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1 March 2010

	Latest changes in the book trade 7: in the latest part of this series, Chris Holifield looks at the subject of Creative Commons and how these special licenses might transform authors' capacity to the license use of their books for all sorts of purposes.
	The rest of the series covers Bookselling, Publishing, Print on Demand and the Long Tail, Self-publishing - career suicide or 'really great', Writers' Routes to their audiences and Copyright.
	John Jenkins' March column covers the writing of memoirs and shows how his students have approached writing in this genre. He then provides an elegant essay on the semi-colon.
	'The staggering number of 285,000 new titles and editions were self-published and published by community presses in the US last year, balanced against a slightly lower figure of 275,000 coming from traditional publishing houses... The Nielsen figures for the UK are 133,224, quite modest by comparison... So, what do these huge figures mean for authors? At a time when it’s increasingly hard to get published, why are there so many titles coming out? The main answer of course is self-publishing and print on demand in general. News Review reports.
	An Editor's Advice is a useful series is based on the advice Maureen Kincaid Speller, a long-serving WritersServices freelance editor, has given writers over the years. The series covers Dialogue, doing further drafts, genre writing, planning, points of view, autobiography and travel and manuscript presentation.
	'If you feel sorry for publishers spare a thought – and a dime – for writers, on whose shoulders this huge, discounting, rights-trading, jargon-babbling profiteering melée rests. As things are, the writer’s share of a book that sells for £10, after his or her agent’s fee, hovers between 35p and 40p: more than 95% is kept by the agent, publisher and retailer.' Henry Porter in the Guardian, quoted in our Comment column.
	'The writer's intention hasn't anything to do with what he achieves. The intent to earn money or the intent to be famous or the intent to be great doesn't matter in the end. Just what comes out.' Lillian Hellman in our Writers' Quotes.

8 March 2010

	Writing Memoir and Autobiography - if you want to write a memoir you’re in good company – lots of writers want to try their hand at this category. In the latest in our new Categories series Chris Holifield looks at how to set about writing your memoir and how to publish it.
	Other articles in the series are Writing Historical Fiction, Writing Romance, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, Writing Crime Fiction and Writing non-fiction.
	'Quick Reads recently surveyed over 30,000 of their readers and found that 100% said Quick Reads had made a positive impact on their lives. 88% were more confident and 41% felt their job prospects had improved since reading a Quick Read. Significantly, in terms of encouraging book reading, 82% said they were more likely to read another book after reading a Quick Read.' News Review investigates Quick Reads with World Book Day coming up on 4 March.
	Real Time Web for Old Time Books: the Benefit of Social Media for Publishers and Authors - Fauzia Burke explores the online activities you can do in real time -- from status updates on Facebook, to microblogging on Twitter to uploading photos and videos on other social media sites. If you want to explore how social networking can help you market your book, her article provides a starting-point.
	Does your manuscript need Copy editing? Do you know the difference between copy editing and proof-reading? Divided by a common language - are you wondering about the difference between American and British copy editing?
	‘Books are not a threatened species. They are ordinary features of the ordinary world... Should we, who read books and believe that books and the stories within them contain such power, be surprised that kids read, that books survive? Of course not.　 We should be celebrating these facts.’ David Almond, author of Skellig, in The Times, quoted in our Comment column.
	From our archive, five excerpts from Inspired Creative Writing by Alexander Gordon Smith from the brisk and entertaining 52 Brilliant Ideas series.
	'If you steal from one author, it's research; if you steal from many, it's research.' Wilson Mizner in our Writers' Quotes.
	The March Magazine is here!

22 February 2010

‘I am saddened that yet another claim has been made that I have taken material from another source to write Harry. The fact is I had never heard of the author or the book before the first accusation by those connected to the author's estate in 2004; I have certainly never read the book.' J K Rowling. News Review looks at the latest plagiarism claim.

The 2009 Diagram Prize shortlist - Click through to find the shortlist for the oddest title of the year. Will it be Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter or Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich? Your chance to place your vote on the Bookseller website.

'I think John Irving said in an interview something which nobody says about writing, which is that writing is sitting down and typing that sentence, and that sentence creates the next sentence and the character grows and the story grows from the physical act of typing what is going on in your head.' Deborah Moggach in Scriptwriter, quoted in our Comment column.

My Say 9 is from Zoe Jenny, who was born in Switzerland but is shortly publishing her first book written in English: 'Now that I am writing in English I have to start all over again, earning my credentials in a new market. I am essentially back to square one. But maybe that is the most exciting place to be.'

The latest addition to our fictionalised stories about our services - how Alison used our children's editorial services to get her magic unicorn story right.

Plus how an Editor's Report helped Catherine, How Copy editing turned Tony's work into a publishable manuscript, how Makito benefited from Manuscript Polishing to get his PhD into shape, Self-publishing helped promote Annie's cake business and how Manuscript Typing helped John to get his father's wartime diary into good shape for publication.

