June 7th, 2009
Yesterday’s series of seminar sessions put on for writers by The Writer’s Handbook, was, unsurprisingly, a mixed bag of great and worthless information. Thankfully, the good stuff more than compensated for the bad.
Our immediate impression was of a room filed with people who do not get out much. But what else might you expect of [...]
June 6th, 2009
Today we are attending a day of seminars put together by The Writers Handbook.
The very reasonably priced day (just £30) appears to be packed with informative sessions tailored to the fledgeling writer.
Sessions cover specifics of the publishing business, talks from literary agents, and appearances by authors willing to share their personal experiences on [...]
June 3rd, 2009
What do you do when you come across a list of literary agents and publishers on twitter? That’s right, spam the lot of them!
I now follow a number of literary agents who use twitter, thanks to a recently distributed list. It has turned out to be quite an education. Amongst the personal messages and posts [...]
May 24th, 2009
A quick update on progress…
I mentioned recently about switching tactics and approaching literary agents with an initial query letter rather than a package of letter, synopsis, and sample chapters (based on each agent’s preference).
Some agents make it known that they will respond within a few days, to query letters. My experience so far has been just that. [...]
May 12th, 2009
The first round of approaches to literary agents are back – all rejections. So it is time to regroup and prepare for the next batch, with a new tactic…
I wrote recently about receiving rejections from literary agents. There is always a little disappointment to receive a negative response, after all, you are trying to gain [...]
April 1st, 2009
This week saw the first rejection letter from my recent approaches to literary agents. It is a joyous event!
Several years ago when messing with script writing I collected a a whole pile rejection letters. From carefully considered, personal comment and advice, to a simple photocopied strip of paper with a standard negative notification, each one each one [...]
March 11th, 2009
Literary agents are the key to securing a viable publishing deal in these day of big business, global publishing. Today I submitted my book to three suitable London agents.
I am under no illusions about the nature of the climb ahead of me to get Persistent Spirit and the rest of the Table Rappers series published [...]
February 27th, 2009
This week saw an important step in Persistent Spirit’s development: three volunteers have offered their time to read, edit, and comment on the first ten chapters, and they currently have the text.
For the first time, eyes other than mine are looking over the words I have been poring over for well over a year. I [...]
February 20th, 2009
There are a multitude of texts covering self editing, but few extend their landing struts and come right down to earth with simple, practical techniques. Here is one very simple technique to give your writing more punch.
I regularly read about the danger of too frequent use of passive language in writing. We use passive language [...]
February 14th, 2009
If writing really is re-writing, then I’m thoroughly wrapped in writing right now!
In addition to completing the final chapters of Persistent Spirit, I am in the process of the third draft of the first ten chapters. These will be off to some enthusiastic friends for proofing.
The opportunity to submit to a publisher has motivated me [...]
