20 September 2021 - What's new
20 September 2021
- ‘Fiction is good at contradictions and flaws; it doesn't deal just in cause and effect, but in the inconsequential, the incidental, the half-formed, half-understood, and what is too ephemeral to write itself into the record. To a degree, historians have to believe that people meant what they said and said what they meant, and that their actions can be interpreted by the logic of their lives and times. But fiction redirects us to mystery and chance, and doesn't assume that people know their own minds or hearts.' Hilary Mantel, author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, two books from which won the Man Booker Prize, and six other novels, in the Sunday Times.
- My Say gives writers a chance to air their views about writing and the writer's life. So we have Eliza Graham on her route to publication, Zoe Jenny (who is Swiss) on writing in English, Richard Hall on "Write about what you know" - does this adage always make sense? - and Lynda Finn on the isolation of writers in New Zealand and their problems with getting published.
- Our 20 services for writers, just a listing of what we provide to help you get your manuscript ready for publication.
- You'll need to get your skates on to enter the Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2021, which closes on Monday 27 September. It's open to all poets internationally for unpublished poems. Entry fees are £5/€6/$7 per poem. The 1st Prize is £2,000, 2nd Prize £1,000 and 3rd Prize £500, plus 20 commendeds.
- Links from the publishing world: big American publishers seems to be doing well, Book Publishing's Rousing First Half of 2021; serialisation - is this the death of the novel? Can Salman Rushdie and Substack "Disrupt" the Book? | The New Republic; it's having a massive effect on sales, How TikTok Makes Backlist Books into Bestsellers; a sympathetic article for fans of 'bookishness, Why Are Ebooks So Terrible? - The Atlantic; and US agency professionals on some of the trends they are observing from their unique vantage point, Literary Agents Assess the Middle Grade Landscape.
- From our Endorsements page: 'I cannot emphasise enough my gratitude to writerservices.com. I more or less expected that they would treat me and my texts professionally - after all, this is what the site offers. What I haven't expected was the extra mile they were prepared to go on my behalf, their beautiful attention to both the letter and the spirit of what I had to say. My manuscript has now found an agent - a happy development in which they have definitely played a role. All I can say is that if I ever produce anything else, I will definitely be their client again.' Sveta, Windsor, UK
- Links from writers: book awards - especially for self-published authors like myself - are a critical litmus test in the writing journey, Why I chose indie publishing and never looked back; former UK children's laureate criticises the "lazy" assumption that "creating work with children in mind is easier or less demanding, Charlie and Lola author Lauren Child says children's books should be taken seriously | Books | The Guardian; 'I'd like to have a go at writing a full one myself', Felix Francis: how I took over my father's life; Booker winner turns to crime, Colson Whitehead: Why a Heist Novel Was the Best Way to Tell the Story of New York ‹ Literary Hub; and writing spy novels and why the government censor 'made me do it', For a writer, exile has a lot to recommend it.
- Advice for Writers is a really useful page which takes you into our archive and helps you explore our more than 8,000 pages of information for writers.
- Are you struggling to get someone to look at your poetry? Our Poetry Critique service for 150 lines of poetry can help. Our Poetry Collection Editing service, unique to WritersServices, edits your collection to prepare it for submission or self-publishing. Both can provide the professional editorial input you need.
- More links on writers and writing: selling more than seven million copies through publishing your own work, LJ Ross: The self-published crime writer making a killing - BBC News; reading David Copperfield cover to cover? Jai Chakrabarti on how to get unstuck while writing; something 'gritty but fun', Why News Reporters Write the Best Crime Novels - InsideHook; a really useful list of UK opportunities, Places to Submit your Poetry in 2021 • Poetry School; an unfair lack of transparency? Why translators should be named on book covers | Fiction in translation | The Guardian; and - latest news - Netflix lands golden ticket by buying Roald Dahl estate - BBC News.
- Why has my manuscript been rejected? It is demoralising to get your manuscript rejected by publishers or agents. Here are some of the reasons why this happens and suggestions of what you can do about it. Rejection.
- ‘It's not my job to populate my books with characters that other people find relatable. It's my job to write about whatever comes into my head. If you don't want to read novels about writers, or women, or Irish people, don't read my novels. I won't mind.' Sinéad Gleeson in our Writers Quotes.
- If quotes are your bag, we have superb collections in More Writers' Quotes and Even More Quotes.