Thinking about subscribing to a writers' magazine? Our Magazine Reviews offer a unique service, guiding you through what's available for writers: Writers' News, Mslexia, Writers' Forum, Writer's Digest, Scriptwriter and Self-Publishing Magazine.

'Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.' Mark Twain in our Writers' Quotes.

15 February 2010

Latest changes in the book trade 6: in the sixth part of this revised overview of what's going on in the book world, Chris Holifield tackles the thorny and currently highly contentious subject of copyright.

As e-books move into the mainstream and the parties involved in the Google Settlement continue to slug it out, copyright is at the centre of publishers' and authors' anxieties. Is this the end of the slush-pile? News Review looks at the problems facing unpublished authors who are trying to get their work into print.

Is a creative writing degree really worth it? Having completed a creative writing degree, Josh Spears thought he would become a bestselling writer or at least be able to get a job. Neither of these has happened, so was it worth it and would he advise other writers to put themselves through the course?

The great writers and the canon... The idea of what constitutes literary value has changed or become less consensual.　 It’s harder to establish what is good and what is not, and that is one of the things that forms the canon.　 Barnes, Amis, McEwan were the last people through the door, and then the door closed, and then the building fell down.’ Giles Foden, author of Turbulence, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

Why do non-fiction books need an index? In The Ins and Outs of Indexing Joanne Phillips provides an answer, explains why it's a specialist job and why computers can't achieve the same result as a skilled indexer.

Our new Indexing service. Are you an author planning to compile your own index? Have you been asked by your publisher to provide an index for your book? Or are you self-publishing your work? If so, don’t let your readers down by offering them a sub-standard index. A professional index will set your work apart from other self-published books.

'This (writing) is the love of your life. It's what I want to do when I wake up. Nothing feels so absorbing, so fulfilling.' Martin Amis, in our Writers' Quotes.

8 February 2010

Don't procrastinate! - 'Do you find it difficult to get started on your writing? Is it always easier to put off finishing that research/ starting that novel/embarking on the second draft? You are not alone, for many writers suffer from procrastination.' Chris Holifield looks at how to get yourself going.

Figures for 2009 just released by the big UK publishers show just how tough a time they had and what a difficult book market we’ve had in the past year. Seven of the top UK publishers had negative sales growth last year... The only one of the top four to do well was the market leader Hachette and that was because of Stephenie Meyer, whose £29.4m ($46m) of sales accounted for an extraordinary 10.2% of the group’s total UK sales. News Review reflects on what all this means for authors.

Poem for Haiti - from Gillian Clarke, National Poet for Wales, a beautiful poem which is a lament for Haiti.

‘Every agent has their own style.　 Ed Victor goes to a party and signs up someone.　 Luigi Bonomi goes and talks to a film company or football agent.　 But I like doing it this way (through his website) because it brings in interesting books, often ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I love the range and serendipity…' Andrew Lownie on finding agency clients through the web, quoted in our Comment column.

Our review of FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions from ambitious writers and the answers by John Jenkins, our columnist and the former editor of Writers’ Forum, is packed with answers to all the questions you have ever thought of asking. Chris Holifield's review concludes that: 'All in all, this is a valuable resource, especially for the new writer, but also for anyone who has tried to work their way through the writing jungle.'

If you want editorial input from our professional editors, have a look at our Services, especially our Editor's Report, Submission Critique and Children's Services. Also available is Copy editing, Manuscript Typing and our new service, Indexing.

'The ideal audience the poet imagines consists of the beautiful who go to bed with him, the powerful who invite him to dinner and tell him secrets of state, and his fellow-poets. The actual audience he gets consists of myopic schoolteachers, pimply young men who eat in cafeterias, and his fellow-poets. This means, in fact, he writes for his fellow-poets.' W H Auden in our Writers' Quotes.

1 February 2010

News Review looks at the battle of the titans which has just commenced: 'This has been one of those weeks when there’s been so much happening that it’s difficult to cover it in a single column. Apple has broken the news of its iPad and, amidst the buzz about that, Amazon has already started to fight back. This could be a turning-point and how publishing, books and authors come out of all this is hard to predict...'

In his latest column John Jenkins deals with the famous piece of advice to writers: 'Show, don't tell'. If you've ever wondered exactly what this means in practice, John's examples provide a quick tutorial and will help you to make your own writing work much better.

Bob's Journal of a Virtually Unpublished Writer offers entertaining insights into the life of an aspiring writer. It's a WritersServices exclusive and you can go back to the start in 2001 and right through to its end in December 2007, when he reflected: 'Still haven’t broken through my writer’s block. No longer even sure I want to. Why write? What’s writing for? Have absolutely no idea. How can one add anything worthwhile to the work of writers like Oscar Wilde? Yet the internet grows more vast by the minute with the words of the millions who are certain their opinions are worth airing.'

