10 March 2025 - What's new
10 March 2025
- ‘If someone had told me I would become one of the people talking about AI, I would have gone "come off it'" but here we are. I am not anti-AI. It is here to stay and there are many brilliant things about it, and I absolutely will licence my work for AI because we need it to be trained by properly researched work. But the issue of copyright affects all of us... I can't substantiate this, but I think people, particularly women, have been persuaded AI is very complicated. But scraping material without permission is theft - simple as that... Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth, Sepulchre, The Joubert Family Chronicles, The Linder Ghosts and The Taxidermist's Daughter and co-founder of the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction in Bookbrunch.
- We've been offering reports on writers' manuscripts ever since we set up WritersServices 24 years ago. During that time we've added one new report, the Editor's Report Plus, which quickly became our most popular report because of its combination of overview and detailed chapter-by-chapter commentary. The Editor's Report gives more of an overview and the Reader's Report is a short introductory report. We also have the same range of reports for children provided by our skilled children's editors.
- The brand-new Janklow & Nesbit UK Fiction Prize for literary love stories is open to unpublished writers aged over 18, who are currently a resident in the UK or the Republic of Ireland. There's no entry fee and the Prize is £2,000, a one-to-one session with Federico Andornino and representation by Janklow & Nesbit UK. It's closing on 9 April, so you'll need to move fast.
- Links on self-publishing: there is something in the air in the self-publishing world at the moment, The Bookseller - Features - ‘Golden age' of self-publishing for indie authors ‘no longer strictly choosing one route or the other'; for years, traditional publishing was considered the gold standard for authors, Why doing it yourself is the smart move for authors | The Herald; and one of the big challenges facing indie authors is we don't have a publisher telling us when a book is ready to release, How to Know When a Book Is Ready to Be Published.
- From our nineteen-part Inside Publishing series, you can read up on Advances and royalties: 'Publishers usually offer to pay authors advances against royalties. How do you work out how much money you might earn from your book? You need to understand for yourself how advances and royalties work and what they mean for you...' On The Writer/Publisher Financial Relationship: 'There's no escaping the fact that publishers and authors are essentially in an adversarial position. Even in the very best and most supportive publisher/writer relationships there is the tension caused by the fact that authors would like to earn as much as possible from their writing and publishers to pay as little as they can get away with...'
- 'I've used two services with this company: The Editor's Plus Report and the Writer's Edit. I am completely satisfied with the service I received and said service has led to the completion and publication of my first novel: Lightforce. I would recommend any of these services to any aspiring author.' Jason Handleman, author of Lightforce (Everything Changes Book 1) on our Endorsements page.
- 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. Getting your manuscript copy edited
- Links on writers' issues: why "lowly freelancers are being left to clean the Augean stables", ‘Profile more valuable than expertise now': anonymous editor weighs in on fact-checking furore; here's a confession: I don't think about genre when I'm writing. Especially not during the planning, the research or the writing process, Breaking and Entering: How Deon Meyer's New Novel Snuck Past Genre Boundaries ‹ CrimeReads; and not all children's authors love school visits - and we shouldn't have to pretend otherwise, The Bookseller - Comment - Non-optional extras.
- 'Why would you, as an unpublished writer, want to find an agent? Agents use their contacts and knowledge of the publishing business on their clients' behalf, selling their work and then continuing to look after their authors' interests... Many writers see being taken on by an agent as the first step in getting taken on by a publisher, because it is so difficult to get publishers to pay attention to unagented writers...' Finding an agent
- Equally important is Working with an agent: 'It can be hard work finding an agent to represent you. Make sure though that, when you set up the relationship, you do so in a professional manner Don't let your eagerness to find representation mean that things are left vague. You will be depending on the agent to process all your income from the books they sell, so you need to have a written contract to cover your arrangement...'
- Are you having difficulty writing a blurb for the cover of your book? Our Blurb-writing service can give your book a professional look. What about your synopsis - often a tricky task for a writer? Our Synopsis-writing service can provide a synopsis of whatever length you need for your submissions.
- Links on AI and Publishing: before the deadline, Dan Conway warns against 'great copyright heist' as AI consultation closes; a relentless attack on accredited news media, ‘AI will become very good at manipulating emotions': Kazuo Ishiguro on the future of fiction and truth | Kazuo Ishiguro | The Guardian; the Association of American PublishersThe national trade association of the American book publishing industry; AAP has more than 300 members, including most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies (AAP) has not ruled out litigation against tech giants in the ongoing tussle over the use of Artificial Intelligence, and UK IP watchdog receives 13,000 responses to its copyright consultation, as LBF turns its focus to AI; a difficult international situation, The Book Business Prepares for Tariff Turmoil; the furore around fact-checking uncovers a deeper publishing problem, The Bookseller - Comment - I care about carelessness; Michael Robb casts a critical eye over the history of bookselling in the UK, The Book Trade: Past, Present and the Future.
- In our Ask the Editor series Why do I need a report? Writing is, in some respects, an isolated and isolating occupation; but it doesn't have to be. Feedback, particularly if it comes from an informed, professional reader, is invaluable. However confident you are in your own abilities, a fresh pair of eyes can only help, spotting characteristics and quirks of your writing that you perhaps haven't noticed before, and pointing out ways in which your work can be even better...'
- 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 links: The Lives of the Caesars, translated from Latin by The Rest Is History podcast co-host Tom Holland, details everything from ancient policy failures to sex scandals, 2,000-year-old book about Roman emperors enters bestseller charts | Books | The Guardian; the first grimdark fantasy author from India, Q&A: fantasy author Gourav Mohanty; Maria Ognjanovich on her personal challenge of reading a book from every country in the world - and the increasing popularity of translated fiction, Reading around the world; and British author's middle grade fantasy juggernaut, Impossible Creatures, goes from a trilogy to a five-book series, Katherine Rundell Expands Her Impossible Creatures Series.
- 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 concise and essential background information.
- From Submissions: 'Few editors or agents will give any reasons for rejecting your work. However, if in turning it down they pay you any compliments, you can take them at face value. Publishers don't encourage would-be writers unless they mean it. If your work is rejected six times or more, without any snippets of praise, you should look at it again, to see if you can discover what is wrong. It may be a long time since you last read it, and with fresh eyes you may see glaring faults.'
- From the late, great Terry Pratchett: ‘I read anything that's going to be interesting. But you don't know what it is until you've read it. Somewhere in a book on the history of false teeth there'll be the making of a novel.' Writers' Quotes
