16 May 2022 - What's new
16 May 2022
- ‘I never planned to be a writer at all. For years, maybe even today, sometimes I think, "What exactly am I going to do with my life What is my career going to be? I'm only 80, for God's sake!... I am fascinated by endurance. Human beings really do lead lives of quiet desperation. It's admirable really. Families are basically the only group that can't easily split up. It is my version of a disaster movie, you put people in a burning building and see how they behave under duress...' Anne Tyler, author of 26 novels, including The Accidental Tourist, Ladder of Years and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, 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.
- Closing on 1 June, the 2022 Times/Chicken House writing competition is open to unpublished, unagented children's writers based anywhere in the world. Entry fee £20. First Prize: a publishing contract with Chicken House with an advance of £10,000, plus the offer of representation from literary agent Louise Lamont at LBA Books, Second Prize: a £7,500 publishing contract plus an offer of representation.
- 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 from our professional editors. Our low-cost services represent exceptionally good value. Contact us to discuss what you want.
- Links from publishing, bookselling and reading: celebrated authors used to write essays chronicling the horrors of their tours, What Do We Lose-and Gain-As Book Tours Move Online? ‹ Literary Hub; a different point of view, The Bookseller - Comment - The wonder years: why adults should read kids' books; just a prejudice? I'm sure rightwingers read books. But you'll never meet one at a literary festival | Zoe Williams | The Guardian; and 89% of staffers responding to the survey had experienced stress, The Bookseller - News - Trade facing industry-wide burnout, Bookseller survey finds.
- 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?'
- 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.
- Writers' links: why did this bestselling author end the Falco series and switch to his adopted daughter, Flavia? Amphitheaters of Blood: PW Talks with Lindsey Davis; after all these years I can actually call myself a professional author, but The Bookseller - Comment - Should writers ever engage with trolls? Useful tips for writing any novel, How to write a Mills & Boon book - by Marguerite Kaye | Metro News; how difficult it seems, gazing back just seventy years to the late 1940s and 50s, to truly appreciate what a confusing and fraught era it was for our grandparents, Writing History When the Crime Is Stranger Than Fiction ‹ CrimeReads.
- How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) asks writers who are not native English speakers with a manuscript which needs polishing or translating: "If your English is good enough, what about translating your book yourself or writing in English, and then getting your work 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.
- More writers' links: how writers and others have contributed to change minds, Economics: too important to leave to the economists; I flip the page, my heart in my throat, as the modern world vanishes in the foul-smelling mist, 10 Reasons Why Victorian England Is the Perfect Setting for Murder ‹ CrimeReads; the work of the curator of the Instagram account @allwaysblack, on behalf of publishing giant Penguin Random House, All Ways Black: How one Instagram account is championing Black literature : NPR; the poet who's published 6 books of poetry, but still doesn't think she knows how to put a collection together, Ada Limón on How to Write a Poetry Collection ‹ Literary Hub; the fascinating identity people get from their families, Ten Close Families in Literature ‹ CrimeReads.
- 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. Avoiding rejection
- 'The most helpful quality a writer can cultivate is self-confidence - arrogance, if you can manage it. You write to impose yourself on the world, and you have to believe in your own ability when the world shows no sign of agreeing with you.' Hilary Mantel in our Writers' Quotes.
