What's New in 2021
- ‘I always wanted to write books, and always crime. I'd read Agatha Christie as a child and in the late 1980s I discovered the US crime writer Sara Paretsky. I thought: wow, these are the kind of books I want to write - books with strong female protagonists with a brain and sense of humour; women who didn't have to get the guys in for the heavy lifting. I wanted my characters to be three-dimensional, and if some of those characters happened to be gay, they were not defined by it. Val McDermid, whose latest book is 1979, who is the author of 45 books which have sold over 17 million copies worldwide, in the Sunday Times magazine.
- An Editor's Advice is our seven-part series on how to become a better writer. On Genre writing: 'I've been reading science fiction, fantasy and crime novels since I was a teenager, and I can spot when a writer doesn't fully understand the mechanics of their chosen genre. It may not matter to a casual reader but it really matters to the fans, and if they don't like what they find, they'll be telling their friends why the novel is rubbish. So, what do you do about it? How do you become a successful genre writer?...'
- Last year we launched the Writer's edit, a top-level new service for writers who want line-editing as well as copy editing. Does your manuscript need high-level input from an editor to help you get it into the best possible shape for submission or self-publishing? This may be the service for you, offering the kind of editing which publishers' senior editors used to do in-house on their authors' manuscripts and which is now hard to find. Our other copy editing services.
- Another big crop of links, these are from writers: the feedback from my readers is what drives me to keep writing, From Unconsecrated Ground: PW Talks to Lynda La Plante; I suddenly heard a burst of noise upstairs... Who's There?: Every Story Is a Ghost Story - The Millions; whether it's the language, the tradecraft or the folk legends of American Mafia life, it reads like a voyage through the underworld, The Power of Reading Mario Puzo's The Godfather as an Immigrant Story ‹ CrimeReads; a new poet laureate is announced, Scotland's new makar Kathleen Jamie: ‘Poetry is at the heart of our culture' | Poetry | The Guardian; and suppose you've played any video game in the past twenty years. In that case, you'll know there are two camera positions developers can use, Second Person Point of View: What it is & How to Use it - The Art of Narrative.
- Our Children's Editorial Services help you to get your children's book ready for publication or self-publishing. Have you found it difficult to get expert editorial input on your work ? Do you want to know if it might find a publisher? Or are you planning to self-publish?
- It may surprise you to know that the first of Julie Wheelwright's Top Ten Tips for Nonfiction Writers is: 'Story, story, story. Make sure that your story can sustain several chapters and tens of thousands of words. Keep asking yourself: Why would anyone want to read this story?'
- Links to stories from the publishing world: since the start of the Covid pandemic, there's been a rise in instances of government censorship of books, Censorship on the Rise Worldwide; more than 60 bookshops launched in the UK and Ireland in the past 18 months, ‘I'm giddy to be here': the risk-takers who opened bookshops during Covid | Booksellers | The Guardian; with in-person talks and signings out of the question, would the whole system collapse? Authors, Publishers, & Booksellers On The Future Of Book Promotion; an excellent article explaining this to writers, The Value of Book Distribution Is Often Misunderstood by Authors | Jane Friedman; another takeover of a major independent as consolidation continues, Hachette Book Group Will Acquire Workman Publishing for $240 Million; and the realities of indie publishing life, Richard Charkin: Notes From a Small London Publisher.
- From our Endorsements page: on English Language Editing: 'The result? A book that reads like it's written by a native speaker for only 13% of the price a complete translation would have costed. Thank you, writersservices.' Anthony Fitzgerald
- More links about writers and writing: how lockdown has changed a small children's publisher, Ask An Editor: Tom Bonnick, Nosy Crow senior commissioning editor; plagued by fake pornographic e-books listed under her name, Author Szereto 'horrified and angry' over Amazon fake e-book scam | The Bookseller; like almost every other children's writer I know, my overwhelming desire is to get children reading, Tackling complex themes for children; 'There's more than one way to burn a book', Kate Clanchy and the new censorship in publishing | The Spectator; and only 2-4% of children's books published in English are translated, The Most Popular Children's Books From Every Country In The World.
- Don't give up the day job. Perhaps you've even been indulging in thinking about it as you lay on the beach this summer, or more likely spent your precious holiday working on your latest novel. But how practical is it? Is it something you can realistically aspire to, or just a distant fantasy? What are your chances of making your dream come true?
