13 March 2023 - What's new
13 March 2023
- ‘At their core, cosy crimes are very character-driven stories about unlikely and everyday heroes, and the tone of them is very humorous. The detectives are people who are underestimated - older characters or slightly bumbling eccentrics who make mistakes along the way and get themselves into trouble. The sense of rooting for an underdog and seeing them triumph through setbacks in their investigations is an aspect people seem to have really responded to, and they have a real focus on the communities in which they live as well, something which I think is appealing.' Siân Heap, editor at Canelo, in Bookbrunch.
- The Writer's Edit is an enhanced editing package that offers you all the benefits of our expert copy editing service, plus an extra level of advice and support to help you take your writing to a new level. We will copy edit your manuscript to our usual professional standard, but in addition we will offer you a line-by-line edit specifically designed to improve your style, structure and form, and a set of guidance notes, giving commentary and advice. Our full range of editing services.
- There's still time to enter the 2023 Gingko Prize for Ecopoetry, which closes on 25 March. It's open to all poets from across the world over the age of 18. Entry fees: first submission £7 then £4 for each additional poem. Poems don't need to address a specific theme, but should in some way - thematically, structurally, linguistically or formally - investigate ecology, the environment, or the relationship between human culture and the natural world.
- Tips for writers is our introductory series for writers. First up - Improve your writing: 'Think about the market for your book. Research the category and read widely to see what other published writers in this area are doing. Which writers are successful and why? Visit bookshops and analyse what you find there. If you are reading this you are probably already writing, but it really is worth thinking right from the beginning about your readers, as that makes it far more likely you'll eventually find them.'
- Our first set of links are from the bookselling world: other retailers explain how they are surviving - even thriving - when many people are counting every penny, but ‘We've rediscovered the joy of reading': how customers are rescuing UK bookshops | Books | The Guardian; Brit James Daunt has orchestrated an amazing turnaround in the US, Barnes & Noble is stealing the indie shop playbook, and it's working; in the UK he's also Waterstones managing director, The Bookseller - News - Daunt hails ‘wonderfully robust' market but predicts book prices will rise due to costs; a new trend in bookselling, ‘We're book nerds': the female friends opening bookshops together | Books | The Guardian; and Authors Abroad founder Trevor Wilson explains how the pandemic led to a business development which enabled virtual author visits to schools, Caboodle Classroom brought to you by Authors Abroad.
- 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!' The series includes What is Self-Publishing and Print of Demand for Indies.
- If you're looking for a report on your manuscript, how do you work out which one of our three reports 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.
- Links for writers: writers who in real life worked in the shadowy world of national security and intelligence, Two Thriller Writers and Former Spies On Writing and Living Espionage ‹ CrimeReads; blurbs are back cover copy in the UK, favourable advance quotes for your book in the US, but Beware of Book Blurbs - The Millions; no longer just a side hustle, Wearing purple: how agents cornered the book to screen market; a visit to the burial place of her uncle was to set Elsbeth Lindner on an investigation of her Jewish family's history, The gift of the grave; from a highly successful children's author, Q&A: children's author and illustrator Harriet Muncaster; in the last few Highly productive months of his life, a daily walk from his lodging in Winchester, A Walk in Keats's Footsteps - The Millions.
- Have you been working on your book? Are you now ready to submit to publishers or to self-publish? We offer the widest range of editorial services on the web, tailored to writers' requirements and carried out by our professional editors, Our Services for Writers.
- From our Endorsements page, 'Today I only want to say, "thank you". DM has done a truly great job. I have worked with her suggestions which have brought clarity and depth to my subject. Her work on my punctuation is brilliant. As I read through the manuscript now, it is like gliding on silk.' Helena Dodds
- Links from publishing: publishers seem even more delighted to return to the Bologna Children's Book Fair this year as Covid anxiety continues to fade, Bologna 2023: Back to Business - and It's a Pleasure; the backlash to Puffin Books' decision to update Roald Dahl's children's books has been swift and largely derisive, From Roald Dahl to Goosebumps, revisions to children's classics are really about copyright - a legal expert explains; as books become intellectual property assets, publishers become asset managers trying to future-proof their toxic investments, Publishers are cynically using ‘sensitivity readers' to protect their bottom lines | Books | The Guardian; reading attainment levels improved in 2022, but The Bookseller - News - World Book Day organisers urge focus on reading for pleasure, as National Literacy Trust survey reveals decline; writing and publishing a book about a controversial public figure is like diving into shark-infested waters, ‘We have poorer books as a result': Why Australian publishers are silenced by fear; and the extraordinary story of Simon & Schuster staffer Filippo Bernardini who stole more than 1,000 unpublished manuscripts, The Bookseller - News - Bernardini stole manuscripts because he 'wanted to read books before they hit stores'.
- If you are Writing for the web, you have to grab your readers online. Writing effectively for the web is quite different from writing for the printed page. Writers intending to write web pages should observe some simple rules if they want to attract and keep visitors to their pages.
- 'For those who can do it and who keep their nerve, writing for a living still beats most real, grown-up jobs hands down.' Terence Blacker, former publisher, in our Writers' Quotes
