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The site is normally updated every Monday (London dateline).

The email newsletter keeps you informed about what's new in the WritersServices site.

	If you 'subscribe' - it's free - we send you the update and links each week.
	This month's online Magazine is another way of catching up with what's new on the site.

29 June2009

	News Review looks at the latest prize announcements, the Carnegie, won posthumously by Siobhan Dowd, and the innovative new Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets.
	‘It's a colossal irony to have the guys and gals of Amazon, Google and their ilk lusting for free book "content" as premium material on which to stake their enlarged claims to commercial riches. For these clever mathematicians and engineers who are shaping the electronic business of our time and the archives of the future, these baby-faced young entrepreneurs, have risen to their mercantile eminence without encountering books, and don't think they need to.' Veteran American editor Elisabeth Sifton of Farrar, Straus & Giroux in The Nation, quoted in our Comment column.
	Want to know how to pitch your script? If you want to turn your book, dream or idea into a performance script for film, stage or radio, it is going to be a very tough pitch. Chas Jones's two part article Sell, don't tell shows you how to make a successful pitch.
	Calling all poets! Our latest Writing Opportunity is the UK Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition for a single poem, open to all and closing on 31 October 2009.
	Reaching back into our archives, here's Eliza Graham's My Say about Getting my novel published. If you want to contribute your own article airing your views about writing or the writer's life, please send it to us.
	And here's Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing telling it like it is in our Writers' Quotes: 'I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.'

22 June 2009

	'Two-thirds of book-buyers in the US are 43 and older.' This stark statistic was revealed in the recent Book Industry Study Group study. Younger people are reading less than their parents did. News Review investigates.
	Synopsis-writing service story How Danny found that WritersServices' Synopsis-writing service was just what he needed to get his submission package ready to go out to agents.
	Here's our index of fictionalised stories, which explain how the services work and what they might be able to do for you. Ranging from the Editor's Report to Private Publishing, these provide a different picture of what the services can do for you.
	'Poetry waves a flower in the face of a highly utilitarian age... But poetry sings the song of itself, and offers a musical gratuity. Just as no one should have to justify, in pragmatic terms, playing the piano or listening to Bach, so no one should have to justify reading Keats or Wallace Stevens.' James Wood, the critic for The New Yorker, at the recent Griffin Poetry awards, quoted in our Comment column.
	How to market yourself online is Joanne Phillips' take on the many ways you can promote yourself as a writer: 'To be a successful writer today, you cannot ignore the opportunities for promotion the internet offers. But once you have set up your website, written a few ezine articles and joined a freelancing website, don’t just sit around waiting for the work to appear in your inbox.'
	This week's Writing Opportunity is the Biographers' Club Prize for a proposal for an uncommissioned biography. Closing date is 1 August 2009 and it's open to all, with a £10 entry fee.
	'Most of my recent plays were written in the railway train between Hatfield and King's Cross. I write anywhere, on the top of omnibuses or wherever I may be; it is all the same to me.' George Bernard Shaw, in our Writers' Quotes.

15 June 2009

Our Review of Writers’ Market UK and Ireland 2010 concluded that: 'This packs a lot of information into its 976 pages and is very good value for money at £12.99... The result is a useful handbook for any writer, which delivers a great deal of useful information in an easily accessible form.'

'The announcement of the sixth UK children’s Laureate this week was greeted with great enthusiasm. Andrew Motion, the Chair of the Children’s Laureate Panel, said: ‘Anthony Browne is an absolutely distinctive and extraordinarily skilled artist – someone whose work entrances children and has influenced an entire generation of illustrators.’ News Review reports.

Our book review section

'A screenplay is really just a set of instructions, it doesn’t actually have any value of itself. You can read a screenplay and be entertained by it but unless it’s made, it’s worthless... Writing fiction is inevitably much more personal.' David Nicholls, author of One Day and many TV scripts, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

We've just updated our Endorsements from writers who have used the site and our Services. From Nancy Jarzombek in Belmont, Massachusetts: 'I restructured, rewrote and resubmitted - and got an excellent feedback which has helped me to revise the book by highlighting the weaknesses and the development needed... the help received so far is already paying dividends. I have just signed with an agent on the strength of the latest draft.'

Our latest Writing Opportunity is the Sir Peter Ustinov Televison Scriptwriting Award, free and open to non-US citizens and closing on 15 July.

Our new 8 part Tips for Writers covers everything from Improving your writing to New technology and the Internet, from Self-publishing - is it for you? to Submission to publishers and agents.

'Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.' Gene Fowler in our Writers' Quotes.

8 June 2009

J D Salinger is suing an author who is publishing a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. The notoriously secretive author is charging in court that this is ‘a rip-off pure and simple’. News Review has the story.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Foyle Young Poets, a poetry-writing competition open to young people from around the world and closing on 31 July.

Macmillan New Writing goes from strength to strength and we're delighted to see Eliza Graham, whose writing we helped to edit, doing so well. Here, from our archive is her My Say on getting published.

'Should we, who read books and believe that books and the stories within them contain such power, be surprised that kids read, that books survive? Of course not. We should be celebrating these facts.’ David Almond, author of Skellig, in The Times, quoted in our Comment column.

If you're trying to get your work ready for publication, have a look at our 16 Services, everything from Reports to Scriptwriitng assessment, from Copy editing to Manuscript Polishing.

