Yesterday Gollancz, the oldest SFF publisher in the UK, and Ben Aaronovitch, author of the Rivers of London series, announced the launch of the Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award, in partnership with National Novel Writing Month and The Good Literary Agency. This is a huge and very exciting deal. Gollancz is full of … Continue reading BLOG: The Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award – and Recs!
Why do I need an agent? What do they even do? There are a lot of reasons why people might not want to explore getting a literary agent. For some, it's just another gatekeeper to getting their writing to a publisher, another hoop to jump through which can seem exhausting and unnecessary. For others, the … Continue reading BLOG: Publishing Questions – Why do I need a Literary Agent?
In March and April I was lucky enough to attend a couple of talks on commissioning - one at LBF looking specifically on finding debut novelists, and another hosted by BookMachine Unplugged which talked about the intricacies of list-building and how you choose books which fit the identity of your imprint (click on the links … Continue reading BLOG: LBF 19/BookMachine – The Art of Commissioning
One thing I have heard a lot regarding publishing is that it is not an industry with much transparency to the outside world - it seems secretive, with processes and practises hidden away. A manuscript comes in, and an indeterminate amount of time later, a book comes out. I wanted to do my part to … Continue reading BLOG: Publishing Questions – Common Mistakes when Querying
My previous blog post talked about how long you should be aiming to make your novel. Today I want to talk about the different stages it will go through before you have a final product. Beta Reading This is something I first came across in relation to fanfiction, although since studying my MA I have … Continue reading BLOG: Beta Reading vs Proofreading vs Editing
Lately, I have found myself thinking about the length of books, and with NaNoWriMo coming up, it seemed like the perfect time to discuss what the ‘sweet spot’ was for the length of a novel – particularly debut novels. I currently have on my TBR list three massive books, all topping between 600 and 800 … Continue reading BLOG: How Long Should a Debut Novel Be?
If I were to tell you about a machine designed to take the basics of a story, then spit it out in whatever genre you chose, you might think I was talking about the computer algorithm which tried to write another Harry Potter book, with delightfully hilarious consequences. Or you might think I was talking … Continue reading BLOG: Synthesising a Bestseller
Just over two weeks into Camp NaNo WriMo, I thought I would give you all a State of the Union update. I am not quite on target to reach 50k yet this month – I should be on around 25k by now, but I only passed 21k yesterday. I’m not worried about this. There have … Continue reading BLOG: Camp NaNo WriMo 2018 – the halfway point
Ever since I was a child, I have loved books. Reading them, buying them, just being around them. That’s why I did an English degree. I had idle dreams of owning a bookshop, or of being a librarian, or being an author, because my naïve mind had no concept of the publishing industry at that … Continue reading BLOG: Working, Writing and Camp NaNo
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