LInk to writers magazine

Writers' magazine

What's new 2003
 

WritersServices logo & link to homepage

The website for writers

Home
What's new 01
What's new 2002
What's new 2003
What's new 04
What's new 05
Whats new 06
Whats new 07
Whats new 08
News 01
News 02
News 03
News 04
News 2005
News 2006
News 2007
News 2008
Comment 01
Comment 02
Comment 03
Comment 04
Comment 05
Comment 06
Comment 07
Comment 08
Bob's 2001 Journal
Bob's 2002 journal
Bob's 2003 journal
Bob's 2004l
Bob Ritchie 2005
Bob Ritchie 2006
Bob Ritchie 07

 

Log of the weekly changes on the site on 2003

This week's changes 2001  2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

22 December 2003

In Bob Ritchie's Journal he ruminates on novels he's read this year: 'Realise I’m going through a bad patch with novels. No longer sure why I read them. Way past the age when still believed they could change my life.'
News Review looks at authors' agencies as big businesses: 'The agent community contains its share of predators and eccentrics, but most agents work hard and do a professional job for their clients.'
We've updated our Review of Ann Hoffman's Research for Writers 'The seventh edition confirms the supremacy of Research for Writers. It is an excellent tool for all writers who need to research in any field.'
Benjamin Disraeli in dismissive mode in our Writers' Quotes: 'Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race...  The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.'
'The Big Read … was a revolting act of patronage from our most powerful medium... There's no harm done to books. We can all pick up any book we like, the next minute, without thinking of The Big Read. But harm has been done - to the standing of the BBC.’ David Sexton in the Evening Standard, quoted in our Comment column.
Season's greetings and best wishes for 2004 to all our visitors.
 
15 December 2003

My Say is a new feature launched this week which gives writers the chance to air their own views on a subject of interest to other writers.  Send us your contributions! The first My Say is from Lynda Finn on the plight of New Zealand writers.
This week News Review looks at bestsellers and Big Reads: 'the Big Read has had a terrific effect on sales and reading, with many readers rediscovering the classics and scores of new reading groups being formed.'
The bizarre 2003 Diagram Prize has been awarded.  Will it be 227 Secrets Your Snake Wants You To Know or Hot Topics in Urology?
'We have this marvellous language, and we are so lucky it gives us a huge audience. If we were writing in high Norwegian we'd have mostly reindeer for readers.' Shirley Hazard at the National Book Awards on literature versus commerce quoted in our Comment column.
Lynne Truss's Eats Shoots and Leaves, reviewed last week, has now soared to number one in the UK bestseller lists and has over half a million copies in print.  Not bad for a book on punctuation!
Gore Vidal on writing in our Writers' Quotes: 'Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.'

8 December 2003

 Our reviewer said of Lynne Truss's surprise bestseller, Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation: 'Obsessive, entertaining, passionate, this book is a delight and a must-read for anyone interested in the future – and the past - of the language.'
This week in Bob's Journal he laments the fact that everyone thinks they can write: 'In my experience the entire population is divided into two camps: those who have just written something, and those who would write something if only they could get around to it.'
In our Comment column Tobias Hill on the difference between writing poems and short stories, and novels: 'with a novel you need to get down to it and have a place where you can do it, with piles of books around you for research.'
We've produced a recommended Writers' Reference Shelf. Check it out to see if you agree and to see whether you've got all the books you need.
This week News Review investigates open access, which is beginning to look as if it will transform online journal publishing.
See our WritersBookstall for a host of good ideas of what you'd like for Christmas - or treat yourself.  Amazon are offering free delivery on orders over £25 in the UK and free super saver shipping in the US..
And finally, A N Wilson in waspish mood in our Writers' Quotes: 'I’m not saying all publishers have to be literary, but some interest in books would help.’ 

