What's New in 2021
- ‘The imagination doesn't crop annually like a reliable fruit tree. The writer has to gather whatever's there: sometimes too much, sometimes too little, sometimes nothing at all. And in the years of glut there is always a slatted wooden tray in some cool, dark attic, which the writer nervously visits from time to time...' Julian Barnes, author of 25 books, including Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot, Arthur & George, England, England, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and The Sense of an Ending, which won the Booker Prize in 2011.
- 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. 'Indie authors access the same professional services as traditional publishing houses. They employ freelance editors, proofreaders and cover designers. They have their work professionally formatted for ebooks and typeset for print. They may use service providers to manage some or all of the publishing tasks, or they may go it alone...' Articles include Choose Your Self-publishing Route and Marketing and Promotion for Indie Authors: Online.
- If you're looking for a report on your manuscript, how do you work out which one of our four would suit you best? Which Report? includes our 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.
- Rotten Rejections provides a note of the things publishers wish they'd never said: on Animal Farm by George Orwell ‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA' and Carrie by Stephen King 'We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.'
- Links on writers and writing: on writing historical fiction, What Writing About the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre Taught Me About the Madness of Crowds ‹ CrimeReads; there's only one thing that any novel must do if it's going to succeed, and that's arouse the reader's curiosity, The One Thing Your Novel Absolutely Must Do | Jane Friedman; What's a mystery all about? The ending? The Mystery Is Holmes: Why We Return to Conan Doyle's Stories Over and Over Again ‹ CrimeReads; a call for picture book submissions from international writers of colour', with a view to increasing the diversity of its picture book list, Submissions window opens at Nosy Crow; and twice in the last three years I have taught an undergraduate course at Stanford called "Unfinished Novels." Why Should We Read Unfinished Novels?
- Have you ever wondered why you don't win any of those competitions? What can you do to improve your chances? Our tipsheet on Entering Competitions.
- Our printing and publishing glossary is a useful guide to some of the arcane terms used in the publishing world.
- Links from the world of publishing: Giving away the audiobook for Michelle Paver's Viper's Daughter - read by Sir Ian McKellen, no less - may seem like a dumb idea to most publishers, but Head of Zeus are not most publishers, A beautiful word for consumers a terrifying one for publishers; the Big Five publishers' hold over the adult hardcover and paperback bestsellers lists declined in 2020 compared to 2019, with independent publishers gaining ground, Breaking Down 2020 Bestsellers by Publisher; another seismic shift that will go largely unnoticed and unremarked for now, but will send ripples across the global publishing arena for years to come, Naver's $600 million buy-out of Wattpad should be a wake-up call for western publishers who still don't "get" online reading - The New Publishing Standard; and renewed demand for the Regency-era novels by Julia Quinn that form the basis for the eight-episode program, Netflix's Hit Series 'Bridgerton' Drives Book Sales.
- Are you struggling to get someone to look at your poetry? Our Poetry Critique service for 150 lines of poetry can help. Our Poetry Collection Editing, unique to WritersServices, edits your collection to prepare it for submission or self-publishing. Both can provide the professional editorial input you need.
- ‘Historical romance does a different kind of work than historical fiction. The work of the romance novel is not to tell the story of the past. It is to hold a mirror to the present.' Sarah MacLean in our Writers' Quotes.
- ‘My father was a playwright so I grew up with reverence for writing. The sound of his typewriter clacking was one I grew to love. What I didn't know was how disappointed he was by the failure of his work to reach the West End. Later, I realised not all writing careers end in disappointment, and it was worth trying to make mine a success... Rose Tremain, author of The Colour, Restoration, The Road Home, Music and Silence, Merivel and 14 other novels, in the Telegraph's Stella.
- Are you hoping to submit your book to publishers? Will you plan to do this through an agent? Finding an agent shows you how to go about this: 'Many writers see being taken on by an agent as the first step in getting taken on by a publisher, because it is so difficult to get publishers to pay attention to unagented writers...'
- Or perhaps you want to self-publish your work? WritersServices offers a suite of services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish. Services for Self-publishers.
- Links from the publishing world: it's very topical this week of the inauguration, Writers sign letter to stop Trump administration book deals - Los Angeles Times; maybe not book-burning per se, but it's certainly the 21st-century, polite-society equivalent of it, Josh Hawley and the new world of book cancellations | The Spectator; textbook publishers had been trying to shift from paper to digital for years, but now Pandemic helps push audience for textbook publishers into the digital age; and a major project to republish books by black British writers that generally disappeared without trace before they could receive the recognition they deserved, Booker winner's mission to put UK's forgotten black writers back in print | Bernardine Evaristo | The Guardian.
- Our 19 Factsheets from the legendary Michael Legat are full of tips for the new writer or anyone who is trying to get their book published. From Literary agents to Copyright, from Libel to Submissions, this series is full of essential background information.
- Links about writers and their books: eight of her novels are to be made into TV dramas after the author secured a major deal with independent film company The Forge, Barbara Taylor Bradford novels slated for TV | The Bookseller; is this your problem - not knowing the answers to crucial questions, and not knowing which questions were which in the first place, Is Your Writer's Block Really Writer's Indecision? | Jane Friedman; Women ‘are routinely overlooked for awards,' Melinda Gates Donates US$250,000 to New Carol Shields Prize for Fiction; and more books being filmed, Dune And 14 Other Book-To-Movie Adaptations Coming In 2021 - CINEMABLEND.
