6 January 2020 - What's new
6 January 2020
- ‘"I don't know where to start," one [writing student] will wail. Start with your childhood, I tell them. Plug your nose and jump in, and write down all your memories as truthfully as you can...' Anne Lamott, author of seven non-fiction books, and the forthcoming Hallelujah Anyway, and two novels, Imperfect Birds and Rosie. Our Comment.
- For anyone thinking about or embarked on self-publishing, our ten-part WritersServices Self-Publishing Guide by Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk is an essential starting-point, taking you through the process step-by-step. 'Self-publishing has changed so much over the past few years it's hard to believe it was once looked down upon by the publishing industry as the last resort of the vain and desperate. At the time of writing many self-publishing authors are identifying with the term ‘indie author', which acknowledges that to professionally publish today, you don't actually have to do everything yourself!' Articles include Formatting your book for Kindle and Marketing and Promotion for Indie Authors: Online.
- 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, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, our new Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. Get the right level of editorial support for your needs. Our low-cost services represent exceptionally good value. Contact us to discuss what you want.
- Our links: audiobooks are having a moment - is the book you listen to now an artform in its own right? asks Clare Thorp, BBC - Culture - Audiobooks: The rise and rise of the books you don't read; nothing about the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott's perennial best seller particularly stuck with me, This Is ‘Little Women' for a New Era - The New York Times; this generation of kids has access to an abundance of digital information and technology from a very young age, How technology will change the future of workforces; and William Golding might just as well have been talking about today's publishing industry, Turning Pages: The struggle to find what readers really want.
- 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.
- More links: the most basic way to imply time passing is to announce the time, Chuck Palahniuk on the Importance of Not Boring Your Reader | Literary Hub; this sparked an uproar across the publishing world, White romance novelist in racism row says she was used | Books | The Guardian; which led to a controversy over bias and a lack of transparency at the Romance Writers of America, RWA Cancels 2020 RITA Awards; and a slow reader who decided to track her reading, Why I'll Never Read a Book a Week Ever Again - The Millions.
- Advice for Writers is a really useful page which takes you into our archive and helps you explore our more than 7,000 pages of information for writers.
- 'The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.' Kurt Vonnegut in our Writers' Quotes.
