14 January 2019 - What's new
14 January 2019
- 'Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have "essential" and "long overdue" meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books...' J K Rowling, author of the hugely bestselling Harry Potter books and the Cormoran Strike books writtten under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Our Comment.
- Our Success Stories series includes Darren Shan and Tina Seskis, of whom we said: 'an irresistible subject for a Success Story because she lives just up the road from WritersServices in north London and because her success as a writer is like a textbook illustration of how to do it'. We have other Success Stories on a wide range of authors.
- The 2019 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize is really two prizes, one for published writers and one for unpublished ones. It closes on 1 March and is open to writers of any nationality writing in English with no entry fee. The Prizes are £15,000 for each Prize plus a publishing deal with Bonnier for Best Unpublished Manuscript.
- As well as our highly-regarded Copy editing service, which will help you prepare your manuscript for submission or self-publishing, we have Manuscript Polishing, which provides a higher-level polishing service, Translation editing for those for whom English is not a native language, our new Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. Get the right level of editorial support for your needs from our professional editors. Our low-cost services represent exceptionally good value. Contact us to discuss what you want.
- Our links: rather amazingly, figures show writers' income dropping by the same dismal amount - 42% - on both sides of the Atlantic, New, Larger Authors Guild Survey: Falling Incomes for Writers; but can it be blamed on Amazon? Amazon hits back at claims it is to blame for falling author earnings | Books | The Guardian; new avenues where content can find more digital life - and profit, Books, Games, Film: Choose the Next Path for Storytelling; are writers and publishers on the same side - the side of great literature and the free flow of ideas? Opinion | Must Writers Be Moral? Their Contracts May Require It - The New York Times; and the third debut to land the award in its 25-year history, and a sign that the poetry world is hunting for a new generation of voices, 'A star is born': TS Eliot prize goes to Hannah Sullivan's debut | Books | The Guardian.
- 101 Ways to Make Poems Sell by Chris Hamilton-Emery is a tremendously useful book for any poet, , an insider's guide to the poetry business, focusing on the issues that matter: building profile, finding readers and selling books.
- More links: a labor of love dedicated to one man's love of literature, The Millions Will Live on, But the Indie Book Blog Is Dead; editing The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Sci-Fi Writers Are Grappling With a Post-Trump Reality | WIRED; one of the most dynamic creations in literature, Superficial Villainous Bitches Have Taken Over Novels; and 'one of the most overlooked writers of the twentieth century', The Best Daphne Du Maurier Books | Five Books Expert Recommendations.
- If you need to get your material typed up, but can't face doing the job yourself, Typing manuscripts is a service for writers who have an old or handwritten manuscript or audio tapes, which need typing before they can proceed with reworking, submission or publication.
- From our Writers' Quotes:'You know how writers are... they create themselves as they create their work. Or perhaps they create their work in order to create themselves.' From Orson Scott Card
