23 September 2024 - What's new
23 September 2024
- 'Over the past 20 years, some of the best novels written, as it were, or writing that serves the function of a novel, have been on Netflix and HBO. The writing is complicated, the plotting is complicated. It has subtext, and people are really responding to it in a way that, unfortunately, is not happening with books... Also, if you look at the history of writing, writers tend to shift to wherever the work is. In the 1950s everybody wanted to be a playwright but it's very hard to imagine if a writer had any choice of career now they would start with the theatre. Same with fiction, I'm afraid if you want an audience then the place to go looks like it's TV.' Nick Hornby is the bestselling author of eight novels, including Just Like You, High Fidelity and About a Boy, several works of non-fiction including Fever Pitch and numerous award-winning screenplays for film and television.
- 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.
- The Pedant: How to make your editor happy 7: Close encounters of the word kind is the latest addition to this series by a seasoned editor: 'To coin a rather hackneyed online expression, I tried a paraphrasing tool so you don't have to. And my experience suggests that you probably don't want to. Whatever a paraphrasing tool is for, it's definitely not for writers; though it might, alas, be an invaluable gift for plagiarists. This was not a comprehensive survey of the available tools; I have instead provided a snapshot...'
- The Pedant series covers a range of subject-matter to help improve your writing and avoid common errors: Accents and dialects, Dialogue tags, The use of bold, italics and capital letters, Spoilt for choice: formats and fonts, The trouble with ‘as' and What's all the fuss over hyphens?
- Links to writers' stories: Peter May on revisiting the characters and locations of his hit Hebridean trilogy, Return to Lewis; are book launches an essential marketing tool... or an expensive waste of time? The Bookseller - Comment - Failure to launch; an author who wants her readers to love dragons - and John Donne - as much as she does, Katherine Rundell discusses ‘Impossible Creatures,' ‘Super-Infinite' - The Washington Post; and The One on One author describes her writing process, her favourite authors, and why she loves romance, Q&A: romantic comedy author Jamie Harrow.
- The National Poetry Competition 2024 is open to all writers worldwide aged 18+. Entry fees are £8 for the first poem and £5 for subsequent poems. There's a first prize of £5,000, a second prize of £2,000, a third prize of £1,000 and commendations of £500 each. Run by the UK's The Poetry SocietyLively and well-presented UK site supporting poetry with 4,000 members internationally and some thoughtful content. www.poetrysociety.org.uk, this prestigious international competition closes on 31 October.
- Michael Legat's 19 Factsheets for writers provide a pithy introduction for the writer, covering Plagiarism, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, The Qualities that Make a Writer, Revision and much more. From Revision: 'Professionals revise, amateurs all too often don't. If you are writing a book, you should not begin revision until you have a completed draft. If you are tempted to revise the first chapter, it is all too easy to find yourself revising it over and over again and never getting around to writing the rest of the book. A completed first draft should be put away for as long as you can bear, so that when you next look at it you will do so with slightly new eyes...'
- How to work out which is the right editorial service for you. 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? Chris HolifieldManaging director of WritersServices; spent working life in publishing,employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups; track record includes: editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley Head, publishing director for start-up of upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of Britain’s biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She is also currently the Director of the Poetry Book Society; During all of this time aware of problems faced by writers, as publishing changed from idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'occupation for gentlemen', into corporate business of today. Writers encountered increasing difficulty in getting books edited or published. Authors create the books which are the raw material for the whole business. She believes it is time to bring them back to centre stage. can help you work out which service is right for you. Choosing a service.
