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The Truth About Publishing – 5
Lesson 4: What to do when you’re rejectedOnce you’ve done all that, and been rejected, send your work to another publisher right away. After all, it’s just one editor’s opinion and what one editor hates, another may love. If you’ve sent it to ten publishers and they’ve all rejected it, it’s time to rewrite it. If you’ve sent it to…
The Truth About Publishing – 4
Lesson 3: Skiing across the slush pileIn this country, the big publishers each receive 3-5,000 unsolicited fiction manuscripts a year. That’s around a hundred a week. The situation is much the same in the UK, Canada and the US – publishers receive an absolute deluge of manuscripts week in and out, even when they state that they’re not accepting unsolicited…
The One-Page Guide to Storytelling
Here, gleaned from several decades of writing, experience doing my 27 novels, and the hundreds of books I've read on writing and storytelling, is the most concise guide to storytelling I can come up with. I've included some classic references at the end.For each scene, and your overall story, answer these seven questions. If you can’t answer all of them,…
The Truth About Publishing – 3
Lesson 2: Anyone can do it, hah!There’s a widely held assumption that writing a book can’t be all that hard. After all, everyone can write, can’t they? We write stuff every day of our lives.At conventions and writing festivals I often meet people who assume writing is easy. They say, “I’m going to write a book one day when I…
Richard Harland on Writer's Block
Every week from now on I'll be inviting an Aussie writer to blog about books or writing. First out of the blocks is the amazing Richard Harland, who had writer's block for 25 years! But he's since had fifteen novels published, won enough awards to fill a treasure chest, including two major French awards this year – the Tam-Tam je…