1 December 2003

The shortlist for the Bookseller's 2003 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year is announced to an incredulous world.  So will it be 227 Secrets Your Snake Wants You To Know  or Hot Topics in Urology, or even The Voodoo Revenge Book: An Anger Management Program You can Really Stick With?
The Invisible Web, part one in a new series, Quality v Quantity, investigates the vast number of pages on the web which are 'invisible' to you.
This week News Review investigates Amazon's mega-deal with the British Library, which will give it the right to use the Library’s massive bibliographic catalogue, which contains 2.55 million books.
Our new Accessibility statement shows  how we have designed the site for users with disabilities in accordance with the ISO guidelines.
Writers' Forum editor, John Jenkins', new column tackles punctuation and blacklisting - and much more.
Comment quotes Victoria Barnsley, CEO of HarperCollins UK:We are creating a whole new generation of book buyers who see books as very cheap.'
In these highly political times, it's still true that: 'No regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.' Alexander Solzhenitsyn in The First Circle, in our Writers Quotes.
The December Magazine is ready!

24 November 2003

This week in his Journal Bob is 'quietly confident. Crisis of major story change behind me. Feel sure nothing can go wrong now.' But it was to prove only the calm before the storm...
Our Comment column we quote A C Grayling's views on what makes the novel different:: 'A novel is all present at once, and can be gone over and back, re-entered, skimmed, sampled or devoured, just as required...'
We've carried out a major update of our Links section, with over 30 new links to recommended sites.
News Review looks at the book famine in our schools and how children are failing to develop the reading habit.
'All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hour, and the books of all time.' John Ruskin's thoughts in our Writers' Quotes.
Starting to think about Christmas?  Why not browse through our WritersBookstall to make sure you can tell everyone what you'd really like?

17 November 2003

Our big launch this week is our newly updated agents' listings, bringing you hundreds of detailed listings of UK and US agents, together with UK literary scouts and bursaries. Easily accessible and searchable, the listings provide detailed information on what kinds of books the agencies deal with, the agents who work there and how to submit to them.
'Without me the literary industry would not exist: the publishers, the agents, the sub-agents, the sub-sub agents... all this vast and proliferating edifice is because of this small, patronised, put-down and underpaid person.' Read Doris Lessing's wonderful writers' manifesto in full in our Writers' Quotes.
A brand-new feature this week is our Problem page.  Now you can write in to WritersServices about your problems with getting published - and share the answer with other writers.
This week News Review looks at how authors are using the web in innovative ways to help them get published and to publicise their work.
'I think there is something much deeper at work: a snobbish distaste for popular writing full stop.' Isobel Woolf on attitudes to chick-lit in our Comment column.

10 November 2003
Bob writes in in his latest Journal entry on shooting his EastEnders script and offers more ruminations on the Big Read. 'It occurs to me that spelling, in its comforting certainty and its preoccupation with competitive accumulation...  is something that appeals to the childish mind.'
‘Perhaps one reason the publishing industry is enjoying only slow growth is that we do not listen closely enough to the market, because we read too far apart from the mainstream of the market…' Jeff Zaleski in Publishers Weekly, quoted in our Comment column.
News Review looks at the media frenzy surrounding Paul Burrell's book and contrasts it with the censorship of Hilary Clinton's Living History by the Chinese.
‘Writers and politicians are natural rivals. Both groups try to make the world in their own images; they fight for the same territory.' Salman Rushdie in our Writers' Quotes.
Have you looked at our self-publishing service, WritersPrintShop?  We offer a full service to support you in publishing your own work at a reasonable cost.

3 November 2003

This week News Review looks at the Big Read - trashy TV or reinstating great books? 'The Big Read has given books new prominence and coverage in the media. A surge in their sales has taken several backlist titles into the bestseller lists.'
John Jenkins' latest column from Writers  Forum magazine on the idea of removing prices from books and one self-publisher's route to success.
Our latest poster takes a cynical look at Teamwork.
'Publishing is a business and therefore what is wanted is books that will sell. The difference between the commercial writer and others is the former writes for a readership and others often just for themselves.' Agent Andrew Lownie, quoted in our Comment column.
‘The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it.' is Leo Rosten's view in our Writers' quotes.
The November Magazine is here!