‘According to Amazon Kindle's vice-president, Ian Freed, the success of the Kindle signals the end of physical books: 'The only question is does it take three years, five years or 20 years?' I remain to be persuaded that e-readers are capable of matching the varied activities we engage in when reading. More is required to satisfy the dedicated reader than replicating the content and appearance of a printed book, or emulating the action of "turning pages" using a tap on a touch-sensitive screen.' Lisa Jardine in A Point of View on BBC Radio Four, quoted in our Comment column.

Is your progress as a writer stymied by the fact that you have old typewritten or even handwritten manuscripts that you can't face retyping onto a computer? Our Typing service can help with this.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets, offering £5,000 for a poetry pamphlet published in the UK in 2009. Self-published work is eligible.

'The very cheapness of literature is making even wise people forget that if a book is worth reading, it is worth buying. No book is worth anything which is not worth much; nor is it serviceable, until it has been read, and re-read, and loved, and loved again; and marked, so that you can refer to the passages you want in it.' John Ruskin in our Writers' Quotes.

The new February Magazine is ready!

25 January 2010

International Book Fairs 2010 - our updated line-up of the year's book fairs across the world, a unique feature of the site which is much in demand. Is there a book fair near you? It might be worth planning to attend it if so.

'So are agents really feeling the pinch now? Long regarded as the fats cats of the industry, there are signs that the London agency constituency is really beginning to join in the pain. You cannot escape the conclusion that there will be redundancies, closures and mergers of agencies... some of the larger agencies have become quite big businesses and they will find it difficult to sustain their cost bases. News Review examines the latest news from the agency world.

There's just time still to enter the Cardiff International Poetry Competition 2010 if you do it online. It closes on 29 January, so hurry! This week's Writing Opportunity has a prize of £5,000 and is open to all.

'We all know the adage of 'everyone has a book in them' - but how many truly have the commitment, courage, tenacity - and skills - to write a series of novels? Writing a novel is not about ‘burning ambition’ - where ambition is solely about publication or money or fame. For a novel to be a good novel - and worthy of the generous readers who part with their cash to buy it - it can only arise from the author’s absolute desire to write that story out of their　 system - and being blessed with the necessary talent to do so...' Freya North, in a Bookseller blog, quoted in our Comment column.

Sell, don't tell: Some do’s and don’ts if you want to sell a script. If you want to turn your book, dream or idea into a performance script for film, stage or radio, it is going to be a very tough pitch. There are some pretty strict ‘rules’ which you need to follow if you are to maximise your chance of success. Read Chas Jones' two part article.

'Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry is given to us by those who do.' Cyril Connolly in our Writers' Quotes.

18 January 2010

There's better news from the UK book trade. 2009 was down just 1.2% down in value and only 0.5% down in volume in a year which has seen a contraction in the overall economy of 5%, so the book trade can justifiably claim that book sales have held up reasonably well. News Review reports.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Biscuit International Short Story Prize 2010 for stories of 1000-5000 words. The deadline is 14th April 2010, it's open to all and there's a £10/£11 entry fee, so get writing!

The winner of the 2009 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry is announced!

‘Self-publishing has taken a huge leap forward in recent years. It’s always existed, but with all the technological changes from desk-top publishing systems to POD to blogging and so forth it’s now more acceptable than ever before... The trend is hardly surprising: mainstream publishers have cut back and cut back, so that even authors who had niche titles published and might have been in print for some years now find it harder and harder to keep their books available.' Eileen Campbell, Mind, Body and Spirit expert and author of 6 books, in Bookbrunch, quoted in our Comment column.

Thinking about publishing your own book? Is self-publishing for you? helps you think this through and our WritersPrintShop provides the best writers' resource on self-publishing on the web, 90 pages of information, as well as a first-rate service.

Here are answers to the essential questions: How much will it cost? How long will it take? & How much might you earn?

'One man is as good as another until he has written a book.' Benjamin Jowett in our Writers' Quotes.

11 January 2010

'Americans are buying fewer books because of the economic downturn, and purchase cheaper books when they do buy... Knocking on the head a favourite publishing theory that books do well in recession, only 2% of consumers said that they were choosing to buy books as an alternative to more expensive kinds of entertainment. So, green shoots of recovery notwithstanding, the American book trade is still experiencing tough times.' News Review looks at the American book business.

John Jenkins' January column looks at a Robert Altman film, The Gingerbread Man, based on a discarded story by John Grisham: 'Although it wasn’t Grisham’s best story, I enjoyed it. But the moral of this story is: never throw anything away. I realise that Grisham could probably sell his laundry list to a publisher but for your new year resolution, dip down into that drawer and see what you can salvage. You may find a gem. And after you have done that go through stories and features you have sold in the UK and see if you can sell them on for the American and other rights.'

'So you want to write historical fiction? Your timing is good, because historical fiction is fashionable again after many years in the doldrums. In fact it’s so popular that it has virtually reinvented itself as a category...' The latest article in Chris Holifield's Categories series explores the market and approaches to Writing Historical Fiction.

