What's New in 2023

• 'When I started writing in about 1990, publishers were very keen on the teenage market. They knew kids were spending money on music and that there were films for kids that age, but books somehow weren't quite happening. The fuss when Junk came out was because it really was a book for teenagers. If you're 14 or 15 or 16, of course you're thinking about sex and drugs and rock'n'roll, but there was a gap in what kids wanted to read and what was being produced for them; it was all right to pinch stuff surreptitiously from the adult world, but no adult was allowed to present it to you...' Melvin Burgess, author of YA classic Junk, Hunger and 12 other YA novels and a just-published adult novel, Loki.
• 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 has undertaken a complete revision of her Self-publishing Guide, starting with What is Self-publishing? 'The landscape of self-publishing has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years, making it almost unrecognizable from the days when it was considered an almost desperate choice for those who couldn't land a publishing deal. Now, there are many authors who go this way out of preference. As of the current date (November 2023), the term 'indie author' is mainstream, reflecting a shift in mindset - the realization that achieving professional publishing standards no longer demands a traditional publishing house, and it also need not be an entirely solo endeavour...' This updated series will roll out every two weeks and is perfect if you are considering self-publishing but don't know how to go about it.
• 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, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, the Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. The Cutting edit and Developmental editing are two new services. 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.
• Links about children and children's writing: the books we read as kids often stick with us more than any others, Do You Believe in Magic? On The Timeless Charm of Children's Books ‹ Literary Hub; a third of children's books in the UK now 'feature a racially minoritised character', Children's publishers turning the tide on ethnic representation; and more on this story, The Bookseller - News - CLPE report shows 'remarkable' rise in inclusive representation in kids' books.
• 'The outcome of my experience with Writerservices has far exceeded my expectation and I was amazed by their professionalism, hard work, knowledge and keenness to edit my manuscript of the novel, "Uncle Thesiger's Mashhuf", in every detail, thereby ensuring it will appeal to English readers. Their services are very helpful to all writers.' Ammar Al Thuwaini, an Iraqi novelist and translator in our Endorsements page.
• Do 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. Get your manuscript ready for your publication - Services for Self-publishers.
• If you need to clear copyright for your book, Clearing Copyright shows you how to do this: 'Copyright provides a framework for trading in intellectual property. In practice it protects the author's position and ensures that the publisher is able to take on the risk of publication in the knowledge that the publisher's rights are protected. In effect authors, (the originators of intellectual property) sub-license their rights through their book contracts to different parties in individual territories and in specific forms...'
• Links for writers: genre is a confining madness; it says nothing about how writers write or readers read, and everything about how publishers, retailers and commentators would like them to, The big idea: should we abolish literary genres? | Publishing | The Guardian; a novel approach to social media, Why This Ghostwriter Loves His Haters; 'I'm a big planner, and before I start writing a novel I like to know how it's going to start and end, and the main twists and turns of the story', Nielsen Bestseller Award winner: Jackie Kabler, author of The Perfect Couple (One More Chapter); and how to write a blurb or brief description, Writing a Really Short Book Description Is Harder Than It Looks | Jane Friedman.
• Are you having difficulty writing your own blurb for self-publishing or your synopsis for submission? A lot of writers have this is problem but our services can help.
• 'So you want to write fantasy or science fiction? You are in good company, as many of the writers who come to WritersServices are writing fantasy, with science fiction as a less popular choice. Science fiction was an important category during much of the twentieth century, with a growing cult audience, until it was overtaken by fantasy. It's often seen as more cerebral, a way of trying out new ideas of the future or other worlds. These days there's a relatively small demand for new science fiction writing, and you have to have a distinctive voice and something interesting to say to stand much chance of getting published...' Writing science fiction and fantasy
• Links from the publishing world: the UK books market's volume sales this autumn have slid 8% compared with 2022, The Bookseller - News - Missing ingredients: Christmas run-in hit by slumping big brands; publishing attracts people who love books, reading, and ideas, but for many Black professionals in publishing, there's a disconnect between the love of the medium and their work experiences, Fixing Racism in the Book Business; creators reflect on another year on the platform and look ahead to 2024, The Bookseller - Books - Books on BookTok: looking to the future; and, more on BookTok, how do booksellers keep up with the latest trends in a fast-changing world? BookTok: was the UAE first to catch on?
• If you're aiming at traditional publishing, Finding an agent and Working with an agent are two practical checklists to help set up and maintain this vital relationship: 'Try to find an agency which is ‘hungry' for new clients. To keep their workload under control, an established independent agent might take on something like four new authors a year, but only to replace four departing clients. This may seem obvious, but whether or not an agent is actively looking to build their list of clients is probably the single most important factor affecting how closely they are looking at unsolicited submissions...'
• Do you want some help with your writing but don't know quite what you want? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? Choosing a service helps you work out which is the right editorial service for you.
• A miscellany of links: a book found at a bookshop café at the end of a single-track road near Ullapool in Scotland, Harry Potter book from Highland bookshop could sell for £60,000 - BBC News; you only have to look at the extent of the global reach of the winner the day after to see what a big deal it has become internationally, Booker Prize: onwards and upwards; and agent extraordinaire, with interviews a-go-go, reminding us that he's a risk-taker, a rebel, a renegade, a shocker, a rocker, defender of those who are big enough to defend themselves, picker of fights and settler of scores, Wearing purple: Andrew Wylie visionary, myth maker, game changer, maverick or irrelevance?
• For a more down-to-earth and practical account, How Literary Agents Work - an article written exclusively for Writersservices by literary agent Mark Gottlieb of Trident Media in New York: 'I have often heard that authors are interested in how literary agents work. It is very simple: a literary agent exists to provide services to authors...'
• Our latest new service, Developmental editing. If you are a new writer, setting out on your first book project, or a more experienced writer who wants to improve your skills, this service is for you. We will work with you to identify the areas where you need to develop new or better skills.
• From our Quotes page, Paula Danziger: 'Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don't forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.'
• If you enjoy keeping up with What's New, you can sign up for our newsletter to be emailed to you every two weeks.

