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3 October 2016 - What's new

3 October 2016
  • K J Orr, winner of the just-announced 2016 BBC National Short Story Competition, is a debut writer and that makes it surprising that she has won this hotly-contested prize. Her winning story Disappearances was up against a heavyweight shortlist including Man Booker winner Hilary Mantel and Costa Poetry Award shortlisted Lavinia Greenlaw. But her interest in short stories goes back several years and the collection containing Disappearances was published earlier this year by Daunt Books. News Review.
  • Our Writing Opportunity is the UK Novel Writing Competition 2016. It's open to all writers internationally with a fee of £12. Closing on 30 November, it has a 1st Prize of £5000, 2nd Prize £2500 and 3rd Prize £1000 and bills itself as 'the the only Novel Writing Competition where the Public are the Judges'.
  • ‘One of the most important things I'd like to help alter is the general view of writing, this idea that somehow we're amateurs who only do it for love and not for money. That's not the case. Of course we love what we do, but we're also professional people, providing professional services and producing material that generates enormous economic and moral value. Therefore we should get the return on it that we're entitled to. We should be taken seriously... Our Comment is from Tony Bradman, highly successful children's author and new chair of ALCS.
  • 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, and our top service is Rewriting.
  • Our links: do we have a right to know an author's identity? Elena Ferrante: literary storm as Italian reporter 'identifies' author | World news | The Guardian; can you breathe new life into your self-published book? "Help! My Book Isn't Selling!" 9 Things to Consider Before Giving Up | Huffington Post; can writers be too politically correct? Who Gets to Write What? - The New York Times; and bestselling authors gaining traction in the film world, EL James and Patrick Ness join JK Rowling on Hollywood's 'most powerful' authors list | Books | The Guardian.
  • Our Health Hazards series 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. Essential reading for anyone who spends a lot of time at a desk with a keyboard.
  • The March Magazine is worth going back to for some great links, For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way | Books | The Guardian, 9 Reasons To Index-Card Your Manuscript | You Write Fiction, George Szirtes - TEN PROPOSITIONS ABOUT POETRY and Wendy's Writing Now: Out of the Slush Pile - How I Found My Agent.
  • More links: some elegant ways of describing the act of translation, 36 Metaphors for Translation - Words Without Borders; anthologist Allie Esiri writes about the power of poetry to change lives, BookBrunch - Poems for life; and, cheeringly for poets, UK poetry sales on the rise, Poetry market celebrates National Poetry Day with highest sales ever | The Bookseller.
  • From our Writers' Quotes, 'What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.' J D Salinger