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Insider tip
Ensure that no key elements of your work, particularly your signature, will be concealed by a frame or mount. Paintings should be signed at least 15mm into the canvas/paper.
Artist's Guide to Selling Work-
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Short story competition – get cracking
Filed under: Competitions and Offers
If you’re planning on entering our Writers’ & Artists’ short story competition then you’d better get your writing finger out.
There are only two weeks left until the closing date on 14 February (Valentine’s Day to all you romantics out there).
All you have to do (I’m saying that with a smile) is write Read more
Apple’s iPad, e-reading and you
With news of the iPad reaching fever pitch, I’ve been gadget watching, observing commuters and their reading. Today it was paperbacks nil, iPhones 3 (these were games – Poker, Peggle etc – not books), and eReaders 1 (held aloft on the down escalator at London’s Liverpool Street).
My journey into work is mercifully brief but nonetheless I am seeing habits in transition. The eBook reader as travelling companion can work, thanks to long battery life, multiple titles and pageturning with one hand.
So as an author, do you need to concern yourself with eBooks and eReaders, what they are and what they do, and how to write the perfect e-seller? Read more
Copyright – can someone steal my idea?
Filed under: Writing Advice
Do you worry about how to protect your literary efforts?
Many writers are concerned that submitting their book to publishers or agents runs a risk – a risk that their work might be stolen (gasp!).
Isn’t there a chance that an agent would pick up their idea and pass it onto to an already established author? Or perhaps ‘sell’ it to a publisher who in turn might go and commission a book on that very subject? Read more
A writer with nothing to write about
A guest post from author Mary Hooper. Mary writes for children and young adults. Her historical novels including At the House of the Magician and The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose have a huge fan base, as do her contemporary novels for teenagers.
I used to write hard-hitting teenage books about modern problems: teenage pregnancy, the dangers of going off to meet internet friends, how to cope with family break-ups and so on – and then, after a good number of years, I ran out of ideas. Everything that could Read more
Every writer needs readers
Filed under: Writing Advice
I’ve just spent four hours with 13 other writers, immersing ourselves in a workshop that involved ‘prompt writing’: exercises that you get entirely fresh, no preparation, and with a time limit.
The goal is to generate as much material as possible – first draft writing – and the emphasis is on the act of generation, rather than grammar, spelling, or the tasks that come with revision.
This is the fifth such session I’ve organised for the writers’ workshop I run. Despite it being the first day of the weekend (here in the Middle East) we left more energised than when we straggled in at 2pm.
After the 15 or so minutes of writing (or typing) as fast as you can, you have the opportunity to share your work out loud. The electricity felt as Read more
Whatever the weather
There’s been so much snow recently and more is forecast for parts of the UK today, but the nice thing for writers is that you can continue regardless of such extremes.
We’ve been lucky and haven’t had any power cuts, so my work carries on largely as usual. (The only slight flaw was when the children didn’t make it into school – it can be tricky to think about the history of Islam with Spongebob Squarepants in the background!)
As a nation we spend an incredible amount of time talking about the weather, complaining about the weather, changing our plans for the weather. It’s easy to forget Read more
What are your ideas worth?
Filed under: Digital publishing, Writing Advice
You’re writing a book and you want to make money. Yet the expected rite-of-passage for any new writer is a sojourn in the wilderness of holding down multiple jobs, struggling to get an agent, and – well – not earning a great deal of cash. Not for a while, at any rate.
‘Writer’ has never been up there with lawyer, doctor, broker etc, as one of the UK’s best paid jobs. Nor, thankfully, is it up there with the Worst Jobs with the Best Pay. I’d say it’s a whole lot more glamorous than 21hr crab-fishing shifts in Alaska. But it’s a breadline kind of glamour, isn’t it?
Actually there could be other ways to generate revenue. It could be that making money Read more
Can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t write
Filed under: Authors and Books
The author Marian Keyes has brought depression into the world of writing news again. She recently admitted that she can’t eat, sleep, write or talk to people, and wonders if she will ever emerge from her darkness.
Depression is a common ailment, and some – such as Kay Redfield Jamison – suggest that there’s a link between it and the artistic temperament.
Could it be that the qualities which make a person creative also make them Read more
Games writers play
I run the MA in Publishing at Kingston University and was talking to academics in the Psychology department at UCL recently about the personality profile of writers – I am about to start a sustained research project on the same.
We discussed the kind of pastimes often indulged in by writers – apparently crosswords and Scrabble are particularly popular. In which case, I am a sad disappointment, as I have never liked either. What about you, do Read more
Books every writer should read
I’ve just spotted a post which lists 75 books every writer should read, and I felt the urge to share. It’s a great list, one which any aspiring writer would do well to investigate – take a look, it’s here: 75 Books Every Writer Should Read.
What do you think? Are there books there that you’ve read already, and would rate to other users of our site? Or is there one that really piques your curiosity? Perhaps there’s Read more
Buy the 2011 Yearbook
The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook is available at a discount from our online bookshop. Get all the information, contacts and advice you could need.On camera: Jon McGregor
"Being longlisted for the Booker Prize changed everything - it was the launchpad for my writing career." Click to view our video with novelist Jon McGregor »
On camera: Justin Cartwright
"Just write... If you're any good you may not know it, but certainly someone else will." Click to view our video with novelist Justin Cartwright »
On camera: Julie Myerson
The novelist and journalist Julie Myerson on how she got that all-important first publishing deal. Click here to view our video exclusive »