• ‘There's a kind of uncertainty among young writers about what they're allowed to write about. Not only for political reasons but also for social and cultural reasons. And I worry about that because my view is that everybody can write about everything. If that's not true then the art of the novel ceases to exist. The question is whether they do it well or badly and to my mind that's the only question...' Salman Rushdie, author of 20 books, including Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses, the Ground Beneath Her Feet and Quichotte, in The Times.
• The next part in our new series Ask the Editor is Researching for a Book: 'Writing a non-fiction book is a very different project to writing a novel; the motivation, purpose, style and approach are quite distinct. ‘Non-fiction', of course, covers a wide range of genres and formats; however, there are some principles that apply across the board. In this article I will explore some of the basic requirements in writing a non-fiction book. The reasons for writing a non-fiction book fall into four broad categories...'
• This is the seventh article in the Ask the Editor series, which has been written in response to queries from writers.
• WritersServices offers a wide range of editorial services to help you prepare your manuscript for submission to an agent or publisher, or for self-publication. Our team of expert editors has years of experience in helping and advising authors; we can help you bring your work to a professional level of excellence. All our editing services offer competitive rates and excellent value for money. If you are not sure which of our editing services you require, we can assess your manuscript, and recommend the service that is most appropriate to your needs. Copy editing services. Get in touch to let us know how we can help.
• Our publishing and printing glossary is a useful reference tool.
• Our first set of links focus on writers' craft: from the king of anthologisers, Maxim Jakubowski, Confessions of a Serial Anthology Editor ‹ CrimeReads; the hyper-realistic, blood and guts style of novels about hard-bitten detectives with drink problems, broken marriages and potty mouths is giving way to something different, Cosy, but still crime; what JR, Alexis, and Domingue Taught this Mystery Writer, Finding Inspiration for Mystery Fiction in Soap Operas ‹ CrimeReads; and Louis Ferrante recalls the meeting with George Weidenfeld that led to a seven-year writing project, I was a mafioso. Now I'm a mafia historian.
• Open to writers resident in the UK or Ireland, the new Prototype Publishing Prize has no entry fee. The prizes are £3,000 plus publication by Prototype for the the best book-length project and £2,000 plus publication by Monitor Books for the best proposal for a short-form work. The Prize will be open and will close in January.
• Worldbuilding 2: the basics of writing fantasy fiction is the second in our new five-part Worldbuilding series: 'Fantasy fiction is a niche market, but a very popular niche market. It is particularly popular among new writers, and I suspect this is a consequence of growing up on a diet of best-selling fantasy fiction over the last couple of decades. This article will look at the differences between writing fantasy fiction and other genres, and also the similarities. Then I will look at some of the issues involved in writing fantasy fiction.'
• Other articles in the series cover character names in fantasy novels, geography and physical location, technology and culture.
• Links from the publishing world: to protect the human creativity and knowledge that underpins safe and reliable AI, the UK's publishers, authors, agents, and ALCS join forces, Top UK Publishing Organizations on AI Protection; some 20 individuals have been accused of scamming authors by falsely claiming an affiliation with Amazon Publishing and Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon Sues Scammers Targeting Authors; the UK shadow chancellor's new book has come under scrutiny for lifting passages of text from other sources without acknowledgment, How common is plagiarism in the publishing industry? | Plagiarism | The Guardian; and private equity firm KKR emerged as the winning bidder after Penguin Random House's acquisition for S&S was blocked by the government in late 2022, now KKR Completes Purchase of Simon & Schuster.
• This week's Endorsement comes from Sally Gibbins from Birmingham in the UK and is about her children's copy editing: 'I am delighted with the feedback and so pleased with all the great suggestions which were so much more than I expected. A really brilliant service.'
• The fifth part in the series An Editor's advice deals with Points of view - who's telling this story? 'Not so long ago, I read what ought to have been a really exciting novel filled with drama, action, treachery and romance. Or it would have been but for one thing. I saw none of this drama, I only heard about it later. Why was that? It was because the author had decided to use a first-person viewpoint character and, unfortunately ‘I' was nowhere near any of the action. In fact, ‘I' was in a bunker halfway up a mountainside, having rather a dull time of it all while mayhem broke out elsewhere. As the reader, I had to stick with ‘I' and likewise, I had a pretty boring time...'
• Do you want some help with your writing but don't know quite what you want? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? 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. can help you work out which service is right for you. Choosing a service
• Some links about reading and audiobooks: it feels like we live in an era of constant distraction, but the truth is more complex, The big idea: are our short attention spans really getting shorter? | Society books | The Guardian; and the prospect of reading a book filled me with anxiety and shame. But an ADHD diagnosis changed everything, Swapping books for audiobooks has reignited my love of literature | Verity Babbs | The Guardian.
• How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) asks writers who are not native English speakers with a manuscript which needs polishing or translating: "If your English is good enough, what about translating your book yourself or writing in English, and then getting your work polished and copy edited by a professional editor who is a native English speaker?" This could be a cost-effective way of reaching the international English-speaking market.
• Our English Language Editing Service is specially designed to help non-native speakers of English to find success in the international publishing market. With the rapid rise of English as a world language, an increasing number of authors who are not native English speakers, or who speak English as a second language, are writing in English. If English is not your native language, you may require extra help to take your work to a professional standard. Our specialist editors have years of experience working with authors writing in English as a second language. We can help you to bring your work to a native level of fluency, and a professional level of excellence.
• We all know that computers can do everything far better than mere humans, right? Those who argue the point are usually labelled as luddites or technophobes. In this computer age we are (understandably) turning more and more tasks over to computers... So where does this leave the humble index? Do we even need an index, some ask? In the days of full-text searching (the method by which a computer searches text for specific words, similar to a search engine such as Google), why do we need the human touch at all? Very few works of non-fiction can do without an index of some description. From the simple cookery book to the mammoth legal tome, each book has a reader, and each reader will at some point want to look something up in the book. The Ins and Outs of Indexing
• Our final set of links is to writers' stories: whilst earning enough to pay the bills is a perfectly valid colloquialism for "an amount of money that emotionally balances the time and effort I've put in," why not aim for a life-changing amount of money? Earn Six Figures as a Writer With This One Weird Trick | Jane Friedman; two decades after Christopher Paolini self-published his debut book, Eragon, which launched The Inheritance Cycle, A New Fantasy and a 20th Anniversary for Christopher Paolini; celebrity memoir can still break all records, Britney Spears's 'The Woman in Me' Sells More Than 1 Million Copies; and 'My journey to publication was a rough one with tons of rejections (70+) along the way', Q&A: author Lola Akinmade Åkerström.
• Writers' stories - they're just a bit of fun, but in a rare moment of inspiration we wrote some fictionalised stories of how the services could turn out, to give you a better idea of how they might work for you. Joe's fantasy novel benefited from some professional editing, when he signed up for an Editor's Report Plus. Tony needed Copy editing to get his manuscript into shape for publication or self-publishing.
• In our Writers' Quotes, Margaret Atwood: 'Your job is to make your novel the best of its kind that it can be.'
• If quotes are your thing we have a very large collection in our Archive, More Writers' Quotes and Even More Quotes.