- Get some professional help. If you're self-publishing, you need good quality copy for the cover. Our Blurb-writing service can provide a professionally written piece of cover copy. Submitting to agents but finding it difficult to write your own synopsis? Commission a Synopsis which will present your manuscript in the best possible light for submission.
- Miscellaneous links: Amazon and the Pandemic, COVID-19 and Book Publishing: Impacts and Insights for 2021; over the weekend fanfiction website Archive of our Own went down, People Are Reading So Much Fanfiction It's Crashing the Biggest Fanfic Website; Naver is the leading search engine and digital tools and services provider, a platform akin to Google, South Korea's Naver to Acquire Wattpad for $600 Million; and the Pandemic strikes again with move to streaming this Sunday, UK: TS Eliot Prize's Shortlisted Poets Set for Digital Readings.
- We have a new page which gives an editor's take on using pdfs, So what's wrong with PDFs? 'If you need your file to be edited, PDF is not the ideal format; in fact, it is practically the worst format you can choose. Why? Precisely because PDFs are designed not to be tampered with or changed. When you stop to think about it, editing is no more or less than a process of changing - and correcting - your file...'
- If you were thinking of entering The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2020, the closing date has been moved to 15 May, so there's plenty of time.
- In our Writers' Quotes: 'No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes not to be published.' Russell Lynes
- ‘The thing I like about novels is that they are a more forgiving form. You can make missteps. It's harder to write a really good short story - I'm more aware of the flaws in my short stories. There's pleasure I get being able to spend that much time with people and ideas in novels, but if you write a short story, the magical period of an idea to the excitement of composition and the first draft is short, but deeply pleasurable in a way novels are not... Elizabeth McCracken, author of Bowlaway, Thunderstruck and four other books of novels, short stories and a memoir, in the Observer.
- A Publisher's View is our four-part series from publisher Tom Chalmers on what publishers are looking for. What a publisher wants from submissions, Judging a book by its covering letter and synopsis, Making the submission and The changing face of publishing. 'While editors may well do some later tinkering, it shouldn't be sent in unless the writer feels it is a manuscript ready for publication, in terms of both grammar and content. Lines like ‘I know it needs some work', or ‘I think it's nearly there' show admirable humility but are an immediate put-off!...'
- The 2021 International Book and Pamphlet Competition is open to poets internationally. The entry fee is £28, £25 to subscribers to The North. The prize is publication by Smith|Doorstop Books; a share of £2,000 cash; a launch reading; publication in the North magazine; book vouchers from Inpress Books. Closing 1 March. This is one of the few poetry prizes which has publication as its prize.
- Which service should I choose to help me get my work into good shape for submission or self-publishing? This is the question our page Which service? answers and it then goes on to give a quick rundown on our 20 editorial services for writers, which we think is the biggest and most comprehensive you can find on the internet.
- Our links this week are a rather thin crop, as the book world lumbers its way back into action after the break: it's been a picture of gloom and doom for most business sectors in 2020, but it's good to know that 2020 has been surprisingly good for the publishing industry - Good e-Reader; the peril faced by the work of a writer dying young, George Orwell is out of copyright. What happens now? | George Orwell | The Guardian; George Saunders once said, ‘when you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you'...but what is the best way to get yourself going? Writing a short story - where do you start? - National Centre for Writing.
- It may surprise you to know that the first of Julie Wheelwright's Top Ten Tips for Nonfiction Writers is: 'Story, story, story. Make sure that your story can sustain several chapters and tens of thousands of words. Keep asking yourself: Why would anyone want to read this story?'
- A few more links: the generosity of a donor supporting poets and writers, B&N Founder Makes $250K Donation to Poets & Writers; pitching a manuscript isn't for cowards, the thin skinned, or those with no endurance. Believing your project is worthy, truly believing in it, is required, as is the patience of a saint, How I Landed a Book Deal Via Twitter - Unintentionally | Jane Friedman; and a renowned children's author points to the difference between 'selecting' and 'censoring'? Michael Morpurgo denies 'censoring' Merchant of Venice in children's book | Michael Morpurgo | The Guardian.
- WritersServices editor Kay GaleWritersServices editor who has worked for many years as a freelance editor for number of publishers. on The Slush pile: 'When I started working in publishing over thirty years ago it was part of my job to check through the pile of unsolicited manuscripts that arrived on a daily basis, and like every other enthusiastic young editorial assistant, I dreamed of finding the next bestseller in the ‘slush pile'. I was soon disillusioned..'
- 'Professional copy editing does make sense, either if you are trying to give your work its best chance when submitting it or, even more crucially, if you are planning to self-publish. But how are you supposed to tell who will do a good job, when the editorial services on the web all sound pretty much the same and it's tempting to go for the cheapest?' Getting your manuscript copy edited
- 'People have many cruel expectations from writers. People expect novelists to live on a hill with three kids and a spouse, people expect children's story writers to never have sex, and people expect all great poets to be dead. And these are all very difficult expectations to fulfill, I think.' C. JoyBell C. in our Writers' Quotes