Other articles in the series cover Writing Romance, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, Writing Crime Fiction and Writing Non-fiction.

'My life changed when I took control of my time.　 Instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, I sit down to write for three hours every day.　 It's much more effective - it's about giving yourself the space for creativity to come. Esther Freud, author of Love Falls in the Sunday Times' Style magazine, quoted in our Comment column.

We were very honoured recently that the British Library asked to archive www.writersservices.com in its web archive, where you can find it at British Library web archive. The UK Web Archive is a corpus of websites selected by leading UK institutions for their historical, social and cultural significance in the UK. Also listed in this article on their archive are other international web archives.

'I have never know any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.'
Baron de Montesquieu in our Writers' Quotes.

The January Magazine is here!

21 December 2009

'This has been a week of dramatic developments in the publishing world, as publishers scramble to work out how to navigate a completely new playing field. The debate centres around four crucial issues: who controls e-book rights, the timing of e-book editions and what the prices and royalty rates for e-books should be.' News Review reports from the battlefield.

In Latest changes in the book trade 5, Chris Holifield gives an update on writers' routes to their audiences: 'It is a supreme irony that at time when creative writing courses are turning out large numbers of keen writers and almost everyone seems to think they have a book in them, it has never been so hard to find a publisher.'

The first article was on Bookselling, the second on Publishing, the third on Print on Demand and the Long Tail and the fourth on Self-publishing - career suicide or 'really great'?

'As a screenwriter you have to be succinct and cut out any extraneous words or descriptions, so when I started writing prose for the first time it was really difficult to make it last. I'd write Chapter One (and it would take up) three-quarters of the page!' Belinda Bauer, author of Blacklands, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

If you want editorial input from our professional editors, have a look at our Services, especially our Editor's Report, Submission Critique and Children's Services. Also available is Copy editing, Manuscript Typing and our new service, Indexing.

Our Success story this week is Evie Wyld, first-time novelist and winner of the distinguished John Llewelyn Rhys Prize.

'I hate the term "mystery". That's not what I write. I think the Scarpetta novels are much more character-driven than an average puzzle solver. Writing should be like a pane of glass - there's another world on the other side and your vision carries you there, but you're not aware of having passed through a barrier to get there.' Patricia Cornwall in our Writers' Quotes.

14 December 2009

'Is it possible that the short story is at last getting a new lease of life? The form, long beloved of writers, seems to be reaching new audiences through the Internet and benefiting from new opportunities in the form of prizes. ' News Review investigates the latest good news.

Winning poems from the Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition - read the two winning poems from the gifted young 7-8 and 9-11 year-old poets who have won first prizes in this international competition.

Self-publish your way through the recession Our article by Chris Holifield, first published in The Self-Publishing Magazine, looks at what's going on in the publishing world and why it might make sense to consider self-publishing.

John Jenkins' December column - John is on feisty form this month as he attacks the 'log-rolling' of reviews and the silly results from best books of the year round-ups - for which he gives his own suggested list.

'I am concerned about those very young people being trained up in creative writing courses and universities around the country; being taught how to present, how to sell as if they were heading for careers in advertising, being snapped up by agents and scraping it all in the first - only? - book.' Sadie Jones, author of The Outcast in the Sunday Telegraph, quoted in our Comment column.

Doing research for your book? Have you tried our page on Using the web as a research tool? There's also Advanced Searching to help you make the most of this wonderful tool.

'Poems are made by fools like me But only God can make a tree.'
Alfred Joyce Kilmer, in our Writers' Quotes.

7 December 2009

News Review reports on a typewriter saga: 'It didn’t seem a slow news week, but the amount of coverage which has been given to the sale of Cormac McCarthy’s typewriter in the last few days has been truly astonishing. The American writer bought the machine, an Olivetti Lettera 31, from a pawnshop for $50 (£30) in 1963...'

Our latest Writing Opportunity is the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children's Book Award 2010, closing date 26 February. The Award is for a children's manuscript from an unpublished writer that celebrates cultural diversity in the widest possible sense . Prize of £1500 ($2,471) plus publication.

Thinking about subscribing to a writers' magazine? Our Magazine Reviews offer a unique service, guiding you through what's available for writers: Writers' News, Mslexia, Writers' Forum, Writer's Digest, Scriptwriter and Self-Publishing Magazine.

‘I know that what I do is not literature. For me, the essential component of fiction is plot. My objective is to get the reader to feel impelled to turn the pages as quickly as possible. If I want to achieve that, I can’t allow myself the luxury of distracting him. I have to keep him hanging on and the only way to do it is by using the weapon of suspense.' John Grisham in the Sunday Telegraph, quoted in our Comment column.

What does it take to market yourself successfully as a jobbing writer today? Joanne Phillips provides the answer, which is that the internet is a fertile ground for writers. You just need to know how to make it work for you...