• ‘When you read as a child you are hungry for ideas and for books and for stories like no other time in your life and I think we have such a duty not to offer the hungry anything that is thin, or vapid or fishy or complacent or poorly thought out or lazy or careless. I am very happy to belong to a community that rises to that call...' Speaking about her latest children's novel Impossible Creatures, where all the creatures from myth and legend live on an archipelago. ‘It is about these creatures, it is about a cornucopia of wonder and about the idea of what it would be like, if it was really real... Fantasy can be such a beautiful way to talk to children about the biggest question of what it means to be alive...' Katherine Rundell, author of six children's novels, including Rooftoppers, The Explorer and recently published Impossible Creatures, at the Bookseller's Children's conference, in the Bookseller.
• 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, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, the Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. The Cutting edit and Developmental editing are two new services. 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.
• Ask the Editor 5: Non-fiction submissions is the new article in this series. 'Submitting a non-fiction book for publication is a broadly similar process to a fiction submission, but there are differences, and those differences are important to understand. In this article, I will look at non-fiction submissions and how they differ from their fictional counterparts. One fundamental difference is that non-fiction books are quite often submitted to a publisher when they are still unfinished! Some non-fiction publishers, particularly those that cater to new or amateur writers, prefer a proposal to a finished book...'
• There are four other articles in this series: Ask the Editor 1: What genre is my book? Ask the Editor 2: the submission letter, Ask the Editor 3: Writing a synopsis and Ask the Editor 4: Why do I need you? (about editing services)
• Links from the publishing world (quiet at the moment as publishers prepare for the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two.): all those wizards, ogres, and barely-clad elf queens in the bookstore? You have Lester del Rey to thank, Lester del Rey invented the fantasy genre in book publishing; in the UK 41.9 million children's books sold for £255.8m up to 9th September, The Bookseller - Bestsellers - Children's market heading for second biggest full year on record; and after nine years as MD of Atlantic Books, Questions for: Will Atkinson.
• National Novel Writing Month 2023 is coming up! NaNoWriMo starts on 1 November and is open to all writers across the world. There's no entry fee and you win by writing a 50,000 word novel. Accept the challenge and for 30 wild, exciting, surprising days, you get to silence your inner critic, let your imagination take over, and just create!
• Are you ready to submit your synopsis and sample chapters to agents or publishers, but worried about whether you are presenting your work in the best possible way? It's dispiriting to receive rejections just because your submission package is not up to scratch. Our Submission Critique has helped many authors to improve their submission packages, helping them to get published.
• 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.
• Links about writers' craft: a brief tour of the Churchill War Rooms, the underground bunker from which Churchill directed his war efforts, How a Trip to a Museum Turned into the Perfect Start to a Mystery ‹ CrimeReads; 'No two imaginations work in the same way. As I travel alongside each new student, I discover more about the myriad ways a mind can work, and where it can go', Q&A: novelist Maureen Freely; along with prologues, adverbs and semicolons, flashbacks may be the most vilified - and most misunderstood - of storytelling devices, The Flashback: A Greatly Misunderstood Storytelling Device | Jane Friedman; and writing an authorised biography, Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub biography: the inside story.
• Editor's advice 3 deals with Genre writing: 'Go into any high street bookstore and the shelves are heaving with genre novels. Most people read genre novels somewhere along the way, and genre novels are what most people, intentionally or not, set out to write. The intentional thought process goes something like this: there are loads of genre novels being published, ergo, there's a market for genre novels, so I'll read a couple of these, get a feel for what's needed, and hey presto, I too can knock out a few genre novels and make some money as well... I've been reading science fiction, fantasy and crime novels since I was a teenager, and I can spot when a writer doesn't fully understand the mechanics of their chosen genre. It may not matter to a casual reader but it really matters to the fans...'
• From our Endorsements page: 'The outcome of my experience with Writerservices has far exceeded my expectation and I was amazed by their professionalism, hard work, knowledge and keenness to edit my manuscript of the novel, "Uncle Thesiger's Mashhuf", in every detail, thereby ensuring it will appeal to English readers. Their services are very helpful to all writers', Ammar Al Thuwaini, an Iraqi novelist and translator.
• 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 22 editorial services for writers, which we think is the biggest and most comprehensive you can find on the internet.
• Advice for writers - if you want to delve into the wealth of information on our huge site, here's the page which will help you find what you're looking for.
• Links to articles about AI and social media: an attorney examines what artificial intelligence will mean for the publishing industry, Generative AI vs. Copyright; "We have to carefully navigate and regulate to protect authors," for "if we lose [the copyright protection battle], we lose everything". The Bookseller - Comment - 'Exciting and scary' world of AI explored in PW event; hoping to jump-start its push into audiobooks, Spotify Premium Subscribers Can Access 15 Hours of Audiobooks Monthly; and digital audio has been a bright spot for publishers, growing by double-digits year over year, Can Spotify Take Digital Audiobooks to the Next Level?
• 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 seven-part Health Hazards series deals with the dangers facing writers as they spend hours at their computer, including the dreaded Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Prevention is better than cure, so it's worth making yourself aware of the risks as soon as you feel the first twinge and taking action to avoid things deteriorating.
• Links to writers' stories: a bestselling crime novelist has been forced to deny claims that she tricked readers into buying books she didn't write herself, Sweden's ‘queen of Noir' Camilla Läckberg accused of using a ghostwriter | Publishing | The Guardian; following the posthumous release of his final few novels, there could never again be a new book from the master, until Terry Pratchett: Remarkable way lost stories were found by fans; in the eighth decade of my life I am pondering the wisdom of writing a very personal memoir, Is It Worthwhile to Write My Memoir, Especially If a Publishing Deal Is Unlikely? | Jane Friedman; and a shocking new US Authors Guild survey finds that median book and writing-related income for authors in 2022 was below the poverty level, Writing Books Remains a Tough Way to Make a Living.
• So you want to be a romance writer? You've made an interesting choice because, although a lot of people scoff at romance, it is the most stable genre of all and has continued to keep its faithful readers when other categories have changed radically and sometimes lost their audiences. Romance has changed a bit in recent years and embraced a more complex story, sometimes with more explicit sex in it, but essentially this is a category which marches on, providing happy endings, when all around it the world has changed. Writing Romance
• '[As a writer] you have to have the three D's: drive, discipline and desire. If you're missing any one of those three, you can have all the talent in the world, but it's going to be really hard to get anything done.' Nora Roberts in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘With the rise of a new genre, we've seen a lot of readers determined to label what qualifies as 'cosy fantasy'. Meanwhile, I'm out there writing dragon attacks that almost kill my main character, so... I really don't have a definition. This genre seems to be all about the vibes, and that's different for everyone. My goal when I write cosy is to focus on plots that wouldn't be 'exciting enough' if I were to write them in earnest: a satirical pirate romp, the chaos of a wedding, or just characters opening the shop of their dreams. A quiet cup of tea and a sweet love story can remind us to sit calmly and be quiet with our thoughts, which is something I feel is very needed in this chaotic world.' Rebecca Thorne, author of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, A Pirate's Life for Tea, This Gilded Abyss and a children's book, The Secrets of Star Whales in Bookbrunch.
• 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.
• The Moth Nature Writing Prize 2023 is open to anyone over the age of 16 with an unpublished piece of nature writing. The entry fee is €15 per entry. The First Prize is €1,000 and a week-long stay at The Circle of Misse in France, the Second Prize is €500 and the Third Prize €250. This Prize closes on 30 September.
• You'll have to be fast to enter the Mslexia Women's Fiction Competitions 2023, closing on 18 September.
• Our editor Maureen Kincaid Speller a reviewer, writer, editor and former librarian, is our book reviewer and also works for WritersServices as a freelance editor. offers An Editor's Advice on Dialogue: 'Picture the scene; I have just settled down to read a manuscript. Character A has come to visit Character B about an important matter. Character B is a friendly soul and offers A a cup of tea. Milk? Yes, please. Sugar? Just a small spoonful, thanks. Or would A prefer a cup of coffee, it wouldn't take a moment. Biscuit? Oh, go on then. Digestive or Rich Tea? A and B witter aimlessly for several pages about beverages and baked goods, while the fate of world peace hangs on B giving A a vital clue. Which clearly isn't going to happen for another four or five pages...'
• Links from writers: the hard-boiled novel, James Ellroy Reveals the Real Reason He Writes ‹ CrimeReads; a project that now delivers thousands of books to British jails, How I turned prisoners' misery into reading pleasure: the brilliant story of Bang Up Books | Books | The Guardian; the author who spent the second half of his career fighting for authors' right to privacy, Phonies: J.D. Salinger and Wielding Copyright as Self-Protection ‹ CrimeReads; writers have more interaction with readers than ever before, and superfans aren't afraid to share their opinions online, ‘It's equal parts exciting and terrifying': how authors are being influenced by their fans | Books | The Guardian; and who is this American poet, born in San Francisco in 1942? The Paris Review - Apparently Personal: On Sharon Olds - The Paris Review.
• Sally Gibbins in our Endorsements page: 'I am delighted with the feedback and so pleased with all the great suggestions which were so much more than I expected. A really brilliant service.' Sally Gibbins , Birmingham, UK, on her children's copy editing.'
• If you are looking for copy editing online, it can be difficult to ensure that you are getting a professional copy editor who will do a good job on your manuscript... Hardly any authors can copy edit their own writing or know much about what is involved. It is in any case notoriously difficult to spot the errors in your own work. So 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. Copy editing services
• '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... Older readers may have read Anya Seton, Rosemary Sutcliff, Henry Treece, Mary Renault, Norah Lofts and other stalwarts of historical fiction in their younger days, but many of their books have been out of print or just not very visible, replaced on booksellers' shelves by other categories such as fantasy and crime. The resurgence of historical fiction has been much appreciated by readers who have always enjoyed it and who for many years have had little new material to read...' Writing Historical Fiction.
• Links from the publishing world: it's been a standout success for the book industry over the past few years, Thriving on Change: Current Developments in Audio; in a surprise move, The Bookseller - News - Amazon revises KDP guidelines to compel disclosure of AI content.
• Do 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. Get your manuscript ready for your publication - Services for Self-publishers.
• Working with an agent: 'Don't ever take on an agent you don't like or don't trust, however desperate you may feel. You have to be able to work with them in what should be an extremely important relationship for you as a writer. You must also feel confident that they are competent, enthusiastic about your work and can be trusted, both in terms of the advice they offer and in relation to handling your money...'
• Are you ready to submit your synopsis and sample chapters to agents or publishers, but worried about whether you are presenting your work in the best possible way? It's dispiriting to receive rejections just because your submission package is not up to scratch. Our Submission Critique has helped many authors to improve their submission packages, helping them to get published.
• More writers' links: a good deal of time is spent in writing workshops talking about first sentences, What Makes a Great First Sentence? ‹ Literary Hub; the industry body has spoken out against the practice, Society of Authors calls use of bad reviews for book blurbs ‘morally questionable' | Books | The Guardian; I am like a magpie when it comes to developing a story, shamelessly borrowing from and building on whatever I see and hear, The Writer as Magpie ‹ CrimeReads; gradually, things started to go off the rails, Goodreads Is Terrible for Books. Why Can't We All Quit It? | The Walrus; and we choose our spouses, but their families come as a package deal, The Mother-In-Law From Hell ‹ CrimeReads.
• 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?...'
• A miscellany of links: an alarming survey The Bookseller - News - National Literacy Trust calls for urgent action as children's reading enjoyment at ‘record low'; a distinguished publisher and an embarassing subject, The plot to suppress the truth about Unity Mitford; across the US, books and lessons that represent different families and identities are increasingly the target of conservative pushback, Bans on diverse picture books? Young kids need to see their families represented, experts say | AP News; print has been dead for as long as I've been at The Bookseller, The Bookseller - Editor's Letter - Come the revolution; and the lowdown on literary estates from the co-head of Curtis BrownSee Curtis Brown listing Heritage, Questions for: Becky Brown.
• How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) asks writers who are not native English speakers with a manuscript which needs polishing or translating: "If your English is good enough, what about translating your book yourself or writing in English, and then getting your work polished and copy edited by a professional editor who is a native English speaker?" This could be a cost-effective way of reaching the international English-speaking market, using our English Language Editing service.
• 'Part of writing a novel is being willing to leap into the blackness. You have very little idea, really, of what's going to happen. You have a broad sense, maybe, but it's this rash leap.' Chang-Rae Lee in our Writers' Quotes.

