‘The universe is made of stories, not atoms.’ I like these words. They belong to the American poet Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980) but all writers – poets, short story writers, novelists – instinctively know the power of the small but singular story. It’s easy to overlook it, to not bother to see, and by that I [...]
I first became excited about Twitter for authors when I bought an e-book via Twitter. I have to say the e-book wasn’t great but what it did do - and so my money was well spent - was to answer one burning question I had that day.
I got a quick, immediate answer to my problem. [...]
1/What’s your job title?
I’m not sure if I have an official job title. I’m commissioning fiction editor but the reality is far more sprawling than that.
2/ Why did To Hell With Publishing decide to publish first time writers?
We decided to publish first time writers because we could. The market is getting more and more cautious [...]
Spread the word: self-publishing is the new Black: on trend, in vogue and definitely here to stay.
You can self-publish fiction too (and we’ll cover that soon) but these reasons to self-publish, are more relevant to non-fiction books
1. You’ll make more money.
The royalty income on a £10 book with a publisher would be 50-70 [...]
A canny writer is one who starts to plan their sales strategy as soon as they put pen to paper.
We call this kind of writer a New Writer as they are prepared to take responsibility for their book sales.
Whether you want to be published by a publishing house or are planning to self-publish, you need [...]
The writer, Jim Crace, said in an interview: ‘Everything new worth having is paid for by the loss of something old worth keeping.’ – He was talking about the internet replacing face-to-face content and letter writing, but could we apply the same thought to ebooks and digitalization replacing the printed book. In the wave of [...]
There’s always a lot of debate about whether creative writing courses can really teach us to write.
Here’s a snippet I contributed to the discussion on the Aspiring Writers Group on Linked in.
A good writing course/ teacher will unearth your talent. Help you to access your voice and get to what you already have. Plus they’ll [...]
What is a bestseller?
What do the bestseller charts mean and how do you get into them?
Does anyone have any questions on this topic?
I’ve been fascinated with what makes a bestseller ever since - when I was commissioning at Random House - a colleague wailed that if only he’d gone out and bought 10 copies of [...]
Emma Rose was commissioning editor at Arrow Books, Random House where she worked on a range of bestselling authors, including Katie Fforde, Kathy Reichs, Fiona Neill and Katie Flynn. Emma is currently a freelance editor. She has spoken at the RNA conference and is a graduate of Essex University’s MA in Creative Writing and Literature. Emma will be teaching [...]
YA Author, Marcus Sedgwick, has written over ten books, his next book, White Crow will be published by Orion in July. Here he tells LWC how music helps his writing:
“Every now and again it’s worth spending a little time thinking not about WHAT you’re writing, but HOW you’re writing…
When do you work best, morning or [...]