- 'It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.' W. H. Auden in our Writers' Quotes.
- ‘The outlook may sound bleak. But the internet has been a lifeline, enabling authors to lean on their peers. With fewer events and chances to meet face-to-face, the virtual author community has never been more important. And boy, have we needed moral support the past year or so!... More people turned to reading during the pandemic, in particular using their e-readers when they couldn't get to physical stores. A lot of authors I know have seen this reflected in their digital sales, which have positively boomed during this time.' Tracy Buchanan, creator of Savvy Writers, a blog which offers help and resources for published authors, in Bookbrunch.
- From our 19-part Inside Publishing series, we have 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...' and Vanity Publishing: 'It is natural for writers to be eager to get published but it pays to be wary of the vanity publishers who will take your money and give you very little in return...' Vanity publishing is quite distinct from Self-publishing, you need to be aware of the differences.
- Our Children's Editorial Services help you to get your children's book ready for publication or self-publishing. Have you found it difficult to get expert editorial input on your work ? Do you want to know if it might find a publisher? Or are you planning to self-publish?
- The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2021 is open to all. Entry fees: Poetry entries £12 and Short Fiction entries £18. £2,500 is awarded to both the Poetry and Short Fiction winners and publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology is awarded to 60 writers, shortlisted by the judging panel. Closing 31 August.
- Links from the writers' world: Creative writing courses have always been viewed sceptically, and yet more than 100 universities in the UK, and many more in the, US now offer them, Creative writing: a 'con job'?; it's as basic as a bar-room brawl. They're fighting over a woman, Pat Barker on The Silence of the Girls: ‘The Iliad is myth - the rules for writing historical fiction don't apply' | How I wrote | The Guardian; it's increasingly making the life of an author a little easier, but Can technology help authors write a book? - BBC News; 'It was incredibly difficult to find a publisher... I finished the novel in 2017. And no one was interested.' ‘I've been poor for a long time': after many rejections, Karen Jennings is up for the Booker | Books | The Guardian; 'Revision is my favorite part of the writing process. I relish the creative problem-solving more than the rush of getting it down', Maggie Smith on How to Revise Poems Without Losing the Initial Spark ‹ Literary Hub; and should we be expected to write free stuff as part of a publisher's ‘PR' plan? Savvy Writers - Blog.
- Advice for Writers is a really useful page which takes you into our archive and helps you explore our more than 8,000 pages of information for writers.
- An endorsement from Anthony Fitzgerald for our English Language Editing Service: 'The result? A book that reads like it's written by a native speaker for only 13% of the price a complete translation would have costed. Thank you, writersservices.' More endorsements.
- More links from writers: narrative and imagination, this comes from science fiction, Militaries plunder science fiction for technology ideas, but turn a blind eye to the genre's social commentary; 84% majority for this recognition of how crime-writers work now, CWA now open to self published authors; should archives be closed because of their embarrassing content? Lownie campaign sees some Mountbatten archives released but tribunal looms | The Bookseller; and as we teach computers to use natural language, are we bumping into the inescapable biases of human communication? The Chatbot Problem | The New Yorker.
- Which service should I choose to help me get my work into good shape for submission or self-publishing? This is the question our page Which service? answers and it then goes on to give a quick rundown on our 20 editorial services for writers, which we think is the biggest and most comprehensive you can find on the internet.
- Writing Biography & Autobiography is a serialisation from our Archives of the book by Brian D Osborne published by A & C BlackClick for A & C Black Publishers Publishers References listing. In the first excerpt, Managing the matters of truth and objectivity, the author says: 'Just as you need to remember that letters, reports, census forms, legal documents and so forth were not created simply for our convenience, so you also need to remember that what is written in them may not be true...'
- Links from the publishing world: growth has cooled, Amazon Sales Only Rose 27% in Q2; you're really only renting, not buying, Sell This Book! | The Nation; encouragingly, book sales rose last year because people were reading more, Reading Time Rose 21% in Second Half of 2020; and the literary agent who is successfully getting Korean writers to the world, 'Zitwer factor': Before her, few readers outside Korea heard about Korean thrillers.
- ‘It's an accepted fact that all writers are crazy; even the normal ones are weird.' William Goldman in our Writers' Quotes.