25 February 2019 - What's new
25 February 2019
- 'This is a whine, not a rant. I rant when I'm angry; right now I'm just frustrated and annoyed. It's hard out here for a fantasy writer, after all; there's all these rules I'm supposed to follow, or the Fantasy Police might come and make me do hard labor in the Cold Iron Mines. For example: I keep hearing that magic has to have rules. It has to be logical. It has to have limitations, consequences, energy exchange, internal consistency, clear cause and effect, thoroughly-tested laws with repeatable results and - Waitaminnit...' N K Jemisin, author of nine fanasy novels and the first author to win three Hugo Awards in a row for her The Broken Earth novels. Our Comment.
- A Publisher's View is our four-part series from publisher Tom Chalmers on what publishers are looking for. What a publisher wants from submissions, Judging a book by its covering letter and synopsis, Making the submission and The changing face of publishing. 'While editors may well do some later tinkering, it shouldn't be sent in unless the writer feels it is a manuscript ready for publication, in terms of both grammar and content. Lines like ‘I know it needs some work', or ‘I think it's nearly there' show admirable humility but are an immediate put-off!...'
- Our Services for Writers, just a list of the 20 services to help you get your work ready for publication. We've been offering editing services for writers from our office in London since 2001 and have the widest and best-value range on the web. Get your work ready for publication or submission with the help of our team of skilled professional editors.
- Our links: is self-publishing the route to a traditional book deal? Is the Dream of a Traditional Book Deal Dead? Working with three novelists who transformed their thrillers through remarkably inspired revisions, How to Get That Manuscript Right; 'I had never heard of feminism until l was in my 20s', How fiction taught me feminism; no reversal of its controversial decision to allow US writers to enter the award, Crankstart revealed as new Booker Prize sponsor in five-year deal | The Bookseller; and if you're publishing yourself, you have the most committed publisher in the world, 24 things I learned publishing 3 books in only 6 months.
- Our Printing and Publishing Glossary is a useful reference to all those arcane publishing terms.
- More links: this past week has felt like a rough century in book publishing, Dan Mallory Is the Oldest Story in Publishing - Electric Literature; following on from a boom, Authors voice alarm after sharp drop in sales of YA fiction | Books | The Guardian; it appears that when you use a year constraint on book search, the search index has dramatically constricted to the point of being, essentially, broken, Sapping Attention: How badly is Google Books search broken, and why? and what is it about spoken word that's captivated contemporary audiences in such numbers? Generation next: the rise - and rise - of the new poets | Books | The Guardian.
- 'You are a first-time author without an agent and you receive a contract to publish your book - just how do you evaluate it? Is it fair or biased against the author by prevailing industry standards? Is your publisher looking out for your interests as well as his own - or wording the clauses in a way only advantageous to the company?' Why your book contract needs vetting.
- 'I have done, this year, what I said I would: overcome my fear of facing a blank page day after day, acknowledging myself, in my deepest emotions, a writer, come what may.' Sylvia Plath in our Writers' Quotes.