'It seems to me that all poets' precepts about the nature of poetry are true, even when they seem to contradict each other.' Geoffrey Grigson in our Writers' Quotes.

1 June 2009

Maureen Kincaid Speller's review of The Weekend Novelist Redrafts the Novel by Robert J Ray concludes that:'For the first-time redrafter, Ray’s methods provide a good foundation, and most importantly, they use a clear timetable. Over eighteen weekends a writer can carry out the work necessary for an effective rewrite of a novel, and have the manuscript ready to go.'

'This weekend the Javits Center in New York has been thronged with the thousands of people attending BookExpo, the biggest annual book show in North America.' But for how much longer will the Fair continue? News Review investigates.

Salt Publishing needs your help. Find out about their Just One Book campaign in Saving Salt Publishing, the poetry publisher's viral message to the world.

‘Self-publishing has taken a huge leap forward in recent years... One of the attractions of self-publishing is how quickly books can be made available, plus the amount of control an author has over every aspect of production and design.' Eileen Campbell, Mind, Body and Spirit expert and author of 6 books, in Bookbrunch, quoted in our Comment column.

Are you too thinking about audio recording your work or using audio to promote it? Our section on Podcasting shows how you can produce your own recordings. Did you know that you can make an audio book and distribute it for much less than the cost of printing a book, and it's ideal for poetry and short stories?

'If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.' Wilson Mizner in our Writers' Quotes.

The June Magazine is ready!

25 May 2009

Chas Jones's final report from the London Book Fair looks at academic publishing, where the author's wish to publish quickly may conflict with the publisher's preference for the slow and considered approach.

'Astonishing new figures just released by Bowker in the States show that US book production declined by 3% in 2008 but print on demand publishing almost doubled. ' News Review looks at print on demand and the latest figures from the States.

An Editor's Advice is a useful series is based on the advice Maureen Kincaid Speller, a long-serving WritersServices freelance editor, has given writers over the years. The series covers Dialogue, doing further drafts, genre writing, planning, points of view, autobiography and travel and manuscript presentation.

'Writers like Jeanette Winterson have resisted the lesbian label, but it's never felt like a problem to me. I'm very lucky. I have a lesbian audience but a mainstream one as well... Sarah Waters, author of The Little Stranger, in the Sunday Times, quoted in our Comment column.

Doing research for your book? Have you tried our page on Using the web as a research tool? There's also Advanced Searching to help you make the most of this wonderful tool.

‘I see the role of the writer as creating a room with big windows and leaving the reader to imagine. It’s a meeting on the page.’ Kevin Crossley-Holland in our Writers' Quotes.

18 May 2009

Kate Mosse's advice to unpublished writers: 'There’s only one difference between published and unpublished writers and it is this – the first group see their work in print on the shelves of Waterstone’s or Tesco or online at Amazon; the second group are yet to have physical evidence of the hours, weeks, years spent fashioning words into their patterns. You are already a writer.' From the Foreword to the Writers and Artists' Yearbook 2009.

'This is the reason why it is so hard for unpublished writers to persuade an agent to take them on - the agents have to be convinced not only that the writers are producing good work but also that they can sell that work in an increasingly tough market.' News Review looks at changes in the agency world.

Our eighth page of tips for writers deals with Submission to publishers and agents but the series includes Improving your work and New Technology and the Internet.

‘The enemy of most authors is not that they are not making money, it’s that they are not being read. Eighty or 90% of authors don’t make a living from it, so why do they write? For other reasons that don’t pay the mortgage: attention, reputation and expression. For them, free is great because it minimizes the barriers to entry.' Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

There's been much talk of the Poetry Archive - here's our page on the website which brings you the voices of living poets.

And T S Eliot, in our Writers' Quotes, expresses the view that: 'Poetry is not a career, but a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written, he may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.'

11 May 2009

'The announcement of the new UK Poet Laureate, combined with a series of BBC programmes on poets, has brought poetry into the headlines in the UK in the last couple of weeks.' But what is the state of poetry and how is it being affected by the recession? News Review takes a look.

In our 2nd Report from the London Book Fair Chas Jones reports on ebooks, which this year were the centre of attention. The adoption of an ebook design standard will offer publishers inter-operability between present and future hardware platforms.

Ready to submit? Our page on Making submissions helps guide you through the process and Your Submission Package shows you what to send.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Poetry London Competition, open to all poets writing in English and closing on 1 June 2009.

Our Comment looks at publishing trends in the recession: 'Commercial fiction will be interesting. I have a feeling there's changes in taste afoot: a move back to more 'big', 'airport' novels; historical moving into different eras; a real reduction in 'chic'.' Trevor Dolby of Random House UK.

Thinking about publishing your own book? Is self-publishing for you? helps you think this through and our WritersPrintShop provides the best writers' resource on self-publishing on the web, as well as a first-rate service.

'A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.' Samuel Johnson in our Writers' Quotes.

4 May 2009

'Getting paid for content remains a major challenge. If the industry fails in this, they risk losing all the benefits which the futurologists see for the publishing business just over a decade from today.' Chas Jones' first report from the London Book Fair looks at the future with twenty twenty vision.

