What's New

• 'Writing is rewriting. The first draft is the jabber you forced on that blind date. She was hoping for someone to ask her what she was feeling, but all you said was, and then I, and then I, and then I, and then . . . The first draft is meant to be discarded. The first draft is the beginning of the idea, the slender thread of a story. The second draft is little better, as is the third, and the fourth and fifth...' Walter Mosley, author of Devil in a Blue Dress, The Long Fall, Blood Grove and dozens of other books in LitHub.
• An Editor's Advice is a series of seven articles by one of our editors on really useful subjects for writers such as Manuscript presentation, Dialogue, Doing further drafts and Planning: 'The idea of planning doesn't fit well with the idea of the writer as inspired genius, frantically scribbling away. However, I am willing to bet that, no matter what they would have you think, most successful writers plan as much as they write. They just don't tell you about it. The biggest objection that most inexperienced writers raise when someone broaches the delicate matter of planning is that it will get in the way of their inventive powers. A plan will be like a straitjacket. They'll be stuck with this plan and if they come up with a good idea along the way, they will not be able to use it. They are genuinely horrified at the thought...'
• Are you getting ready to publish your book - perhaps planning to self-publish? WritersServices offers a suite of nine services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish. Services for Self-publishers.
• Links from writers: writing historical fiction is more than just creating a simulacrum of the past and letting your characters frolic around in it, Balancing historical fiction and historical fact; every fiction writer understands the need to include elements of rising tension in their stories, Don't Tease Your Reader. Get to the Tension and Keep It Rising | Jane Friedman; Creativity and change are key to any successful poetry publishing venture, 35 pioneering years at the Poetry Business; an author who became writer and executive producer, 'Shrill,' 'Summer I Turned Pretty' Adaptations Allow Authors Agency - Variety; and 'That's how we did it': writing about the special forces.
• New on 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
• Do you want some help with your writing but don't quite know what you want - or even if you need any help? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? Choosing a service can help you work out which service is right for you.
• Links from the publishing world: bestselling writers including Philip Pullman and Kate Mosse are warning of a "potentially devastating" change to the UK's copyright laws, Leading authors sound alarm over post-Brexit changes to copyright | Publishing | The Guardian; misleading or downright bad book blurbs, Book jacket descriptions for titles like Luster and The Silence are terrible; predictions from a top corporate publisher, HC's Murray Sees Higher Sales, More Consolidation Ahead; and an interesting article on Harry Potter, The boy who lived and lived and lived | The Bookseller.
• If you need to get your material typed up, but can't face doing the job yourself, Typing manuscripts is a service for writers who have an old or handwritten manuscript or audio tapes, which need typing before they can proceed with reworking, submission or publication.
• Don't know what they're talking about? Here's our Publishing glossary, featuring printing & publishing terms & abbreviations.
• ‘All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction.' P D James in our Writers' Quotes

• ‘Everything hinges on character. Plot is important, but character is crucial. Character is best revealed through action. Someone pulls a gun on your hero. How do they react? Fight or flight? Their character will determine. Complex characters are gold. A hero whose first reaction is flight but who plausibly stands and fights is way more interesting. Mike Bullen, British scriptwriter, who has written the successful series Life Begins, Cold Feet and All about George, as well as a novel, Trust.
• For anyone thinking about or embarked on self-publishing, our ten-part WritersServices Self-Publishing Guide by Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk is an essential starting-point, taking you through the process step-by-step. 'Indie authors access the same professional services as traditional publishing houses. They employ freelance editors, proofreaders and cover designers. They have their work professionally formatted for ebooks and typeset for print. They may use service providers to manage some or all of the publishing tasks, or they may go it alone...' Articles include Choose Your Self-publishing Route and Marketing and Promotion for Indie Authors: Online.
• The James Berry Poetry Prize closes on 1 June. It's open to poets of colour, who are UK residents who have not yet published a book-length collection, special consideration given to LGBTQ+/disabled poets and poets from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. No entry fee. 3 equal winners are each to receive a £1,000 prize, expert mentoring and their debut collection published with Bloodaxe Books.
• Other live competitions.
• Professional copy editing does make sense, either if you are trying to give your work its best chance when submitting it or, even more crucially, if you are planning to self-publish. But how are you supposed to tell who will do a good job, when the editorial services on the web all sound pretty much the same and it's tempting to go for the cheapest? Getting your manuscript copy edited
• Links from the publishing world: in the past authors banded together to make the case that publishing was a crucial industry for the nation's cultural and intellectual life, Book Publishing's Mike Pence Problem | The New Republic; a different perspective on book publishing's existential crisis, Mike Pence's book deal and publishing's wide rift on cancel culture - Vox; who knew that publishing could be so thrilling? New Thriller Books Find Drama in the Publishing World | Time; Wattpad already has 90 million monthly users, including five million writers who have contributed stories to the platform, Korea's Naver Completes Wattpad Acquisition; and the latest book fair news, Beijing Book Fair 2021: Internationally Digital, Physical for China-Based Publishers.
• Your submission package - how to put your package together to make the best impression when you're submitting to agents and publishers.
• Links from the world of writers: the more we all open up, then the more we can normalize the practice of talking about art and commerce, How Much Do Authors Earn? Here's the Answer No One Likes. | Jane Friedman; how female novelists have captured the literary zeitgeist, displacing men, How women conquered the world of fiction | Books | The Guardian; what makes some books work when others don't? The Magic Number - Bard Press; and another kind of magical entity at work, Deb Caletti on the Practical Magic of Research.
• From Joanne Phillips, The Business of Writing for Self-publishing authors offers terrific advice for all writers: 'Self-publishing authors - also known as ‘indie' authors or author-publishers - have had a steep learning curve these past few years. Getting to grips with the various sales channels available to them, producing top quality ebooks and paperbacks, and finding a place in mainstream outlets have left many writers struggling to keep up with the paperwork. What follows is a brief guide to the essentials your self-publishing business needs - because it is a business, even if you only publish one book!'
• Links from writers and readers: the bestselling YA author on having your novels adapted for the screen Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo: ‘People sneer at the things women and girls love' | Leigh Bardugo | The Guardian; I wrote my first crime novel for the saddest of reasons, Fuelled by grief: why I write crime fiction; a controversial book about the history writers, Who's missing? Top author stirs anger with ‘too white' history | History books | The Guardian; and do you get a buzz from your reading achievements? Why I am deleting Goodreads and maybe you should, too | Books | The Guardian.
• From our Writers' Quotes: 'Writers are fortunate in that they are able to treat their neurosis every day by writing and as soon as the writer is blocked - this is catastrophic because the writer will start to go to pieces.' Edmund Bergler.

• 'Technology is shifting more power to the hands of authors, who now have more options for what they can do with their manuscripts. Everything from the choice of publishing channels, to content formats, but also increasing the quality of their content using tools which perhaps would have been cost prohibitive to them in the past. Authors also want to reach as large an audience as possible. This is increasingly possible and becoming easier due to technology and digitisation of content. The easier it gets, the less reliant authors are on traditional publishing houses to reach these large audiences. Ali Albazaz, founder and CEO of Inkitt in 'The Power of Self-Publishing', Bookbrunch
• From our nineteen-part Inside Publishing series, you can read up on Advances and royalties: 'Publishers usually offer to pay authors advances against royalties. How do you work out how much money you might earn from your book? You need to understand for yourself how advances and royalties work and what they mean for you...'
• From the same series, Copy editing and proof-reading explains the difference between the two. 'Copy editing is the painstaking job of going through a manuscript line by line to correct the spelling, grammar and punctuation. Proof-reading at a later stage is a separate check through the book when it is set up in pages, before it goes to press or is finalised for ebook publishing.'
• Closing on 3 May, the new Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize is open to international entry. There's no entry fee. An Adult Fiction prize and a Young Adult /Middle Grade prize both offer a First Prize Publication contract offer from Leapfrog Press and Can of Worms Press with advance against royalties, Second Prize $150 and critiques.
• Other live competitions/awards.
• Assorted links: there's a lot of confusion about what the term means and how it really works, Everything You've Always Wanted to Know: Hybrid Publishing | Jane Friedman; did you know that UK primary schools do not have to have libraries? Children's laureates campaign for £100m a year to fix primary school libraries | Libraries | The Guardian; five tops tips for approaching the task, How to write a short story - National Centre for Writing; and Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Flame and the Flower was the instant bestseller that sparked it all off, Romance novels are big business. Here's how the genre took off. - The Washington Post.
• WritersServices can provide a range of services working on your manuscript, to help you get it ready for submission or self-publishing. We are UK-based, offer exceptional value and our skilled professional editors have been working on writers' manuscripts for 20 years. We have recently introduced free samples and free assessments on most of these services, please see the individual service page. Copy editing services.
• From our Endorsements page: On English Language editing: 'The result? A book that reads like it's written by a native speaker for only 13% of the price a complete translation would have costed. Thank you, writersservices.' Anthony Fitzgerald
• Links about writers: rejected by 32 publishers, his novel eventually found a home, earned the prestigious Booker Prize and became a bestseller, 'Shuggie Bain' author Douglas Stuart on love, working class - Los Angeles Times; one of the most original tots' tomes to hit the bookshops for many a decade, Terry Pratchett's debut turns 50: ‘At 17 he showed promise of a brilliant mind' | Books | The Guardian; and there are many reasons why it took me so long to write my eighth novel and not being Tolstoy is one of the main ones, On not being Tolstoy.
• Our latest new service is  the Writer's edit, a top-level service for writers who want line-editing as well as copy editing. Does your manuscript need high-level input from an editor to help you get it into the best possible shape for submission or self-publishing? This may be the service for you, offering the kind of editing which publishers' senior editors used to do in-house on their authors' manuscripts and which is now hard to find.
• Links from the publishing world: James Daunt says there's progress with America's biggest boookstore chain, Barnes & Noble, B&N CEO Says Things Are 'Much Better Now'; events are sadly to be streamed, Bologna abandons physical events to go digital only | The Bookseller; it's the same storry for the LBF, London Book Fair Opts for a Digital-Only Edition in 2021; and "It really was our backlist that saved the day for us," What Snoop Dogg's Success Says About the Book Industry - The New York Times.
• If you are submitting your work to an agent or directly to a publishing house, check through our guidelines to give it its best chance. Making Submissions.
• ‘Writers Are Insane. For months we are lone wolves locked in our caves. Then overnight we become publicity hounds. It's a schizophrenic business.' Robert Mykle in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘I feel sorry for people who have massive success when they're young. I was 48 when Eats, Shoots & Leaves became a bestseller and that helped me deal with it. All the time it was happening I was thinking: "In 10 years' time I'll look back on this with fond memories," because at the time I was quite anxious. I was also quite amused by it, because it was hilariously unlikely that a book of punctuation would be the number one bestseller in America...' Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves and 30 other books, including four crime novels.
• How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) - for non-native English speakers wanting to reach the international English language market. If your English is good enough, what about writing your book in English or translating it into English yourself, and then getting your translation polished and copy edited by a professional editor who is a native English speaker? The result should be a publishable manuscript at a relatively low cost, ready for you to publish or submit to publishers.
• The International Rubery Book of the Year Award 2021 is open to all writers internationally who have published or self-published their work in a wide range of categories. The entry fee is £37 and the prizes are £1500 plus £150 for at least three category winners. This closes on 31 March, so you need to move fast.
• Other competitions which are still open.
• 'Professional copy editing does make sense, either if you are trying to give your work its best chance when submitting it or, even more crucially, if you are planning to self-publish. But how are you supposed to tell who will do a good job, when the editorial services on the web all sound pretty much the same and it's tempting to go for the cheapest?' Getting your manuscript copy edited
• Links from the publishing world and Black Lives Matter: there's fear of the fallout if the deal goes ahead, Authors fear the worst if Penguin owner takes over Simon & Schuster | Publishing | The Guardian; good news from Italy for the children's book world, Bologna Confirms In-Person June Fair, New Programs; more on tranlators, Translators Weigh In on the Amanda Gorman Controversy - Asymptote Blog; and treating authors of colour as tools for self-improvement is an impoverished response to centuries of harm, White people, black authors are not your medicine | Books | The Guardian.
• A new addition to 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 hadn'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 to writers' stories: an author who turned 83 last month and has sold 1 million books for every year she's been alive, Are You There, Judy Blume? It's Us, the Generation of Writers You Inspired; one of the most wildly imaginative writers of any generation, Douglas Adams' note to self reveals author found writing torture | Douglas Adams | The Guardian; how did it all go wrong How I (Barely) Survived the Abject Failure of My Much Hyped Debut Novel ‹ Literary Hub; and I, too, assume that much of the contemporary fiction I read is autobiographical, Our Autofiction Fixation - The New York Times.
• Our services for writers page is just a list with links to the 20 services we offer.
• Links on audio and children's books: a year ago, very few audiobooks listeners would have realised that duvets were a valuable asset for recording audiobooks as well as for listening to them, Don't close the studio; the inside story, How audiobooks get recorded: Narrator Abby Craden shares her process; the format children read in can make a difference in terms of how they absorb information, How Children Read Differently From Books vs. Screens - The New York Times; and the Sunrise Movement contact they'd been "bossing about" was a 13-year-old, who was organising the whole thing between her classes, Naomi Klein: 'We shouldn't be surprised that kids are radicalised'.
• Working with an agent: 'Don't ever take on an agent you don't like or don't trust, however desperate you may feel. You have to be able to work with them in what should be an extremely important relationship for you as a writer. You must also feel confident that they are competent, enthusiastic about your work and can be trusted, both in terms of the advice they offer and in relation to handling your money...
• James Baldwin in our Writers' Quotes: 'Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success.'

