpful excerpt from this title from the A & C Black Writing Handbooks series looks at Getting Off to the Right start by understanding the classic structure of the novel and determining your novel's ideal length:  'OK, you have your target genre, a story idea and some characters. Why not just start writing? Because without some kind of plan, a map of the route your story will take, you’re practically guaranteed to start with a bang and, sooner or later, look up and say, ‘Now what?’

Magazine - House Shell

New Coaching Service

Julia McCutchen, author of The Writer's Journey: From Inspiration to Publication joins WritersServices this week with the launch of our new Coaching service. This new service offers you the opportunity to develop your writing with the benefit of individual feedback, personal guidance and practical advice.

How coaching can help writers

If you're wondering what exactly coaching is, Julia article shows you how individual coaching can help a writer by giving the opportunity to work with a publishing professional who has inside knowledge of what publishers and agents are looking for.

Julia believes that given the right circumstances, we can all access our true writer’s voice and have a deeply rewarding experience of writing.

The Writer's Journey: From Inspiration to Publication

Buy Julia's book online through WritersServices. For more details.

Our Editorial Services for writers

Check out the 15 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to Copy editing, Typing to Contract vetting. Our latest new service is Coaching (see this page).

Bob's Journal goes into its 4th volume

There is a big difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it when it come to writing Bob confides in his diary. And now the government is inventing 'virtual crime' how can real fiction compete. 

'We are in the world of intending to commit a crime, the world of Minority Report, the world of pre-crime.'

This week

WritersPrintShop

We have revamped our WritersPrintShop website with lots more information. If you're thinking about self-publishing, this is the place to find out what's involved. If you're ready to go ahead, our high quality service is second to none and there's an economy version for those who want to tackle some of the work themselves. You can estimate the cost.

New agents' listing

The agents' listings from the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2006 go up on the site this week.  There's the usual fully updated list of UK agents and also a new list of international agents, which range from Australia to Russia, from Germany to South Africa, and naturally includes a large section on American agents.

Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2006

The new edition has the latest listings of publishers around the world and 57 articles about getting published, making it 'a must for established and aspiring writers'. (Society of Authors)

Try our new survey

See below

Writers' Forum Column

John Jenkins looks at Le Figaro's submission of Madam Bovary to 5 vanity publishers, not one of whom recognised it; the effect of Harry Potter on bookselling; the growth of desktop publishing; and the fact that reading makes more difference than anything to educational attainment:

'Surveys so far in Britain indicate that reading has a far greater bearing on academic success than economic and social factors.'

The Editor's View, written by the Editor of Writers' Forum magazine.