'The surprise announcement of a new novel from Dan Brown to be published in the autumn has emphasised yet again the importance of big bestsellers to the book world.' News Review looks at expectations for The Lost Symbol and Audrey Niffenhegger's Her Fearful Symmetry.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the 2009 BBC National short Story Award, run by the BBC in association with Booktrust and closing on 15 June 2009. With £15,000 for the winning short story, this is the largest award for a single short story in the world. Open to UK residents who are British citizens only, with complicated eligibility rules.

'Above all else, we object to the assumption that it's 'easy' to write commercial fiction - that 'chick-lit' (an umbrella term I've always loathed...if anyone called me a chick I'd belt them...) is but a dumbed-down genre that 'anyone' can turn their hand to. It’s great commercial fiction, it’s perennially popular and there should be quality controls!!!' Freya North in a Bookseller blog, quoted in our Comment column.

If you're trying to get your work ready for publication, have a look at our 16 Services, everything from Reports to Scriptwriitng assessment, from Copy editing to Children's Editorial Services.

'Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.' John Ruskin in our Writers' Quotes.

27 April 2009

The Google rights grab... So how on earth have we reached this extraordinary situation where authors may find their books have been digitised without their knowledge or consent, just because copies of them are in US libraries? Just how has Google managed to gain the initiative and what should authors do? News Review reports.

Writing for Children 2 is the second extract to be featured on the site and deals with Writing for 5–7, 7–9 and 8–12 Years: 'One of the most exciting things about writing for children is the sheer diversity. You have different ages to choose from; you can write picture books, easy readers, short books for more confident readers, or novels – each quite different in length and often in content.'

Our WritersServices Education Resource Centre has been set up to help students and those providing writing courses. It draws on the resources of the WritersServices site to deliver nearly 90 pages of useful material formatted as A4 pages and ready for use as handouts or in course material.

'The idea of what constitutes literary value has changed or become less consensual. It’s harder to establish what is good and what is not, and that is one of the things that forms the canon. Barnes, Amis, McEwan were the last people through the door, and then the door closed, and then the building fell down.’ Giles Foden in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

'Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.' Janet Frame in our Writers' Quotes.

20 April 2009

Here's our report from the 2009 London Book Fair Masterclass on How to Get Published, where a packed audience listened intently to a varied group of speakers in a session chaired by Danuta Kean. Bill Swainson, senior editor at Bloomsbury and Simon Trewin, co-head of the book department at new agency United Agents, were joined by authors Kate Mosse, Lola Joye and Gareth Sibson.

News Review looks at persuading the 20 million non-readers in the UK and the one in 4 Americans who didn't read a single book last year to pick up a book.

‘All writers, unless they’re very fortunate, know how difficult it is to get noticed, to become ‘discovered’. I became an ‘overnight success’ (I clapped when I read the review that said it) after almost twenty years... David Almond on the SWBWI site, quoted in our Comment column.

Our 19-part Inside Publishing series gives you an insight to what's going on in publishing. From Advances and royalties to Subsidiary rights, from Copyright to Children's Publishing, this is the place to find the inside story on publishing.

'"Classic". A book which people praise and don't read.' Mark Twain's cynical take in our Writers' Quotes.

13 April 2009

Since many writers who come to the site are interested in writing for the booming children's market, we are delighted, by kind permission of the publisher, to be featuring two extracts from Linda Strachan's Writing for Children. The first is Different Ages, Different Markets.

This year's Books and Consumers study shows a worrying downward trend in value sales in the UK over 5 years, whilst at the same time pointing up an increasing dependence on heavy buyers. Internet and supermarket sales of books are up, chain sales down. News Review reports.

'I've nothing against popular culture, but the idea that there is something divisive about bringing to people the greatest language ever written is utterly wrong.' Josephine Hart, author of the Words that Burn book and CD, quoted in our Comment column.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Alan Titchmarsh People's Author Competition for a real life story based on incidents that the entrant has experienced. The prize is a £20,000 contract with Orion Publishing. It's for UK residents only and the closing date is 30 June.

Looking for an agent? Our worldwide agents' listings from the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook will be the place to look and there's even a useful list of agents' websites. Finding an agent offers advice on how to go about it.

'I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma. In the afternoon, I put it back in.' Oscar Wilde showing a high level of productivity in our Writers' Quotes.

6 April 2009

Poetry: Notes from a passionate poet - Benjamin Zephaniah describes his fascinating route to being published in an excerpt from the Writers and Artists’ Yearbook 2009.

News Review looks at how the Focus list in the UK is making big-name authors available to the visually impaired. New technology has made it much easier to produce large print books and self-publishers can also fairly easily bring out large print editions of their books.

In Latest changes in the book trade Chris Holifield updates her series with recent changes in the bookselling world, including the effects of recession and an even greater focus on bestsellers.

'There is some hesitancy with publishers fully embracing e-books. We have a 'book love', the printed book is a gorgeous object. We need to communicate that love with e-books, and there is something shiny and new and mobile about them.' Stephen Page, CEO and Publisher of Faber, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

Our Top Ten Tips for Nonfiction Writers from Julie Wheelwright, programme director, MA Creative Writing Nonfiction at City University in London, is a quick guide to improving your narrative nonfiction writing.

'Writing shouldn't come between the reader and what's being described. It should be as transparent as possible.' Diana Athill, veteran writer and editor, in our Writers' Quotes.

30 March 2009

Can't get your work published? WritersServices editor Kay Gale has many years of experience dealing with The Slush-pile . Here are her tips on how to get your submission through it.

