31 August 2015 - What's new
31 August 2015
- Kevin Morley wrote his book Inside Eritrea: A Volunteer in East Africa in order to raise funds from its sales to support the Saltergate Children's Home which he founded in Addis Ababa. He tells his story in Becoming a writer to ‘help kids in Africa'
- 'It's the colouring books and a self-published sleep aid which are making the headlines and topping the charts as summer moves in to autumn in the northern hemisphere - not that those of us in the UK feel we've had much summer... News Review looks at surprise bestsellers for the silly season.
- An Editor's Advice is a series of seven articles by one of our editors on really useful subjects for writers such as Dialogue, Manuscript presentation and Doing further drafts: 'I have just finished writing a report on a novel. I've pinpointed various areas of weakness and made various suggestions that the writer may or may not wish to follow. But the nub of the report is a recommendation that the writer produce a further draft of the novel rather than trying to submit it to a publisher now. I wonder sometimes how writers feel when they get my reports and see that recommendation...'
- ‘By rejection number 45, I was truly neurotic. It was all I could think about - revising the book, making it better, getting an agent, getting it published. I insisted on rewriting the last chapter an hour before I was due at the hospital to give birth to my daughter. I would not go to the hospital until I'd typed The End...' Kathryn Stockett, author of the huge bestseller The Help, advises you to 'Give in to your obsession' in our Comment column.
- Our latest Writing Opportunity is the Twenty7 Books open submission, which started on 1 September and closes on 27 September. Submit a one-page pitch and 5,000 words from your debut novel.
- Our links: an unbelievable number of rejections, Kathryn Stockett's 'The Help' Turned Down 60 Times Before Becoming a Best Seller | MORE Magazine; what's going on in the book design world, Flat book cover design: Why do all the summer novels have the same look? so what about direct to consumer, A manifesto for reaching readers | The Bookseller; Authors United's campaign continues, Is Amazon Creating a Cultural Monopoly? - The New Yorker;
- Which Report? gives the details of the three reports we offer: the full Editor's Report, the basic Reader's Report and the most substantial Editor's Report Plus. There's also our specialist Children's reports, part of our Children's Editorial Services. If you want a professional editor's assessmen of your work, here's the place to start.
- More links: fans of the best-selling Millennium series have been rushing to get their copies of The Girl in the Spider's Web, Stieg Larsson's partner ‘casts a spell' to jynx Millennium series book launch | Daily Mail Online and how publishers miss opportunities to sell books and build their authors, Why Smart Publishers Build Bad Websites | Digital Book World.
- 'A book is a device to ignite the imagination.' Alan Bennett from our Writers' Quotes.
