25 January 2021 - What's new
25 January 2021
- ‘The imagination doesn't crop annually like a reliable fruit tree. The writer has to gather whatever's there: sometimes too much, sometimes too little, sometimes nothing at all. And in the years of glut there is always a slatted wooden tray in some cool, dark attic, which the writer nervously visits from time to time...' Julian Barnes, author of 25 books, including Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot, Arthur & George, England, England, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and The Sense of an Ending, which won the Booker Prize in 2011.
- For anyone thinking about or embarked on self-publishing, our ten-part WritersServices Self-Publishing Guide by Joanne PhillipsUK-based freelance writer and ghostwriter. She has had articles published in national writing magazines, and has ghostwritten books on subjects as diverse as hairdressing and keeping chickens. Visit her at www.joannephillips.co.uk is an essential starting-point, taking you through the process step-by-step. 'Indie authors access the same professional services as traditional publishing houses. They employ freelance editors, proofreaders and cover designers. They have their work professionally formatted for ebooks and typeset for print. They may use service providers to manage some or all of the publishing tasks, or they may go it alone...' Articles include Choose Your Self-publishing Route and Marketing and Promotion for Indie Authors: Online.
- If you're looking for a report on your manuscript, how do you work out which one of our four would suit you best? Which Report? includes our top-of-the range service, the Editor's Report Plus, introduced by popular demand to provide even more detail. This very substantial report takes the form of a chapter-by-chapter breakdown and many writers have found this detail helps them to get their book right.
- Rotten Rejections provides a note of the things publishers wish they'd never said: on Animal Farm by George Orwell ‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA' and Carrie by Stephen King 'We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.'
- Links on writers and writing: on writing historical fiction, What Writing About the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre Taught Me About the Madness of Crowds ‹ CrimeReads; there's only one thing that any novel must do if it's going to succeed, and that's arouse the reader's curiosity, The One Thing Your Novel Absolutely Must Do | Jane Friedman; What's a mystery all about? The ending? The Mystery Is Holmes: Why We Return to Conan Doyle's Stories Over and Over Again ‹ CrimeReads; a call for picture book submissions from international writers of colour', with a view to increasing the diversity of its picture book list, Submissions window opens at Nosy Crow; and twice in the last three years I have taught an undergraduate course at Stanford called "Unfinished Novels." Why Should We Read Unfinished Novels?
- Have you ever wondered why you don't win any of those competitions? What can you do to improve your chances? Our tipsheet on Entering Competitions.
- Our printing and publishing glossary is a useful guide to some of the arcane terms used in the publishing world.
- Links from the world of publishing: Giving away the audiobook for Michelle Paver's Viper's Daughter - read by Sir Ian McKellen, no less - may seem like a dumb idea to most publishers, but Head of Zeus are not most publishers, A beautiful word for consumers a terrifying one for publishers; the Big Five publishers' hold over the adult hardcover and paperback bestsellers lists declined in 2020 compared to 2019, with independent publishers gaining ground, Breaking Down 2020 Bestsellers by Publisher; another seismic shift that will go largely unnoticed and unremarked for now, but will send ripples across the global publishing arena for years to come, Naver's $600 million buy-out of Wattpad should be a wake-up call for western publishers who still don't "get" online reading - The New Publishing Standard; and renewed demand for the Regency-era novels by Julia Quinn that form the basis for the eight-episode program, Netflix's Hit Series 'Bridgerton' Drives Book Sales.
- Are you struggling to get someone to look at your poetry? Our Poetry Critique service for 150 lines of poetry can help. Our Poetry Collection Editing, unique to WritersServices, edits your collection to prepare it for submission or self-publishing. Both can provide the professional editorial input you need.
- ‘Historical romance does a different kind of work than historical fiction. The work of the romance novel is not to tell the story of the past. It is to hold a mirror to the present.' Sarah MacLean in our Writers' Quotes.