'Although there were fears that the Bologna Children’s Book Fair was going to be less busy this year as a result of the recession, the most important annual rights fair for children’s publishers seems to have been business as usual.' News Review on Bologna and children's books.

There's still time to book for the How to get published Masterclass at the London Book Fair, with Danuta Kean, Simon Trewin, Bill Swainson, Kate Mosse and Andrew Miller, and author Gareth Sibson, who will talk about self-publishing.

From our Archive, here's some really good advice from an earlier Masterclass.

This year's National Poetry Competition was won by Christopher James with his Farewell to the Earth - read it here.

'Writing is a very emotional thing, especially when words come in a way that you know is right. At the heart of the writer’s life there can be a great sweetness. And it’s also a great adventure: your whole life, from book to book, is a constant adventure.’ Graham Swift in the Observer, quoted in our Comment column.

This week the Bookseller announced the winner of the 2008 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year. Here's the winner and shortlist. So, was it Baboon Metaphysics, Strip and Knit with Style or The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-miligram Containers of Fromage Frais?

'This before all: ask yourself in the quietest hour of your night: must I write? Dig down into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be in the affirmative, if you may meet this solemn question with a strong and simple, I must, then build your life according to this necessity.' Rainer Maria Rilke in our Writers' Quotes.

23 March 2009

Think how much learning to touch-type would speed up your typing and help you avoid errors! Our new list of free and very cheap software - Keyboard skills - makes it easy to access what's available online.

News Review looks at libraries and how cuts in funding and book budgets are balanced by successful promotions. We argue that we should support them because libraries are a prerequisite of a civilised society.

Our latest Success stories feature Seamus Heaney, who won the ninth David Cohen Prize for Literature this week, while Eric Carle celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Are you a poet who is trying to get your work published? There's a useful new page on Getting your poetry published.

'It is through the power and music and magic of stories and poems that children can expand their own intellectual curiosity, develop the empathy and awareness that they will need to tackle the complexities of their own emotions, of the human condition in which they find themselves.' Michael Morpurgo in The Times quoted in our Comment column.

Take a look at some of the many glowing endorsements we've received from writers who have used the site.

'The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.' William Styron in our Writers' Quotes.

16 March 2009

Our latest Success story is Michelle Harrison, who has won the Waterstone's Children's Book Award: ‘There were times when I wondered if it was really worth it as I kept getting kicked down... I knew from the age of about 14 that I wanted to be a writer and I was writing short stories... I was drawn to children's fiction because it gave me the opportunity to both write and illustrate.'

'How is the economic slowdown affecting books? How is the recession affecting the book business?... Things look bleaker in the US than they do in the UK, although no-one is having a particularly comfortable time.' News Review finds that the news from the sharp end is not all bad.

The shortlist for the 2008 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year - will it be Baboon Metaphysics, Strip and Knit with Style or The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-miligram Containers of Fromage Frais?

'If backlist sales decline significantly - notwithstanding the questionable "Long Tail" argument - will publishers have to rely on frontlist and ancillary revenues?... We publish as many consumer titles in a day as Hollywood releases movies in a year, each supported by marketing budgets book publishers cannot emulate.' Lawrence Orbach of Quarto, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

Our latest Writing Opportunity is 247tales, Bloomsbury's monthly short short story competition for 8-16 year-old writers from the UK. Pass the news on to any young writers you know.

Thinking about publishing your own book? Is self-publishing for you? helps you think this through and our WritersPrintShop provides the best writers' resource on self-publishing on the web.

A A Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh, contributes a cynical thought to our Writers' Quotes: 'Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.'

9 March 2009

Tips for Writers 8 is the final set of our new pages of tips for writers deals with the all-important subject of submissions to publishers and agents.

See also Improving your writing, Learning on the job, New technology and the Internet, Self-publishing - is it for you?, Promoting your writing (and yourself), Other kinds of writing and Keep up to date.

News Review summarises the triumphs of World Book Day 2009, including Reading Around the World, Books to Talk about and Quick Reads.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the Jane Austen Short Story Award 2009, open to all writers in English who have not published a work of fiction, closing on 31 March and with an entry fee of £10 ($14).

'I think readers who aren’t used to reading contemporary poetry are surprised to find it’s about our world now, our experience; it talks about movies and pop music and stuff. It’s not some fuddy-duddy thing, and most of it contains a good deal of imaginative brilliance.' John Stammers, quoted in our Comment column.

From our Archive, six excerpts from Inspired Creative Writing by Alexander Gordon Smith, from the brisk and entertaining 52 Brilliant Ideas series. The first excerpt is on Limbering Up.

'My stories run up and bite me in the leg. I respond by writing them down - everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.' Ray Bradbury, in our Writers' Quotes.

2 March 2009

News Review looks at the recent relaunch of the Kindle and what it means for the book business, with its challenge to the traditional book and possible infringement of authors' audio rights.

Our Manuscript Typing fictionalised story, the latest in our series, shows how John used our Manuscript Typing service to get his father's George's wartime diary typed up and ready for submission to publishers.

Have a look at our index of other fictionalised stories, which cover the Reader's report, Editor's Report, Copy editing, Self-publishing and many more.

