What's New in 2017
- "I've never had writer's block yet, which I attribute, not just to luck, but also to my technique. I would advise anyone looking to ward-off writer's block to start writing something else, a completely different project. I'm always working on about six different projects at various stages of development, so if I don't feel like working on one I just turn to another. Basically, monogamy is hard, in writing as in life!" Our Comment is from Emma Donoghue, author of Room, and of the screenplay for the film, which has just been released.
- The Kindle UK Storyteller Award is this week's Writing Opportunity. Open to submissions of new English Language books from all authors and genres, but entries must be submitted using Kindle Direct Publishing. Titles must be previously unpublished.There's a Prize of £20,000 and recognition at a central London award ceremony this summer. Entries by 19 May.
- 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.
- Nielsen has just reported that ebook sales in the US declined a rather surprising 15% in 2016, as compared with 2015. There seem to have been two reasons for this... Most amazingly, hardback sales have overtaken ebook sales for the first time since 2012. If you look back to the early days of ebooks, this is a long way from the commonly-asserted prediction that ebooks would totally replace print books within five years! News Review reports on this and some good news from children's publishing.
- Michael Legat's Factsheets are a series of 19 specially commissioned information-packed Factsheets for WritersServices, which cover the essentials for writers from an industry veteran - a former publisher, novelist and author of 12 books on writing. For a quick update on First and Last Pages, Literary Agents or Shall I be Famous? Shall I be Rich? and much more, this is the place to look.
- Our links: his fictional Detective Inspector John Rebus has as high a profile across the UK as his creator does, Ian Rankin: There's Nothing Crime Fiction Can't Do | Literary Hub; it's an incredible time to be an author. We can now reach readers all over the world and make a diverse income with our words through the internet, Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society 5 Ways to Make More Money from your Books in 2017; an absorbing interview with this week's second-time Costa Award winner about his novel drawing on American history, Sebastian Barry | 'It's terrifying, but fascinating that human groups have these impulses' | The Bookseller; and indie authors and publishers are having to navigate a fast-growing industry filled with new opportunities, but one that also presents challenges related to that expansion, Self-Publishing in 2017: The Year in Preview.
- Have you ever wondered why you don't win any of those competitions? What can yo do to improve your chances? Our tips on Entering Competitions.
- More links: the opening lines of a novel act as an invitation for the reader to keep reading, How to Start a Story: 9 Tips From Our Editors • Reedsy Blog; Write a novel: it's on many people's bucket lists, but how does one even begin such a mammoth task? An author reveals what it's (really) like to write a novel | Stylist Magazine; her 20 novels mined her experience as a black single mother in Britain to produce work that inspired a generation of black British writers, Buchi Emecheta, pioneering Nigerian novelist, dies aged 72 | Books | The Guardian; ‘The real increase in sales recently has been the spread of business to Asian countries,' says Lownie Agency author Roger Crowley as new opportunities offer themselves, Agent Andrew Lownie Looks East to More Rights Activity.
- An entry on our Endorsements page: ‘The site covers EVERYTHING a new writer, established writer, or a wannabe writer could possibly want or need to know.' Hester Mundis, author many books, including My Chimp Friday, Heart Songs For Animal Lovers and The Vitamin Bible.
- 'A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.' Sidney Sheldon in our Writers' Quotes.
- Some nervousness has been expressed by authors and staff in the last few days about the impending purchase by Bertelsmann of part of the Pearson share of Penguin Random House, but is there really much reason to feel anxious about this? News Review.
- The Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize 2016 is open to anyone across the world between 18-35 years old. No entry fee. £1,000 plus several other good prizes and it closes on 29 January.
- 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 range you can find on the internet.
- ‘She probably went too far in putting out a fake autobiography. Which is like an invitation: expose me.' (referring to Frantumaglia, which is about to be published in English - not an autobiography as such, but a collection of letters, essays, interviews and the like.) "But she's not committed a crime. Nor do I feel that she was a bad person to write under a pseudonym..' Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale and Maddaddam on Elena Ferrante in the Guardian provides this week's Comment.
- Tips for writers is our 8-part crash course for writers, taking you from Improve Your Writing to Promoting Your Writing (and Yourself), from Self-publishing: is it for you? to Submission to publishers and agents. 'Think about the market for your book. Research the category and read widely to see what other published writers in this area are doing. Which writers are successful and why? Visit bookshops and analyse what you find there. If you are reading this you are probably already writing, but it really is worth thinking right from the beginning about your readers, as that makes it far more likely you'll eventually find them...'
- Our links: some really helpful insights into your writing, What Being an Editor Taught Me About Writing | Literary Hub; how podcasts are transforming the world of reviewing and can help promote your book, The Millions : Podcasts and Literary Criticism - The Millions; an author's story about dogged persistence against the odds, On Selling Your First Novel After 11 Years | Literary Hub; and the 2016 T S Eliot Prize-winner on writing poetry and fiction, Jacob Polley: ‘If I'm writing a poem, I should be kept busy doing anything other than writing' | Books | The Guardian.
- Why your book contract needs vetting - 'You are a first-time author without an agent and you receive a contract to publish your book - just how do you evaluate it? Is it fair or biased against the author by prevailing industry standards? Is your publisher looking out for your interests as well as his own - or wording the clauses in a way only advantageous to the company? Would you, for example, know which rights to grant - for how long and on what terms...' Our contracts expert on why contract vetting is essential if you don't have an agent.
