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Insider tip
Studding your writing with metaphors will not transmute it into poetry. Sometimes the very plainest speech is what you want. Writing Poetry by John Whitworth-
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When self-publishing makes sense – and how to market your book
New chapter online now – and free to read
If you’re a fan of our Writers’ Zone, you’ll almost certainly be following our serialisation of Alison Baverstock’s Marketing Your Book: An Author’s Guide.
Alison’s book is essential reading if you plan to see your work published.
From the moment you reach the first page, Alison is by your side guiding you through the labyrinth of the publishing world.
She provides you with practical and proven tips every step of the way – from submitting your manuscript, finding an agent and approaching a publisher, to working with booksellers and even organising a great launch event.
We’ve now added a new chapter – the eighth – where you’ll find advice on Read more
Have you thought about self-publishing?
Filed under: Getting Published, Marketing Yourself
If you have not had the time or energy to keep going in your search for a publisher, or simply want to get a manuscript into a finished format quickly, self-publishing ought to be a convenient option. The reality can be much less positive.
At a recent literary conference, the room where the various self-publishing firms were displaying their wares had all the charm of the first day of our holiday in Tenerife when Read more
Writers’ & Artists’ conference
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who attended our ‘How to Get Published’ conference yesterday. It was a terrific day with lots of engaging chat and some excellent questions.
I was part of the team of organisers but happily I still managed to listen in to many of our guest speakers.
Literary agent Carole Blake spent a moment despairing at the name ’slush pile’, preferring to call it Read more
Your favourite book anecdote?
Hearing on the radio that the great physicist Michal Faraday was apprenticed to a bookbinder and bookseller, which gave him seven years’ free access to reading material, reminded me of another of my favourite book-related anecdotes. The shots that killed Read more
Whose book idea is it anyway?
How often as writers do we suffer the pain of seeing an idea we had thought of suddenly launched as someone else’s bestseller?
I commonly get asked at writing festivals how authors can be sure that ideas they submit to publishers and agents won’t just be pinched and developed by someone else. My answer is Read more
Words not deeds
This is an interesting time to be a lover of words. We sit poised, the rhetoric of the campaigns still ringing in our ears, yet all the while aware that within days every nuance of every stated principle will be torn apart, whether by fish knife or meat cleaver. Read more
More ash than dash
I am sure we all have all heard stories of who is stranded where in the world thanks to the ash delays, but spare a thought right now for Kingston MA Publishing student Andrew Turner, currently languishing in Seoul in South Korea, and having to pay all his own expenses while stuck.
With great enterprise, he Read more
Have you considered self-publishing?
Filed under: Authors and Books, Getting Published
Most writers hate this question. They reject the very idea of self-publishing because they think it is the final sign that they have abandoned their dream of becoming a published author.
I’d like to suggest that rather than surrendering your literary ambitions, deciding to self-publish is increasingly becoming Read more
Do you ‘diary forward’? I don’t.
Based on its excellent review in The Guardian the week before last, on impulse I rang and booked tickets for The Rivals at the Southwark Playhouse. It was just wonderful, and re-exposure to Mrs Malaprop (played by Celia Imrie) was a delight.
Whereas I have heard actors give the misplaced words greater emphasis, the particular pleasure of Imrie’s performance was that they simply flowed out of her, increasing the sense that the character is entirely unaware of her inappropriate vocabularly; indeed that she remains as relaxed as an ‘allegory on the banks of the Nile’.
The experience set me thinking about other examples of the infelicitous use of language. 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
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.-
Tweet and Win! We are giving away free copies of our 2011 yearbooks - and you can win one in less than a minute. Visit our competition page now to be in with a chance...
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 »