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Copyright ©
2001-08
WritersServices.com
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Check what's changed and when:
 | 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. |
5 January 2008
| 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.
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| 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
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| ‘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. |
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| 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. |
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| '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. |
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| 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. |
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| See our review of this
extremely useful book - a must for any aspiring children's writer. |
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| The other new listings cover UK agents,
US agents
and
Agents from the
rest of the world. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| '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. |
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|
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. |
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| '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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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.' |
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| 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. |
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| '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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| '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. |
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| '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. |
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1 December 2008
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| 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. |
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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. |
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| 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). |
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| '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. |
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| The December Magazine is
ready! |
24 November 2008
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| News Review looks at how
publishers are going for print on demand to keep backlist in print, and how
online bookselling supports this trend. |
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| 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. |
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| There's also a new page on
Interviews, which points out the pitfalls and gives a sample interview
release document. |
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| 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. |
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'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. |
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| 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
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|
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. |
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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.' |
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'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. |
|
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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. |
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| '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. |
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| 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? |
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1: Improving
your writing,
2: Learn on
the job and 3:
New technology and the Internet are all still available.
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|
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.
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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.
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'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.
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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.
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'Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such
odious subjects as soon as I can.' Jane Austen in our
Writers' Quotes.
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20 October 2008
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| '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. |
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| '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'. |
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| 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.
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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.
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'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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updates to the site in the weekly archive back to 2001
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