• 'Lots of people ask me for advice on getting published. All I can really offer however is what happened to me. I wrote my first novel while working full time as a journalist. The first draft took me about year to complete and while it was dreadful (it had characters changing name in the middle of a sentence and had plot holes you could drive an articulated lorry through) it was at the same time a complete novel, something I could work on, fix and improve, which is exactly what I did... After a long wait I received a rejection followed by another rejection and then just as I was beginning to lose hope the third agent got back to me and informed me that she loved the book. We worked on the manuscript together for three months ironing out the creases before sending it to seven publishers on a gloomy Friday afternoon in October...' Mike Gayle, author of 17 novels, including My Legendary Girlfriend, Wish You were Here and All the Lonely People, on his website.
• 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, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, the Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. The Cutting edit and Developmental editing are two new services. 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.
• Closing on 18 September and open only to women writers across the world, the Mslexia Women's Fiction Competitions 2023 are well worth entering. The prizes are various and entry is for Novels, Short Fiction and Flash Fiction.
• Our first set of links are on tech, AI and social media: screenwriters, actors, authors, and artists are fighting to ensure that human beings are not shunted to the margins of our culture, Hollywood's Fight Against A.I. Will Affect Us All | The New Republic; what if AI could help us visualize what fairy tales for the climate crisis could actually look like? Orion Magazine - We Tried to Create AI Fairy Tale Art. Results Were Mixed; TikTok recommendations are driving sales and launching authors' careers as the social media app continues to reshape the industry, ‘I can't stress how much BookTok sells': teen literary influencers swaying publishers | Books | The Guardian; BookTok is beloved as a guerrilla democratizing force, but the platform's pivot risks killing the thing that makes it great, TikTok Is Becoming a Publisher. Will It Ruin the Book Industry? | The Walrus; and YouTube is the most popular way of discovering books online for young adults, The Bookseller - News - YouTube narrowly beats TikTok for young adults discovering books online, according to Nielsen report.
• Worldbuilding 2: the basics of writing fantasy fiction, the second in our new series, 'Fantasy fiction is a niche market, but a very popular niche market. It is particularly popular among new writers, and I suspect this is a consequence of growing up on a diet of best-selling fantasy fiction over the last couple of decades. This article will look at the differences between writing fantasy fiction and other genres, and also the similarities. Then I will look at some of the issues involved in writing fantasy fiction.'
• WritersServices offers a comprehensive range of editorial services for authors writing for the children's book market. All our services are carried out to the highest professional standard, and offer competitive rates and excellent value for money. Writing for children is not an easy option. It requires sound writing skills, originality, a clear understanding of the target audience and a good grasp of the market. Our expert editors are specialists in writing for children, and they will help you make your work the best it can be. Children's Editorial Services.
• ‘A wonderfully detailed and helpful report. The editorial advice and knowledge sharing is extensive and generous. Your editor has identified the points where and why my novel falls short and provided clear and practical advice on how to remedy the shortfalls... I would not hesitate to recommend your service to other writers both in terms of output and value for money.' Elspeth, UK, on our Endorsements page.
• Links to writers' stories: I'm a writer who also works in publishing, Seeing Novels from Both the Writing and Publishing Sides; a children's writer who's a legend, ‘I wanted to be No 1. But a certain JK Rowling came along': Jacqueline Wilson on rivalry, censorship - and love | Jacqueline Wilson | The Guardian; and now making her adult debut after YA success, The Bookseller - Author Interviews - Cassandra Clare| 'I want the characters to drive the story not the magic';
• 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, The Business of Writing for Self-publishing authors offers terrific advice for all writers: 'Self-publishing authors - also known as ‘indie' authors or author-publishers - have had a steep learning curve these past few years. Getting to grips with the various sales channels available to them, producing top quality ebooks and paperbacks, and finding a place in mainstream outlets have left many writers struggling to keep up with the paperwork. What follows is a brief guide to the essentials your self-publishing business needs - because it is a business, even if you only publish one book!'
• If you've come to the site looking for a report on your manuscript, how do you work out which one 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.
• Links from the publishing world: Paramount Global has agreed to sell S&S to one of the world's largest investment firms, The Bookseller - Comment - The questions raised by KKR's S&S buy; some in the industry will welcome it as putting at least a temporary stop to industry consolidation, KKR Wins S&S for $1.62 Billion; and copyright infringement case appears headed toward final phase of the litigation, Judgment Phase of Internet Archive Copyright Case Appears Imminent.
• If you're aiming at traditional publishing, Finding an agent and Working with an agent are two practical checklists to help set up and maintain this vital relationship: 'Try to find an agency which is ‘hungry' for new clients. To keep their workload under control, an established independent agent might take on something like four new authors a year, but only to replace four departing clients. This may seem obvious, but whether or not an agent is actively looking to build their list of clients is probably the single most important factor affecting how closely they are looking at unsolicited submissions...'
• How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) asks writers who are not native English speakers with a manuscript which needs polishing or translating: "If your English is good enough, what about translating your book yourself or writing in English, and then getting your work polished and copy edited by a professional editor who is a native English speaker?" This could be a cost-effective way of reaching the international English-speaking market.
• Our final set of links from writers: "Are you a volunteer?" "No. I'm a passenger," I told her. She was mortified because it was clear to us both that she had assumed that I - a young brown woman - was a member of staff, Breaking into cliquey crime fiction; the independence of self-publishing, The Selfies questions for 2023 non fiction winner Sarah Ziegel; 'What strikes me after almost 25 years in the industry is that publishing and bookselling still attract enthusiastic, occasionally eccentric people who love and understand books', Q&A: bestselling novelist John Connolly; and writing for the golden age of childrens's writing, The Shifting Middle Grade Market.
• 'Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.' Stephen King in our Writers' Quotes.
• If quotes are your thing we have a very large collection in our Archive, More Writers' Quotes and Even More Quotes.

• ‘I not only know the beginning, middle and end of the book, but I know the beginning, middle and end of each chapter... I think it's important for my readers that there is a real sense of jeopardy for the characters. Sometimes when you read a particular genre, you get to know where things are going. But I feel it's really important that when readers meet the characters on the first page, they feel that "we can't take anything for granted here". Anything must feel possible, it's only when they get to the end of the book that they will know exactly where the story was going, and why...' Mike Gayle, author of 17 books, including his first novel My Legendary Girlfriend, Wish You Were Here and just-published All the Lonely People, in the Bookseller.
• The latest new article in our Ask the Editor series is Ask the Editor 4: Why do I need you? 'Well yes, in the old days an editor was a necessary part of the writing process. But times change, right? Innovations in digital technology have produced handy editorial software that spots the errors in your writing and corrects or makes suggestions for amending them; online thesauruses offer you options for word and phrase choices to make your writing more exciting and impactful. So with all this new-fangled help just waiting online for your call, you don't need the intervention of an editor. Do you? Actually, it's not as simple as that. There is plenty of editing tech out there, and some of it may even be useful. But if you look elsewhere online, say at the reviews of self-published (and increasingly, commercially published) books, you will read a different story. A large proportion of reviews - and thus a large number of readers, presumably - express their dissatisfaction with the quality of the manuscripts...'
• Other articles in the series deal with writing a synopsis, the submission letter and What genre is my book?
• The 2023 Manchester Writing Competitions are open internationally to those aged 16 or over. The entry fee for both prizes is £18. These prestigious competitions, run by Manchester Metropolitan University, offer two £10,000 prizes: the Manchester Poetry Prize for best portfolio of poems and the Manchester Fiction Prize for best short story. Closing 1 September.
• Are you ready to submit your synopsis and sample chapters to agents or publishers, but worried about whether you are presenting your work in the best possible way? It's dispiriting to receive rejections just because your submission package is not up to scratch. Our Submission Critique has helped many authors to improve their submission packages, helping them to get published.
• Links from writers: 'I love to write thrillers about creeps and coercive controllers, and about letting the wrong person in', Lisa Jewell Raced Through Writing Her Latest Novel; the ghostwriter on the extraordinary phenomenon of Flowers in the Attic and its successors, Becoming V.C. Andrews; after publishing more than forty books in half a century, How Samuel R. Delany Reimagined Sci-Fi, Sex, and the City | The New Yorker; 'I think the crime genre specifically has got ever more crowded and competitive', Q&A: bestselling novelist Ruth Ware.
• 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, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, the Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. The Cutting edit and Developmental editing are two new services. 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.
• From our Endorsements page: 'I cannot emphasise enough my gratitude to writerservices.com. I more or less expected that they would treat me and my texts professionally - after all, this is what the site offers. What I haven't expected was the extra mile they were prepared to go on my behalf, their beautiful attention to both the letter and the spirit of what I had to say. My manuscript has now found an agent - a happy development in which they have definitely played a role. All I can say is that if I ever produce anything else, I will definitely be their client again.' Sveta, Windsor, UK.
• Links to articles about AI, the subject of the moment: it was a indicative of how quick and simple (and tempting) it is to use AI to write a book, The Bookseller - Comment - Responsible AI in publishing; their books, which are copyrighted, were ‘used to train' ChatGPT, Authors file a lawsuit against OpenAI for unlawfully ‘ingesting' their books | Books | The Guardian; concerned creators suing tech developers over their much-hyped generative AI technology, Authors Join the Brewing Legal Battle Over AI; for better or worse, artificial intelligence is poised to shake up the publishing industry, Seven Ways AI Will Impact Authors And The Publishing Industry; and the results of a survey about artificial intelligence, Writers' Guild of Great Britain Publishes Report on AI.
• Bob's Journal is a long-running column from writer Bob Ritchie described by fellow EastEnders script-writer Pippa McCarthy: 'Just discovered your web page... I've just spent the last hour crying with laughter with periodic yelps of 'been there!'... I'm going to make my entire family read your diary. Then perhaps they will understand my own bizarre behaviour every time I start a script... Anyway, will shut up now but just wanted to say you have cheered me up no end. It's brilliant.'
• Our Children's Editorial Services help you to get your children's book ready for publication or self-publishing. Have you found it difficult to get expert editorial input on your work ? Do you want to know if it might find a publisher? Or are you planning to self-publish?
• Links from publishing: the amalgamation of brilliant minds, innovative ideas, and, most importantly, emerging technologies have encouraged its huge growth, 4 Publishing Trends to Stay in & Beyond 2023 - Good e-Reader; interest seems to be back to pre-lockdown levels, The Bookseller - News - Frankfurt Book Fair agents and scouts centre sold out after 'record interest'; the latest on book-banning, Obama speaks out against ‘profoundly misguided' book bans in school libraries | Books | The Guardian; we know throughout our 50 years of research just how essential poetry is as a genre for children, The Bookseller - Features - CLPE reflects on changing children's poetry scene ahead of CLiPPA's 20th anniversary; and social media enters a new phase, The Influence of BookTok and Bookstagram on Book Publishing Merch.
• 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?...'
• Do you want some help with your writing but don't know quite what you want? Are you a bit puzzled by the various services on offer, and not sure what to go for? Choosing a service helps you work out which is the right editorial service for you.
• More writers' links: 'most of the recent books I've abandoned are around 350-400 pages', It's Not Me, It's You: An Argument for Shorter Middle Grade Books; how becoming an author has changed the way I approach my publishing day job, The Bookseller - Comment - Swapping sides; the best children's fiction "helps us refind things we may not even know we have lost", Why adults should read children's books - BBC Culture; and charity aims to give 10 million young people across the continent the books they need by 2030, Book Aid seeks £4m for African campaign.
• Rotten Rejections - The Letters that Publishers Wish they'd never Sent by Andre Bernard is full of the absurd things publishers said when rejecting writers' work: on Carrie by Stephen King 'We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.' On Animal Farm by George Orwell ‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA'.
• From our Writers' Quotes: 'Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.' Barbara Kingsolver