'I think what I love most [about writing] is that feeling that you really nailed something. I rarely feel it with a whole piece, but sometimes with a line you feel that it really captured what it is that you had inside you and you got it out for a stranger to read, someone who may never love you or meet you, but he or she is going to get that experience from that line.' Andre Dubus III in our Writers' Quotes.

The December Magazine is ready!

30 November 2009

'The troubled British book chain Borders went into administration last week. The chain, which had been the subject of a management buyout in July, proved unable to trade its way through the recession. It was already in the process of closing down its Book Etc stores when the end came.' News Review reports on further turmoil on the high street.

My Say 9 is from Zoe Jenny, who was born in Switzerland but is shortly publishing her first book written in English: 'Now that I am writing in English I have to start all over again, earning my credentials in a new market. I am essentially back to square one. But maybe that is the most exciting place to be.'

From our Archives My Say 7: Timothy Hallinan on the Writing Session and My Say 8: Jae Watson on the magic formula which enables writers to 'cross that fine, elusive line dividing unpublished and published writers'.

Have you got a problem relating to a publishing contract or subsidiary rights? You could decide to go in for our Contract vetting service or our contracts expert may be able to offer some advice.

'The main thing the music business didn’t realise at first is that digitalisation isn’t about distributing the same content in another way. It changes the way people consume content and what is consumed.' Danny Ryan, intellectual property specialist at LEGC, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

Have you explored our extensive section of recommended links? Writers' web resources and Writers' magazines and writing sites are of special interest.

'Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.' is the advice from William Wordsworth. Dive into our extensive Writers' Quotes to find out what writers have said about the craft across the ages.

23 November 2009

In the fourth part of Latest changes in the book trade, Chris Holifield gives an update on developments relating to Self-publishing and discusses how the possibility of publishing your own book is transforming authors' routes to publication.

The first article in this updated series dealt with Bookselling, the second article with Publishing and the third with Print on Demand and the Long Tail.

'In his essay 'Politics and the English Language' George Orwell set out a series of rules for writing that are worth repeating in full... I would add three more tips... 3. Write. As much as you can. The more you do the better you'll get at it. Damian Whitworth in The Times, quoted in our Comment column.

So what's the Google Settlement all about? You may be thoroughly bored with it, but this is a battle of the titans as Google and Amazon square up to each other and the Settlement has a significant impact on authors’ rights. News Review looks at what both sides have been saying.

The Bad Sex Award for 2009 has come up with some entertaining shortlised titles, including this excerpt from Philip Roth.

Are you worried about hackers getting into your computer? In our Writers' Web Watch there are several articles to help with this, including What's a hoax?, Am I infected? and Identity fraud.

‘Writing is a deeply immersive experience. When the words are flying, the house could be burgled and I wouldn’t notice. I have a low boredom threshold and I like intensity – writing is a way of escaping the quotidian.’ Monica Ali in our Writers' Quotes.

16 November 2009

'The New Google Settlement looks like a reasonable resolution of a thorny set of problems. Bowing to pressure from foreign governments and the US Department of Justice, the revised Settlement presented to the district Court in New York shortly before midnight on Friday limits the scope of the scheme to works registered with the US Copyright Office and books published in the UK, Canada and Australia.' News Review reports.

I'll Take a Community With That Book, Please! Fauzia Burke, founder of a an Internet marketing firm specializing in creating online awareness for books and authors, shows how successful niche publishers are reaching communities of readers on the web.

Martin Amis in the Sunday Times, quoted in our Comment column: 'It's my belief that the relationship between writer and reader is a love relationship. How do you make someone love you? You present yourself at your best, your most alive, your fullest, your most considerate. An author must be love-flushed: you must give them you most comfortable chair; you want to give the reader the seat nearest the fire, the best wine and food. It's a sort of hospitality gesture.'

If you feel like some seasonal charity, spare a thought for Book Aid International, a charity which sends 500,000 books a year to sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

An Editor's Advice is a useful series is based on the advice Maureen Kincaid Speller, a long-serving WritersServices freelance editor, has given writers over the years. The series covers dialogue, doing further drafts, genre writing, planning, points of view, autobiography and travel and manuscript presentation.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Good Writing Awards just announced by the UK's National Academy of Writing.

'Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.' William Saroyan in our Writers' Quotes.

9 November 2009

'So you want to write historical fiction? Your timing is good, because historical fiction is fashionable again after many years in the doldrums. In fact it’s so popular that it has virtually reinvented itself as a category...' The latest article in Chris Holifield's Categories series explores the market and approaches to Writing Historical Fiction.

Other articles in the series cover Writing Romance, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, Writing Crime Fiction and Writing Non-fiction.

News Review looks at 'the tragic saga of a bestselling author', the story of Stieg Larrson, who died suddenly just as he was becoming a megaseller His girlfriend of 30 years has been disinherited and, regretably, it is just like an episode out of one of Larsson’s own books.

