22 June 2020 - What's new
22 June 2020
- 'The demands that are made of women can be ferocious, but the demands made of men can be equally tough. I don't know what it is to be a boy. I have a lot of male friends and my best friend when I was nine was a boy, but there is an extra imaginative leap you have to make, I know intricately what it means to be a girl and I don't know who gets to say whether a character is real. Do only boys get to say if a boy character is real and a girl if a girl character is?' Katherine Rundell, author of The Explorer, which she writes about here, Rooftoppers, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, The Wolf Wilder and The Good Thieves in The Times on A female children's writer with a boy hero.
- Our 19 Factsheets from the legendary Michael Legat are full of tips for the new writer or anyone who is trying to get their book published. From Literary agents to Copyright, from Libel to Submissions, this series is full of essential background information.
- This is the big one - the highly prestigious National Poetry Competition receives entries, which are judged anonymously, from all over the world. The 2020 Competition is open to anyone 18 or over from all over the world. You can enter an unpublished poem of up to 40 lines. The entry fee is £7 for the first entry, £4 for subsequent entries. The First Prize is £5,000, Second Prize £2,000 and Third Prize £1,000 and there are 7 Commendations which receive £200. Closing date 31 October.
- There are eight other writing opportunities which are still open.
- Our 20 Services for writers - just a list of what we offer at WritersServices.
- Our links: a woman picking her way through a reinvention of her life, Toni Morrison Did Not Find Success Overnight | ZORA; his vast army of fans is waiting eagerly, George RR Martin predicts penultimate Game of Thrones book will be finished 'next year' | Books | The Guardian; for most of my life, I didn't want to call myself a writer, Emily Temple on Translating a Decade of Internet Writing into a Debut Novel | Literary Hub; and untangling the Gordian knot holding together Poe's tumultuous life and fragmented personality, Can You Really Separate Edgar Allan Poe's Work from His Life? | CrimeReads.
- Here's a detailed article on how to prepare Your submission package - 'Given the difficulty of getting agents and publishers to take on your work, it's really important to make sure that you present it in the best possible way. Less is more, so don't send a full manuscript, as it's very unlikely to be read. Far better to tempt them with a submission package that will leave them wanting to see the rest of the manuscript...'
- More links from this week's headlines: why print on demand is going to win out, Covid-19: the book trade out of joint; highlighing a stark lack of diversity within poetry publishing and, particularly, poetry criticism, Poetry sector 'too white' by far, report finds | The Bookseller; UK bookshops reported a jump of over 30% on the same week last year as desperate readers returned to browse the aisles for the first time in three months, 'We're back in business': UK bookshops see sales soar | Books | The Guardian; and how are the players, big and small, planning the next phase? Literary figures on why booksellers thrived during lockdown - and what's next | London Evening Standard.
- 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 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.
- Even more links: an excellent guide to Joseph Campbell's book, A Complete Guide to The Hero's Journey (or The Monomyth) - The Art of Narrative; launching Discoveries, a writers' development programme for aspiring female writers, Women's Prize Trust launches writers' development programme | The Bookseller; highlighting how books narratives are becoming more popular with film companies, Cannes' Shoot the Book Spotlights 10 Novels Primed for the Big Screen - Variety; and "That wouldn't happen in real life." How to Write Legal Thrillers That Won't Drive Lawyers Crazy with Mistakes and Inventions | CrimeReads.
- Neil Gaiman from our Writers' Quotes: 'The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.'