• 'Booksellers have had many years of making themselves resilient, having had to live through the advent and growth of Amazon - they are entrepreneurial and hard-working, resourceful and creative. Despite having spent years building up USPs which the pandemic stripped away (gathering, meeting, conversation, events, in-person meetings and social spaces) they have managed, by hard work, to keep themselves visible to their customers and to the wider media, public, government and trade audiences.' Meryl Halls, MD of the UK Booksellers Association, in Bookbrunch.
• Health Hazards is our special series about the various health risks for writers, including the dreaded Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. If you know you're spending too much time at a keyboard, it's worth making sure you're being careful about how you're sitting, your eyes and your wrists. Although Coronavirus may be the main health risk you're focused on at the moment, these special writers' risks are worth thinking about.
• You'll have to hurry, but the the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prizes 2021 are open till 7 March. They're open to writers of any nationality writing in English in two classes: Best Unpublished Novel, which offers an advance of £15,000 on a publishing deal with Bonnier - entry fee £49 - and £10,000 for Best Published Novel.
• Which service should I choose to help me get my work into good shape for submission or self-publishing? This is the question our page Which service? answers and it then goes on to give a quick rundown on our 20 editorial services for writers, which we think is the biggest and most comprehensive you can find on the internet.
• Our links on writers and writing: it's a tough decision for a writer to make, one of the toughest: is now the moment to go for self-publishing? 11 Signs You're Ready to Self-Publish | Jane Friedman; a hugely admired author shares his thoughts, Jeff VanderMeer Talks Noir, Suspense, and His New Eco-Thriller With Meg Gardiner ‹ CrimeReads; nine books and three pseudonyms later, time for the lighthouse book, The sea in my bones; young authors may be self-censoring because they worry they will be "trolled" or "cancelled", Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear' - BBC News; and are you serious about putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and finally starting that novel idea you've had for years? 5 top tips for writing your novel - National Centre for Writing.
• Writing Biography & Autobiography is a serialisation from our Archives of the book by Brian D Osborne published by A & C BlackClick for A & C Black Publishers Publishers References listing. In the first excerpt, Managing the matters of truth and objectivity, the author says: 'Just as you need to remember that letters, reports, census forms, legal documents and so forth were not created simply for our convenience, so you also need to remember that what is written in them may not be true...'
• Links on diversity issues and publishing: does a black poet need a black translator? 'Shocked by the uproar': Amanda Gorman's white translator quits | Books | The Guardian; four years after the first report, Diversity in Romance Books Still Lags; the amazing move of a bestselling author with her full back catalogue to a publisher who has never handled fiction before, Fifty Shades author E.L. James to anchor new imprint | EW.com; and since the human appetite for celebrity self-­abasement and atonement, the raw materials of the well-turned tell-all, is unquenchable, Why the Political Memoir is 2021's Hottest Book Genre.
• If you need to get your material typed up, but can't face doing the job yourself, Typing manuscripts is a service for writers who have an old or handwritten manuscript which needs typing before they can proceed with reworking, submission or publication.
• 'I have discovered that I cannot burn a candle at one end and write a book with the other.' Katherine Mansfield in our Writers' Quotes.
• For quotes fans we have superb collections in More Writers' Quotes and Even More Quotes.