‘From my perspective, in general producers and studios find content from the world of books highly attractive for development due to established storytelling, inspiration, quality recognition, and a built-in audience. While there may be instances of preferring original content, book adaptations hold significant appeal... In the best properties we grow to know the characters, and the story pays due respect to their complexities and needs. There's always the sense that they exist in the now and not at some point along a predetermined continuum....' Kamran Sardar Khan of Stuttgart's East End Film has produced some 150 feature films and - being a great reader - has included literary adaptations in that body of work, in Publishing Perspectives.

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 latest 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 that this detail helps them to get their book right. Through our specialist children's editors we can offer reports on children's books.

This week we have a new article in our Ask the Editor series. The submission letter: practice and pitfalls. 'Your submission letter (also known as the query letter) is the first thing a publisher will read; that makes it an important document. Get it right, and you have captured their attention; get it wrong, and your book may be rejected without being read. In this article, I will look at the ground rules for the letter, and the pitfalls you should try to avoid...' The first article in the series was entitled What genre is my book?

If you are looking for copy editing online, it can be difficult to ensure that you are getting a professional copy editor who will do a good job on your manuscript... Hardly any authors can copy edit their own writing or know much about what is involved. It is in any case notoriously difficult to spot the errors in your own work. So 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. Copy editing services

Links for writers: guidance for authors on how they can protect themselves and their work from "the impact of new technologies", The Bookseller - News - SoA urges vigilance in new AI guidance for authors; L. Ron Hubbard's Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests, Top voices in science fiction and fantasy hail from the UK; everyone always says to "write what you know", So, when drafting my debut thriller The Dive, that's what I did, A deadly island and a quarter life crisis; 'I try not to worry too much about what other authors are writing, and just focus on what's in my control.' Q&A: bestselling novelist Clare Mackintosh; should this author have stopped publication? Pundits Weigh in on Gilbert's Decision to Pull Russian-Set Novel Over Ukrainian Backlash; and "Put that on your website." "I don't have one," she replied. "Sometimes I post stuff on Facebook. Do you think anyone reads it?" When Do You Need an Author Website? | Jane Friedman.

An essential read for children's authors is Suzy Jenvey's special series for WritersServices, the four-part Essential Guide to Writing for Children. The first article looks at the all-important question of age groups and what you should be aware of in writing for each one. The second part is Before You Write: What is My Story Going to be? The third part deals with Starting to Write and the fourth part is about Submitting Your Work to Agents and Editors. This series by a hugely experienced children's editorial director and agent helps you get started on your own story or develop what you're already working on.

Advice for Writers is a really useful page which takes you into our archive and helps you explore our more than 9,000 pages of information for writers.

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.

Links from publishing: this week the Guardian suggested that books could continue to outperform other entertainment goods as the wider economy faces financial uncertainty, The Bookseller - Editor's Letter - Editor's letter: Brought to book; they are designed to mislead the casual onlooker into thinking that they are books, Cooking the books: the rise of fake libraries | The Spectator; problems in the world of literary festivals, The Bookseller - Features - Festivals boom post-Covid but struggle with big names amid theatre tours; talking to Emily Knox, author of Book Banning in 21st-Century America, about the 'huge surge' in book banning today, ALA 2023: Behind the Book Bans; we were hauled up into the light and sent abroad to appear before live audiences and pretend to be a more or less plausible and if possible entertaining version of ourselves, The Casual Ignominy of the Book Tours of Yore; and an alarming 26.6% year-on-year increase in visits to Pirate websites, Pandemic drives piracy.

The Ledbury Poetry Competition 2023 is open to all poets writing in English, no matter where they live. The entry fee is £6 per poem and the First prize is £1,000 cash and a week's poetry course at Arvon, the Second Prize is £500 and Third prize £250. The Competition closes on 10 July.

Two other competitions close at the end of June.

From our Endorsements page: 'The copy-editor perfectly captured the spirit of my story, making not only pertinent corrections, but also a string of brilliant suggestions and comments that inspired me to improve the text on my own. So happy I chose Writers Services. Rasmus, Chile.'

More on writers: bestselling authors are still getting major multi-book deals, Baldacci Re-Ups at Grand Central with Eight-Book Deal; Stephen King called him "maybe the greatest American novelist of my time", Cormac McCarthy: Tributes to 'unique' author of The Road and No Country for Old Men - BBC News; links to intriguing articles on McCarthy they've published over the years, Remembering Cormac McCarthy ‹ Literary Hub; and finally a tribute to one of the most eminent literary editors in publishing history, Legendary Knopf Editor Robert Gottlieb Dies at 92.

The eighth and final set of our new pages of Tips for Writers deals with submitting to publishers and agents: 'Look for agents who are trying to build up their lists, rather than those with established client lists. It may be wonderful to think of being represented by the agents who act for Stephen King or Ian Rankin, but you're much more likely to get taken on by someone who's just set up, or a hungry young agent in a bigger agency...'

A typically minimalist comment from the late Cormac McCarthy in our Writers' Quotes: 'I don't know why I started writing. I don't know why anybody does it. Maybe they're bored, or failures at something else.'

