We are very pleased to have secured a guest post for you from Alex Cabal, creator of the Internet’s largest and best (in our opinion) writing critique community, Scribophile. Alex will explain what critique is, how to do it, and why it makes you a better writer. Enjoy! Getting feedback on your work is one…
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The old saying might work for not making snap judgements about people, but when it comes to books, you most certainly can judge them by their covers. Or you should be able to, anyway. If you’re a writer, then getting the right cover designed might be the most important decision you can make. Because if…
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So you’ve finished your manuscript—congratulations! Penning a novel is no small achievement. But if you’re aiming for publication, your job is far from done. You have another writing project that rivals your manuscript in importance: your query letter. A query letter (also known as a cover letter) is a short pitch of your manuscript and…
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This is a guest post by Luke Palder of Query Letter. If you’re considering publication, that means you’ve finished your manuscript. Take a moment to bask in the glory of this achievement. Finishing a manuscript is an impressive feat, and you deserve to be proud. Now it’s time to show the world the masterpiece you’ve crafted.…
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This is a guest post by Ali Harper, author of The Disappeared (HarperCollins). Unsurprisingly, every novelist I know hates writing synopses. Of course we do. Writers are creative beings and we’ve just spent the last god-knows-how-long trying to imagine something that wasn’t there and having conversations with people who don’t exist. We’ve grown a germ…
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We’ve put together an infographic showing how many times famous books were rejected before they were published or found an agent. See where you would fall on this chart to reassure yourself that you’re in good company when another rejection email pops into your inbox. It’s all just part of the rite of passage. Consider…
Read MoreWe have gathered a list of the best Novel Writing Competitions with deadlines in 2018. They are ordered by deadline, and we will aim to update this post regularly, to add new competitions as we discover them. Many of the novel writing competitions are very prestigious, and highly likely to lead to agent representation and…
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Apparently, most novelists groan and moan and hang their heads when it comes to writing a synopsis (a summary of the novel in only a few paragraphs). They don’t feel that it’s real writing, and the synopsis is such a short summary, the elegance and subtlety of their novel is trampled all over. Nonetheless, if you want…
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Over the past few decades the landscape of publishing has changed to almost be unrecognisable. The dawn of the digital age has made publishing more accessible than ever before, with print on demand, digital publishing and users being more vocal with online feedback and having shorter attention spans and reading periods. In the past, self-publishing…
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Despite the old adage, people constantly go around judging books by their cover. And in fact a book cover is a critical place to get across important information about the kind of book that can be expected within the pages. It’s not about grabbing the greatest number of people and compelling them to start reading,…
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