• 'It is all for the taking. All the manuals by frustrated fictioneers on how to write can't give you the first syllable of reality, at any cost, that any common conversation can. All the classics, read and re-read, can't help you catch the ring of truth as does the word heard first-hand...' Nelson Algren, author of The Man with the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side.
• An essential read for children's authors is Suzy Jenvey's special series for WritersServices, the four-part Essential Guide to Writing for Children. The first article looks at the all-important question of age groups and what you should be aware of in writing for each one. The second part is - Before You Write: What is My Story Going to be? The third part deals with Starting to Write and the fourth part is about Submitting Your Work to Agents and Editors. This series by a hugely experienced children's editorial director and agent helps you get started on your own story or develop what you're already working on.
• Our Children's Editorial Services help you to get your children's book ready for publication or self-publishing. Have you found it difficult to get expert editorial input on your work ? Do you want to know if it might find a publisher? Or are you planning to self-publish?
• Our links on writers and writing: more than 130 years on, Holmes remains our almost constant companion, 'I think I've written more Sherlock Holmes than even Conan Doyle': the ongoing fight to reimagine Holmes | Books | The Guardian; coming up, a series on Ernest Hemingway's life and death and the myth that surrounded both, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Turn Their Lens, and Jeff Daniels's Voice, to Hemingway; it's a difficult time to write police procedurals. Or at least it should be, The Future of Police Procedurals ‹ CrimeReads; is it right to proceed with a biography against the wishes of the family? Hitchens Biography Proceeds, Against His Widow's Wishes - The New York Times; and the awful search for a flatttering author photo, Let's Face It: In Search of the Alluring Author Photo | BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog.
• Working with an agent explains how to get the best out of the relationship with your agent: 'It can be hard work finding an agent to represent you. Make sure though that, when you set up the relationship, you do so in a professional manner Don't let your eagerness to find representation mean that things are left vague. You will be depending on the agent to process all your income from the books they sell, so you need to have a written record of your arrangement, preferably a contract...'
• Do you want some help with your writing but don't know quite what you want? Choosing a service can help you work out which service is right for you, or you could just email us.
• Links from publishing and bookselling: rather shockingly, this bitter dispute has lasted two years, Feud Between Hollywood Agents and TV Writers Comes to an End - The New York Times; major changes may be coming for British publishers, Richard Charkin: Brexit Ushers British Publishing Into New Territory; more thoughtful articles on Amazon and Bezos, At last, the regime that enabled Amazon's monopoly power is crumbling | Amazon | The Guardian; and on the man himself, ‘A managerial Mephistopheles': inside the mind of Jeff Bezos | Jeff Bezos | The Guardian.
• 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. Typing Manuscripts.
• 'Luckily for art, life is difficult, hard to understand, useless, and mysterious.' Grace Paley in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘The imagination doesn't crop annually like a reliable fruit tree. The writer has to gather whatever's there: sometimes too much, sometimes too little, sometimes nothing at all. And in the years of glut there is always a slatted wooden tray in some cool, dark attic, which the writer nervously visits from time to time...' Julian Barnes, author of 25 books, including Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot, Arthur & George, England, England, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and The Sense of an Ending, which won the Booker Prize in 2011.
• For anyone thinking about or embarked on self-publishing, our ten-part WritersServices Self-Publishing Guide by Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk is an essential starting-point, taking you through the process step-by-step. 'Indie authors access the same professional services as traditional publishing houses. They employ freelance editors, proofreaders and cover designers. They have their work professionally formatted for ebooks and typeset for print. They may use service providers to manage some or all of the publishing tasks, or they may go it alone...' Articles include Choose Your Self-publishing Route and Marketing and Promotion for Indie Authors: Online.
• If you're looking for a report on your manuscript, how do you work out which one of our four would suit you best? Which Report? includes our top-of-the range service, the Editor's Report Plus, introduced by popular demand to provide even more detail. This very substantial report takes the form of a chapter-by-chapter breakdown and many writers have found this detail helps them to get their book right.
• Rotten Rejections provides a note of the things publishers wish they'd never said: on Animal Farm by George Orwell ‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA' and Carrie by Stephen King 'We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.'
• Links on writers and writing: on writing historical fiction, What Writing About the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre Taught Me About the Madness of Crowds ‹ CrimeReads; there's only one thing that any novel must do if it's going to succeed, and that's arouse the reader's curiosity, The One Thing Your Novel Absolutely Must Do | Jane Friedman; What's a mystery all about? The ending? The Mystery Is Holmes: Why We Return to Conan Doyle's Stories Over and Over Again ‹ CrimeReads; a call for picture book submissions from international writers of colour', with a view to increasing the diversity of its picture book list, Submissions window opens at Nosy Crow; and twice in the last three years I have taught an undergraduate course at Stanford called "Unfinished Novels." Why Should We Read Unfinished Novels?
• Have you ever wondered why you don't win any of those competitions? What can you do to improve your chances? Our tipsheet on Entering Competitions.
• Our printing and publishing glossary is a useful guide to some of the arcane terms used in the publishing world.
• Links from the world of publishing: Giving away the audiobook for Michelle Paver's Viper's Daughter - read by Sir Ian McKellen, no less - may seem like a dumb idea to most publishers, but Head of Zeus are not most publishers, A beautiful word for consumers a terrifying one for publishers; the Big Five publishers' hold over the adult hardcover and paperback bestsellers lists declined in 2020 compared to 2019, with independent publishers gaining ground, Breaking Down 2020 Bestsellers by Publisher; another seismic shift that will go largely unnoticed and unremarked for now, but will send ripples across the global publishing arena for years to come, Naver's $600 million buy-out of Wattpad should be a wake-up call for western publishers who still don't "get" online reading - The New Publishing Standard; and renewed demand for the Regency-era novels by Julia Quinn that form the basis for the eight-episode program, Netflix's Hit Series 'Bridgerton' Drives Book Sales.
• 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, unique to WritersServices, edits your collection to prepare it for submission or self-publishing. Both can provide the professional editorial input you need.
• ‘Historical romance does a different kind of work than historical fiction. The work of the romance novel is not to tell the story of the past. It is to hold a mirror to the present.' Sarah MacLean in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘The thing I like about novels is that they are a more forgiving form. You can make missteps. It's harder to write a really good short story - I'm more aware of the flaws in my short stories. There's pleasure I get being able to spend that much time with people and ideas in novels, but if you write a short story, the magical period of an idea to the excitement of composition and the first draft is short, but deeply pleasurable in a way novels are not... Elizabeth McCracken, author of Bowlaway, Thunderstruck and four other books of novels, short stories and a memoir, in the Observer.
• A Publisher's View is our four-part series from publisher Tom Chalmers on what publishers are looking for. What a publisher wants from submissions, Judging a book by its covering letter and synopsis, Making the submission and The changing face of publishing. 'While editors may well do some later tinkering, it shouldn't be sent in unless the writer feels it is a manuscript ready for publication, in terms of both grammar and content. Lines like ‘I know it needs some work', or ‘I think it's nearly there' show admirable humility but are an immediate put-off!...'
• The 2021 International Book and Pamphlet Competition is open to poets internationally. The entry fee is £28, £25 to subscribers to The North. The prize is publication by Smith|Doorstop Books; a share of £2,000 cash; a launch reading; publication in the North magazine; book vouchers from Inpress Books. Closing 1 March. This is one of the few poetry prizes which has publication as its prize.
• Which service should I choose to help me get my work into good shape for submission or self-publishing? This is the question our page Which service? answers and it then goes on to give a quick rundown on our 20 editorial services for writers, which we think is the biggest and most comprehensive you can find on the internet.
• Our links this week are a rather thin crop, as the book world lumbers its way back into action after the break: it's been a picture of gloom and doom for most business sectors in 2020, but it's good to know that 2020 has been surprisingly good for the publishing industry - Good e-Reader; the peril faced by the work of a writer dying young, George Orwell is out of copyright. What happens now? | George Orwell | The Guardian; George Saunders once said, ‘when you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you'...but what is the best way to get yourself going? Writing a short story - where do you start? - National Centre for Writing.
• It may surprise you to know that the first of Julie Wheelwright's Top Ten Tips for Nonfiction Writers is: 'Story, story, story. Make sure that your story can sustain several chapters and tens of thousands of words. Keep asking yourself: Why would anyone want to read this story?'
• A few more links: the generosity of a donor supporting poets and writers, B&N Founder Makes $250K Donation to Poets & Writers; pitching a manuscript isn't for cowards, the thin skinned, or those with no endurance. Believing your project is worthy, truly believing in it, is required, as is the patience of a saint, How I Landed a Book Deal Via Twitter - Unintentionally | Jane Friedman; and a renowned children's author points to the difference between 'selecting' and 'censoring'? Michael Morpurgo denies 'censoring' Merchant of Venice in children's book | Michael Morpurgo | The Guardian.
• WritersServices editor Kay GaleWritersServices editor who has worked for many years as a freelance editor for number of publishers. on The Slush pile: 'When I started working in publishing over thirty years ago it was part of my job to check through the pile of unsolicited manuscripts that arrived on a daily basis, and like every other enthusiastic young editorial assistant, I dreamed of finding the next bestseller in the ‘slush pile'. I was soon disillusioned..'
• 'Professional copy editing does make sense, either if you are trying to give your work its best chance when submitting it or, even more crucially, if you are planning to self-publish. But how are you supposed to tell who will do a good job, when the editorial services on the web all sound pretty much the same and it's tempting to go for the cheapest?' Getting your manuscript copy edited
• 'People have many cruel expectations from writers. People expect novelists to live on a hill with three kids and a spouse, people expect children's story writers to never have sex, and people expect all great poets to be dead. And these are all very difficult expectations to fulfill, I think.' C. JoyBell C. in our Writers' Quotes

• ‘Just because you can write a full-length grownup novel there's no guarantee that you can transpose that ability to a children's book. In the end it was a collaborative performance both with (illustrator) Daniela Terrazzini and my children: I would read parts of the story to them and they gave instant and very direct feedback. They were very honest and sometimes pretty brutal. When a child doesn't like something they let you know - often by getting up and walking away...' Maggie O'Farrell on her first children's book, Where Snow Angels Go. She is also the author of the wonderful bestselling Hamnet, After You'd Gone, The Hand That first Held Mine, The Distance Between Us and four other novels, as well as a memoir, I am, I am, I am, in the Observer.
• Tips for writers is our 8-part crash course for writers who are starting out, taking you from Learn on the job to Self-publishing: is it for you? to Keep up to date and Submission to publishers and agents. 'Before deciding to go for self-publishing, you should think through what is involved. Certain kinds of books lend themselves to this approach. If you have a book which you can sell after your lectures, or as a promotional tool, or there's some local or specialist interest in what you have written, then self-publishing can be a good idea. If you've written a novel and want to get it published, you should think hard about how you're going to market it...'
• Closing on 1 February, one of the very best children's writing competitions - The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2020 - is open to unpublished and unagented writers of children's fiction suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. There's no entry fee. The prize is a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000, plus an offer of representation from a top literary agent. Also on their website, MD Barry Cunningam's tips on writing for children, from the man who first signed up J K Rowling.
• Other comptetitions and prizes which are still live.
• As well as our highly-regarded Copy editing service, which will help you prepare your manuscript for submission or self-publishing, we have Manuscript Polishing, which provides a higher-level polishing service, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, our latest new service Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. Get the right level of editorial support for your needs. Our low-cost services represent exceptionally good value. Contact us to discuss what you want.
• Our links on writers and writing: Tom Stoppard: "He was David to his friends, and, enormous though that company was, one couldn't help taking pride in belonging to it", John le Carré remembered by writers and friends; 'My ties to England have loosened': John le Carré on Britain, Boris and Brexit | John le Carré | The Guardian; from the author of the most beloved horror novels in the history of popular fiction, many of which have been turned into equally acclaimed and successful films, Stephen King Has Thoughts About Stephen King TV Shows - The New York Times; a completely different career which is indicative of many publishing trends, The Talented Ms. Calloway - Los Angeles Review of Books; and here's how to approach this form of writing, The Benefits of Writing Flash Fiction | Jane Friedman.
• Writing Biography & Autobiography is a serialisation from our Archives of the book by Brian D Osborne published by A & C BlackClick for A & C Black Publishers Publishers References listing. In the first excerpt, Managing the matters of truth and objectivity, the author says: 'Just as you need to remember that letters, reports, census forms, legal documents and so forth were not created simply for our convenience, so you also need to remember that what is written in them may not be true...'
• The inimitable Mandy Coe on Poetry as the Language of Child is this week's blog at the Children's Poetry Summit. Great blogs from Michael Rosen, Val Bloom, Brian Moses, Laura Mucha and many others.
• Links from the publishing world: it's great that it's not all gloom and doom, 'It's been a rollercoaster': how indie publishers survived - and thrived - in 2020 | Publishing | The Guardian; how have US bookstores weathered the storm? Amid COVID-19, L.A. bookstores face pivotal holiday season - Los Angeles Times; and  a story of how much an industry can change and how much it can, or wants to, remain the same, Publishing saw upheaval in 2020, but 'books are resilient'.
• Here's a detailed article on how to prepare 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...'
• '"The cat sat on the mat" is not a story."The cat sat on the dog's mat" is a story.' John le Carré's verdict in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘We turn to fiction for the satisfactions that we don't get in real life. In reality you know that if a crime is committed against you they're never going to find out who did it. If your house is broken into they probably won't even show up, and if they do you'll never get your stuff back. If your car is stolen, you'll never see it again. We live with this sort of buzz of frustration and dissatisfaction. So we turn to fiction for clarity and consolation and closure...' Lee Child, author of the 25 Jack Reacher novels, from Killing Floor to The Sentinel, who has recently handed over the writing to his brother.
• From our nineteen-part Inside Publishing series, you can read up on Advances and royalties: 'Publishers usually offer to pay authors advances against royalties. How do you work out how much money you might earn from your book? You need to understand for yourself how advances and royalties work and what they mean for you...'
• From the same series, Copy editing and proof-reading explains the difference between the two. Copy editing is the painstaking job of going through a manuscript line by line to correct the spelling, grammar and punctuation. Proof-reading at a later stage is a separate check through the book when it is set up in pages, before it goes to press or is finalised for ebook publishing.
• Calling all UK self-publishers: The Selfies Book Awards UK 2021 is open to authors who have self-published adult fiction, children's books or adult memoirs/autobiography in the UK between January and December 2020. Entry fee: £25 per title to include a six-month subscription to Bookbrunch. There's a £750 cash prize for each category plus a profile in BookBrunch and the option of a special publishing deal provided by sponsors IngramSpark.
• Our links from publishing, which is experiencing big upheavals: the acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House shows that the industry is headed toward a monopolistic situation, Pretty Soon There'll Be Just One Big Book Publisher Left | The New Republic; the Authors' Guild and other organisations are fighting back, PRH Purchase of S&S Draws Objections; small publishers surviving the pandemic, Implement like hell; and a big shock affecting BookExpo, the biggest annual book fair in America, is being "retired", BookExpo and BookCon Are No More.
• Copy editing services - WritersServices can provide a range of services working on your manuscript, to help you get it ready for submission or self-publishing. We are UK-based and our skilled professional editors have been working on writers' manuscripts for 19 years. We have recently introduced free samples and free assessments on most of these services, please see the individual service page
• If you're interested in short stories, you can read three of the best shortlisted for the Costa Short Story Award and take part in the public vote.
• Links about writing: rather academic but fascinating, The rise and fall of the Oxford School of fantasy literature | Aeon Essays; most of us write the first draft of our memoir chronologically, setting down what happened in order, or thematically, 2 Methods for Structuring Your Memoir; big changes as the organisation commits to diversity, Royal Society of Literature reveals historic changes to improve diversity | Books | The Guardian; and a contracts checklist for when negotiating with a publisher without an agent, Andrew Lownie Literary Agency | Top tips when negotiating contracts.
• From our Endorsements page: 'Today I only want to say, "thank you". DM has done a truly great job. I have worked with her suggestions which have brought clarity and depth to my subject. Her work on my punctuation is brilliant. As I read through the manuscript now, it is like gliding on silk.' Helena Dodds.
• Links from writers: more on Lee Child, Jack Reacher's good fights - Michael Robbins - Bookforum Magazine; the wondrous Diagram Prize has come up with its latest crazy winner, Let it flow: A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path wins 42nd Diagram Prize | The Bookseller; and 'he would not win the coveted award today because he is a 'white, straight man', Booker Prize winner John Banville slams 'woke' movement as 'a religious cult' | Daily Mail Online.
• If you've got some time on your hands because you're locked down, now might be the time to look through some of the information about the writing world on our page Advice to writers.
• We're looking for experienced typists in the UK for our Typing Manuscripts service, so if you know of anyone who's interested please ask them to get in touch with their cv.
• 'Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance.' Matthew Arnold in our Writers' Quotes.