• 'For God's sake, never use a metaphor and then explain it... You can assume a world from so little and readers will. So I'm more interested in economy than encyclopaedism, in how little you can get away with rather than how much you can cram in...' M John Harrison, author of The Pastel City, Light, Nova Swing, A Storm of Wings and the Virconium sequence, amongst his 16 novels and short story collections, in an interview about his new book, Wish I was Here, in The Times.
• An Editor's Advice is a series of seven articles by one of our editors on really useful subjects for writers such as Manuscript presentation, Dialogue, Doing further drafts and Planning: 'The idea of planning doesn't fit well with the idea of the writer as inspired genius, frantically scribbling away. However, I am willing to bet that, no matter what they would have you think, most successful writers plan as much as they write. They just don't tell you about it. The biggest objection that most inexperienced writers raise when someone broaches the delicate matter of planning is that it will get in the way of their inventive powers. A plan will be like a straitjacket. They'll be stuck with this plan and if they come up with a good idea along the way, they will not be able to use it. They are genuinely horrified at the thought...'
• The Moth Short Story Prize 2023 closes on 30 June and is open to all writers over 16. The entry fee is €15 per story. 1st prize €3,000, 2nd prize week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France plus €250 travel stipend, 3rd prize €1,000.
• Are you getting ready to publish your book - perhaps planning to self-publish? WritersServices offers a suite of nine services which help writers get their work into shape before they self-publish. Services for Self-publishers
• Other prizes and competitions which are still open till the end of May.
• Links on writing and the writer's craft: we're living in a time when readers don't have to tolerate anything less than a dramtic start, For Today's Crime Novels, the Stakes Are High, Right from the First Sentence ‹ CrimeReads; the benefit of writing in different genres and styles, How Screenwriting Can Help You Write Stronger Fiction ‹ Literary Hub; sitting in my bedroom, reading, disappearing into those impossibly glamorous worlds , On not holidaying on a superyacht; and the best piece of advice writers ever received, How do You Write Compelling Characters? Find the Source of Their Pain ‹ CrimeReads.
• An enthusiastice endorsement from Nancy Jarzombek, Belmont, Massachusetts: 'Thank you! I received the comments - most eagerly awaited - and just sped-read through now. When everyone is off to school I will go back to read through all of the details. It gives me much to think about. I'm most grateful for the thoughtful and articulate response. It's fantastic!'
• Are you ready to submit your synopsis and sample chapters to agents or publishers, but worried about whether you are presenting your work in the best possible way? It's dispiriting to receive rejections just because your submission package is not up to scratch. Our Submission Critique has helped many authors to improve their submission packages, helping them to get published.
• Links about the tech upheaval affecting writers: creative artificial intelligence provokes a strange mixture of contempt and dread, The Future of Writing Is a Lot Like Hip-Hop - The Atlantic; its classic search engine has had an AI makeover, Google's New AI-Powered Search Is Going to Look Very Different; exploring automation of the book business's pitches to readers, ‘Beowulf is lit AF' - could ChatGPT really write good book blurbs? | Books | The Guardian; getting to a demographic with a willingness to pay for news, "More adults use it than Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok or Reddit": How LinkedIn is increasingly driving content discovery for publishers | What's New in Publishing | Digital Publishing News; and preventing today's chatbots discussing taboo topics, Anthropic explains how Claude's AI constitution protects it against adversarial inputs | Engadget.
• Health Hazards is our special series about the various health risks for writers, including the dreaded Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. If you know you've been spending too much time at a keyboard, it's worth making sure you're being careful about how you're sitting, your eyes and your wrists.
• If you need to clear copyright for your book, Clearing Copyright shows you how to do this: 'Copyright provides a framework for trading in intellectual property. In practice it protects the author's position and ensures that the publisher is able to take on the risk of publication in the knowledge that the publisher's rights are protected. In effect authors, (the originators of intellectual property) sub-license their rights through their book contracts to different parties in individual territories and in specific forms...'
• WritersServices offers a wide range of editorial services to help you prepare your manuscript for submission to an agent or publisher, or for self-publication. Our team of expert editors has years of experience in helping and advising authors; we can help you bring your work to a professional level of excellence. All our editing services offer competitive rates and excellent value for money. If you are not sure which of our editing services you require, we can assess your manuscript, and recommend the service that is most appropriate to your needs. Copy editing services. Get in touch to let us know how we can help.
• Links from the publishing and bookselling world: a fascinating article about different reading tastes, Why is Serious Nonfiction in the US Taken More Seriously Than in the UK? ‹ Literary Hub; would fewer books work better for publishers? The Bookseller - Comment - The 'publishing less' conundrum; the latest on the US book chain, The Bookseller - News - Daunt reveals home truths about 'evolving' Barnes & Noble; and more on bookshops, Good news: there are more bookstores in the US this year than last. ‹ Literary Hub.
• Tips for writers 6 is about other kinds of writing which can extend your writing and develop your writing skills, such as short stories for magazines, anthologies, competitions and short story websites. Although it's still hard to get a collection of short stories published, individual stories are another matter. If you really see yourself as a fiction writer and can't come up with the goods on non-fiction, then research the possibilities for short stories and get writing. Very short stories are currently in vogue and are working particularly well on the web.
• Avoid rejection - it is demoralising to get your manuscript rejected by publishers or agents. To put it into perspective, you may find it helpful to go through some of the reasons why this happens and to see what we suggest you can do about it.
• A miscellany of links: a new trend in handling authors' estates, The Bookseller - News - Intellectual property rights of Wilbur Smith's novels put up for sale; the author said it 'was not meant to please everybody - only children', Where the Wild Things Are: The greatest children's book ever - BBC Culture; he was as interested in how stylishly the thought was expressed as in what it was expressing, Martin Amis: he stamped his style over a generation of writers and readers | Books | The Guardian; less than a year after an attempt on his life, Salman Rushdie says 'attack on books' in Florida 'has never been more dangerous' | CNN.
• Our publishing and printing glossary is a useful reference tool.
• 'Language leads a double life - and so does the novelist. You chat with family and friends, you attend to your correspondence, you consult menus and shopping lists, you observe road signs, and so on. Then you enter your study, where language exists in quite another form - as the stuff of patterned artifice.' Martin Amis, who died this week, in our Writers' Quotes.

• ‘My favourite reading experience, if I was going to choose one, would be a big, fat doorstep of a novel, so I always had in my mind that I would try to write the kind of book that I liked to read, the kind of multi-generational, big bed of a novel that you sink into...' British novelist Joanna Quinn, whose first novel The Whalebone Theatre was published last year, in the Bookseller.
• 'I wrote this book to explore why a privately educated middle-class boy rejected his semi-rural Surrey background to live in the 1970s squats of Hornsey Rise, north London, then reputed to be the largest squatting community in Europe... One significant challenge was in clarifying the relationship between the ‘autobiographical' and ‘fictional' aspects of my work. Jeremy Worman on his just-published book, The Way to Hornsey Rise: an Autobiographical Novel.
• How to get your book translated into English (without it costing the earth) asks writers who are not native English speakers with a manuscript which needs polishing or translating: "If your English is good enough, what about translating your book yourself or writing in English, and then getting your work polished and copy edited by a professional editor who is a native English speaker?" This could be a cost-effective way of reaching the international English-speaking market, using our English Language Editing service.
• Our first set of links are from a lively London Book Fair: market forces, Brexit (in the UK), the rising costs of paper, energy and manufacturing, and the pandemic) are forcing all publishers to reconsider book prices, London Book Fair 2023: Despite Recommended Retail Prices Rise, Books Have Never Been Cheaper; 669m physical books were sold in the UK, the highest overall level ever recorded, UK publishing industry reports record-breaking year in 2022 | Books | The Guardian; literay agencies follow the trend to become more corporate, The Bookseller - News - United Talent Agency ‘would not rule out' further buyouts after LBF bow; and agents and publishers have hailed a "proper" return to London Book Fair this year, reporting back-to-back meetings and standing room only at packed-out events, The Bookseller - News - AI and rising costs dominate conversations at packed-out London Book Fair.
• 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, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, the Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. The Cutting edit and Developmental editing are two new services. 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.
• A glowing endorsement from an enthusiastic author: ‘Absolutely first class job! Very professional. Thank you very much indeed. Wish I'd found you before, it would certainly have saved me a lot of unnecessary headaches. I'll now bin the rest of the editors I've so far dealt with, and hope to keep contact with you.' Steven Kocsis
• More links from a busy publishing world: more than half have said the process negatively affected their mental health, The Bookseller - News - Bookseller survey finds debut authors struggle with lack of support; Tree to Me campaign 'adds authors' voices to efforts to achieve net zero in the publishing industry', Society of Authors creates new campaign to help writers hold publishers to account on sustainability | Society of Authors | The Guardian; an alarming spike in book bans in US schools, PEN Report Shows State Legislation ‘Supercharging' Book Bans; and more on why this matters for young people's lives and careers, The Consequences of Book Bans.
• A new prize has just been set up, the Debut Writers Over 50 Award, which is open to unpublished and unagented writers over 50 living in the UK. There's no entry fee and the prize is £1,000 cash and a week-long residential course at Moniack Mhor. It opens on 1 May and closes on 31 May.
• Links about writers and writing: an important piece of research, The Bookseller - News - Self-published authors earn more than traditionally published counterparts; the worry about children never ends, no matter how big they grow, Writing what terrifies you; living in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, which has a magnificent medieval core, led me to wonder What Do Modern Mystery Novels and Medieval Mystery Plays Have in Common? Sin. ‹ CrimeReads; and a critic thinks Dahl's books are still harmful, Why Roald Dahl Does Not Deserve a Second Chance.
• Which service should I choose to help me get my work into good shape for submission or self-publishing? Which service do you want? Our editorial services have been added in response to demand, so whatever you want we've probably got it covered with our 22 different services.
• The fourth set of our pages of Tips for writers asks: Self-publishing - is it for you? Do you really want to get your book published? Self-publishing offers the chance to control your own publication and, if you are successful, you will make more money. Have you already tried agents and publishers, and made sure that your work is as good as you can get it before submitting it? If so, then you should consider self-publishing or indie publishing as it is often called.
• Our final set of links are to writers' own stories: the series has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, The Bookseller - Author Interviews - Ken Follett | 'I didn't foresee this becoming five books at all. If I had, I would have been more intimidated'; for nearly two decades of her soaring literary career, no one knew that the crime writer "Anne Perry" was actually the teenage murderer Juliet Hulme, Anne Perry dead: Writer murdered friend's mom as teen - Los Angeles Times; the Booker and Pulitzer winner on influences on his writing career, Colson Whitehead: ‘When I read Invisible Man I thought maybe there's room for a Black weirdo like me' | Colson Whitehead | The Guardian; and he went from a career of exciting journalism, and then boredom as a banker, to joining naval intelligence and then became a writer, How Ian Fleming Wrote Casino Royale and Changed Spy Fiction Forever ‹ CrimeReads.
• Get your poetry assessed before submitting it or entering it for competitions with our Poetry Critique service. If you're planning to submit a collection to publish or to self-publish, our unique Poetry Collection Editing service can help to get your work to a publishable standard.
• 'Being a writer in Hollywood is like going into Hitler's Eagle's Nest with a great idea for a Bar Mitzvah.' David Mamet in our Writers' Quotes.
• If you enjoy browsing through quotes, we have large collections on our website, More Writers' Quotes and Even More Quotes.

