25 September 2023 - What's new
25 September 2023
- ‘The way to tackle writer's block is to not believe it exists. If you run out of steam on something, switch to something else and come back later. Also, I don't get writers block because I am not writing - I am just typing, thinking, pushing into something to see what's there. I never sit down to produce a novel. I work a line or two, redraft endlessly, improvise. I spend a year or more in this creative state of uncertainty, and one day, I seem to know what I am doing. The book makes itself known to me. After this, my job is to shape it, and bring it to its best self...' Anne Enright, author of just-published The Wren, the Wren and seven other novels, including Actress, The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch, Forgotten and The Gathering, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2002, in LitHub.
- Do you want some help with your writing but don't know quite what you want? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? Choosing a service helps you work out which is the right editorial service for you.
- From An Editor's advice 2 - Another draft: 'I have just finished writing a report on a novel. I've pinpointed various areas of weakness and made various suggestions that the writer may or may not wish to follow. But the nub of the report is a recommendation that the writer produce a further draft of the novel rather than trying to submit it to a publisher now. I wonder sometimes how writers feel when they get my reports and see that recommendation. It must be very disheartening, when you've spent eighteen months sweating buckets over 150,000 words of fiction to have a report coming winging back, effectively saying ‘do it again'... rest assured I don't make such recommendations lightly. A rewrite is a huge investment of time, and faith in what you're doing, but it can pay dividends in terms of improving the novel. Here's why I suggest doing it...'
- Enter your poems for the prestigious 2023 National Poetry Competition. The Competition attracts both well-known and unpublished poets alike. It's open to anyone 18 or over from all over the world to enter an unpublished poem of up to 40 lines. The entry fee is £8 for the first entry, £5 for unlimited subsequent entries. The First Prize is £5,000, Second Prize £2,000 and Third Prize £1,000, with Commendations receiving £200. It closes on 31 October.
- Our first set of links is about writers' craft: finding a voice that sounds period-appropriate without being obtrusively olde-worlde, Writing historical fiction: tips on voice, character and story | National Centre for Writing | NCW; the conflict is murder. The resolution is naming whodunit, How Subplots and Plot Filaments Lend Texture and Depth to Any Novel ‹ CrimeReads; upper class white people, often with large houses with staff who knew their place, Bending the ten commandments of golden crime fiction; an author who is a whirlwind. When the publishing world didn't work for her, she created her own, My First Thriller: Jeneva Rose Is in Her Own World ‹ CrimeReads; and a discomfiting psychological thriller exploring AI as a manifestation of human desire to go beyond our own limitations, Writing about what I feared.
- 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 offer three levels of report and copy editing from specialist children's editors. Use their expertise to help get your work ready for publication in this tricky but potentially huge market.
- Links from publishing and the latest AI developments: a fascinating interview with a ground-breaking and highly successful American publisher, The Bookseller - Trade Interviews - Q&A: Dominique Raccah; we need to make a serious stab at understanding how writing affects us as people, Why Human Writing Is Worth Defending In the Age of ChatGPT ‹ Literary Hub; a class-action suit against OpenAI for copyright infringement of their works of fiction, The Bookseller - News - Martin, Grisham and Picoult among 17 authors to file AI lawsuit; and yet another group of authors has filed class action copyright infringement lawsuits against artificial intelligence pioneers Open AI and Met, More Authors, Including Michael Chabon, Sue AI Developers Over Copyright.
- ‘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.' An endorsement from Daniela Stanciulescu, Paris.
- 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...'
- Authors often find it difficult to write their own synopsis for submission to agents and 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 from a professional copy-writer will make your book stand out.
- Links to writers' stories: 'touch wood, I've been very fortunate not to have suffered from writer's block', Ken Follett Wants His Books to Feel as Exciting as James Bond ‹ Literary Hub; 'every experience I had during those years as a defence attorney bleeds into my writing', Giving a voice to the ignored: the families of the accused; 'I was about eight, reading a Famous Five book by Enid Blyton', Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘García Márquez taught me the exquisite power of stories' | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | The Guardian; and, using her own experience, The new queen of spy fiction: how Ava Glass went from murder reporting to the bestseller list | Books | The Guardian.
- How to prepare your prelim pages. There is a set order for the pages at the beginning of a book (known in the business as 'prelims') and you will need to send them to the designer with the rest of the manuscript for them to work on if you are self-publishing. Here we provide detailed instructions for preparing your prelim pages, according to standard publishing practice.
- So you have finished your book, but it is too long; how do you go about reducing the word count without losing important parts of your work? We're here to help. Our experienced editors will work with you to reduce the word count of your book while preserving the main narrative elements and your individual style. This service is available for both fiction and non-fiction. The Cutting edit.
- Our last set of writers' links: an encouraging article from a veteran self-publisher, Lessons from 23 Years as a Self-Publishing Novelist | Jane Friedman; literary retellings of classics have exploded in the past few years, The Bookseller - Comment - Same old stories; and 'I was free in a way that I think it's always been rare for a child to be free', WATCH: Ursula K. Le Guin on Writing Fantasy as a Young Girl ‹ Literary Hub.
- 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.
- 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 and self-publishing may make a lot of sense. Getting your poetry published.
- 'Every writer I know has trouble writing.' Joseph Heller in our Writers' Quotes.
