17 July 2017 - What's new
17 July 2017
- 'The meaning of a story emerges in the meeting between the words on the page and the thoughts in the reader's mind. So when people ask me what I meant by this story, or what was the message I was trying to convey in that one, I have to explain that I'm not going to explain...' Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials and the forthcoming The Book of Dust, provides our Comment, from his website.
- The Galley Beggar Press is having an open submission which is open to all with no entry fee, with possible publication as the prize. They are looking for adult literary fiction and narrative non-fiction till 31 July and again from 15-30 November 2017.
- Are you writing for the children's market? Have you found it difficult to get expert editorial input on your work ? Do you want to know if it has real commercial potential? Or are you planning to self-publish? Our four Children's Editorial Services are provided by skilled children's editors and will help you get your work published.
- Our May Magazine is now ready, offering easy access to a range of recent articles and links, such as 'Show me the money!': the self-published authors being snapped up by Hollywood | Books | The Guardian and The Most Common Entry-Level Mistake in the Writing Game | Jane Friedman.
- Figures quoted by China Daily show that publishers in China are benefiting from 300m users of mobile devices who read electronic books. The market is up 25% year on year and reached $1.7 billion in sales last year.... Difficult though it can be to get western books into China, this presents a huge opportunity for international publishers and their authors, although of course the biggest potential is for Chinese writers reaching readers in their own country and beyond. News Review
- From our Archive, Writing for Children: Rule Number One - Read More than You Write by Sarah Taylor-Fergusson: 'Author opinion falls into two camps on this one, with some writers maintaining that reading fiction while writing is a very bad thing. To this I might say that if you have been working for years as a published author, and you have that degree of sophistication, dexterity and confidence, then maybe sometimes yes. But for the majority of us who are not at that level...'
- Our links: perhaps you're considering self-publishing, and want to have a thorough understanding of each part of the process, 10 Steps To Self-Publishing Your Book | HuffPost; being a published author is still widely considered a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field, but Will Writing That E-Book Really Boost Your Business? Contract clauses giving publishers the right to drop authors who act "immorally" are becoming more common, Authors warned not to sign 'morality' clauses | The Bookseller; and a pragmatic article about how to approach Twitter etc, So You're an Author Without a Social Media Presence: Now What? | Jane Friedman.
- How to market your writing services online is a useful article from 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 about selling yourself as a writer. 'Recently someone commented to me that I seem to be doing a pretty good job of promoting my writing services on the internet. I was touched by the observation - we writers get so many rejections that a little praise is especially gratifying. And I began to wonder - what does it take to market yourself successfully as a jobbing writer today?...'
- More links: another article with an editor's thoughts: So You've Decided to Write: When to Drown Your Darlings | Literary Hub; unlike Gone Girl, Girl on a Train, The Girls, Luckiest Girl Alive and others, Final Girls is written by a man, Forget George Eliot: now it's male authors disguising their sex to sell more books | Books | The Guardian; and, not if you like your crime fiction hardboiled and noir-ish, Crime in the City: Singapore, World Capital of the Cozy Mystery | Literary Hub.
- Authors often find it difficult to write their own synopsis for submission to publishers, which is where our Synopsis-writing service can help. If you're preparing to self-publish and having difficulty with your blurb, our Blurb-writing service is what you need. They are all part of the biggest range of services offered on the web, Our Services for Writers.
- 'People are certainly impressed by the aura of creative power which a writer may wear, but can easily demolish it with a few well-chosen questions. Bob Shaw has observed that the deadliest questions usually come as a pair: "Have you published anything?" (loosely translated as: I've never heard of you) and "What name do you write under?" (loosely translatable as: I've definitely never heard of you).' Brian Stableford in our Writers' Quotes.
