16 September 2019 - What's new
16 September 2019
- ‘Sometimes I feel like I talk about these things too dramatically. I'm sure some writers might read this and go, "For f*** sake you just published a book. Get over yourself." But you have to understand - before, there was none of it, then everything changed... It's changed my life, and made it so interesting and exciting. So happy, on a cellular level... When your first book is a bestseller is our Comment from Jessie Burton, author of just-published The Confession, The Muse and her bestselling first novel The Miniaturist in the Sunday Times' Culture.
- The Inside Publishing series consists of 19 articles giving you an insider's view of publishing. The English Language Publishing World looks at the traditional way in which the international English-language publishing has been split between UK and US publishers. Why does the world get divided up into publishing territories? How has this come about? How does it affect authors? Then there's 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...'
- Closing on 9 December, the Nobrow Short Story Competition is open to all writers of 18 and over internationally with an unpublished and not yet submitted story or creative non-fiction piece. There's no entry fee. Winning stories will go into a book and the overall winner will receive £2,000, with all selected contributors receiving £150 and two complimentary copies of the book.
- Other competitions we've covered on the site which are still open.
- 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 their native language and our new Writer's edit, providing line-editing. Get the right level of editorial support for your needs at a sensible price. Contact us to discuss what you want and take advantage of our free samples - and written assessments on most of these services.
- Our links: how do writers manage - or deploy - the distractions? 'I have to put my phone in the wardrobe': how do authors deal with social media? | Books | The Guardian; one day not long ago in a college class I was teaching, some of my students couldn't find the page I was talking about in the reading, Opinion | Steal This Book? There's a Price - The New York Times; Sleepless in Seattle, the starry-eyed, bi-coastal love story written and directed by Nora Ephron in 1993, is a strange bird, The Best 1990s Rom-Coms Are Detective Stories in Disguise | CrimeReads; and increasingly, people of the book are also people of the cloud, Books Won't Die.
- If you're planning to submit to agents, you'll want to get your submission package into good shape before getting started, to give your book its best chance.
- More links: as self-publishing services have proliferated, promising all variety of benefits and recipes for boosting sales, it's more important than ever for indie authors to have a discerning eye when seeking out assistance, DIY: How to Avoid Self-Publishing Scams; from a successful children's publisher, Questions for: Kate Wilson; encountering a legendary editor, On the Rare Decency of Susan Kamil | Literary Hub; beautiful objects that would be there for hundreds of years but weren't flashy like stained glass or carvings or floor tiles, Tracy Chevalier Is Threading the Past.
- Authors often find it difficult to write their own synopsis for submission to publishers, which is where our Synopsis-writing service can help. If you're preparing to self-publish and having difficulty with your blurb, our Blurb-writing service from a professional copy-writer will make your book stand out.
- John Steinbeck in our Writers' Quotes: 'Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.'
