August 2007
The website for writers
News Review
- After last week’s look at brand name authors whose books are written by others, this week News Review investigates those who continue their writing careers from beyond the grave.
- 'Random House UK announced recently that their newly-acquired mega-selling author James Patterson will nearly double his annual output to eight books a year.' So how does he do it? News Review investigates.
- The battle of the classics has commenced! News Review looks at two big classic series relaunches and new 'compact' versions for the time-strapped reader.
- News Review looks at the sale of successful independent publisher Piatkus and what it means for the corporate battle for market share.
- 'The Harry Potter saga shows that the book world has changed for good, and not in ways that make sense in relation to the simple equation of writer, book and reader.' News Review is still ruminating on the biggest one-day sale of any book in history
Comment
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'With success I think a lot of it is luck. I've met a lot of depressed, frustrated authors who are still lugging their manuscripts around publishing houses.' Joanne Harris in Writers' Forum
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'...we can enjoy a thousand passionately consumed book cults - unpredictable, unbankable, artist-led and the worst nightmare of the risk-phobic, sequel-crazy, celebrity-obsessed multinationals that dominate world publishing.' Celia Brayfield in The Times
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'Today the danger for writers who continue to aspire to "good" in the old sense is that they won't get published at all, or it will be with miserable print runs.' Fay Weldon in The Times.
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'I can't imagine setting a novel in a place I've never visited. I need smells, textures, the colour of the light. When I wrote a novel set in Antarctica, for example, I went down and lived on a research station for six weeks.' Rosie Thomas in Writers' Forum
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'We must marshal knowledge from the relevant disciplines — design, the arts, cognitive science, engineering — in order to build tools and interfaces that will help us make sense of the huge masses of information that have been dumped upon us with the advent of computer networks.' Ben Vershbow in http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/
Writers' Quote
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'Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.'
Groucho Marx
Our Editorial Services for writers
Check out the 16 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to Copy editing, Typing to Rewriting.
An Editor's Advice
This new series is based on the advice Maureen Kincaid Speller, a long-serving WritersServices freelance editor, has given writers over the years. It deals with the most common problems she has encountered in the manuscripts which cross her desk.
In the sixth article Maureen deals with autobiography and travel writing.
'Generally, I enjoy my work, but reading autobiographies and travel stories for assessment is the hardest thing I ever do. Why? Because I feel I’m not so much passing judgement on a piece of writing as on a person’s life and experiences.'
1: Dialogue, 2: why you need to do further drafts, 3: genre writing, 4:planning; and 5:points of view.
Getting your poetry published
Are you keen to get your poetry published but don't know where to start? Our new article helps you to look at the best approach to help you make your way into print.
Autogoogling
The latest article in our Writers' Web Watch is about finding yourself on the web and how to boost your own identity. See also our many articles on Web issues and Getting the best out of the web
Is there a book in you?
Our latest new review is for Alison Baverstock's book, which asks a fundamental question for every writer:
'Being realistic about the resources you will need... are what this immensely useful book is all about. It should be required reading for all writers who aren’t sure about their commitment to the craft.'
Creative Commons
Inside Publishing looks at 'a clever and innovative way of licensing material which both makes it widely available and also protects and controls the licence given.'
Free software
Can you trust free software? Chas Jones looks at what you can get for free
and gives a consumer's guide to what's out there. His view is that: 'There is
nothing wrong with free software.'
We Watch the web for writers
See also Making submissions for how to approach publishers and agents.
Bob's Journal goes into its 7th volume
Bob on being nearly flooded but catching the attention of foreign media, the mysterious world of call centres and the argument in US books groups about whether listening to a novel is the same as reading it:
'The ‘hardcore’ book clubbers accuse the listeners of ‘cheating’. Listeners tend to laugh it off, but confess to feeling ‘guilty’.
WritersServices' freelance editor Colin Murray on his own tortuous path to publication:
'My agent did arrange a meeting with an editor from the publishing house who told me that my book was one of the most accomplished first novels he’d ever come across...
No matter how jaded and cynical one pretends to be, there is nothing like holding a copy of your first book.'
Help for Writers
Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site.
WritersPrintShop
We have revamped our WritersPrintShop website with lots more information. If you're thinking about self-publishing, this is the place to find out what's involved. If you're ready to go ahead, our high quality service is second to none and there's an economy version for those who want to tackle some of the work themselves. You can estimate the cost for yourself.
Where next for the web
Web 2.0 is the next development for the Internet, and then there's Web 3.0. So what does it all mean?
Which service?
Do you think you need some help with getting your manuscript into good shape for submission, but don't know which service to go for? Our new page helps you work out what's best for you.
Colour printing
Advances in technology mean that it's now possible to produce colour books, using print on demand. So if you've got a project needing colour illustrations, you can now self-publish -with just a small quantity if you want - through WritersPrintShop.
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Previous serials & extracts
WritersServices.com Magazine August 2007