• 'Why does the writer write? The writer writes to serve - hopelessly he writes in the hope that he might serve - not himself and not others, but that great cold elemental grace which knows us. A writer I very much admire is Don DeLillo. At an awards ceremony for him at the Folger Library several years ago, I said that he was like a great shark moving hidden in our midst, beneath the din and wreck of the moment, at apocalyptic ease in the very elements of our psyche and times that are most troublesome to us, that we most fear...' Joy Williams, author of The Visiting Privilege, The Quick and the Dead, Ill Nature, State of Grace and The Changeling.
• For anyone thinking about or embarked on self-publishing, our ten-part WritersServices Self-Publishing Guide by Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk is an essential starting-point, taking you through the process step-by-step. 'Today's indie author can feel confident that they are in good company - indeed, many traditionally published authors are leaving their publishers and going indie by choice. Tired of creative compromises, covers they can't stand, zero promotion and tiny royalty percentages, they are joining the ranks of self-publishing authors and reaping the benefits. If you have a book you are passionate about, if your main objective is to get your work in front of readers and make it professional and accessible, and if you're tired of doing the ‘rounds' of agents and publishers and facing soul-destroying rejection, there is an answer. Self publish...' Articles include What is Self-publishing and Choose Your Self-publishing Route.
• As well as our highly-regarded Copy editing service, which will help you prepare your manuscript for submission or self-publishing, we have Manuscript Polishing, which provides a higher-level polishing service, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, our latest new service Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. Get the right level of editorial support for your needs. Our low-cost services represent exceptionally good value. Contact us to discuss what you want.
• Links from the publishing world: millions of Chinese understand perfectly why e-commerce giant Alibaba adopted this as a marketing slogan for its hugely successful Singles' Day, The past is prologue; tomorrow is online; you'll know who's won the Booker by the time you read this, but Africa basks in Booker boost for female writers - BBC News; more impending consolidation amongst the big battalions of the publishing world, 'NYT' Says HC, PRH Top Contenders to Buy S&S; and nearly one milion children's books in print, Self-Published Author Moves Brand into Consumer Products.
• An endorsement from Anthony Fitzgerald for our English Language Editing Service: 'The result? A book that reads like it's written by a native speaker for only 13% of the price a complete translation would have costed. Thank you, writersservices.'
• Links from writers and about writing: Nigerian-American author's Half of a Yellow Sun has been voted the best of the Women's Prize's 25 years of winners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is Women's Prize 'Winner of Winners'; SF anthology stalled since 1974, Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions may finally be published, after five-decade wait | Books | The Guardian; he was just 16 in 1968, it was a moment of change and social revolution, Novelist William Boyd Looks Back to the Past; and author of the cult classic novel, in which a bored psychiatrist  lets "the dice decide" his options, The Dice Man author George Cockcroft (aka Luke Rhinehart) dies aged 87 | Books | The Guardian.
• If you are submitting your work to an agent or directly to a publishing house, check through our guidelines to give it its best chance. Making Submissions.
• Links of general interest: if you'd like to improve your writing setup, this useful guide may help, 11 Actually Useful Digital Tips for Writers - National Centre for Writing; 'some days we think of poetry as a dead antelope', a serious look at poetry and prizes, On Poets and Prizes / Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young - ASAP/J; 35% of the world read more due to COVID-19, but go online to look at this properly, Infographic: World Reading Habits in 2020 | The Digital Reader.
• Working with an agent explains how to get the best out of the relationship with your agent: 'It can be hard work finding an agent to represent you. Make sure though that, when you set up the relationship, you do so in a professional manner Don't let your eagerness to find representation mean that things are left vague. You will be depending on the agent to process all your income from the books they sell, so you need to have a written record of your arrangement, preferably a contract...'
• 'Meeting writers is always so disappointing. I got over wanting to meet live writers quite a long time ago. There is this terrific book that has changed your life, and then you meet the author, and he has shifty eyes and funny shoes and he won't talk about anything except the injustice of the United States income tax structure toward people with fluctuating income, or how to breed Black Angus cows, or something.' Ursula K Le Guin in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘You write a biography from the vantage point of where you are: your gender, your race, your class. It's not a love affair or a marriage: it's a job. You're not writing autobiography; you're writing about some other person, usually a dead person. You can only access them in as far as you have materials and witnesses to allow you to access them. You are at the mercy of what you can find and read and hear and see. You become as intimate as you can with the life and work of this person... But there is always going to be a gap... Hermione Lee, author of many books including biographies of Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Penelope Fitzgerald and now Tom Stoppard, her only living subject, in the New Statesman.
• Written exclusively for WritersServices - Trident Media Group Literary Agent Mark Gottlieb explains how literary agencies work. It's no surprise that they do a lot more than you think and that they bring a lot of expertise in a range of different areas to bear on behalf of their authors. How Literary Agents Work.
• Last year we launched the Writer's edit, a top-level new service for writers who want line-editing as well as copy editing. Does your manuscript need high-level input from an editor to help you get it into the best possible shape for submission or self-publishing? This may be the service for you, offering the kind of editing which publishers' senior editors used to do in-house on their authors' manuscripts and which is now hard to find. Our other copy editing services.
• Our links on writing: there's only one question to ask an author, Hilary Mantel on How Writers Learn to Trust Themselves | Literary Hub; terrible Hollywood adaptations, writing LGBTQ characters for YA and much more, Rick Riordan: 'I feel very protective of my fans. I am aware of my responsibility to make them feel safe' | Books | The Guardian; Why would you want to write a book this way? Why would you want to expose the early stages of your work to the World Wide Web? 10 Reasons Why You Should Blog a Book - How to Blog a Book; at last they're starting to get attention, Graphic novels are overlooked by book prizes, but that's starting to change; Can reading aloud help you write better? Does planning too far ahead overcomplicate things? Five writing tips for beginners - National Centre for Writing; and a leader who blazed a trail, Margaret Busby: how Britain's first black female publisher revolutionised literature - and never gave up | Society | The Guardian.
• Writers' stories - they're just a bit of fun, but in a rare moment of inspiration we wrote some fictionalised stories of how the services could turn out, to give you a better idea of how they might work for you. Joe's fantasy novel benefited from some professional input, when he signed up for an Editor's Report Plus. Tony needed Copy editing to get his manuscript into shape for publication or self-publishing.
• More links on writers and books: writing a book about my adventure? I Spent Nearly Two Decades Writing and Editing My Book. It Finally Found a Publisher. | Jane Friedman; transformed by a great writer into The Greengage Summer, My search for novelist Rumer Godden's famed French summer - BBC News; good news from his Nigerian publisher, Wole Soyinka to publish first novel in almost 50 years | Books | The Guardian; as usual, it's a crazy shortlist, The Bookseller announces the Diagram Prize 2020 shortlist | The Bookseller; and how Book Aid InternationalSupplies much-needed books to developing countries, raising funds from publishers and general public; 'Reverse Book Club' is masterly idea-for just £5 ($10) month you can provide 48 books to go to where they're most needed has been keeping young people supplied with books during the Covid-19 crisis, Pandemic: maintaining the books lifeline.
• Getting your poetry published - Poets are naturally keen to see their work in print but it's actually quite hard to get a first collection taken on by a publisher. This is because most poetry lists are pretty small... It's hard to achieve any sales for first collections and the publishers have to be realistic about this. Here's how to look at the options.
• 'After all everybody, that is, everybody who writes, is interested in living inside themselves in order to tell what is inside themselves. That is why writers have to have two countries, the one where they belong and the one in which they live really. The second one is romantic, it is separate from themselves, it is not real but it is really there.' Gertrude Stein in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘Dear Aspiring Writer, you are not ready. Stop. Put that finished story away and start another one. In a month, go back and look at the first story. RE-EDIT it. Then send it to a person you respect in the field who will be hard on you. Pray for many many, many red marks. Fix them. Then put it away for two weeks. Work on something else. Finally, edit one last time. Now you are ready to sub your first work...' Inez Kelley, author of Sweet as Sin, Turn It Up, Taming the Alpha and 11 other books.
• Tips for writers is our 8-part crash course for writers who are starting out, taking you from Promoting Your Writing (and Yourself) to Self-publishing: is it for you? from Keep up to date to Submission to publishers and agents. 'Be prepared to redraft your work and to rethink it. Many new writers assume that their work will immediately be ready for publication, but the truth is that many highly successful writers produced several drafts of their first work before they got it published.' And 'When you've got your work into the best state you can, put it on one side for a few weeks and then look at it afresh. You'll be amazed what difference a fresh eye will make.'
• As well as our highly-regarded Copy editing service, which will help you prepare your manuscript for submission or self-publishing, we have Manuscript Polishing, which provides a higher-level polishing service, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not their native language, our latest new service Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. Get the right level of editorial support for your needs. Our low-cost services represent exceptionally good value. Contact us to discuss what you want.
• Our links for and about writers: first, an exceptionally good article, What is Plot? A Writer's Guide to Creating Amazing Plots - The Art of Narrative; an American head of state publicly acknowledging the work of a private eye, in this case a former British spy named Christopher Steele, The Modern Detective: Inside the Secret World of Private Investigators | CrimeReads; they will not let their future novels be entered for the award after the prize asked them for information on their sex as defined "by law", Akwaeke Emezi shuns Women's prize over request for details of sex as defined 'by law' | Books | The Guardian; and her phone hadn't stopped ringing since 7 a.m., an onslaught of attention she described as "nightmarish", The Poet Louise Glück Talks About Winning the Nobel Prize in Literature - The New York Times.
• Here's a detailed article on how to prepare 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...'
• Links from the publishing world: the pandemic persuaded Italians to overcome their reluctance to online shopping, Can Amazon Conquer the World? - The New York Times; one amazing success story, Why Hollywood has gobbled up book rights amid COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times; as the publisher prepares to release a highly controversial title later this week, it's the politics of American publishing that worries publisher Baldwin, Chelsea Green Prepares Naomi Wolf Release; and, more on this subject, Women's Prize confirms entrants 'must be legally defined as female' | The Bookseller.
• Our page of Picture library links provides a good starting-point for finding an image for your book, whether it's for the cover or inside. Gograph was added a while ago with its 18 million stock links.
• More links for writers: in my mind, "crime fiction" was exclusively written about crime and criminals from the perspective of detectives, Why I'm Proud to Have My Books Called "Crime Fiction" | CrimeReads; a shortlist that shows that poetry is "the most resilient, potent, capacious and universal art we have", TS Eliot prize unveils 'unsettling, captivating' shortlist | Books | The Guardian; a previously unpublished writer has described the "extraordinary" breakthrough moment, Children's fiction: Cardiff writer's debut book nets him six-figure deal - BBC News; right about that time, I stopped being interested in adults, Ramona Quimby and the Art of Writing From a Kid's Mind | Literary Hub; and no writer lives in a vacuum, their job is an endless task of paying attention, Top 10 books about creative writing | Books | The Guardian.
• 'A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.' The late Helen Dunmore in our Writers' Quotes.