27 October 2003

Bob's Journal offers his scathing but witty thoughts on the BBC's Big Read: 'After Catch-22 no one should have any problem understanding war, capitalism, religion, famine, violence, greed, inequality, the worthlessness of fast food, the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger or the awful state of Saturday night television.'
News Review looks at the latest news: Amazon’s new 'Search inside the Book' feature opens up a vision of their future as a giant electronic archive and eventually a repository of books awaiting POD orders.
In our latest software review Muse names is described as 'Fun to install, fun to use and fun to discover those new slants on familiar and new names.'
Check out the 2003 Ig Nobel prizes, including the Psychology winner for a study of Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities and the Medicine winner for presenting evidence that the brains of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens.
In our Comment column: 'I love taking the prosaic and making it extraordinary. Writers don’t get enough credit for that…' Julie Myerson, author of Something Might Happen.
‘Writing is not like painting where you add. It is not what you put on the canvas that the reader sees.  Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible.' Elie Wiesel in our Writers' Quotes

20 October 2003

Check out our review of How to Market Books. Chris Holifield says: 'the book as a whole is highly recommended for all self-publishers, authors and marketeers in publishing, or anyone who wants to develop their book promotion skills.'
In our Comment column Bookshops have never been this good at selling books. Not in living memory has the public profile of books been this high.' David Blow in Publishing News'
Our WritersPrintShop for self-publishers has new guidelines on what to put on your end pages.
‘A writer’s ambition should be to trade 100 contemporary readers for 10 readers in 10 years’ time and for one in 100 years’ is Arthur Koestler's view in our Writers' Quotes.
This week's News Review looks at the how  second-hand books have taken off: 'Abebooks is a book collector’s dream – access to 45 million titles which can be tracked down and purchased instantly and easily.'

13 October 2003

Carole Blake discusses the issues of dealing with rejection in the latest extract from her book From Pitch to Publication.
News Review The Frankfurt Book Fair, just drawing to a close, is still the biggest international book fair by some considerable margin, but there are signs that its pre-eminence is being challenged by smaller fairs.
"At the best of moments I feel as if I draw, like the storytelling parents do, on ancient energies" Children’s writer David Almond in The Times.  Comment column.
 'It’s a common tactic on such occasions to leave a tiny loophole through which a character can if necessary crawl back into the limelight.' Bob muses on the return of 'Dirty Den' in his Journal of a Virtually Unpublished Writer.
We 'list the lists' of competitions for new writers. But read the small print before you part with an 'entry fee'.
We have just overhauled the 15,000+ links on the site. If you want to explore the world beyond WritersServices check out the links - But please come back!
If you want to be considered a poet, you will have to show mastery of the petrarchan sonnet form or the sestina. Your musical efforts must begin with well-formed fugues. There is no substitute for craft... Art begins with craft, and there is no art until craft has been mastered.'
Anthony Burgess
in our Writers Quotations
6 October 2003
News Review In an interesting coda to last week’s story on the progress being made by e-books, some sudden changes of personnel and policy have followed on from a switch in ownership at a key e-book operation.
Reflections on poetry for National Poetry Day - '...a lot of poetry's not getting any coverage because a lot is being skewed towards these intellectually minded male poets..'. Neil Astley, MD of Bloodaxe in Publishing News Comment column.
John Jenkins' monthly column from Writers' Forum magazine
The October magazine is ready. Including some posters in a print-friendly format. The experts don't always get it right.
Literature nowadays is a trade… the successful man of letters is your skilful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets.’ George Gissing, writing in New Grub Street in 1895 in our Writers Quotations

29 September 2003

Bob contemplate the derivation of the 'Life of Pi'. "Yann Martel may be able to name his hero after the French for swimming pool and get away with it." See where this leads you! Journal of a Virtually Unpublished Writer
News Review examines the evidence that Ebooks is growing. In the first half of 2003 alone, ebook sales revenues are up by 30% and unit sales up 40%, which compares well with an annual growth rate of 5% in traditional publishing.
'A lot of modern fiction tends to be "slice of life" stuff in which a story has no apparent ending to it. The reader reaches the end and says "Huh?" ' Elizabeth George in Publishing News in our Comment column.
'It's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.' Gustave Flaubert in our Writers Quotations
Competition The last week to win a free report. It's open to writers around the globe - All you need is access to email.

22 September 2003

Our latest new service is Manuscript typing, which will get your handwritten manuscripts, messy typescripts or audio tapes into good shape for reworking, submission or publication.
News Review looks at a startling Man  Booker shortlist, book awards and bestsellers: 'A giant killers’ year in the Man Booker. Three first novels and only one big name left’  is what John Carey, chair of the judges, had to say.
'The most important thing for a writer is to have read absolutely everything you can get your hands on at an early age' Kate Atkinson in the Guardian in our Comment column.
If all the recent publicity about hackers getting into computers has made you nervous about protecting your work, check out our revised page on Your own privacy policy.

