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20 March 2017 - What's new

20 March 2017
  • 'I used to worry that I'd run out of ideas. But as I get older I know it's not ideas; it's energy. As long as the job involves words and story - and it's what I really want to do - I'll give it a go. I enjoy the contrasts between the different forms. Writing a film script is so different to writing a novel, I find it quite easy to give proper attention to both in the same working day...' Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments and The Guts provides this week's Comment from Bookbrunch.
  • 'World Poetry Day has been marked by the publication of some encouraging sales figures from the UK, showing sales up 16% on last year in the first quarter. But a lot of these sales seem to be driven by social media and to feature poets who are appealing to a young female audience. Rupi Kaur's self-published Milk and Honey, which was mentioned on WritersServices last September in link to an article entitled How To Sell Nearly a Half-Million Copies of a Poetry Book, is a case in point and her sales spiked after International Women's Day... News Review on World Poetry Day and new ebook platform Bookgrail.
  • An Editor's Advice is a series of seven articles by one of our editors on really useful subjects for writers such as Dialogue, Manuscript presentation and Doing further drafts and Planning: 'The idea of planning doesn't fit well with the idea of the writer as inspired genius, frantically scribbling away. However, I am willing to bet that, no matter what they would have you think, most successful writers plan as much as they write. They just don't tell you about it. The biggest objection that most inexperienced writers raise when someone broaches the delicate matter of planning is that it will get in the way of their inventive powers. A plan will be like a straitjacket. They'll be stuck with this plan and if they come up with a good idea along the way, they will not be able to use it. They are genuinely horrified at the thought...'
  • The International Rubery Book Award 2017 is open to all books by indie writers, self-published authors and books published by independent presses. Entry fee £36 and First Prize £1500 plus guaranteed read by London agent MBA.
  • 'Are you writing for the children's market? Have you found it difficult to get expert editorial input on your work ? Do you want to know if it has real commercial potential? Or are you planning to self-publish? Over the last few years there has been an increasing emphasis on children's writing, previously the Cinderella of the publishing world. Opportunities are now much greater and there are many children's writers who command big audiences...' Our experienced children's editors can help you get your children's book ready for submission or publication. Children's Editorial Services.
  • Our links: the first of two links marking World Poetry Day, "This" - each poem telling a small part of a larger story - "isn't the way to be writing a book of poems, like those ones you wrote before." Jacob Polley: ‘I'm a fool as a writer - you have to take risks' | Books | The Guardian; what does an anthology of poems do? It lets you - it makes you - experience in words the feelings of others. And then it makes you do it again, poet Nick Laird on Why poetry is the perfect weapon to fight Donald Trump | Books | The Guardian; I was extremely lucky. I've had a biographical fiction manuscript accepted and published as a novel, 4 Questions to Ask Before Writing Your Life's Story | The Huffington Post; and (with apologies for Guardian overkill) I knew I needed help to avoid it being just a stack of paper that sat in my bedside drawer, How to finish a novel: tracking a book's progress from idea to completion | Books | The Guardian.
  • Do you need to get your material typed up, but can't face doing the job yourself? We can provide a clean typed version of your work at very competitive rates. Our service offers help for writers who have an old or handwritten manuscript, or audio tapes, which need re-typing before the writer can proceed with submission or publication. Typing Manuscripts
  • More links: Earlier this month, my nine-year-old son came home from his bilingual school in Shanghai having vandalized his Mandarin textbook, Children's Books and China's Crackdown on Western Ideology - The New Yorker; as an author and social media marketer, I spend a lot of time thinking about the intersection of books and social media, Stop Focusing on Follower Count: 5 Better Approaches for Improving Social Media Use | Jane Friedman; and it's a bit of an advertorial but nonetheles interesting, What Goodreads' Explosive Growth Means for Writers and the Broader Economy.
  • ‘First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to re-form it... Revision is one of the true pleasures of writing.' Bernard Malamud in our Writers' Quotes.