'Just get it all down without being too self-conscious. I carried a notebook, but I kept losing it; so I just store ideas in my head. With the first draft you should get it all out, then revise later. I never know what will happen when I sit down and that's what keeps me hooked on writing. I want to know how it will end.' Catherine Alliott on her own writing and her advice to writers, in the Sunday Telegraph's Stella, quoted in our Comment column.

World Book Day is this Wednesday 4 March. Their website has information on the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland. Their Quick Reads include a brilliant new range of books from bestselling authors, including novels by Ian Rankin, Kate Mosse and Gervase Phinn.

Our recently updated WritersServices Education Resource Centre has been set up to help students and those providing writing courses. It draws on the resources of the WritersServices site to deliver nearly 90 pages of useful material formatted as A4 pages and ready for use as handouts or in course material.

'The business of the poet and novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things, and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things. Thomas Hardy in our Writers' Quotes.

The March Magazine is ready!

9 February 2009

Tips for Writers 7, the seventh set of our new pages of tips for writers, deals the importance of keeping up to date with what's going on in the book world and how to do this.

There's also Improving your writing, Learning on the job, New technology and the Internet, Self-publishing - is it for you?, Promoting your writing (and yourself) and Other kinds of writing.

The number of new books published in the UK increased by 4% last year to 120,947, with English language books published worldwide increasing by a whopping 31% to 381,250. News Review looks at what lies behind these figures.

HarperCollins, Penguin and Random House have just announced a UK promotion focusing on large print editions of bestselling authors books. There's a big demand for books for the visually impaired (something which we nearly all need to worry about eventually).

Self-publishers can easily produce their book in a large print edition as well as the standard version through our WritersPrintShop.

'People will compare the fresh, untainted voice of my 29-year old self that was completely unselfconscious about writing (it) because I didn’t think anyone was going to read it. It was innocent, it wasn't trying to be anything, it just was.' Lisa Jewell, author of Ralph's Party, in the Bookseller on working with a new editor and writing a sequel, in our Comment column.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the just-launched new Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets, with no entry fee, open to all pamphlets published in the UK last year - including self-published work - and closing on 20 March.

And here's Kingsley Amis on typically waspish form: 'If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing.' In our Writers' Quotes.

2 February 2009

Writing Romance is the third article in a new series by Chris Holifield which will cover the major writing genres. It looks at romance, which is dominated in the UK and the US by Mills and Boon Harlequin, which brings out 120 books a month. We think you should study their guidelines before you get started or at least before you submit to them.

Amazon has just delivered some sparkling results against a background of retail collapsing. What next for the Kindle and what does this domination mean for the book business? News Review investigates.

Our Writing Opportunity this week is the Euroscript Screen Story Competition, open to all with an entry fee of £35, and closing on 31 March. The organisers are looking for writers with powerful story ideas and original voices who are willing to commit to a rigorous writing programme with help from their Euroscript script editor.

Carl Sagan in our Comment column on the power of writers: 'Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another.'

Our book reviews cover some of the best books for writers, and you can go straight to WritersBookstall to buy then or to find a much bigger selection.

We've updated our note on our main printer Lightning Source, which has printed over two million books in all in 2008 and can print in both the UK and US for our WritersPrintShop self-publishing service.

'A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope, big enough to send the manuscript back in. This is too much of a temptation for the editor.' Ring Lardner in our Writers' Quotes.

The February Magazine is ready!

26 January 2009

The sixth set of our new pages of Tips for Writers deals with other kinds of writing and opportunities to extend your writing and develop your writing skills.

There's also Improving your writing, Learning on the job, New technology and the Internet, Self-publishing - is it for you? and Promoting your writing (and yourself).

This week's News Review looks at book discounting, actually higher in the UK in 2008 than 2007 - and asks whether it's a danger or an opportunity.

Working with an agent shows you how to get the most out of this key relationship. Preparing for Publication is a run-through of what will happen after you find a publisher, with specific information on the stages your manuscript goes through on its way to publication.

'Times Books as we know it will be no more, but books themselves, thankfully, seem shockproof against change. Neither economics nor e-readers will oust the beloved book. We don't stop reading because we are poor, any more than book lovers will give up books for their electronic lookalikes.' Jeanette Winterson, in her final column in Times Books, quoted in our Comment column.

Maybe you can invest in some help to get your work ready for publication? Our 16 Services provide everything from Reports to Submission Critiques, from Copy editing to Synopsis writing, for adult and Children's work.

‘You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.’ C S Lewis, in our Writers' Quotes.

19 January 2009

'Through today’s gloom we may discern a spectacularly bright future in which the rewards to writers and readers and even to publishers will be unprecedented as world-wide multilingual backlists expand online in a cultural revolution orders of magnitude greater than Gutenberg’s world-changing technology generated five centuries ago.’ Jason Epstein, author of Book Business, quoted in our Comment column.

The second part of Chas's Jones Sell, don't tell, shows you how to pitch your script, deals with preparation, the language to use, what’s left for the writer and getting your foot in the door. Part 1

So who are the most popular fiction writers across the globe? News Review looks at a new study which shows that Ken Follett and Khaled Hosseini feature in more bestseller lists than any other writers in the nine countries studied.

If you'd like a little cynical humour to cheer you up, our Rotten Rejections page has gems from publishers, such as ‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA’ (Animal Farm by George Orwell) and ‘The author of this book is beyond psychiatric help.' (Crash by J G Ballard).