• 'Every article and review and book that I have ever published has constituted an appeal to the person or persons to whom I should have talked before I dared to write it. I never launch any little essay without the hope - and the fear, because the encounter may also be embarrassing - that I shall draw a letter that begins, 'Dear Mr. Hitchens, it seems that you are unaware that...' It is in this sense that authorship is collaborative with 'the reader.' And there's no help for it: you only find out what you ought to have known by pretending to know at least some of it already. The late Christopher Hitchens, author of Hitch 22: A Memoir and 18 other books.
• Our 20 Services for writers - just a list of what we offer at WritersServices.
• Health Hazards is our special series about the various health risks for writers, including the dreaded Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. If you know you're spending too much time at a keyboard, it's worth making sure you're being careful about how you're sitting, your eyes and your wrists. Although Covid 19 is probably the main health problem you're focused on at the moment, these special writers' risks are worth thinking about.
• The Moth Poetry Prize 2020 closes on 31 December and is open to all poets over 16 for an unpublished poem. The entry fee is €15 per poem. 1st prize €6,000, plus three runner-up prizes of €1,000 and eight commended poets will each receive €250.
• Other writing competitions which are still open.
• Links to articles from writers: we were inside a transformation. We just couldn't see it, Writing a History of a Pandemic During a Pandemic | Literary Hub; famous disappearances, The Art of Disappearing | CrimeReads; the translator is a writer. The writer is a translator. How many times have I run up against these assertions? The Writer-Translator Equation | by Tim Parks | The New York Review of Books; your book readers are moving online, and so should you, How to Create a Virtual Buzz Around Your Book; today, silent reading is the norm. The majority of us bottle the words in our heads as if sitting in the hushed confines of a library, Why you should read this out loud - BBC Future; and expectations for the new Dune movie from director Denis Villeneuve are sky-high, ‘Dune' Is a Behemoth of a Book to Adapt | WIRED.
• Are you writing for the children's market? Do you want to know if it has real commercial potential? Or are you planning to self-publish? Our Children's Editorial Services provide three levels of report, so you can get your work assessed, and copy editing by specialist children's editors.
• Links to stories from the publishing world: the departure of a much-loved publishing head is causing quite a stir, Macmillan C.E.O. John Sargent Is Departing - The New York Times; changes to the children's publishing and library marketing spheres over the years, Exit Interview with Michael Eisenberg; a mere 3% of books published in the U.S. are works in translation, Building Bridges: The Art of Children's Book Translation; and, latest surprise news, JK Rowling's new thriller takes No 1 spot amid transphobia row | Books | The Guardian.
• Our glossary of publishing and printing terms and abbreviations is a great reference tool for authors.
• 'Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant - you just don't know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you'd mapped out for yourself.' Roger Zelazny's contribution to our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘The majority of my books are set in north London, and it began to seem like an omission or a lie that when I open my door I'm in a multiracial neighbourhood, yet I haven't written about that. Should my books stay white for the rest of my life? I don't think so. That's all I can say, I wanted the book to represent my city... You write yourself out the further you go. The women thing started like that. I came to believe that women had more problems than white men, and white men's problems are mostly internal. That's certainly the case with High Fidelity and About a Boy. I tried to do the best I could with them, but there is something inert about that... Nick Hornby, author of 21 books, including 7 novels, amongst them Just Like You, published next week, About a Boy, Fever Pitch and High Fidelity, in the Sunday Times' Culture.
• For anyone thinking about or embarked on self-publishing, our ten-part WritersServices Self-Publishing Guide by Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk is an essential starting-point, taking you through the process step-by-step. 'Self-publishing has changed so much over the past few years it's hard to believe it was once looked down upon by the publishing industry as the last resort of the vain and desperate. At the time of writing many self-publishing authors are identifying with the term ‘indie author', which acknowledges that to professionally publish today, you don't actually have to do everything yourself!' Articles include Formatting your book for Kindle and Marketing and Promotion for Indie Authors: Online.
• If on the other hand you're planning to submit to agents, you'll want to get your submission package into good shape before getting started, to give your book its best chance.
• Seven writing competitions are still open, though some are closing soon.
• This week's links are a varied bunch: there is no risk greater for a writer than emotional risk - which is why writing one's memoir is ultimately the riskiest of all, The Risky Writing Life; a comprehensive process in which, according to the definitive book on the subject, a trained checker works through your book? Why Nonfiction Book Fact Checking Should Be an Industry Standard; the big beasts of the ,publishing world are circling, eying up their prey, Bertelsmann, HarperCollins Show Interest in S&S; the acclaimed crime writer acknowledging that the fact that some people are perceived to have value attached to them and others aren't is really important, Denise Mina: 'I couldn't read until I was about nine' | Books | The Guardian; and 'An unhappy childhood is a writer's gold mine, Writing a path to redemption.
• Our article on How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) asks writers with a manuscript which needs translating or has been written in English by a non-native speaker: 'if your English is good enough, what about translating your book yourself, or writing in English, and then getting your translation polished and copy edited by a professional editor who is a native English speaker?' This could be a cost-effective way of reaching the international English-speaking market.
• English Language Editing is our polishing service for writers who have translated their work into English or written it in English when it is not their native language. If you need to make sure it's good enough to publish, or send to a publisher, this service is for you. Acknowledging the growth of world English, English Language Editing is designed for the many non-native English speakers throughout the world who want to publish their work in English.
• More links: here's a breakthrough first novel, a high-school thriller which tackles institutionalised racism, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé: the 21-year-old British student with a million-dollar book deal; this year, my detective Vera Stanhope turns 21, Stories have always been healing, so I'm funding bibliotherapists | Ann Cleeves | Books | The Guardian; 'a novel tells you far more about a writer than an essay, a poem, or even an autobiography', Martin Amis Gets Matter of Fact; and children's authors who also work in the children's publishing world, Children's Writers Who Wear Multiple Hats.
• Are you having difficulty producing a really good blurb to self-publish your book? Or do you need a synopsis to submit it to publishers? Our services can help.
• From our Writers' Quotes: 'Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.' Gloria Steinem

‘I'm always interested in trying to use whodunit and murder mystery forms to do something a bit more profound than, after 400 pages, saying the butler did it, thank you, goodbye. Effectively, I didn't just want to write ordinary detective stories... They are the only form of literature that deals in absolute truths. When you read a whodunit, the joy of it is that you know that at the last chapter every ‘i' will be dotted, every ‘t' will be crossed, everything will be solved...' Anthony Horowitz, author of 73 books, including the Alex Rider series, the just-published Moonflower Murders, Magpie Murders and 14 TV series, in the Sunday Times Culture. Our Comment.

An Editor's Advice is a series of seven articles by one of our editors on really useful subjects for writers such as Manuscript presentation, Dialogue, Doing further drafts and Planning: 'The idea of planning doesn't fit well with the idea of the writer as inspired genius, frantically scribbling away. However, I am willing to bet that, no matter what they would have you think, most successful writers plan as much as they write. They just don't tell you about it. The biggest objection that most inexperienced writers raise when someone broaches the delicate matter of planning is that it will get in the way of their inventive powers. A plan will be like a straitjacket. They'll be stuck with this plan and if they come up with a good idea along the way, they will not be able to use it. They are genuinely horrified at the thought...'

Mslexia Fiction & Memoir Competition 2020 is open to women writers only from across the world with unpublished manuscripts (self-published work allowed) in four categories: Flash Fiction, Short Story, Children's & YA Novel and Memoir & Life Writing, with various entry fees and prizes. Closing 21 September.

Do you want some help with your writing but don't quite know what you want - or even if you need any help? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? Choosing a service can help you work out which service is right for you. Or email us to ask about your requirements.