‘No one can do without some semblance of immortality, and even less will they deny themselves the right to seek it out in the form of this or that reputation, starting with the literary…  Since death has come to be accepted by all as the absolute end, everyone writes.’  Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran in our Writers Quotations

Our WritersPrintShop is attracting many writers who want to publish their own work and retain control using cost-effective Print on Demand.  Have you checked out our service yet?

15 September 2003

Bob confronts us with a new dilemma'For the first time in my life I realise I am actually earning from writing just about enough to live on. Can I consider myself a professional writer yet? Well, yes, at long last, I think I can.' How can we go on calling his diary the Journal of a Virtually Unpublished Writer?  Read the latest exciting entry!
News Review is in reflective mode this week: 'writers may come from the most unexpected places and achieve their goal through all sorts of different means, self-publishing being one of them. Determination is the key.'
The latest addition to our do-it-yourself series Computing on the Cheap is part 3, Cleaning your computer.
'At the keyboard I find myself trapped in a labyrinth of facts, each sentence with its own nugget of information.' Scientist Steve Jones, author of The Descent of Man, in our Comment column, quoted in the Guardian on how scientists approach their writing.
Don't forget to check out our WritersForum discussion group for a lively debate on agents and other subjects of interest to writers.

‘The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,/Moves on: nor all thy Piety not Wit/Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,/Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.' From The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in our Writers' Quotations.

8 September 2003

A handy new service for writers with old typescripts!  Check out Scanning in our Services section.  We can put old material onto disk and email it to you, so you can work on it on your computer, to prepare for submission or publication.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the perspective of 1942: ‘We all know that books burn - yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die.  No man and no force can abolish memory... In this war, we know, books are weapons.' In our Writers Quotes
Check out John Johnson's column from the September issue of Writers' Forum for news from the writers' world and a summary of why writers take up writing,
News Review looks at success for generic book  promotion - Australia's Books Alive campaign stimulated an increase in total book sales during the period of 23%.
Film director Alan  Parker, soon to publish his first novel, contrasts the film and book worlds in the Bookseller: ‘Publishing is an infinitely more civilised world with infinitely more gracious people than the film industry'. In our Comment column.
Check out our September Magazine.

1 September 2003

Our September Competition has a great prize - a Reader's Report carried out on your novel by one of our expert editors. Check our Services for this and all our other services for writers.
Bob's EastEnders episode has finally made it - 'Very weird experience hearing my words coming out of a small box in the corner of the room. Try not to think about the 15 million other people hearing them at the same time.' From his Journal.
Simon Sebag Montefiore in the Sunday Telegraph on the death of Sir Wilfred Thesiger: 'the fresh gleaming gold that they spun from their extraordinary lives has long since been transformed, through imitation, into
the base metal of most modern travel writing…
'In our Comment column.

‘The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.' Mark Twain in our Writers Quotations.

Carole Blake's September extract deals with the all-important subject of  How to take editorial criticism: 'Learning to accept and include in your work the results of well-meaning constructive criticism can be enormously beneficial to your work, and is a major step on the route to becoming a professional writer.'

This week News Review:  Bookcrossing's founder defends its effect on book sales: '81% of its users spent the same on books after joining as they had before, with 15% spending more and 4% less'.

18 August 2003

Bob gets back to normal -  rewriting EastEnders scripts and ruminating that:  'punctuation marks are the roundabouts on the route through the road network of our words'.  In his Journal.
 News Review opts for the silly season, looking at a study on the links between books and personality, and reflecting on books and friendship.
We've been on holiday and so have you!  Our Services have been run off their feet by writers sending us their manuscripts.  Now's the time to explore all 1100 pages of the site, read up on Inside Publishing and use our Advice for Writers to get your manuscript ready for submission.
'This is a country in which, if you are old, you become invisible.' Francis King, just longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Nick of Time, on the fate of older writers, quoted in our Comment column.

‘A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances in which it is used.’ Oliver Wendell Holmes in our Writers' Quotes.