- More links: a legal complaint from four literary estates, representing a pantheon of influential 20th-century novelists, Author Who Turns Classics Into Children's Books Is Sued - The New York Times; interesting insights into what readers, agents and publshers are looking for at Digital Book World 2017, Digital Book World Asks: What Do the Readers and the Gatekeepers Want? - Publishing Trends; how can a psychologist help writers, 5 Things Psychology Can Teach Writers - WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®; and, from Africa, a unique way of selling books, Books on the Go in Ethiopia: What Keeps Addis Ababa Reading.
- From our Writers' Quotes: 'A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe's will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook.' from H P Lovecraft.
- 'As an editor, I'm often asked what sorts of books I am looking for, and my answer is invariably the same. Whether it's crime or fantasy or women's fiction, I am looking for one thing: someone who knows how to tell a story. It should be a story that asks questions of the reader; that takes us from our known world and plunges us into another; it should be filled with believable characters who we care about; and it should have a narrative with a beginning, middle and an end that draws all the different strands together in a satisfying way...' Selina Walker, Publisher of Century and Arrow at Penguin Random House UKPenguin Random House have more than 50 creative and autonomous imprints, publishing the very best books for all audiences, covering fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s books, autobiographies and much more. Click for Random House UK Publishers References listing provides this week's Comment.
- A must-read for children's authors - Suzy Jenvey's special series for WritersServices, the four-part The 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.
- The first major publishing news of the New Year has been the announcement that Pearson, having declared a profit warning because of change and volatility in the educational market and declining sales in higher education, is intending to offload its 47% stake in Penguin Random House - and its partner Bertelsmann is keen to acquire it. News Review
- 'Hardly any authors can copy edit their own writing. It is notoriously difficult to spot the errors in your own work. So 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...' Getting your manuscript copy edited
- Our links: Thanks to Hollywood's baffling inability to produce anything that wasn't first a book, a question that gets asked more and more these days is: "Should I read the original?" This year's biggest book adaptations - and which ones are worth reading first | Books | The Guardian; if you're one of those who has always aspired to become a writer but don't even know where to begin, then this list is a good place to start, Tips for aspiring writers from a successful indie author; Why Poetry? Well, yes. Most books of poetry sell a couple of thousand copies, at best. So in a quantitative sense, what's the point of supporting it? A Few Questions for Poetry - The New York Times; and a clear shift in the overall direction of publishing, Indie Author Predictions for 2017 - BookSparks.
- 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: Jackself, described by chair of judges Ruth Padel as ‘incredibly inventive and very moving', takes prestigious £20,000 honour, 2016 TS Eliot prize won by Jacob Polley's 'firecracker of a book' | Books | The Guardian; shortlist announced for the top prize in pan-African, award program for debut authors, Stressing 'an African Sensibility,' Etisalat Prize Announces Shortlist; and in 2015, Chinese Sci-fi hit the American literary scene when Ken Liu's translation of The Three-Body Problem by Chinese author Cixin Liu received a Hugo Award and a Nebula nomination, The rise of Chinese sci-fi: Part 1 | Asia Times.
- Why your book contract needs vetting - 'We've been offering our Contract Vetting service for many years and it's always surprised me how relatively few writers take advantage of it. There are not many ways that a first-time author can get advice of this kind, and lawyers are very expensive and not always up-to-date about what is going on in publishing...'
- ‘You need to commit to a time to write. If you don't commit to your writing, who's going to commit to you?' Val McDermid in our Writers' Quotes.
- ‘I never felt like I was getting at the truth. I wanted to be told the truth. So when I write for young people I write for the young person I was. And it's only now that I find I have a lot of compassion for that kid and the things that he was worrying about. I was a really anxious kid, and I just needed someone to talk to about it, and nobody would...' Our Comment comes from Patrick Ness, author of A Monster Calls (just released as a film for which he wrote the screenplay), Chaos Walking and Class (a BBC series).
- In a rare opportunity, Pavilion Poetry, the new imprint of Liverpool University Press, is open for submissions to poets with unpublished first full-length collections only. Submit by post by 31 January.
- A few weeks ago 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.
- Amongst the predictions springing up as we move into the new year, a hard figure is the most astonishing. The slowing-down of ebook sales is well-documented but it is quite startling that the first figure of 2017 is that the UK print market sold 195 million books in 2016, an increase of almost 7% on 2015, and volume increased by 4.5%. News Review on The publishing world as 2016 turns into 2017.
- It's just the right time of year for our Health Hazards series, which looks at all the particular dangers faced by writers, from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome to Looking after your eyes, and advises on how to position your desk and chair. This really is essential reading for anyone who spends a lot of time at the computer.
- Our links: this has been a year of major change and we have lost many great authors, Notable Literary Deaths in 2016 | Literary Hub; the newest developments, achievements and emerging classics in the world of chiseled prose, The State of Flash Fiction; but haven't prize wins been benefting small publishers? On eve of Costa awards, experts warn that top books prizes are harming fiction | Books | The Guardian; and Tom Chalmers looks at the predictions he made last year, Revisiting My 2016 Predictions for the Book Publishing Industry - DBW.
- Do you want some help with your writing but don't quite know what you want? 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.
- More links: a wide-ranging exploration of the impulses, movements, and unique voices in twentieth century science fiction, The Rise of Science Fiction from Pulp Mags to Cyberpunk; 'the female writers whose work has most recently come in for enthusiastic appraisal are by no means a homogeneous group', 2016 - a year of celebrating women writers | Books | The Guardian; and 'Reading a book is best done in solitude without a zillion bits and bytes of digital distraction nibbling in from the sidelines', The future is digital book discovery, not distracting gimmicks | The Bookseller.
- 'Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.' Willa Cather in our Writers' Quotes.
- And if quotes are your bag, then there's More Writers' Quotes and Even More Quotes, with the many hundreds of wonderful quotes we have featured over the years.
