28 May 2018 - What's new
28 May 2018
- 'My greatest fear is of suddenly feeling that to devote so much of my life to writing is meaningless. It's a sensation that I've felt very often, and I'm afraid that I will again. I need a lot of determination, a stubborn, passionate adherence to the page, not to feel the urgency of other things to do, a more active way of spending my life. So yes, I'm fragile. It's all too easy for me to notice the other things and feel guilty...' Elena Ferrante, author of My Brilliant Friend and four other Neapolitan Novels in the Los Angeles Times. Our Comment.
- Our latest competition is sadly only available to writers resident in the UK or the Republic of Ireland. Richard and Judy's Search For A Bestseller 2018 for unpublished novels has no entry fee but offers as first prize a £30,000 publishing deal with Bonnier Zaffre and representation from literary agency Furniss Lawton. Closing on 14 June.
- Do you want to self-publish your work? WritersServices offers a suite of services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish, which includes Copy editing, Blurb-writing, Poetry Collection Editing, Typing manuscripts. Our Services for Self-publishers are just a few of the 20 services on offer.
- 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 200 to 400 words in length and of general interest. Please email them to us.
- Our links: just how do you get your writing career going when no-one seems much interested? Who Will Buy Your Book? - The Millions; the seven-figure deals that seem to be given to more 20-something debut writers than debut writers in any other age group, Starting Later & Starting Over: Launching a Writing Career When You're No Longer "Young" | Jane Friedman; a new company has launched offering aspiring novelists an alternative to the "traditional" routes to publication, but is there a catch? Banker launches publishing start-up offering novelists £24k salary | The Bookseller; and advice from writers from interviews with the author, Philip Roth: 'You Begin Every Book As An Amateur' : NPR.
- Finding an agent, our tips for this key search: 'There are two types of agency: purely literary and multi-media agents. Look carefully at the entries and consider whether you would prefer to be represented by a big professional agency with all-singing, all-dancing film and TV departments to back up the book agents, or whether you would be better served by a small independent agency...'
- More links: Do you want to sell more books and increase the value of your author brand? Then give some of your e-books away for free, The Power of Free: How to Sell More E-Books; even when they're central to the story, women over 40 are getting pushed to one side when it's time to design the book jacket, Why are middle-aged women invisible on book covers? | Alison Flood | Books | The Guardian; an inspired new way for writers to help children get interested in books, Authors reach out to schools via penpal scheme | The Bookseller and a fascinating newly published study gives some insight into what may be happening inside young children's brains, What's Going On In Your Child's Brain When You Read Them A Story? : NPR Ed : NPR.
- The Web as a Research tool - there are some sensational research resources for writers on the web. The search engines and other directories have made these accessible. But it helps to understand a little about how they work.
- 'Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything... It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it's a cactus.' Enid Bagnold in our Writers' Quotes.