Our links: how readers are most engaged Maybe We Read Crime Fiction Because Deep Down, We All Know We're Complicit in Crime | CrimeReads; writers who find themselves mired in procrastination would do well to take a page from Marcel Proust's most famous book, Surprising secrets of writers' first book drafts - BBC Culture; an amalgamation of swashbuckling detective, political activist, and Catholic theologian, The Evolution of Dave Robicheaux and the Incredible Career of James Lee Burke | CrimeReads; from a writer, poet and editor from London, Will Harris on the Idea of Poetry as Interconnectedness | Literary Hub; and at least ten times a day I ask myself, "What the f*ck is wrong with people?" Why Writing About Psychopaths Keeps Me Sane | CrimeReads.

If you are trying to get your work into shape for publication, or for self-publishing, there's plenty of advice on the WritersServices website which may help. Advice for writers

More links: if Amazon's power is left unchecked, competition within publishing could diminish even more, Publishing Leaders Issuing Warning over Amazon's Market Power; it's now roughly halfway through a series of virtual meetings with publishers, Black Writers' Guild reports progress as publishers start to confront diversity deficit | The Bookseller; a sad side-effect of the success of charity bookshops, The demise of the second-hand bookshop | Alexander Larman | The Critic Magazine; until quite recently, I hadn't finished a book since the end of January, Get Happier by Rereading Your Favorite Books From Childhood.

Have you been working on your book over the holidays? Are you now ready to submit to publishers or to self-publish? We offer the widest range of editorial services on the web, tailored to writers' requirements and carried out by our professional editors, Our Services for writers.

Our final set of links are all about the Women's Prize for Fiction Reclaim Her Name programme and show just how a well-intentioned initiative can go wrong: ‘George Eliot' joins 24 female authors making debuts under their real names | Books | The Guardian; next, apologies, 'Sloppy': Baileys under fire over Reclaim Her Name books for Women's prize | Books | The Guardian; and then a more serious challenge to the whole idea of this list, The #ReclaimHerName initiative ignores the authorial choices of the writers it represents. | Literary Hub.

From our Writers' Quotes: 'Make no mistake, those who write long books have nothing to say. Of course those who write short books have even less to say.'

If quotes are your thing we have a  very large collection in our Archive, More Writers' Quotes and Even More Quotes.

• 'Well, the first six weeks I was not doing any writing at all. It was all about making sure the kids were all right and everyone was in a good mental state. Then, I thought maybe I can work for an hour or two a day and it was really hard work getting back in the groove. But, hey, the books aren't going to write themselves. The way I think about it is, what if I got struck down by plague or lightning? I'd rather finish the book than not...' Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys and seven other novels in the Observer. Writing in a lockdown.
  
• A must-read for children's authors is Suzy Jenvey's special series for WritersServices, the four-part Essential Guide to Writing for Children. The first article looks at the all-important question of age groups and what you should be aware of in writing for each one. The second part is - Before You Write: What is My Story Going to be? The third part deals with Starting to Write and the fourth part is about Submitting Your Work to Agents and Editors. This series by a hugely experienced children's editorial director and agent helps you get started on your own story or develop what you're already working on. 
• We have a new endorsement on our Endorsements page: 'I am delighted with the feedback and so pleased with all the great suggestions which were so much more than I expected. A really brilliant service.' Sally Gibbins , Birmingham, UK, on her children's copy editing.
• Authors often find it difficult to write their own synopsis for submission to publishers, which is where our Synopsis-writing service can help. If you're preparing to self-publish and having difficulty with your blurb, our Blurb-writing service can provide professionally written cover copy.
• The rather generous 2020 Manchester Writing Competition is open to writers from across the world. Two £10,000 prizes are awarded: the Manchester Poetry Prize for the best portfolio of poems and the Manchester Fiction Prize for the best short story. Closing on 18 September.
• Our links: it's vital but one of the first things a budding storyteller can master with just a bit of practice and effort, How To Write Dialogue: 7 Steps To Writing Dialogue - The Art of Narrative; why Grandmother did most of her work in bed, Irish women writing fiction were dismissed as 'quiet'. Ireland wasn't listening | Books | The Guardian; US publishers will not be returning to their offices in anything resembling full force before 2021, Publishers Play the Pandemic Waiting Game; I had no idea my protagonist would end up working in a New York publishing house, My Novel's Heroine is Doing Better in the Publishing World Than I Did | Literary Hub and from the founder of Blackbird Books in South Africa, an independent publishing house that is dedicated to giving young black writers a platform, PublisHers: Thabiso Mahlape.
• Are you getting ready to publish your book - perhaps planning to self-publish? WritersServices offers a suite of nine services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish. Services for Self-publishers.
• More links: those were the days when it seemed like we could beat the pandemic by washing our hands, but now It's Time to Radically Rethink Online Book Events - Electric Literature; as much of the retail world faces crisis, book publishing is positioned to grow in terms of unit sales when compared to 2019, US Book Publishing Remains Resilient: Print and Ebook Sales Are Growing | Jane Friedman; after many years, can she live up to Twilight fans' expectations? In ‘Midnight Sun,' Stephenie Meyer Tells Edward Cullen's Story - The New York Times; and a picture book about a science-loving black girl, ‘Utterly joyful' Look Up! wins Waterstones children's book of the year | Books | The Guardian.
• Our Top Ten Tips for Nonfiction Writers are from Julie Wheelwright, programme director, MA Creative Writing Nonfiction, City University, London.
• From Isaac Asimov in our Writers' Quotes: 'Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil - but there is no way around them.'

• ‘If something in the script did not ring true in the context of early post-independence India - and how could Andrew possibly have known every detail of that? - I pointed it out, and he took it on board. As for plot cuts and changes; it had been a long time since I wrote A Suitable Boy, so I was somewhat teflonised against what happened to every minor incident or character...' Vikram Seth, author of A Suitable Boy, talking in The Times about his working relationship with scriptwriter Andrew Davies on the dramatisation of the book which is just about to be shown by the BBC in the UK and by Netflix in India. Bestselling book to major TV series.
• From Tom Chalmers, formerly of IPR, two articles about rights for self-publishers, Self-publishing - the rights way and How to get your book in the hands of an international audience. 'It's a fact that most self-published authors understand the process that takes them from a written manuscript to a published book, but few realise the additional elements that make publishing a profitable business. Rights licensing is arguably the most vital element in this equation. Whether it's selling translation rights, audio rights or optioning the film rights, these all help balance the book's books...'
• It's well worth entering this unusual prize in terms of the oppportuities it offers. Closing on 24 September, The Bodley Head/FT Essay Prize 2020 is open to anyone from across the world aged between 18 and 35 years of age and there's no entry fee. The First Prize is £1,000 cash and an e-publication with The Bodley Head, publication in the FT of their winning essay and a mentoring session with The Bodley Head. Two runners-up get £300.
• As well as our highly-regarded Copy editing service, which will help you prepare your manuscript for submission or self-publishing, we have Manuscript Polishing, which provides a higher-level polishing service, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, our latest new service Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. Get the right level of editorial support for your needs. Our low-cost services represent exceptionally good value. Contact us to discuss what you want.
• Our links: it's been almost thirty years since I laid eyes on this single xeroxed sheet, but I can still remember one rule: You will not write stories about serial murderers, or even regular murderers, How I Stopped Worrying About the Rules and Learned to Write a Mystery Novel | CrimeReads; being able to describe yourself as a bona fide bestseller is key to conferring your career with a certain gravitas, An author bought his own book to get higher on bestseller lists. Is that fair? | Books | The Guardian; two initiatives that made sense for all publishers to employ to raise revenues and profits, Both the supply chain and book marketing are forever changed by Coronavirus | The Idea Logical Company; Ann and Jeff VanderMeer Preview The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, On the Biggest Collection of Fantasy Tales Since WWII | Literary Hub; and new CEO James Daunt began his tenure with a baptism by fire, Barnes & Noble Regroups and Looks Ahead.
• Finding an agent - 'Try to find an agency which is ‘hungry' for new clients. To keep their workload under control, an established agent might take on something like four new authors a year (this figure came from two agents I spoke to recently), but only to replace four departing clients. This may seem obvious, but whether or not an agent is actively looking to build their list of clients is probably the single most important factor affecting how closely they are looking at unsolicited submissions...'
• More links: Could the Covid-19 pandemic create a moment of opportunity for writing? How does a young writer pay the rent? | Books | The Guardian; in this moment of political upheaval, we must ask what role has crime fiction played in getting us here, Crime Fiction Is Complicit in Police Violence - But It's Not Too Late to Change - Electric Literature; what matters is that I've spent that time with my work. The most important thing, for me, is to keep at it, day by day, How I Started Writing Every Day; dubbed "the nation's favourite storyteller", since 1998 she had sold 6.13 million books in the UK alone, Bestselling novelist Josephine Cox dies, aged 82 | The Bookseller.
• If you are not a native English speaker but you want to publish your book in English to make it available to the international market, what do you do? If your English is good enough, what about writing it in English or translating your book into English yourself, and then getting your translation polished and copy edited by a professional editor who is a native English speaker? The result should be a publishable manuscript at a relatively low cost, provided by our English Language Editing Service. How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth).
• 'In my experience, writing doesn't get any easier the more you do it. But there is a growth of confidence, not much, but a nugget, like a pearl, like a tumour.' The late Jenny Diski in our Writers' Quotes.