Are you looking for a bit of light relief? Our Rotten Rejections show how writers have always been turned dwn. Lord of the Flies by William Golding was described as: 'an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull' and John le Carré's The Spy who Came in from the Cold was turned down with the words: ‘You’re welcome to le Carré – he hasn’t got any future.’

‘I’ve always felt that I have tried to give women of a particular generation a voice. I do think chick lit has potentially been very powerful as it has looked at things like our awful relationship with our bodies, our relationship with food, with the beauty industry, our relationship with work – the fact that we’re still not equal…' Marian Keyes, author of The Brightest Star in the Sky, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

Interested in writers' software? There's a number of packages which can help you with your writing reviewed in our Writers' Software section.

'Anyone could write a novel, given six weeks, pen, paper, and no telephone or wife.' Evelyn Waugh's cynical comment is from our Writers' Quotes.

2 November 2009

John Jenkins' November column is entitled 'Booker winner Mantel deserves the accolades'. He dismisses the Booker judges but applauds their choice: 'Many good – and many great – writers go through life without ever getting close to the Booker award. It’s nice to see one winning who thoroughly deserves it.' John looks at Mantel's Tudor subject-matter and the hard slog of her eleven previous books: 'Her secret as an author? To keep a notebook and to write every day that she possibly can.'

'These are nervous times in the book world. Too much seems to be happening too fast and no-one is sure what it means or where we’re all going to end up.' News Review looks at the the pace of change in e-books and internet selling.

Are you trying to get your work ready for publication? There are hundreds of pages on this website which will help with this - access them from this page: Advice for writers.

If you want editorial input from our professional editors, have a look at our Services, especially our Editor's Report, Submission Critique and Children's Services. Also available is Copy editing, Manuscript Typing and our new service, Indexing.

Quoted in our Comment column, Kate Mosse on the Sony Reader: 'But, actually, I think the most significant thing about the Reader is not the issue of convenience, but its potential for transforming non-regular readers’ relationship with books... We know there is a problem with literacy rates in the UK. If we are to solve it, we need to be more imaginative. We need to accept that the tools are not what matters – voice, print, audio – but the narrative itself. And acknowledge that, for some, a resistance to the physical book itself is a problem.’

Are you a poet who is trying to get your work published? Have a look at Getting your poetry published and there's also a review of Chris Hamilton-Emery of Salt Publshing's 101 Ways to Make Poems Sell, the best book on the subject.

'The art of writing, like the art of love, runs all the way from a kind of routine hard to distinguish from piling bricks to a kind of frenzy closely related to delirium tremens.' H L Mencken in our Writers' Quotes.

The November Magazine is ready!

26 October 2009
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We feel very honoured that the British Library has archived www.writersservices.com in its web archive. The UK Web Archive is a corpus of websites selected by leading UK institutions for their historical, social and cultural significance in the UK. Also listed in this article on the British Library archive are other international web archives.

In the third part of Latest changes in the book trade, Chris Holifield gives an update on developments relating to Print on demand, which has radically changed the way books are produced, making it possible to produce just one book at a time, a boon to self-publishers. It's also opened up the possibility of keeping everything in print forever creating the 'Long Tail' in bookselling.

The first article is the series dealt with Bookselling and the second with Publishing.

The difficulty always, for any book, is the reveal. How much does the reader know at any given moment? Are you being fair if you hold that behind your back and don’t tell them until later?... That’s what mystery writers do and I’ve always had a lot of respect for them because it’s such an amazing craft.' Audrey Niffenegger, author of Her Fearful Symmetry, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

The shortlist for the 2009 T S Eliot Prize has just been announced and the Poetry Book Society's Shadowing Scheme and reading groups have just started.
'A recent study shows that a higher percentage of the British than of the US population bought books in 2008.' There are other fascinating differences - and similarities - between the two book markets. News Review reports.

There are just a few days left to get your poem entered for this year's National Poetry Competition, open to all poets writing in English and closing on 31st October.

'You just have to work with what God sends, and if God doesn't seem to understand the concept of commercial success, then that's your bad luck.' Michael Frayn, in our Writers' Quotes.

19 October 2009

Maureen Kincaid Speller reviews A Creative Writing Handbook and concludes that: 'It is true the handbook asks for a lot from the reader in terms of participation and active thought, but for those writers who are extremely serious about improving their work, it provides a valuable course in how to think about the art and craft of writing.'

News Review reports on Frankfurt and after: 'But even when the book business comes out of this recession it’s still going to be a different world. Publishers will rebuild their lists cautiously, with an emphasis on the tried and tested, and what is already bestselling. Unpublished authors will continue to think hard about self-publishing. And digitisation and the growth in e-books may yet change the market so radically that we are really talking about a whole new ball-game.'

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2010 short story competition, open to all and closing on 14 February 2010.

Thinking about publishing your own book? Is self-publishing for you? helps you think this through and our WritersPrintShop provides the best writers' resource on self-publishing on the web, 90 pages of information, as well as a first-rate service.

