January 2010

John Jenkins' January column

John's January column looks at a Robert Altman film, the Gingerbread Man, based on a discarded story by John Grisham:

'Although it wasn’t Grisham’s best story, I enjoyed it. But the moral of this story is: never throw anything away. I realise that Grisham could probably sell his laundry list to a publisher but for your new year resolution, dip down into that drawer and see what you can salvage. You may find a gem.

And after you have done that go through stories and features you have sold in the UK and see if you can sell them on for the American and other rights.'

Success story

This week's success story is the talented Evie Wyld, who has just won the prestigious John Llewelyn Rhys Prize with her novel After the Fire, A Still Small Voice.

New Categories series

Writing Historical Fiction

So you want to write historical fiction?

Well, your timing is good, because historical fiction is fashionable again after many years in the doldrums. In fact it’s so popular that it has virtually reinvented itself as a category.

Our latest article in this series explores the market and approaches to writing historical fiction.

Writing Romance

Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy  

Writing Crime Fiction

Writing non-fiction

British Library web archive

We feel very honoured that the British Library has asked to archive www.writersservices.com in its web archive.

The UK Web Archive is a corpus of websites selected by leading UK institutions for their historical, social and cultural significance in the UK. Also listed in this article on their archive are other international web archives.

Choosing a Service

Are you having difficulty deciding which service might be right for you?  This useful new article by Chris Holifield offers advice on what to go for, depending on what stage you are at with your writing.

Help for Writers

Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site, including Finding an Agent and Making Submissions.

Our book review section

WritersPrintShop

If you're thinking about self-publishing, this is the place to find out what's involved. If you're ready to go ahead, our high quality service is second to none and there's an economy version for those who want to tackle some of the work themselves. You can estimate the cost for yourself.

Latest changes in the book trade 5:

In the fifth part of this series, Chris Holifield gives an update on writers' routes to their audiences:

It is a supreme irony that at time when creative writing courses are turning out large numbers of keen writers and almost everyone seems to think they have a book in them, it has never been so hard to find a publisher.

First article: Bookselling

Second article: Publishing

Third article: Print on Demand and the Long Tail

Fourth article: Self-publishing - career suicide or 'really great'

Winning poems from the Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition

Read the two winning poems from  the gifted young 7-8 and 9-11 year-old poets who have won first prizes in this international competition.

John Jenkins' December column

John is on feisty form this month as he attacks the 'log-rolling' of reviews and the silly results from best books of the year round-ups - for which he gives his own suggested list.

My Say 9

Zoe Jenny, who was born in Switzerland but is shortly publishing her first book written in English:

'Now that I am writing in English I have to start all over again, earning my credentials in a new market. I am essentially back to square one. But maybe that is the most exciting place to be.'

My Say 7: Timothy Hallinan on the Writing Session.

My Say 8: Jae Watson on the magic formula which enables writers to 'cross that fine, elusive line dividing unpublished and published writers'.

I'll Take a Community With That Book, Please!

Fauzia Burke is founder of a an Internet marketing firm specializing in creating online awareness for books and authors.  Her article shows how successful niche publishers are reaching communities of readers on the web.

The Ins and Outs of Indexing

Joanne Phillips' article on Indexing looks at why non-fiction books need them, why it's a specialist job and why computers can't achieve the same result as a skilled indexer.

Our new Indexing service

A professional index is essential for any work of non-fiction. Readers expect to find a useful, well-presented index at the back of a book, and can get very frustrated if the index doesn’t quickly lead them to the information they seek.

• Are you an author planning to compile your own index?
• Have you been asked by your publisher to provide an index for your book?
• Are you self-publishing your work? If so, don’t let your readers down by offering them a sub-standard index.

 A professional index will set your work apart from other self-published books. Indexing need not be expensive – and an effective index is the key to a good non-fiction book.

Tips for Writers Our new series for writers:

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, Keep up to date and Submission to publishers and agents