Designing a Fiction Book Cover: The Ultimate Checklist

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 designing the right cover – or getting the right cover designed for you – might be…

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Guest Post: How to Write a Query Letter

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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Should You Get an Agent or Submit Directly to Publishers?

Should You Get an Agent or Submit Directly to Publishers?

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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The Secret to Writing the Perfect Synopsis

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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Who’s Your Famous Rejection Buddy?

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…

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Tips on Writing a Great Synopsis of Your Novel

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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Self-Publishing Considerations

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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Principles of Designing a Knockout Book Cover

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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A 30-Second Guide to Novel and Short Story Formatting

Many new writers are confused about how to format their manuscript. Many of these issues arise from mixing the conventions for non-fiction, such as essays, with that of fiction. So here are a few guidelines: Indent each new paragraph Each new paragraph should be indented by about a half a centimetre, with the exception of…

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