‘In the Fifties, when a strong child was dealing with difficult circumstances, there was always a rescue at the end of the book ... Books for children became much more concerned with realism, or what we see as realism. But where is the hope? How do we offer them hope within that? It may be that realism has gone too far in literature for children. I am not sure that we are opening doors for children who read these books, or helping them to develop their aspirations.' Anne Fine in The Times, quoted in our Comment column.

Want to know how to pitch your script? If you want to turn your book, dream or idea into a performance script for film, stage or radio, it is going to be a very tough pitch. Chas Jones's two part article Sell, don't tell shows you how to make a successful pitch.

'What creates a writer is huge, psychological dysfunction.' Kathy Lette in our Writers' Quotes

11 October 2009

So you want to write non-fiction? Writing Non-fiction is the fourth article in a new series by Chris Holifield which will cover the major writing genres. Here's how to approach it, covering the competition and marketing, planning, research, selling your book and self-publishing.

The other genres covered so far are Writing Romance, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy and Writing Crime Fiction.

'This was the week when, in the middle of an unsurprising Booker and an unremarkable Nobel Prize for Literature, Amazon launched its much-heralded Kindle 2 international edition... ' But what about the other devices, which enable buyers to shop elsewhere? And have Amazon left it too late? New Review reports.

Julie Wheelwright, programme director, MA Creative Writing Nonfiction, City University, London, offers her Top Ten Tips for Non-fiction writers.

‘I wish popular novelists wouldn't get so het up about the Booker. They seem to believe that their exclusion from the most prestigious literary award is a symptom of the snootiness of the literary establishment. No doubt some people are literary snobs; but most writers and readers accept that there are different genres, that the Booker is for literary fiction, and that's that... ' Nick Clee in BookBrunch, quoted in our Comment column.

Welsh literature organisation Academi has just launched an online resource, written by New Welsh Review editor Kathryn Gray, designed with the writer in Wales especially in mind, but which also shows writers in general how to navigate the business and maximise your chances of success.

'Those of us who had a perfectly happy childhood should be able to sue for deprivation of literary royalties.' Chris Patten, in our Writers' Quotes.

4 October 2009

John Jenkins' October column shows you how to kickstart a biography: 'In my writing classes I always urge people to have two pieces of work in progress simultaneously. And the easiest and most satisfying second option is a family history. Tackling a family history employs all the qualities you need to be an entertaining writer –and anybody who has a clear mind and can write a letter can write such a book...'

'The annual Frankfurt Book Fair starts on 14 October and already publishers from around the globe are gearing up for the many meetings, arranged weeks ago, which they will be packing in with publishers from all over the world... ' News Review is gearing up.

Ready to submit? Our page on Making submissions helps guide you through the process and Your Submission Package shows you what to send.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the BBC's My Story, a new story telling competition to find the nation's most remarkable true stories. Enter with a short story of 300 to 1500 words + a brief summary. The closing date is 16 December 2009 and it's open only to UK residents who are over 18. First prize: a publishing deal with HarperTrue.

'The short story is a moment of enlightenment. A moment of vision. The story is going to fall on my head like an apple. But the novel… there is a school of thought, and I agree with it, that we do not have to invent novels; we discover them. The novel exists in my heart and in my mind and I must concentrate to get it out.' Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany in the Observer, quoted in our Comment column.

An Editor's Advice is a useful series is based on the advice Maureen Kincaid Speller, a long-serving WritersServices freelance editor, has given writers over the years. The series covers Dialogue, doing further drafts, genre writing, planning, points of view, autobiography and travel and manuscript presentation.

'There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like. It is enough if he eats a cutlet. But he should do that.' W Somerset Maugham in our Writers' Quotes.

The October Magazine is ready!

28 September 2009

Why do non-fiction books need an index? In The Ins and Outs of Indexing Joanne Phillips provides an answer, explains why it's a specialist job and why computers can't achieve the same result as a skilled indexer.

'Very few works of non-fiction can do without an index of some description... If the reader is lucky, the index will allow them to find the term they seek and take them immediately to a relevant and useful mention of that term or concept... So why can’t a computer programme achieve this?

Our new Indexing service, which can help if you have been asked by your publisher to provide an index for your book or if you're planning to self-publish your work.

'Authors’ advances are being cut radically as a result of the recession. Together with the cancelling of contracts because a delivered manuscript is ‘not good enough’ or is late, this is all part of publishers’ attempts to cut their costs.. New authors are experiencing greater difficulty than ever before in getting their books taken on by a publisher. Now evidence is emerging that even big authors are having their advances cut.' News Review investigates.

Our fourth article from Edinburgh looks at Fringe comedy: 'Beyond the named performers who dominate the large venues such as the Pleasance, its formulaic nature has rather degraded the genre of fringe comedy.'

