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20 November 2017 - What's new

20 November 2017
  • A new article from Jane Sandwood: 'We all know what makes for a good novel - an intriguing plot line, beautiful language, a cast of inimitable characters, and always, a shocking twist. As a writer, you are probably conscious of all the ways you can keep your reader reading, but what about your own reading? Many writers can make the mistake of not reading - in general, and in the particular genre or market they wish to enter into with their own book...' From Want to Be a Better Writer?
  • My Say gives writers a chance to air their views about writing and the writer's life. So we have Lynda Finn about the isolation of New Zealand writers and their problems with getting published, British author Eliza Graham, author of Playing with the Moon, on her route to publication and Zoe Jenny, who is Swiss, on writing in English and why it was liberating. Send us your contributions, ideally 200 to 400 words in length and of general interest. Please email them to us.
  • ‘I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a novelist, but my father thought I should have a proper job, with a proper salary, a proper pension. The idea of being a writer struck him as the height of foolhardiness. He died very young (58), so he never saw how things worked out... We were very lucky. For 10 years literary fiction was the thing, paperback imprints were starting up, advances huge, every publisher wanted the spin to their list so the literary novelist suddenly found himself in demand with auction bids for the next novel...' Our Comment is from William Boyd, author of A Good Man in Africa, Any Human Heart, The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth and eight other novels in the Sunday Times.
  • Here's our article on Your submission package: 'Given the difficulty of getting agents and publishers to take on your work, it's really important to make sure that you present it in the best possible way. Less is more, so don't send a full manuscript, as it's very unlikely to be read. Far better to tempt them with a submission package that will leave them wanting to see the rest of the manuscript...'
  • Our links: skilled editors have transformed hundreds of manuscripts from ordinary to extraordinary, Why All Self-Publishers Need a Good Editor; a helpful article on starting and maintaining an author website even if you're not yet published, Unpublished Writers and Websites: Should You Have One and What Should It Say? and how romance authors and editors address tricky issues of communication and safer sex without killing the mood, Let's Talk About Sex: Romance Publishing.
  • Do you need to get your material typed up, but can't face doing the job yourself? We can provide a clean typed version of your work at very competitive rates. Our service offers help for writers who have an old or handwritten manuscript, or audio tapes, which need re-typing before the writer can proceed with submission or publication. Just email us to find out if we can help.
  • More links: anyone who can talk and type can write a book, but how can you do it in a year? The One Thing You Can Do TODAY to Get Your Book Written This Year; and 'I enjoy writing and I enjoyed the kids', the great science fiction writer on her career, Writing Nameless Things: An Interview with Ursula K. Le Guin.
  • Are you planning to self-publish? WritersServices offers a suite of services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish. Services for Self-publishers.
  • A quote from the late, great Seamus Heaney in our Writers' Quotes: ‘If you find a poem that sets you alive, gives you daydream time, then you are in fact transported. You are carried a little bit further, either into yourself, or perhaps out of yourself. If there is a difference.'