May 2024
- 'I'm very reassuringly honest. It's a job as well as a calling. It's my living - I'm the chief breadwinner in my house. My husband is retired, he supported me through the two decades while I wasn't making enough to live on, and was doing all kinds of things to do with writing to survive - judging competitions, running workshops, appraising manuscripts. When he wanted to retire, I was very happy to change places - it all worked out well... I work for a big publisher, Avon is a very commercial imprint. When I first started talking to my agent, she said: What are you hoping for? And I told her I really wanted a publisher that would get right behind me, and get me in supermarkets. And that's exactly what happened...' Sue Moorcroft, the bestselling author of 25 romantic fiction titles, including One Summer in Italy, The Christmas Promise, A Summer to Remember, Starting Over and Is This Love? and President of the UK Romantic Novelists' Association, in Bookbrunch.
- Our 8 UK-based Copy editing services specialise in writers' needs, offering competitive rates and providing highly experienced professional editors. We offer 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 to bring your work to a professional level of excellence. Most of our editing services offer a free sample and they are all excellent value for money.
- Our 19 part Inside Publishing series explores how the publishing business works. I have spent my whole working life in publishing. I take for granted the inside knowledge which you absorb in any business or profession, but the truth is that some of this information is really quite esoteric. This can make it tough for a writer trying to get their work published. It is not easy to understand how publishing works, let alone why it works the way it does. Inside Publishing provides an insider's guide.
- Inside Publishing on Copyright: 'Copyright has evolved over the centuries to protect rights in intellectual property. It provides a basis for trading in these rights and a means whereby they can be exploited commercially. Rights holders are able to license the rights in their work to be exploited in different ways (e.g. in book form or to be made into a film) and also in different territories, in a system of exclusive sublicensing...'
- Our links to writers' stories: this author is exactly where you'd expect him to be - hunkered down at his desk, toiling away at the next novel even as his newest is hitting bookshelves around the world, Anthony Horowitz on Giving Himself a New Role in His Latest Mystery ‹ CrimeReads; after a successful career as a talent agent, Melanie Cantor became disillusioned with TV. So she took up writing - and refused to give up on her passion, A new start after 60: after a decade of rejections, I got my first novel published. Now I've got my dream, I won't stop! | Creative writing | The Guardian; psychotherapist Vicky Reynal on writing about attitudes to money for a general audience, Money therapy; the novelist reflects on reaching the end of a series, Heather Graham on Ancient Texts and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ‹ CrimeReads; 'The one thing I take with me into my writing every single day, is that no one is ever really who you think they are. We're all projections of the person we think we should be', Q&A: author Helen Fields: and the obituary of C J Sansom, lawyer turned novelist who enjoyed huge success with his bestselling Shardlake historical novels, CJ Sansom obituary | CJ Sansom | The Guardian.
- Closing on 1 June, The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2024 is open to unpublished, unagented children's writers based anywhere in the world. The entry fee is £20. First Prize is a publishing contract with Chicken House with an advance of £10,000, plus the offer of representation from literary agent Lydia Silver of Darley Anderson Children's Book Agency.
- The Business of Writing shows you how to look after the business side of being a writer. Writing is undoubtedly a creative art. Whether we are working on the next Booker Prize winner or ghostwriting blog posts, writers need to be original, imaginative and inspired. But writing is also a business, with invoices to raise, accounts to be submitted and records to be kept. Writers, like artists, can find themselves floundering when it comes to the ‘business end' of the job.
- 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.
- Links from publishing: typesetting is one of the unglamorous, unsung heroes of the publishing process, Awards season for the supporting cast: the battle for publishing freelancers; the market contracted overall-with non-fiction struggling in particular - but romantasy and crime sent fiction to a Q1 record high, The Bookseller - Features - First quarter review: a novel experience; criticism from the UK Publishers' Association, The Bookseller - News - PA boss slams government response to Lords AI report; and another international publishing acquisition The Bookseller - News - Simon & Schuster acquires Dutch publisher Veen Bosch & Keuning.
- From our Endorsements page: 'Thank you for forwarding the Editor's report containing the excellent professional advice and observations which I, as a first-time writer, sorely needed. I will re-work the novel as suggested and would like to resubmit it for another editing overview in due course. Please thank the Editor for her supportive comments and again thanks to you for providing a superb service with the best value I have had for £180 in many a long year.' Den Harding, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, UK.
- Writing for Children: Rule No One - Read More than You Write 'To this I might say that if you have been working for years as a published author, and you have that degree of sophistication, dexterity and confidence, then maybe sometimes yes (you don't need to read). But for the majority of us who are not at that level... Many other authors, however, believe the opposite to be true, that reading and being well-read is essential to good writing, and it is this argument that I am exploring here...'
- Our 21 Frequently asked questions will help to answer questions such as Why do I need a report on my manuscript? and How do I know WritersServices aren't going to rip me off, by praising my work just to get me to pay for their services?
- Our Services for Writers is just a list of the 22 services we offer, which we think is the largest on the web.
- Links for children's and YA writers: Nikkolas Smith knows a thing or two about book bans. The illustrator has created five picture books over the last three years - four of which have been yanked off library shelves, How publishers response to book bans is boosting the industry - Fast Company; publishers, agents and authors assess readers' all-consuming passion for YA romantasy, YA Romantasy: True Love or Passing Fancy? And 'Britain's most-followed poet on social media', Viral Poet Nikita Gill Reimagines Greek Goddess in Debut YA Trilogy.
- An excerpt from Bob Ritchie's Journal of a Virtually Unpublised Writer, written exclusively for WritersServices: 'Worrying about money. In The Observer Julie Myerson writes about swanning off to Milan for a five-star shopping and eating weekend. Jealously wonder if her novels really earn that kind of money or if she lives with a banker. John Updike once said that no one ever wrote for any reason other than to make money. Suspect on the contrary that in my case I made more out of writing when I was what the Japanese call a salaryman. As an employee in IT I once had to write a massive technical manual with a total intended readership of six. A depressing calculation tells me I was paid about £5000 a copy. Think maybe I should go back to a proper job...'
- 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 links: now I encounter nearly every written work, regardless of its length, quality, and difficulty, on the small screen of my iPhone, What Phones Are Doing to Reading | The New Yorker; listen up, Potterheads: J.K. Rowling's seven original Harry Potter books are getting a massive new audiobook series, Harry Potter Books Full-Cast Audiobooks to Be Exclusively on Audible; and last week the article "No One Buys Books," by Ellie Griffin, went viral, topping Substack categories and being shared widely on social media, Book sales: What that viral Substack post gets wrong.
- Our Editor's Report Plus was introduced by popular demand to provide helpful detail, as well as an overview. This very substantial report takes the form of a chapter-by-chapter breakdown and many writers have found this detailed framework helps them to get their book right.
- 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. Avoiding rejection.
- From our Writers' Quotes: 'The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.' Stephen King