• 'Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do - the actual act of writing - turns out to be the best part. It's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.' Anne Lamott, author of seven non-fiction books, and the forthcoming Hallelujah Anyway, and two novels, Imperfect Birds and Rosie. Our Comment.
• Tips for writers is our 8-part crash course for writers who are starting out, taking you from Promoting Your Writing (and Yourself) to Self-publishing: is it for you? from Keep up to date to Submission to publishers and agents. 'Be prepared to redraft your work and to rethink it. Many new writers assume that their work will immediately be ready for publication, but the truth is that many highly successful writers produced several drafts of their first work before they got it published.' and 'When you've got your work into the best state you can, put it on one side for a few weeks and then look at it afresh. You'll be amazed what difference a fresh eye will make.'
• Are you writing for children? Our Children's Editorial Services can help you get your work ready for publication or self-publishing. Three reports and copy editing are available from our highly-skilled children's editors, including essential advice on age groups and vocabulary.
• Our links: a lengthy but superb analysis of the great crime-writer's work, P. D. James: A Crime Reader's Guide to the Classics | CrimeReads; latest evidence of the way the new and ever more successful tv and streaming services are filming authors' work, Maurice Sendak Foundation Teams with Apple TV Plus; from Nicola Upson, whose crime novels feature the author and playwright Josephine Tey, Five top tips for writing historical crime fiction - National Centre for Writing; from the late, great Discworld creator, Final Terry Pratchett stories to be published in September | Books | The Guardian; and the bestselling author talks about his approach to collaboration, Four Questions for James Patterson.
• From Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk, The Business of Writing for Self-publishing authors offers terrific advice for all writers: 'Self-publishing authors - also known as ‘indie' authors or author-publishers - have had a steep learning curve these past few years. Getting to grips with the various sales channels available to them, producing top quality ebooks and paperbacks, and finding a place in mainstream outlets have left many writers struggling to keep up with the paperwork. What follows is a brief guide to the essentials your self-publishing business needs - because it is a business, even if you only publish one book!'
• Last year we launched the Writer's edit, a top-level new service for writers who want line-editing as well as copy editing. Does your manuscript need high-level input from an editor to help you get it into the best possible shape for submission or self-publishing? This may be the service for you, offering the kind of editing which publishers' senior editors used to do in-house on their authors' manuscripts and which is now hard to find. Our other copy editing services.
• More links: encouraging news for crime-writers, Crime fiction boom as book sales rocket past 2019 levels | Books | The Guardian; sobering views from black professionals in publishing, who share long-suppressed frustrations about how racial prejudice has affected their work, ‘A Conflicted Cultural Force': What It's Like to Be Black in Publishing - The New York Times; bestselling authors team up with the giant internet retailer, Amazon joins Scott Turow, John Grisham, other top authors in effort to take down ‘pirate' book site - GeekWire; more campaigning, JK Rowling joins 150 authors and academics calling for an end of 'cancel culture' | Daily Mail Online; how children, particularly boys, are enticed into reading through audiobooks, UK's National Literary Trust Research Finds Benefits of Audiobooks for Kids.
• If you are submitting your work to an agent or directly to a publishing house, check through our guidelines to give it its best chance. Making Submissions.
• 'The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.' Gene Fowler in our Writers' Quotes.

• 'The demands that are made of women can be ferocious, but the demands made of men can be equally tough. I don't know what it is to be a boy. I have a lot of male friends and my best friend when I was nine was a boy, but there is an extra imaginative leap you have to make, I know intricately what it means to be a girl and I don't know who gets to say whether a character is real. Do only boys get to say if a boy character is real and a girl if a girl character is?' Katherine Rundell, author of The Explorer, which she writes about here, Rooftoppers, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, The Wolf Wilder and The Good Thieves in The Times on A female children's writer with a boy hero.
• Our 19 Factsheets from the legendary Michael Legat are full of tips for the new writer or anyone who is trying to get their book published. From Literary agents to Copyright, from Libel to Submissions, this series is full of essential background information.
• This is the big one - the highly prestigious National Poetry Competition receives entries, which are judged anonymously, from all over the world. The 2020 Competition is open to anyone 18 or over from all over the world. You can enter an unpublished poem of up to 40 lines. The entry fee is £7 for the first entry, £4 for subsequent entries. The First Prize is £5,000, Second Prize £2,000 and Third Prize £1,000 and there are 7 Commendations which receive £200. Closing date 31 October.
• There are eight other writing opportunities which are still open.
• Our 20 Services for writers - just a list of what we offer at WritersServices.
• Our links: a woman picking her way through a reinvention of her life, Toni Morrison Did Not Find Success Overnight | ZORA; his vast army of fans is waiting eagerly, George RR Martin predicts penultimate Game of Thrones book will be finished 'next year' | Books | The Guardian; for most of my life, I didn't want to call myself a writer, Emily Temple on Translating a Decade of Internet Writing into a Debut Novel | Literary Hub; and untangling the Gordian knot holding together Poe's tumultuous life and fragmented personality, Can You Really Separate Edgar Allan Poe's Work from His Life? | CrimeReads.
• Here's a detailed article on how to prepare 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...'
• More links from this week's headlines: why print on demand is going to win out, Covid-19: the book trade out of joint; highlighing a stark lack of diversity within poetry publishing and, particularly, poetry criticism, Poetry sector 'too white' by far, report finds | The Bookseller; UK bookshops reported a jump of over 30% on the same week last year as desperate readers returned to browse the aisles for the first time in three months, 'We're back in business': UK bookshops see sales soar | Books | The Guardian; and how are the players, big and small, planning the next phase? Literary figures on why booksellers thrived during lockdown - and what's next | London Evening Standard.
• If you've come to the site looking for a report on your manuscript, how do you work out which one would suit you best? Which Report? includes our new top-of-the range service, the Editor's Report Plus, introduced by popular demand to provide even more detail. This very substantial report takes the form of a chapter-by-chapter breakdown and many writers have found this detail helps them to get their book right. Through our specialist children's editors we can offer reports on children's books.
• Even more links: an excellent guide to Joseph Campbell's book, A Complete Guide to The Hero's Journey (or The Monomyth) - The Art of Narrative; launching Discoveries, a writers' development programme for aspiring female writers, Women's Prize Trust launches writers' development programme | The Bookseller; highlighting how books narratives are becoming more popular with film companies, Cannes' Shoot the Book Spotlights 10 Novels Primed for the Big Screen - Variety; and "That wouldn't happen in real life." How to Write Legal Thrillers That Won't Drive Lawyers Crazy with Mistakes and Inventions | CrimeReads.
• Neil Gaiman from our Writers' Quotes: 'The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.'

• 'I feel optimistic about the sector. Independents are well placed as they've been for a number of years now. We are small, flexible and nimble businesses with relatively low overheads, and as long as we can continue to find and successfully publish wonderful authors and their books I'm sure we'll not only survive but thrive no matter what the future landscape looks like.' Adam Freudenheim, publisher and managing director of London-based Pushkin Press in Bookbrunch. Independent publishers will ‘not only survive but thrive'
• 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 up to 400 words in length and of general interest. Please email them to us.
• The Moth Nature Writing Prize is a new prize which is open to anyone over the age of 16 with an unpublished piece of nature writing. Entry fee is €15 per entry and the Prize is €1,000 and a week-long stay at The Moth Retreat in rural Ireland. Closing 15 September.
• Do you want some help with your writing but don't quite know what you want - or even if you need any help? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? Choosing a service can help you work out which service is right for you.
• Our links, first, Black Lives Matter: amid all the fury, corporations have been quick to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and publishers have been among them, but Publishing has ignored and pigeonholed black authors for too long | Magdalene Abraha | Books | The Guardian; books afford us the opportunity to read about our past and present while engaging with ideas that will help us to imagine our future, How the Book Business Can, and Must, Build a New Future; the disparity between the advances paid by publishers to non-Black authors versus Black authors, #PublishingPaidMe lays advances bare | The Bookseller; a little over half a century ago, but the editorial might as well have been written yesterday, It's Time for the Book Business to Change; and an open letter from a group of its fellows and programmatic partners and signed by more than 1,800 individuals, Poets Call for Change at Poetry Foundation.
• 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. Typing manuscripts.
• More links on writers: second real-time survey from the UK confirms extent of impact of COVID-19 on authors' income, News | The Society of Authors; one of the most rewarding experiences a writer can have - but also the scariest, How to and (Especially) How Not to Write About Family | Jane Friedman; and a new children's book, Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell announce new 'piratical adventure' | Books | The Guardian.
• Written exclusively for WritersServices - Trident Media Group Literary Agent Mark Gottlieb explains how literary agencies work. It's no surprise that they do a lot more than you think and that they bring a lot of expertise in a range of different areas to bear on behalf of their authors. How Literary Agents Work.
• Working with an agent explains how to get the best out of the relationship with your agent: 'It can be hard work finding an agent to represent you. Make sure though that, when you set up the relationship, you do so in a professional manner Don't let your eagerness to find representation mean that things are left vague. You will be depending on the agent to process all your income from the books they sell, so you need to have a written record of your arrangement, preferably a contract...'
• Links on how publishers are coping with the pandemic: corporate publishing has a different economic imperative, but ‘Small presses are the coral reefs of publishing, attracting the most colourful fish'; how readers have helped booksellers, Book Lovers' Donations Helped Independent Sellers During Virus; a warning that physical booksellers could have difficulty clawing back trade from online retailers after lockdown, Ingram sees 'huge swing' to print on demand during coronavirus | The Bookseller; only a limited reopening, New York's Publishers Won't Reopen Until September.
• 'An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.' Irwin Shaw in our Writers' Quotes.

• 'The rules for writing under lockdown are no different to other ties. It won't happen unless you make it happen. It's incremental and frustrating, and your chances of being paid for it are tiny, but it's a fascinating process, with all the glamour and excitement of an affair but with less chance of divorce. Once you discover the joys of it, and the pains, it will bring you the deepest pleasure. Good luck...' Writing under Lockdown from Louise Doughty, author of nine novels including Platform Seven, Apple Tree Yard and Black Water, and the how-to-write guide A Novel in a Year, in the Sunday Times Magazine.
• From our 19-part Inside Publishing series - on Copyright: 'Many writers worry about losing their copyright. Before sending out your manuscript it is always advisable to put a copyright line consisting of the copyright sign ©, the year and your name on the title page...' On The Writer/Publisher Financial Relationship: 'There's no escaping the fact that publishers and authors are essentially in an adversarial position. Even in the very best and most supportive publisher/writer relationships there is the tension caused by the fact that authors would like to earn as much as possible from their writing and publishers to pay as little as they can get away with...'
• You'll have to be very quick to enter The Bridport Prize 2020, which closes on 31 May. There are four parts to this Prize, as follows: Poetry, Short Story and Flash Fiction are open to unpublished work from any writer writing in English over 16. The Novel Award is restricted to UK writers. The entry fees are £10 per poem, £12 per story, £9 for flash fiction and £20 per novel. Poetry and Short Story 1st Prize £5,000, 2nd Prize £1,000, 3rd Prize £500. Flash Fiction 1st Prize £1,000, 2nd Prize £500 and 3rd Prize £250. Novel Award 1st Prize £1500, 2nd Prize £750 and 3 awards of £150. Go for it!
• Other competitions which are still open.
• We have a new endorsement from Daniela Stanciulescu in Paris, on her English Language Editing for writers who are not native English speakers: ‘WritersServices editors are not just excellent professionals, they are persons of letters involved in helping the writers who are trying to enter in the world of British books... I am impressed. I am grateful. I'm delighted. Thank you so much.'
• Our links: the impact on publishing and authors, How Book Publishers Decided To Move Publication Dates During The COVID-19 Pandemic; hundreds of YA book releases and publicity plans have been altered by the Covid-19 pandemic, YA Authors Move Online; this will be a very different Frankfurt. The plan is to run the event not only on the fair's grounds but also decentralized at locations in the city, and as a virtual event, Frankfurt Book Fair 2020 to go ahead | The Bookseller; a lively conversation with Judy Blume, Curtis Sittenfeld Rewrites Hillary Clinton's Life Without Bill; and "like watching an IMAX movie from the front row," NPD's Kristen McLean on US Book Sales During the Pandemic.
• Rotten Rejections provides a note of the things publishers wish they'd never said: on Animal Farm by George Orwell ‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA' and Carrie by Stephen King 'We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.'
• More links: the Pandemic will hit many industries hard, there is a particularly deep fear for those in the relatively privileged cultural industries, Radical Publishing in a Pandemic; making sure your readers are on the edge of their seats, Five tips for keeping your readers gripped - National Centre for Writing; in 1909, long before the invention of the World Wide Web or the prospect of a world where we must live socially distant from each other, he arguably predicted both, How E.M. Forster's Only Foray Into Sci-Fi Predicted Social Distancing | Literary Hub; and what a truly amazing row, Romance Writers of America aims for happy end to racism row with new prize | Books | The Guardian.
• Our 20 Services for writers - just a list of what we offer at WritersServices.
• From our Writers' Quotes 'Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It's a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works. I like a mystery, as you may have noticed.' J K Rowling.