Get your children writing! In the Old Possum's Children's Poetry Competition the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf is asking 7-11 year-old children across the world to write a poem on the theme of ‘Heroes and Heroines’, with cash prizes, books and memberships. UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy chairs the judges and it closes on 19 October.

‘Publishing is often an extremely negative culture… The sheer book-length nature of books combined with the seemingly inexorable reductions in editorial staffs and the number of submissions most editors receive...' Daniel Menaker, formerly of Random House US, quoted in our Comment column.

Have you just started a creative writing course? Our WritersServices Education Resource Centre is for students and those providing writing courses. It draws on the resources of the WritersServices site to deliver nearly 90 pages of useful material formatted as A4 pages and ready for use as handouts or in course material.

'It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts.' Gustave Flaubert in our Writers' Quotes.

21 September 2009

News Review reports that Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is a huge bestseller but, as agent Jonny Geller commented: ‘If the most popular book on earth is a fiver, what does it tell the punter? Books are worthless. Retailers are just throwing away their industry.’ Amazon has also announced that the Kindle e-book version has been outselling the hardback edition in the US. So, it this Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘tipping-point’? Well, it just might be.

Edinburgh snippets - Chas Jones' third report from Edinburgh includes a mysterious piper and some hilarious signs, including 'Don't fall down!'

Are you worried about computer security? If you want to read up and take preventative measures, try Hoaxes and Phishing and Identity Fraud.

‘I was already writing The Lost Symbol when I started to realize The Da Vinci Code would be big... I temporarily became very self-aware... Then the furore died down, and I realized that none of it had any relevance to what I was doing. I'm just a guy who tells a story.’ Dan Brown in Parade, quoted in our Comment column.

Our Endorsements from writers who have used the site speak for themselves: 'I want to thank Chris and the team at Writers Services for their help and tolerance. My first submission of my rough draft came back with an extremely useful critique. I restructured, rewrote and resubmitted - and got an excellent feedback which has helped me to revise the book by highlighting the weaknesses and the development needed... the help received so far is already paying dividends. I have just signed with an agent on the strength of the latest draft.' Patrick Cox

This week's Writing Opportunity is the first Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. First prize is £25,000 and it closes on 30 November, but is only open to writers already published in the UK and Ireland.

'In the old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by anybody.' Oscar Wilde in our Writers' Quotes.

14 September 2009

This week we launch our new Indexing service. Are you an author planning to compile your own index? Have you been asked by your publisher to provide an index for your book? Or are you self-publishing your work? If so, don’t let your readers down by offering them a sub-standard index. A professional index will set your work apart from other self-published books.

So why is it that the Man Booker Prize manages to generate so much interest across the world? Entries are limited to novels written in English and American writers’ work is excluded, but in spite of all this the Prize seems to generate considerable interest year after year. News Review reports on an extraordinary success.

The Edinburgh Fringe - 'Talk of a ‘fringed’ tail, wagging the ‘festival’ dog has been heard many times over the years as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has grown up to become the largest performance festival in the world...' Chas Jones in Edinburgh.

‘I find it bewildering how often people are rude about commercial fiction and how many really mediocre pretentious literary books are published every year. A lot of attention is paid to books that I quite often think are really shoddy.' Harriet Evans, editor turned author of I Remember You in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

Does your book need copy editing, either to prepare it for submission or so that you can self-publish with confidence? Our team of skilled copy editors is ready to help. Here's an article about UK and American copy editing and another about the difference between proof-reading and copy editing.

We have fifteen downloadable posters, four of them with writers on writing in our poster collection.

'I don't believe in it (writer's block). All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don't get plumber's block, and doctors don't get doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?' Philip Pullman in our Writers' Quotes.

7 September 2009

News Review investigates the Google Book Settlement: 'Was it ever reasonable to think that such a revolutionary, unprecedented pact, negotiated in secret over three years by people with loose claims of representation, concerning a wide range of stakeholders, both foreign and domestic, involving murky issues of copyright and the rapidly unfolding digital future, could be pushed through as a class action settlement within a period of months, in the teeth of a historic media industry transition?’

At the Edinburgh Book Festival Chas Jones reports: 'Frankfurt, New York and London have their book fairs where the business side of publishing is the focus. It is a pity that Edinburgh does not afford a better showcase for new as well as aspiring writers.'

'Although I don’t wish to be a harbinger of doom, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to predict that that the global book market will reduce by 30% to 50% in the next 10 years... It is perhaps worth thinking of alternative ways that publishers, authors and booksellers can survive.' Andrew Crawford of The Book Depository, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column..

Thinking about publishing your own book? Is self-publishing for you? helps you think this through and our WritersPrintShop provides the best writers' resource on self-publishing on the web, 90 pages of information, as well as a first-rate service.

Here are answers to the essential questions: How much will it cost? How long will it take? & How much might you earn?

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition, closing date 29 November 2009 and with an entry fee of £25 ($41).

'Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.' G K Chesterton in our Writers' Quotes.

The September Magazine is ready!

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