21 October 2024

‘Stonehenge is one of the world's most iconic and recognizable monuments but, in reality, so little is known about it. How was it built? Why was it built? Who built it? I've written before about moments of great human achievement and I've always been drawn to stories of ordinary people doing seemingly impossible things, and what could be more extraordinary than the construction of this enormous monument. It's such a remarkable achievement and one of the greatest mysteries of all time and that's a fantastic combination for a story.' Ken Follett talking to his international publishers at 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. about his new novel Circle of Days, which is coming out next September, in Bookbrunch.
Ask the editor 14: ... And endings is the next in our series Ask the Editor: '‘Always leave them wanting more'; that little show-business adage has a lot to answer for. It colours our expectations, as an audience, of how a movie or a comedy act should finish; and it influences our expectations, as readers and writers, of books. I think the adage is true for precisely half of the books you read or write; for the other half it indicates a failure on the author's part. In this article I'll look at the art of ending a novel and why it matters...'
The 13 other articles in the Ask the Editor series cover subjects as diverse as Writing non-fiction, How I assess a manuscript, The submission letter, and, of course, Beginnings...
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 from the Frankfurt Book Fair: the five-year anniversary of Covid-19 is just months away, but at this year's Book Fair the pandemic felt like a thing of the past, Frankfurt Book Fair 2024: A Feeling of Optimism; a compelling interview with an international publisher, Frankfurt Book Fair 2024: PW Talks to Hachette CEO David Shelley; 'the threat of English-language export editions to translation editions continue', The Bookseller - News - Frankfurt Book Fair 2024: Export editions 'cannibalising' sales in Europe as horror, fantasy and romance soar; and the world's biggest trade publisher has changed the wording on its copyright pages to help protect authors' intellectual property from being used to train large language models, The Bookseller - News - Penguin Random House underscores copyright protection in AI rebuff.
You need to move fast to enter the Commonwealth Prize Short Story Competition 2025, which is open to writers over 18 who are Commonwealth citizens. No entry fee. Entries accepted in a number of languages and in translation into English for a short story of 2,000-5,000 words. The Prize for the overall winner is £5,000, with 5 regional winners getting £2,500. Closing 2 November.
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.
Our Children's Editorial Services offer three levels of report and copy editing from specialist children's editors. Use their expertise to help get your work ready for publication in this tricky but potentially huge market.
Our second set of links is to writers' stories: Nick Harkaway was a successful novelist in his own right when his brothers asked him to continue their late father's spy series. Could he pull it off? ‘There was eye-watering fear': John le Carré's son on writing a new George Smiley novel | John le Carré | The Guardian; 'Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom...of thought, of feeling, of difference.' Frankfurt Book Fair 2024: Elif Shafak Offers Literature as an Antidote for an Ill World; for his next trick, The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, Moore would like you to come away with a respect for, and perhaps even a belief in, magic itself, Alan Moore on Magic, Storytelling, Fascism, and His New Not-Quite-a-Comic; the initial publication of his famous novel resulted in a fatwa from Iran calling for the British author's execution, Salman Rushdie: publishing The Satanic Verses would be more dangerous now - UnHerd; the author and publisher contributes to our Q&A series, Questions for: Abiola Beloo; and the Hobbit star turned crime writer and Audible bestseller stars alongside Nicola Walker in his Audible original Geneva, The Bookseller - Author Interviews - Richard Armitage | 'I felt like I had to prove myself'.
From our Endorsements page: ‘This report is so incredibly helpful, both for improving Gone to the Sky and my future work. Absolutely worth its weight in gold.' Ada Fox, Virginia, US.
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.
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...'
Links from publishing: dip in big book sales, The Bookseller - News - Hardback sales for bestselling authors down on previous release as readers 'wince' at higher cover prices; a new survey suggests that young people are shunning AI algorithms and online retailers to experience the joy of visiting bookshops, ‘I love the whole atmosphere and can spend hours browsing': how did bookshops suddenly become cool? | Books | The Guardian; a boom in New Adult publishing, The Bookseller - Features - Can the current purple patch for New Adult publishing be sustained? Literature in translation has long been reliant on indie presses to bring work such as the South Korean author's to wider audiences, Han Kang's Nobel win is testament to importance of small press publishing | Books | The Guardian.
Veteran editor Maureen Kincaid Speller a reviewer, writer, editor and former librarian, is our book reviewer and also works for WritersServices as a freelance editor.'s 7-part series An Editor's Advice includes Points of View: '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. It is a great temptation for the inexperienced author to write from the first-person viewpoint because it somehow seems easier to imagine oneself directly into a situation and to write about how things might seem from that point of view...'
Are you having difficulty writing your own blurb for self-publishing or your synopsis for submission? A lot of writers have this problem but our services can help.
Our last set of links: Keira Knightley is latest star to publish a children's book, ‘It's quite galling': children's authors frustrated by rise in celebrity-penned titles | Children and teenagers | The Guardian; young women take comfort in the character's trials and tribulations, Bridget Jones back in fashion with Gen Z, author Helen Fielding says - BBC News; with earnings having dropped by 60%, it is harder than ever to keep going as a writer - even if your work gets rave reviews, ‘It was a deflating experience': the novelists who nearly gave up | Books | The Guardian; and surprises in new study of current trends and consumer attitudes to buying and reading books, The Bookseller - News - UK among nations with the biggest reading public according to new global EIBF study.
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'Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly - they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced.' Aldous Huxley in our Writers' Quotes.