Our Writing Opportunity this week is the Cardiff International Poetry Competition, open to all poets writing in English and closing on 30 January.

If you're a tutor or student our recently updated WritersServices Education Resource Centre is there to help with writing courses. It draws on the resources of the WritersServices site to deliver nearly 90 pages of useful material formatted as A4 pages and ready for use as handouts or in course material.

'What is so wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote, and brings to birth in us also the creative impulse.' E M Forster in our Writers' Quotes.

12 January 2009

Want to know how to pitch your script? If you want to turn your book, dream or idea into a performance script for film, stage or radio, it is going to be a very tough pitch. Chas Jones's two part article Sell, don't tell shows you how to make a successful pitch.

The winner of the 2008 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry has just been announced and it's an interesting outsider winning with her second collection.

'The heart and soul of any publishing business is its editorial department, the men and women who, crudely, acquire the 'content' on which the imprint depends... Gone are the days, with rare exceptions, when an editor's positive enthusiasm for a new book could trump the negative anxieties of the sales department, almost the only books that now generate much excitement among publishers are would-be bestsellers. Robert McCrum in the Observer, quoted in our Comment column.

Children’s books are still doing well in spite of the recession. News Review looks at what's working and some publicly-funded UK programmes which are making a difference to how much children read.

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From our archive: five extracts from the very useful The ABC Checklist for New Writers deal with Agents, Editors, Keeping records, Marketing, Professionalism and Titles and why they matter.

'There’s only one difference between published and unpublished writers and it is this – the first group see their work in print on the shelves of Waterstone’s or Tesco or online at Amazon; the second group are yet to have physical evidence of the hours, weeks, years spent fashioning words into their patterns. You are already a writer.’ Kate Mosse offers comforting words in our Writers' Quotes.

5 January 2009

International Book Fairs 2009 - our annual updated listing of the world's book fairs is now available on the site.

Chas Jones looks at a recent success in our self-publishing service, A Sumerian Observation of the Kofels Impact Event, an intriguing book about a clay tablet on which in 700 BC a Sumerian astronomer had made a copy of a document about an unusual event in 3123 BC. For 150 years this enigmatic tablet had puzzled scholars in the British Museum, now the authors have worked out what the clay tablet said.

Thanks to the opportunities offered by self-publishing, the authors were able to publish their book themselves through WritersPrintShop, reaching a global audience through the Internet.

No-one could call 2008 an easy year. As well as an unprecedented worldwide credit crisis it has ended with an abrupt slide into a severe global recession, which will affect every country in the world and all aspects of life. So what about the book business in 2009? News Review gets out its crystal ball.

Our glossary of print and publishing terms and abbreviations has been updated to include many mystifying new terms, so it's now fully up to date and is a useful page to bookmark.

Andrew Motion, UK Poet Laureate on poetry: 'Sometimes rejoicing in things as they are, sometimes criticising them, sometimes welcoming, sometimes rejecting - always keeping its eyes peeled, its ears open, and its devotion to meaning as intense as its passion for mystery... A primitive pleasure? Absolutely. But a primitive pleasure that is endlessly transformed and re-invented.' In our Comment column.

Doing research for your book? Have you tried our page on Using the web as a research tool? There's also Advanced Searching to help you make the most of this wonderful tool.

'People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.' Logan Pearsall Smith leads off into 2009, from our wonderful Writers' Quotes page.

The January Magazine is ready!

22 December 2008

This week's News Review looks at the responsibility of publishers in the developed world to help the developing countries get books and access to them through Creative Commons and the work of the book charities.

Print Parameters Thinking about self-publishing? Chas Jones has updated our page in WritersPrintShop showing what page sizes and extents are available and how you can now print colour books one copy at a time. Colour printing

‘Culture, as I have said, belongs to us all, to all humankind. But in order for this to be true, everyone must be given equal access to culture. The book, however old-fashioned it may be, is the ideal tool. It is practical, easy to handle, economical. It does not require any particular technological prowess, and keeps well in any climate.' Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature, quoted in our Comment column.

Our Writing Opportunity this week is the inaugural Mslexia Short Story Competition, open to women across the world writing in English. It has an £8 entry fee and closes on 23 January.

'For me a poem is a place where one invites someone in. You build a little house, fix it up real nice. Inside you’ve got a painting on the wall, a new couch, some knick-knacks and souvenirs, a swell meal all laid out on the table, and you open the door and hope somebody comes in…' US Poet Laureate Charles Simic in our Writers' Quotes.

We won't be updating the site next weekend, but there's a mass of useful information to read up on over the break. You can find it from Help for Writers.

15 December 2008

The final section of our new 2009 agents' listings comes from the Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook and lists agencies from around the world specialising in children's writers.

See our review of this extremely useful book - a must for any aspiring children's writer.

The other new listings cover UK agents, US agents and Agents from the rest of the world.

Google Chrome - Chas Jones reviews Google's new browser Chrome and shows how its revolutionary new features make it more effective to use. He explains how the browser is expanding to become the front page software through which all other applications are accessed.

Newspapers' book review sections are under threat as part of the general pressure on the papers to keep their print editions going. But does this matter for books? News Review takes a look.

