4 July 2016

'From a London perspective the British vote to leave the UK seems seismic, especially if you were a Remain supporter, and no-one could have predicted the intense political turmoil that has followed. What it has also brought about is some musings about the highly international nature of the publishing world and the way that authors can find audiences all over the world...' News Review on why the UK book business is so internationally-oriented.
Have you translated your work into English? Or do you have a translation that someone else has done? Or even have you written your book in English, even though it's not your native language? Now you need to make sure it's good enough to publish, or send to a publisher. If you need help to get your work into perfect condition, our new service, Translation Editing, is for you. Acknowledging the growth of world English, this new service is designed for the many non-native English speakers throughout the world who want to publish their work in English.
If you're a children's writer, you have until 19 September to get your work entered into the Mslexia Children's Novel Competition 2016. I's open to all unpublished women writers with an entry fee of £25 and a prize of £5,000. Here are other writing opportunities you might have missed.
'...If you are an emerging writer now, there are more channels for you to get in front of the eyeballs of a publisher but you have to do a lot of the work yourself. There's less work done by editors and publishers - they wait for writers to come to them with manuscripts that are fully formed...' Sam Cooney, publisher of the Melbourne-based literary journal The Lifted Brow in the Guardian provides this week's Comment.
There are some particularly interesting links this week: 'we writers like to talk about elements of craft. Character, theme, setting, voice, point of view, language. But I seldom hear fellow writers talking about plot', Literary or Genre, It's the Plot That Counts | Literary Hub; if you've entered publishing for the love of the art and craft of writing, you need to make room in your heart and mind for the business side of things so that you don't end up wondering what went wrong after it's too late, 5 Entrepreneurial Tips for Authors Who Want to Up Their Game; is it 'hard to tell the story of contemporary African literature without talking about this prize? Is the Caine Prize for Emergent African Writing, or the Best African Writing? | Literary Hub; and here's the winner, so you can judge for yourself, South Africa's Lidudumalingani Wins 2016 Caine Prize.
Julia McCutchen is an intuitive creator, writer and mentor who guides people to share their unique gifts through creating, writing and living from a conscious and vibrant connection to Truth. A former international publisher, Julia experienced a life-changing accident in 1999 which triggered a series of major quantum leaps in her spiritual awakening. She subsequently developed a tried and tested holistic approach to access the present and aligned state required for original creative expression in all areas of life, especially writing. She is the founder and creative director of the International Association of Conscious & Creative Writers (IACCW) and the author of two books including, Conscious Writing: Discover Your True Voice Through Mindfulness and More (Hay House). For more information and a free video series visit www.JuliaMcCutchen.com and www.iaccw.com's article on Conscious Writing: 'Discovering our authentic voice, writing with lasting impact, and standing out from the crowd are high priorities for most of us who write. But how do we go about achieving these intentions? Conscious Writing is a new approach to deep writing with full awareness which takes us into the core of what we're really here to write, and in the process, opens the way for us to realise our true potential as authors in the world...' Her second article is A New Approach to Discovering Your Writer's True Voice.
More links: is self-publishing peopled with ‘increasingly sophisticated authors' supported by ‘increasingly sophisticated consultants'? Self-Publishing and the 'Curatorial Mark': Jon Fine; Alice Adams says writing a novel is a painful and bloody process that takes up all your free time, haunts you in the darkest hours of night and generally culminates in a lot of weeping over an ever-growing pile of rejection letters, Why Does Anyone Write? | Literary Hub; and more on the view from the UK, Philip Jones, editor of the Bookseller, shares his thoughts on what Brexit could mean for the publishing industry » MobyLives; and the author of three, soon to be four, memoirs complains When You Write a Memoir, Readers Think They Know You Better Than They Do - The New York Times.
Authors often find it difficult to write their own synopsis for submission to publishers, which is where our Synopsis-writing service can help. A professional synopsis is an essential part of your submission package. If you're preparing to self-publish and having difficulty with your blurb, our Blurb-writing service might be what you need. To give your book its best chance, you have to have cover copy which will attract readers.
'When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.' I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.' George Orwell in our Writers' Quotes.