• ‘When I first started out I wasn't even allowed to kill anyone. People were worried about it. And then it got more and more daring as we went along... I would never do real-world fears. A kid has to know it's fantasy. If I establish that, then I can go pretty far with the scares. One thing kids insist on is a happy ending I did this book called The Best Friend where the good girl is taken away as the murderer and the murderer gets off scot-free. And kids hated this book. The mail was amazing: "Dear R L Stine, You idiot - how can you do that?" They just couldn't accept it. I never tried it again. That book haunted me...' The late R L Stine, author of 530 books for children and young people, including the Goosebumps and Fear Street series, in the Sunday Times Culture.
• 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, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, the Writer's edit, providing line-editing, and Proof-reading. The Cutting edit and Developmental editing are two new services. 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.
• Here's an interesting new prize - The Oxford Pushkin Children's Fantasy Prize. It's open to all fantasy novelists at the beginning of their career. The prize is £2000, and the opportunity for mentorship with an editor at Pushkin Children's Books. Closing 31 May.
• The Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize is also till open.
• Working with an agent: 'Don't ever take on an agent you don't like or don't trust, however desperate you may feel. You have to be able to work with them in what should be an extremely important relationship for you as a writer. You must also feel confident that they are competent, enthusiastic about your work and can be trusted, both in terms of the advice they offer and in relation to handling your money...'
• Links from publishers: this sounds like the final word in this important case, In a Swift Decision, Judge Eviscerates Internet Archive's Scanning and Lending Program; if it's done well it can offer authors the greatest freedom as well as the greatest rewards, Self publishing: the freedom, the rewards; surprising reading format preferences, Gen Zers Are Bookworms but They're Ditching E-Books for the Real Thing; a stunning 1,269 demands to censor US library books and resources, ALA Reports Shocking Increase in Attempted Book Bans in 2022; it's important for authors too, Book production: why you need to know how it works; and 'an exciting new way of expressing my love for books and literature that also interested thousands of viewers', We are all influencers now.
• From our Endorsements page: 'I am delighted with the feedback and so pleased with all the great suggestions which were so much more than I expected. A really brilliant service.' Sally Gibbins , Birmingham, UK, on her children's copy editing.
• Are you struggling to get someone to look at your poetry? Our Poetry Critique service for up to 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.
• The second part of Tips for Writers is Learn on the job: 'It's really difficult to work on your writing on your own, so think about joining a writers' group. These have sprung up all over the place and offer mutual support, discussion and critiquing. Groups are not for everyone, but for many writers they provide companionship on the lonely road to publication. If you can't find a local writers' group which feels right for you and which is open to new members, you could consider starting your own...'
• Links from writers: for centuries, fictional narratives have used outer difference to telegraph inner monstrosity, The disabled villain: why sensitivity reading can't kill off this ugly trope | Disability | The Guardian; few things in life excite me more than doing research for a new novel, The Joys of Researching Your Next Novel ‹ CrimeReads; how do you plot a murder mystery? Backwards, was Jesse Sutanto's solution, Almost breaking my brain; sales of romantic fiction continue to boom, but with the genre often accused of being formulaic, Are romance authors at risk from book-writing chatbots? - BBC News; I think much of my writing has been an expression of my own longing to have some sort of connective string, Jennifer Rosner on Crafting Evocative Historical Fiction That Honors the Past ‹ Literary Hub; and I've had a manuscript locked in a drawer for three and a half years now, To All the Novels I Never Published - The Millions.
• From Tom Chalmers, formerly of IPR, two articles about rights for self-publishers, Self-publishing - the rights way and How to get your book in the hands of an international audience. 'It's a fact that most self-published authors understand the process that takes them from a written manuscript to a published book, but few realise the additional elements that make publishing a profitable business. Rights licensing is arguably the most vital element in this equation. Whether it's selling translation rights, audio rights or optioning the film rights, these all help balance the book's books...'
• Our Services for Writers provides links to the 22 services we offfer, which we think is the widest range on the web.
• Worldbuilding 2: the basics of writing fantasy fiction, is the second in our new five-part series, 'Fantasy fiction is a niche market, but a very popular niche market. It is particularly popular among new writers, and I suspect this is a consequence of growing up on a diet of best-selling fantasy fiction over the last couple of decades. This article will look at the differences between writing fantasy fiction and other genres, and also the similarities. Then I will look at some of the issues involved in writing fantasy fiction.'
• Our last set of links is about children's writing: my mother, Ursula K. Le Guin, took Roald Dahl's books to task, Why I Decided to Update the Language in Ursula K. Le Guin's Children's Books ‹ Literary Hub; recent research has revealed that although there is a lot of enthusiasm for teaching poetry, there isn't much training available, CLPE and MCB team up for The Big Amazing Poetry Project; it's been the subject of many different debates, A Brief History of Children's Books and Literature | Book Riot.
• 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, The Business of Writing for Self-publishing authors offers terrific advice for all writers: 'Self-publishing authors - also known as ‘indie' authors or author-publishers - have had a steep learning curve these past few years. Getting to grips with the various sales channels available to them, producing top quality ebooks and paperbacks, and finding a place in mainstream outlets have left many writers struggling to keep up with the paperwork. What follows is a brief guide to the essentials your self-publishing business needs - because it is a business, even if you only publish one book!'
• 'Modesty is a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.' Miguel de Cervantes in our Writers' Quotes.
• If you enjoy keeping up with What's New, you can sign up for our newsletter to be emailed to you every two weeks.