'I think every year we sell fewer books, but every time we do sell a book now it's for more money... it takes longer for publishers to make decisions than it used to, and there is a little less room for flexibility than there was.' Simon Trewin of United Agents in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

An Editor's Advice is a useful series is based on the advice Maureen Kincaid Speller, a long-serving WritersServices freelance editor, has given writers over the years. The series covers Dialogue, doing further drafts, genre writing, planning, points of view, autobiography and travel and manuscript presentation.

'Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't.' Julian Barnes in our Writers' Quotes.

8 December 2008

The new Agents' Listings are now available on the site. Coming from the 2009 Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, these listings can be searched and provide the most up-to-date information about literary agents across the world: UK agents, US agents and Agents from the rest of the world.

The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2009 is highly recommended by major authors who provide advice for writers in its pages. Benjamin Zephaniah joins Kate Mosse, Bernard Cornwell, J K Rowling and many others.

Our review of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook concluded: 'Highly recommended for all writers and artists, this really is an essential companion for all writers.'

How to market your writing services online Ghostwriter Joanne Phillips shows you how you can market yourself online through your own website, optimisation, ezines and freelance writing websites. Essential reading for writers who want to promote themselves on the web.

'It’s been a torrid week in the US and UK book trades, as destabilising staff cuts underline the poor situation in retail... the book trade is on tenterhooks about the outcome of Christmas.' News Review looks at job losses and the acquisition of Wisden.

With such gloom all around, now's the time for writers to concentrate on improving their work and getting it ready for publication. Our Advice for writers page provides access to the mass of information on the site.

Maybe you can invest in some help to get your work ready for publication? Our 16 Services provide everything from Reports to Submission Critiques, from Copy editing to Synopsis writing, for adult and Children's work.

'Cultural identity, it could be argued, is best developed like a language, at an early age. Children can absorb these ideas before they are corrupted by the prejudices and complications of the adult world...' Maria Dickenson in the late lamented Publishing News, quoted in our Comment column.

'Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.' Henry David Thoreau's wise words are in our Writers' Quotes.

1 December 2008

Christopher Paolini is a publishing sensation to rival J K Rowling. In these difficult times his is an inspiring story of raw talent with a large dose of hard work and a dash of luck. News Review reports.

Paper sizes Chas Jones's new article in our WritersPrintshop self-publishing service shows paper sizes and how these relate to book sizes.

'The mood of the times is changing. There is a return to be made from publishing good books but perhaps not sufficient to pay for atriums and limousines. Could it be that some conglomerates are just too big, too costly and no longer offer value for money?' Clare Alexander in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

From our Archives, MasterClasses giving useful advice for writers from Anne Fine and Tony Bradman (children's books), Blake Morrison and Victoria Glendinning (memoirs and biography) and Deborah Moggach and Andrew Davies (writing for TV).

'You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.' Isaac Asimov, in our Writers' Quotes.

The December Magazine is ready!

24 November 2008

News Review looks at how publishers are going for print on demand to keep backlist in print, and how online bookselling supports this trend.

Your copyright has been updated and we've added a section on interviews. Use this to check on your copyright, find out what 'fair use' means and what's in the public domain.

There's also a new page on Interviews, which points out the pitfalls and gives a sample interview release document.

See also our more general article on Copyright in our 19-part Inside Publishing series, which gives you an insight to what's going on in publishing. From Advances and royalties to Subsidiary rights, this is the place to find the inside story on publishing.

'Write about what you know. And embroider the hard facts a little if absolutely necessary. I don't exaggerate or embellish so much in my stories since I started writing for the New Yorker because their fact checkers are as fearsome as their legend suggests.' David Sedaris in the Observer, quoted in our Comment column.

We've done an update of our Links section, adding lots of new links to our lists of recommended sites for writers.

'When you live and work on your own, as I do, writing takes a long time. You can keep producing shit and you're always wondering whether you should stop. I'm so glad I had friends who told me to keep going.' Aravind Adiga, winner of the 2008 Booker Prize, in our Writers' Quotes.

17 November 2008

Tips for Writers 5 deals with promoting your book (and yourself), and explores the many specific ways in which you can promote and sell your own work.

'The storm clouds are gathering as more economies go into recession. The book trade looks gloomier in the US than the UK, where Christmas may still show good sales. News Review reports.

Colour printing is now available using print on demand, which means you can print one copy at a time. Chas Jones reports on this technological breakthrough which means that self-publishers can produce colour books of as little as 4 and up to 480 pages through our WritersPrintShop.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning hits 50: 'It's something that comes from within you, the need to write. You're born with it... As long as I'd had a roof over my head and food on the table, I would have carried on writing whether I was published or not.' Alan Sillitoe in The Times, quoted in our Comment column.

Robert Kee's Story Seminar is our Writing Opportunity this week. The next chance to attend this world-famous seminar is from 29 November to 1 December in London.

Join up for our free weekly newsletter to find out what's new in the book world.

'The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers had it.' Ernest Hemingway in our Writers' Quotes.

10 November 2008

Chris Meade, the founder of if:book, explores the future of the book and the creative potential of new media for readers and writers, in his look at the exciting new possibilities for the book. if:book - the future of the book

'Perhaps it’s too late to talk about the danger of one company dominating the market so completely.' News Review looks at the rise and rise of Amazon, with its 'great price and great service'. News Review on Amazon.

Linotype - Chas Jones gives an illustrated guide to the mechanical marvel which turns text into hot metal. The linotype machine allows each line of type to be cast in hot metal ready to make the printing block.

