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7 August 2017 - What's new

7 August 2017
  • ‘The basic challenge for the writer can be very simply explained - it is to create an imaginary world and then draw the reader into that imaginary world. All novelists are trying to do that. Once we get there, different writers may have different concerns. Personally, I want to entertain you...' Ken Follett, author of The Kingsbridge Series and The Century Trilogy, whose latest novel is Edge of Eternity, in the Introduction to his helpful online Masterclass. This week's Comment.
  • Closing on 28 September 2017, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award 2018 offers a generous First Prize of £30,000 and five shortlisted prizes of £1,000. Authors ‘must have a record of prior publication in creative writing in the UK'.
  • Have you got something you'd like to say to our community of writers? My Say gives writers a chance to air their views about writing and the writer's life. So we have Natasha Mostert: "There are few things as satisfying as typing THE END to a manuscript;" Richard Hall: "Write about what you know - does this adage always make sense?" and Jae Watson's Magic formula. Contributions should ideally be 300 to 500 words in length and of general interest. Please email them to us.
  • Reports of sparkling growth from the UK's Northern Fiction Alliance show the strength provided by working together, the importance to small publishers of international rights and book sales, and how public subsidy can make a difference. News Review
  • Our links: a young woman in a bar asked me if my novel, which she had heard about from the bartender, was fiction or nonfiction, So You've Decided to Write: Is Your Novel Actually Fiction or Non? | Literary Hub; prepared for Vulture's Dark Futures week, a huge but useful list, Best Dystopian Books; one of the things that keeps a reader engaged is creating compelling characters and putting them in engaging situations, It's all about characters - How do you create compelling ones? | Author Don Massenzio; and the economic power of reading women was on full display Friday night at Politics and Prose, at their first romance event, Stop dissing romance novels already - The Washington Post.
  • Which service should I choose to help me get my work into good shape for submission or self-publishing? This is the question our page Which service? answers and it then goes on to give a quick rundown on our 20 editorial services for writers, the biggest you can find on the internet.
  • More links: a diffferent perspective, "what if we make books more like TV?" 13 Reasons why Serials are Better than Books | Read It Forward; before I saw the cover of my second novel, I worried about it, The Millions : Sexy Backs and Headless Women: A Book Cover Manifesto - The Millions; her particular brand of celebrity is more akin to that of a pop star like Ariana Grande than a traditional poet, The Problem With Rupi Kaur's Poetry.
  • Are you struggling to get someone to look at your poetry? Our Poetry Critique service for 150 lines of poetry and our Poetry Collection Editing, to help you prepare your collection for submission or self-publishing, can provide the professional editorial input you need.
  • 'I rather agree with C. S. Lewis that a book that isn't worth reading when you're sixty isn't worth reading when you're six.' Richard Adams in our Writers' Quotes.