• ‘It is a gigantic nightmare. Where to start? It's increased print costs. It's made it harder for printers to source the materials they need. It's disrupted everything in the UK, helped wreck the economy, and that of course has a big impact on people's ability to buy books... There is no new normal. There is just ongoing agony.' Sam Jordison of Galley Beggar Press puts what other indie publishers are feeling into words in a wide-ranging article on Brexit in Bookbrunch, which regrettably is behind the paywall.
• WritersServices offers a wide range of editorial services to help you prepare your manuscript for submission to an agent or publisher, or for self-publication. Our team of expert editors has years of experience in helping and advising authors; we can help you bring your work to a professional level of excellence. All our editing services offer competitive rates and excellent value for money. If you are not sure which of our editing services you require, we can assess your manuscript, and recommend the service that is most appropriate to your needs. Copy editing services. Get in touch to let us know how we can help.
• The Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize is open to all writers over 18 with an unpublished short story in English of up to 2,000 words. The winner will receive €1500 and many other prizes, 2 runners-up €750 and other prizes. Closing 16 April.
• Other prizes which are still open.
• My Say gives writers a chance to air their views about writing and the writer's life. So we have Lynda Finn about the isolation of New Zealand writers and their problems with getting published, British author Eliza Graham, author of Playing with the Moon, on her route to publication and Zoe Jenny, who is Swiss, on writing in English and why it was liberating. Send us your contributions, ideally 200 to 400 words in length and of general interest. Please email them to us.
• Our first set of links are about the Roald Dahl controversy: 'you cannot create right-thinking in a population by controlling the literature it consumes', The senseless re-editing of Roald Dahl | The Spectator; 'am I shocked that the Dahl empire - and it's quite the empire, with Netflix buying up the rights from the writer's estate for a cool £500m in 2021 - would move to protect its investment?' It's not Orwellian for publishers to edit Roald Dahl, just commercially savvy | Gaby Hinsliff | The Guardian; are they not censors because this was a business decision? The Bookseller - Comment - Good for business? It's still censorship; and more on bowdlerisation, as it used to  be called, Richard Charkin: On the 'Desecration of Authors' Works'.
• Why has my manuscript been rejected? It is demoralising to get your manuscript rejected by publishers or agents. Here are some of the reasons why this happens and suggestions of what you can do about it. Avoid Rejection.
• Authors often find it difficult to write their own synopsis for submission to agents and 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 from a professional copy-writer will make your book stand out.
• Links from the AI and social media world: founding editor says 500 pitches rejected this month, Sci-fi publisher Clarkesworld halts pitches amid deluge of AI-generated stories | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian; and as the HarperCollins strike shows, TiKTok has the power to punish publishers, not just reward them, The Bookseller - Comment - The digital picket line.
• From our Endorsements page: 'The copy-editor perfectly captured the spirit of my story, making not only pertinent corrections, but also a string of brilliant suggestions and comments that inspired me to improve the text on my own. So happy I chose Writers Services. Rasmus, Chile.'
• WritersServices offers a comprehensive range of editorial services for authors writing for the children's book market. All our services are carried out to the highest professional standard and offer competitive rates and excellent value for money. Writing for children is not an easy option. It requires sound writing skills, originality, a clear understanding of the target audience and a good grasp of the market. Our expert editors are specialists in writing for children, and they will help you make your work the best it can be. Children's Editorial Services.
• Links from publishing: 'a year of exceptional sales and profit growth', British independent publishers thrive despite Brexit and Covid pandemic | Publishing | The Guardian; why senstivity readers are needed, In the far from diverse publishing industry, sensitivity readers are vital; new research shows a downturn in parental purchase, Cost-of-living crisis: one in five parents spend less on books for their children | Books | The Guardian; and, despite working under the uncertainty of who their new owner will be, S&S Sales Topped $1 Billion in Record 2022.
• Do you need to get your material typed up, but can't face doing the job yourself? We can provide a clean typed version of your work at very competitive rates. Our service offers help for writers who have an old or handwritten manuscript, which needs re-typing before the writer can proceed with submission or publication. Typing Manuscripts.
• If you are submitting your work to an agent or directly to a publishing house, check through our guidelines to give it its best chance. Making submissions
• Our final set of links is on writing and writers: description is critical in good, immersive fiction, Building Worlds and Creating Mood and Atmosphere ‹ CrimeReads; serial killing - both fictional and IRL - has long been the realm of men, but Female serial killers: their time has come; if there's one lesson my agent and editors drilled into me about publishing, it's this: know your reader, How to know your reader (and become an Unreasonable Writer); how do you go about making history so exciting? Steve Berry Talks History, Research, and Preservation ‹ CrimeReads; an amazing story from WW2, How the Armed Services Editions Created a Nation of Readers ‹ Literary Hub; a celebrated children's author zooms to the top, Julia Donaldson ends James Patterson's reign as UK libraries' most borrowed author | Books | The Guardian; and a remarkable find which will delight his fans, Sir Terry Pratchett: Short stories to be published after being found by fans - BBC News.
• Our unique new service is The Cutting Edit. So you have finished your book, but it is too long; how do you go about reducing the word count without losing important parts of your work? We're here to help. Our experienced editors will work with you to reduce the word count of your book while preserving the main narrative elements and your individual style. This service is available for both fiction and non-fiction, and it's a dual service - as we reduce the word count of your manuscript we also copy edit it as part of the job.
• 'Writing is a strange synthesis between the two parts of your mind: the analytical side and the side that knows nothing at all, and you have to allow the dreaming side free rein.' Rose Tremain in our Writers' Quotes.

• 'Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things - childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves - that go on slipping, like sand, through our fingers.' Salman Rushdie, author of 13 novels, including Quichottte, The Satanic Verses, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, The Moor's Last Sigh and the Booker-winning Midnight's Children.
• The final part of our new series about Worldbuilding focuses on Culture. 'Culture is a slippery concept; it's one of those terms we all know the meaning of until we actually think about it. For the writer, culture can be a two-edged sword: ignore it and your story lacks depth, colour and context; focus too much on it and you risk bamboozling - or worse, boring - your reader into putting the book down...'
• 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, English Language Editing for those for whom English is not a native language, Writer's edit, providing line-editing, Proof-reading and two new services, the Cutting Edit and Developmental editing. Get the right level of editorial support for your needs. Our low-cost services represent exceptionally good value. Contact us to discuss what you want.
• Links from publishers: the backlist boom which surged during the pandemic continues, The Bookseller - Spotlight - Older titles surge with a little help from BookTok; big publishers in the UK have not had it all their own way, The Bookseller - Spotlight - Big Four's market share contracts as mid-range publishers make hay; but in the US HarperCollins Is Cutting 5% of Its North American Workforce; a decade ago fiction was said to be migrating to digital, but now The Bookseller - Spotlight - Print market chalks up a mighty value as Adult Fiction posts all-time TCM record; and book-buyers go for the cheaper format, The Bookseller - News - Booksellers report more customers switching to paperbacks as household budgets tighten.
• From our Endorsements page: 'Many thanks to you and the Editor for the edits, and the comments. I am really pleased with the services of your company. Will definitely use it again.' Merlin, India
• From our Inside Publishing series: The Sales Department - what it does: 'The sales department has a crucial role in publishing companies. It is well worth taking time to understand how it works. This is the department which will have a crucial effect on the sales of your book. Their involvement and support are key to its success...'
• From the same series, Publishers and Pricing: Pricing can be a fraught subject, as it is something which publishers like to control and regard as an integral part of selling the book. It is quite common for authors to find that their book is not priced as they think, or had expected, it would be. Even your editor will not have the final say on this, which will be the decision of the sales department.
• Links about the craft of writing: "I place great importance on being historically accurate in my books", but Does Historical Accuracy Matter in Historical Fiction? ‹ CrimeReads; "edits are a must and I am very receptive to feedback", but When Should Writers Stand Their Ground Versus Defer to an Editor? | Jane Friedman; "Why isn't there more sex in your books?", For a Mystery Novel, How Much Sex Is Too Much Sex? ‹ CrimeReads; everybody wants a good climax, especially when it comes to storytelling, What is a Story Climax? & How to Write One! - The Art of Narrative; and mystery readers savor the hallmarks of their preferred subgenres of crime fiction, Getting the Investigative Details Right in Cozy Mysteries ‹ CrimeReads.
• Since this week's focus is on genre writing, just a reminder about our genre series: Writing Crime Fiction, Writing for Children, Writing SF and Fantasy, Writing Romance, Writing Non-fiction, Writing Historical Fiction and Writing Memoir.
• 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.
• If you're aiming at traditional publishing, Finding an agent and Working with an agent are two practical checklists to help set up and maintain this vital relationship. 'Try to find an agency which is ‘hungry' for new clients. To keep their workload under control, an established independent agent might take on something like four new authors a year, but only to replace four departing clients. This may seem obvious, but whether or not an agent is actively looking to build their list of clients is probably the single most important factor affecting how closely they are looking at unsolicited submissions...'
• If you need to clear copyright for your book, Clearing Copyright shows you how to do this: 'Copyright provides a framework for trading in intellectual property. In practice it protects the author's position and ensures that the publisher is able to take on the risk of publication in the knowledge that the publisher's rights are protected. In effect authors, (the originators of intellectual property) sub-license their rights through their book contracts to different parties in individual territories and in specific forms...'
• More links for writers: it's been a big year for genre writers, The Bookseller - Spotlight - It must be love: romance and fantasy heat up; in a sense, every detective novel is about the inside of someone's head, Mysteries That Bring You Inside the Workings of Fascinating Minds ‹ CrimeReads; when I pitched One Woman's War, I had no idea that Operation Mincemeat, a movie about the same subject matter, would be released in early 2022, Just the Facts? Not in Historical Fiction; agents' predictions for 2023, The Bookseller - News - Joyful stories tipped for 2023 but darker, genre-busting books may have their moment; and a horrific expose of the life cycle of social media platforms, The ‘Enshittification' of TikTok | WIRED.
• The Primadonna Prize is open to unpublished authors 18 years old or over who are resident in the UK. The entry fee is £8 and the Prize is a book contract with HQ with an advance of £7,500 and agent representation. First stage closing on 13 March.
• 'By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. I am suspicious of both facility and speed. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this.' Roald Dahl in our Writers' Quotes.