‘Digital activity is critical to the evolution of publishing and in children’s we are best placed to break this out because our audience is already there, growing up with it.' Ann-Janine Murtagh of HarperCollins Children's Books UK, in Publishing News, quoted in our Comment column.

Our latest Writing Opportunity is for poetry - the Poetry Business's Book and Pamphlet Competition, which offers publication as a prize. entry open to all poets writing in English, £24 entry fee.

'To me the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make.' Truman Capote in our Writers' Quotes.

3 November 2008

Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy is the second article in a new series by Chris Holifield which will cover the major writing genres. This one looks at Science Fiction and Fantasy and suggests how you should get started, what special considerations you should bear in mind and what the market's like.

Frankfurt - Chas Jones reports from the floor of the biggest book fair in the world: 'I suspect that if you assembled all the literary festivals and book fairs from around the whole of Europe they could fit into the space occupied by the Frankfurt Book Fair and there would be room for a few football pitches. The Frankfurt Book Fair is big.'

'When I began, there was just one thing that I wanted to write about, which was the true devastation of racism on the most vulnerable, the most helpless unit in the society - a black female and a child.' Toni Morrison in the Observer, quoted in our Comment column.

If you're trying to get your work ready for publication, have a look at our 16 Services, everything from Reports to Scriptwriitng assessment, from Copy editing to Manuscript Polishing.

A ground-breaking agreement was reached in New York this week in the case of the Authors’ Guild and the Association of American Publishers v Google. Google will make payments totalling $125m... the agreement will allow for the expansion of online access to millions of in-copyright books from the libraries taking part in Google Book Search.' News Review has the story.

'Avoid agents if you wish to succeed... the literary parasite is fully recognised as the grossest abuse of modern innovations.' Spencer C Blackett, 1893, in our Writers' Quotes.

The November Magazine is ready!

27 October 2008

Tips for Writers 4 deals with self-publishing and asks: is it for you? Print on demand has transformed self-publishing, making it possible to print one copy at a time. Self-publishing is much more cost-effective, but is it right for you?

1: Improving your writing, 2: Learn on the job and 3: New technology and the Internet are all still available.

News Review looks at this year's winner and the tradition of controversy surrounding the Booker - plus its increasingly global reach into a world market.

This week's Writing Opportunity is something a bit different - author Lynn Britney's offer of $5,000 for a one-page synopsis of the plot for the follow-on to her novel Christine Kringle. The competition is open to all from 10 to 100, but must be written in English.

'At the end of the day, the writer herself is a more valuable brand than the publishing house and it's time for writers to wake up to this fact.' Kate Pullinger on Guardian Online is quoted in this week's Comment.

Our series Changes in the book trade looks at how fundamental changes in how it works are affecting writers. The first article is on Bookselling, the second on Publishing, the third on Print on demand, the fourth on Self-publishing - 'really great' or career suicide?, the fifth on Writers' routes to their audiences, the sixth at at Copyright under pressure and the seventh deals with Creative Commons.

'Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can.' Jane Austen in our Writers' Quotes.

20 October 2008

'In the midst of all the gloom and doom, the Frankfurt Book Fair has been pretty much business as usual. Writing on the last day of the Fair, visitor figures are so far up 8.1% on last year, although there has been a slight drop in exhibitor numbers'. News Review's report shows how Frankfurt is going global.

Review of the Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook updated for 2009 - our reviewer thought this was: 'a fantastically valuable resource for anyone who wants to venture into this highly specialised area of publishing'. Now updated with new articles and a foreword by UK Children's Laureate Michael Rosen.

'In such times it is much better to be selling books than higher ticket items... As domestic budgets are squeezed, books benefit from being an inexpensive form of recreation and indeed a necessity for priorities like education. Alan Giles, former CEO of HMV, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.

The Poetry Archive was launched in 2005 to record living poets for posterity and to bring poetry to a wider audience. It has recently reached its 100th recording and has also just released 14 recordings from American poets. UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has called it 'a treasure house of information, insight and pleasure'.

Are you too thinking about audio recording your work or using audio to promote it? Our section on Podcasting shows how you can produce your own recordings. Did you know that you can make an audio book and distribute it for much less than the cost of printing a book, and it's ideal for poetry and short stories?

'Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul.' Joseph Brodsky in our Writers' Quotes.

13 October 2008

The third set of our new pages of tips for writers deals with using technology and the Internet - for research, to get in touch with other writers, to keep up to date with what's going on, and for blogging and setting up your own website.

Amidst plunging publishers' and booksellers' share prices, are book sales holding up? News Review looks at the figures on the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

'First, is the writing truly brilliant? Second, will the market be accepting of it? And, finally, am I the right person to make the connections for the book? Simon Trewin in the Bookseller on what makes an agent say yes. In our Comment column.

Our just-updated WritersServices Education Resource Centre has been set up to help students and those providing writing courses. It draws on the resources of the WritersServices site to deliver nearly 90 pages of useful material formatted as A4 pages and ready for use as handouts or in course material.

This week's Writing Opportunity is the 2008 New Writer Prose and Poetry Prizes, open to all in three categories - fact, fiction and poetry - and closing on 30 November.

'Wanting to know an author because you like his work is like wanting to know a duck because you like paté.' Margaret Atwood, quoted in our Writers' Quotes.

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