- Links from publishing: the audiobook market in the U.S. is continuing to grow, International Audiobook Publishers See More Growth Ahead; a typical paperback book accounts for around 1kg of carbon dioxide, Carbon emissions: Publishers try skinnier books to cut CO2 - BBC News; "range and depth of bookshop contributions to our culture and society", The Bookseller - News - Independent bookshops' 'impressive' cultural impact revealed in new Arts Council report; New York Comic Con is adding more industry programming - and fewer comics publishers than ever are attending, NYCC 2024 Preview: A Transitional Year for the Con; I wasn't prepared for how disarmingly compelling it would be to listen to Google's NotebookLM condense my recent book about Minesweeper into a tight, 12.5-minute, podcast-style conversation between two people who don't exist, Fake AI "podcasters" are reviewing my book and it's freaking me out | Ars Technica and authors, editors, and booksellers discuss how to reinvigorate middle grade books in a tough attention economy, How to Make Reading Fun Again.
- An Endorsement for our newsletter from Alison Chaplin, Manchester: 'Hi, I'm on your email list and just wanted to say thanks for the great emails you put out. I've entered one or two competitions as a result of seeing them on your email and, although I haven't won yet I have come close! But the information you give out is brilliant - so I just wanted to say thanks. Your efforts are appreciated.'
- 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.
- From our 13-part Ask the Editor series, Writing your blurb or cover copy: 'So what is a blurb? It is, properly speaking, a species of what some in the trade call 'teaser copy'; an invitation to read a book that offers a promise of excitement, drama, romance, or whatever the genre provides. It is not a summary or synopsis of the book; rather, it is a snapshot of the reading experience, an advance taster of what the reader can expect from the text...'
- More writers' links: why the best-selling author has always moved across genres, Dean Koontz: On Writing Novels That Make Your Publisher Extremely Uneasy ‹ CrimeReads; by the time The Bookseller released in 2015, Harper had been throwing around the marketing and PR muscle that every author dreams of, My First Novel Was a New York Times Bestseller. I'm Self-Publishing My Third Novel Today. | Jane Friedman; I was fortunate enough to soak up her wisdom for the next 15 years, Hilary Mantel was my mentor. Here are seven things she taught me about writing - and life | Hilary Mantel | The Guardian; the author of numerous adult and young adult books including Practical Magic and Aquamarine, has a new middle grade book, Four Questions for Alice Hoffman; and I have a small confession to make: I've never been told I need to cut words from my manuscripts, 4 Questions to Strengthen Lean Manuscripts | Jane Friedman.
- Are you struggling to get someone to look at your poetry? Our Poetry Critique service for up to 150 lines of poetry can help. Our Poetry Collection Editing, unique to Writersservices, edits your collection to prepare it for submission or self-publishing. Both can provide the professional editorial input you need. We've just edited our first poetry collection which was a translation, so the service was a bespoke combination of Poetry Collection editing and English Language Editing.
- How to prepare your prelim pages. There is a set order for the pages at the beginning of a book (known in the business as 'prelims') and you will need to send them to the designer with the rest of the manuscript for them to work on if you are self-publishing. Here we provide detailed instructions for preparing your prelim pages, according to standard publishing practice.
- More links: as the Guardian's fiction editor, I've been writing about the Booker prize for years. Now, as a judge, I've seen behind the curtain, Each of the six Booker novels does something unique | Booker prize | The Guardian; the effect on children's authors whose books have been challenged, Children's Authors on the Real-World Cost of Book Banning; Ann Patty on the life of a a successful young editor in New York publishing's golden days, To All the Books I Published Before - The Millions; and publishers are starting to catch on to dyslexia-friendly books for adults; now we need more shelf space, The Bookseller - Comment - Dyslexia on the shelves.
- For a down-to-earth and practical account, How Literary Agents Work - an article written exclusively for Writersservices by literary agent Mark Gottlieb of Trident Media in New York: 'I have often heard that authors are interested in how literary agents work. It is very simple: a literary agent exists to provide services to authors...'
- 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 a printed book which needs re-typing, before the writer can proceed with revision, submission or publication. Typing manuscripts
- ‘I'm interested in the effects of kindness. When I see kindness, I'm greatly moved by it, and I think most people are - they yearn for it. We live in a harsh world. People want to see the possibilities and the healing power of love.' Alexander McCall Smith in our Writers' Quotes.
- If quotes are your thing we have a very large collection in our Archive, More Writers' Quotes and Even More Quotes.