• ‘The last four or five years in publishing have been great. We're in mourning for them. But you can only dwell on that for a few moments before you say: the reading and the writing are still there. Original work will come out of this lockdown, just as it did out of austerity; it has shone a light on globalisation, and the inconveniences that we have, to a degree forgotten, like mortality...' Publisher Stephen Page, CEO of Faber & Faber, in the Observer. Our Comment.
• From our nineteen-part Inside Publishing series, you can read up on Advances and royalties: 'Publishers usually offer to pay authors advances against royalties. How do you work out how much money you might earn from your book? You need to understand for yourself how advances and royalties work and what they mean for you...'
• From the same series, Copy editing and proof-reading explains the difference between the two. Copy editing is the painstaking job of going through a manuscript line by line to correct the spelling, grammar and punctuation. Proof-reading at a later stage is a separate check through the book when it is set up in pages, before it goes to press or is finalised for ebook publishing.
• As well as our highly-regarded Copy editing service, which will help you prepare your manuscript for submission or self-publishing, we have Manuscript Polishing, which provides a higher-level polishing service, Writer's edit, a new line-editing service, and English Language Editing for writers who are not native English speakers. We also provide a Proof-reading service. Now with free samples for nearly all, plus some free assessments. Our UK-based Editing services for writers have a solid professional reputation and we often have authors coming back to us for further assistance, see our Endorsements.
• Our links - how Coronavirus is affecting booksellers and publishers: is this an opportunity to drag the book world into the 21st century? Could lockdown herald an exciting new chapter for the book trade? | Books | The Guardian; last fall, Kyle Hall's bookstore was destroyed by a tornado. This spring, it was almost wiped out by a pandemic, For Bookstore Owners, Reopening Holds Promise and Peril - The New York Times; big publishers are still awaiting the impact, For Publishers, It's Still the Calm Before the Storm; and, on a lighter note, Working from Home: An Editor's Tale.
• Advice for Writers is a really useful page which takes you into our archive and helps you explore our more than 7,000 pages of information for writers.
• More links: genre is a funny thing, Genre Labels: What Makes a Book More Thriller Than Sci-Fi? | CrimeReads; novelist N.K. Jemisin was a teenager the first time she read Octavia Butler, and nothing had prepared her for it, Octavia Butler's prescient sci-fi resonates years after her death; families! Look no further for a source of fears, How Having Kids Can Change Your Life - And Your Horror Fiction | CrimeReads; it's been 15 years since Little, Brown published Stephenie Meyer's Twilight - a book that sold more than 100 million copies, launched a multi-billion-dollar movie franchise, and kicked off a vampire craze, The Return of the YA Vampire; and you can't have a good thriller without a nasty and formidable opponent for your hero, How to Write a Killer Villain 2 | Jane Friedman.
• Have you ever wondered whether there's any point in entering competitions? Someone must be winning, but why is it somehow never you? Here's some tips to help you achieve a better result. Entering competitions.
• Seven prizes and competitions which are still open.
• 'Only Southerners have taken horsewhips and pistols to editors about the treatment or maltreatment of their manuscript. This - the actual pistols - was in the old days, of course, we no longer succumb to the impulse. But it is still there, within us.' William Faulkner in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘I often write everything all at once. Memory isn't linear for me, nor is experience, but I try to keep it as straight as I can. A sense of fluidity and shift, and that energy, that is about change. It's really integral to my work, which is not about the past becoming a stable object. The past very rarely settles down. It shifts under our gaze all the time...' Anne Enright, author of just-published Actress, Booker Prize-winning A Gathering, The Green Road, The Forgotten Waltz and three other novels in the Bookseller. Our Comment.
• WritersServices can provide a range of services working on your manuscript, to help you get it ready for submission or self-publishing. We are UK-based, offer exceptional value and our skilled professional editors have been working on writers' manuscripts for us for 19 years. We have recently introduced free samples and free assessments on most of these services, please see the individual service page. Copy editing services.
• Closing on 31 August, The Kindle Storyteller Award 2020 is open to writers publishing in English in any genre, who publish their work through Kindle Direct Publishing. No entry fee. The Prize is £20,000. You need to read their terms and conditions carefully.
• Other competitions which are still open.
• 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.
• Our links: is this heresy? Letter to the Editor: Why These Agents Argue Books Aren't Essential; Mike Shatzkin casts a clear eye on the basics, The supply chain for book publishing is being changed by Coronavirus too | The Idea Logical Company; given all the disruptions to the global economy caused by the new coronavirus, unit sales of print books held up relatively well in the first quarter of 2020, The Pandemic Is Changing Book-Buying Patterns; and the situation is critical in South Africa, ‘SA could lose its book industry.' Top authors urge Ramaphosa to allow trade.
• Writers' stories - they're just a bit of fun, but in a rare moment of inspiration we wrote some fictionalised stories of how the services could turn out, to give you a better idea of how they might work for you. Joe's fantasy novel benefited from some professional editing, when he signed up for an Editor's Report Plus. Tony needed Copy editing to get his manuscript into shape for publication or self-publishing.
• More links: a complete, essential guide from the wonderful Jane Friedman, How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors | Jane Friedman; some authors have really bad luck - My first novel bombed spectacularly. This was about 20 years ago, Two Novels, Two Global Catastrophes, Two Decades Apart | Literary Hub; Nicola Upson on how to get started on a new project, How to start writing crime fiction - National Centre for Writing; and crime writers in residence, Waines, Veitch Smith and Watt headline virtual National Crime Reading Month | The Bookseller.
• Our page of Picture library links provides a good starting-point for finding an image for your book, whether it's for the cover or inside. Gograph was added a while ago with its 18 million stock links.
• A few more links: coming down the track - "truly authentic ... prestige adaptations", Terry Pratchett novels to get 'absolutely faithful' TV adaptations | Books | The Guardian; a writer's life-long obsession with Florence Nightingale, Revisiting Florence; Rights are invariably seen to be the poor relation, but showing their value at the moment, Richard Charkin: Let's Hear It for Book Rights Sales People Worldwide; and what are we looking for? Why Are We Obsessed With Writers' Houses? | Literary Hub.
• Do you want some help with your writing but don't know quite what you want? Choosing a service can help you work out which service is right for you, or you could just email us.
• Finally, Anita Diamant in our Writers' Quotes: 'I tell writers to keep reading, reading, reading. Read widely and deeply. And I tell them not to give up even after getting rejection letters. And only write what you love.'

• ‘I've taken on four new clients over the last couple of weeks for various non-fiction projects, and as an agency we're very active in pursuit of new clients and ideas. It's a great time to work on manuscripts and proposals with authors, while we've all got additional time and space. And it's hugely important that, when we all emerge from this, we're in good shape for the remainder of this year, and next...' Tim Bates of the Peters Fraser + Dunlop agency in Bookbrunch (behind paywall). Our Comment
• For anyone thinking about or embarked on self-publishing, our ten-part WritersServices Self-Publishing Guide by Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk is an essential starting-point, taking you through the process step-by-step. 'Self-publishing has changed so much over the past few years it's hard to believe it was once looked down upon by the publishing industry as the last resort of the vain and desperate. At the time of writing many self-publishing authors are identifying with the term ‘indie author', which acknowledges that to professionally publish today, you don't actually have to do everything yourself!' Articles include Formatting your book for Kindle and Marketing and Promotion for Indie Authors: Online.
• From a new UK publisher, the Guppy YA Novel Competition Open Submission will run from 11 to 15 May. Unagented YA authors from all over the world can enter and there's no entry fee. The prize is publication.
• Are you getting ready to publish your book - perhaps planning to self-publish? WritersServices offers a suite of nine services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish. Services for Self-publishers
• Our links - from our Coronavirus world: when is the best time to submit their clients' new manuscripts? Agents Weigh Whether to Submit Projects During the Pandemic; writing a novel presupposes the existence of a stable reality, Coronavirus effect on book publishing: The virus is messing up the plot of my novel set in 2020; it's hard to imagine what the world and publishing will look like even six months from now, Starling Days: how Covid-19 affected the release of Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's second novel; and from the patron saint of staying at home and doing nothing, Fran Lebowitz Is Never Leaving New York | The New Yorker.
• Are you thinking of submitting your book to an agent? Try our Finding an Agent page or Your Submission package. Our Submission critique service may also help, as it's essential to get your package into the best possible shape before you start submitting.
• More links about writing and writers: the historical novels I've loved best were edgy and featured characters who were not only deeply flawed, but downright dubious, Historical Novels and the Morally Gray Character | CrimeReads; Elizabeth George's impressive schedule, My Writing Schedule is for Satisfaction, Not Fun | Literary Hub; and over the last 25 years, this prize has become arguably one of the three most important literary prizes for novels in the UK, 'A prize for readers' - Kate Mosse on the Women's Prize for Fiction.
• 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.
• Our final links, fascinating literary history and two lighter-hearted articles: T S Eliot: 'This woman lives in a most beautiful dilapidated old square, which I had never heard of before; a square in the middle of town, near King's Cross station, but with spacious old gardens about it,' In a quiet London Enclave, Five Iconic Women Writers Forged a Home | Literary Hub; How Did England Get Its Bizarro Street Names? | Literary Hub; and Here Are People's Strongest Unpopular Young Adult Book Opinions.
• William Gibson in our Writers' Quotes: 'To present a whole world that doesn't exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we're polymaths. That's just the act of all good writing.'