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December 2009 - Writers Magazine

News Review



  • '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.

  • '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.

  • 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...'

  • '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.

Comment




  • '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


  • '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

  • ‘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

  • '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

  • '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

Writers' Quote


'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

Success story


This week's success story is the talented Evie Wyld, who has just won the prestigious John Llewelyn Rhys Prize with her novel After the Fire, A Still Small Voice.


New Categories series


Writing Historical Fiction


So you want to write historical fiction?


Well, 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.


Our latest article in this series explores the market and approaches to writing historical fiction.


Writing Romance


Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy  


Writing Crime Fiction


Writing non-fiction


The Bad Sex Award for 2009


This year's competition has come up with some entertaining shortlised titles, including this excerpt from Philip Roth.


Magazine - Native Vase


John Jenkins' November column


Booker winner Mantel deserves the accolades


John 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.'


British Library web archive


We feel very honoured that the British Library has asked to archive 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 their archive are other international web archives.


Choosing a Service


Are you having difficulty deciding which service might be right for you?  This useful new article by Chris HolifieldManaging director of WritersServices; spent working life in publishing,employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups; track record includes: editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley Head, publishing director for start-up of upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of Britain’s biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She is also currently the Director of the Poetry Book Society; During all of this time aware of problems faced by writers, as publishing changed from idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'occupation for gentlemen', into corporate business of today. Writers encountered increasing difficulty in getting books edited or published. Authors create the books which are the raw material for the whole business. She believes it is time to bring them back to centre stage. offers advice on what to go for, depending on what stage you are at with your writing.


Help for Writers


Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site, including Finding an Agent and Making Submissions.


Tips for Writers Our new series for writers:


Improving your writing, Learning on the job, New technology and the Internet, Self-publishing - is it for you?, Promoting your writing (and yourself), Other kinds of writing, Keep up to date and Submission to publishers and agents


Our book review section   

Latest changes in the book trade 5:


In the fifth part of this series, Chris HolifieldManaging director of WritersServices; spent working life in publishing,employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups; track record includes: editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley Head, publishing director for start-up of upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of Britain’s biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She is also currently the Director of the Poetry Book Society; During all of this time aware of problems faced by writers, as publishing changed from idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'occupation for gentlemen', into corporate business of today. Writers encountered increasing difficulty in getting books edited or published. Authors create the books which are the raw material for the whole business. She believes it is time to bring them back to centre stage. 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.


First article: Bookselling
Second article: Publishing
Third article: Print on Demand and the Long Tail
Fourth article: Self-publishing - career suicide or 'really great'


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.


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.


My Say 9


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.'


My Say 7: Timothy Hallinan on the Writing Session.


My Say 8: Jae Watson on the magic formula which enables writers to 'cross that fine, elusive line dividing unpublished and published writers'.


I'll Take a Community With That Book, Please!


Fauzia Burke is founder of a an Internet marketing firm specializing in creating online awareness for books and authors.  Her article shows how successful niche publishers are reaching communities of readers on the web.


Review of The Creative Writing Handbook


Maureen Kincaid SpellerMaureen Kincaid Speller a reviewer, writer, editor and former librarian, is our book reviewer and also works for WritersServices as a freelance editor. reviews this useful new book 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.'


The Ins and Outs of Indexing


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' article on Indexing looks at why non-fiction books need them, why it's a specialist job and why computers can't achieve the same result as a skilled indexer.


Our new Indexing service


A professional index is essential for any work of non-fiction. Readers expect to find a useful, well-presented index at the back of a book, and can get very frustrated if the index doesn’t quickly lead them to the information they seek.



  • Are you an author planning to compile your own index?

  • Have you been asked by your publisher to provide an index for your book?

  • 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. Indexing need not be expensive – and an effective index is the key to a good non-fiction book.


Our Editorial Services for writers


Check out the 17 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to Copy editing, Typing to Rewriting.


Our book review section