4 August 2003

Why do we have so many and strangely named book sizes? In the  WritersPrintShop.
The relentless pace at which publishing houses are bought and sold on the international scene has slowed recently, as anti-monopoly rulings are brought to bear on proposed acquisitions discussed  in our  News Review
 Real life drama - So Bob's diary arrived late and you might have missed it. Read on..
'.....every time we were beginning to form up in teams, we would be re-organised.' Another poster to print.
'Writers need fantasies' writes Sarah Dunant in The Times in our Comment column.
 ‘Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none is undeservedly remembered.’ W H Auden in our Writers Quotations.

28 July 2003

Our new Proof-reading service is launched this week, joining our 12 other editorial and publishing services for writers.  It's especially recommended for self-publishers planning to use WritersPrintShop.
Amazon has continued to surge ahead with sales growth backed by new initiatives - but the stock is still hugely overvalued. See News Review
Flat on his back, Bob is rushed to hospital. 'When I told her one of the things I did was write for EastEnders, it was as if she’d suddenly discovered royalty.'  Read on..
‘A new brand of literature has arisen to feed the 20-something guys’ need to read…' The Toronto Star in our Comment column.
‘Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant...' Winston Churchill on writing  in our Writers Quotations.

21 July 2003

This week we have an excerpt from Neil Bromage How I became a highly-paid writer: 'What I always try to ensure is that my ideas have "legs", that they are not going to be static, one-off ideas that go no further than the first magazine I approach.'
For the second year running the 'African Booker', the Caine prize for African writing has gone to an Kenyan writer, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. See News Review
Check out the Editor's column from Writers' Forum magazine and a free offer.
'You can read a book as and when you like...any book which truly lives, lives beyond its author and reaches readers not yet present, entirely unforeseen.’ David Sexton in the London Evening Standard in our Comment column.
In WritersPrintShop there's a new page on Preparing your own artwork and text, which gives you guidelines for doing it yourself.
‘A book is so much a part of oneself that in delivering it to the public one feels as if one were pushing one’s own child out into the traffic.’ Quentin Bell in our Writers Quotations.
And we've added several new pages  to our Education Resource Centre for students and course organisers to bring it up to date with all the new material on the site.

14 July 2003

Bob's Journal: The BIG DAY has arrived and he is off to Elstree Studio to watch the filming of his EastEnders script......
If you want to check out e-books, this could be a good time to give them a try. Microsoft have a free offer to attract users for their reader but there are alternatives. News review
'The great thing about fiction-writing is that you are licensed to lie.' Victoria Glendinning in the Guardian
‘What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.’ Samuel Johnson

7 July 2003

'Finding the words' - a report from the 23rd Annual Writers' Conference in Winchester, UK, includes Beryl Bainbridge's encouragement to writers: ‘finding the words can often mean finding ourselves’.
 The latest excerpt from Carole Blake's From Pitch to Publication tells you how to get editorial criticism: 'If we were to prepare editorial reports for the manuscripts we have to reject every day, we would, quite simply, never have time to work for the clients we do actually represent.'
Things don’t change as much as we grow into what we’ve always been. As bad as the lives we’ve had, we wouldn’t be the people we are today without them' is James Lee Burke's Comment on the writer's life.
Our new Book Review is for Raymond Frensham's Screenwriting: 'if you think you’d like to try your hand at screenwriting and are not sure what’s involved, this is probably the best book to start with.'
News Review  on how 'heavy discounting has pushed down the average selling price of books sold in the UK General Retail Market  from £7.51 in 2001 to £7.33 in 2002.'
‘Soundbite and slogan, strapline and headline, at every turn we meet hyperbole.  The soaring inflation of the English language is more urgently in need of control than the economic variety.' Trevor Nunn's view In our Quotations.
The July Magazine is ready.

30 June 2003

 Bob's latest diary entry:  'How do I let the reader know who my hero is if he gets no more air-time than anyone else?...  He may not be the hero of this novel, but he could be the star of the next…'
News Review reports on how 'the aftershock of the fastest-selling book in history is running through the book trade worldwide.'
In WritersPrintShop, our self-publishing service for writers, a new page fills you in on readability scores. Check out the Fog Index and the Flesch Reading Ease Score to find out how your work measures up.
Why did I become a writer? I can’t really come up with any antecedent for it. I’m certainly not from the classic unhappy childhood.' Graham Swift quoted in our Comment column.
‘Every novel is an attempt to capture time, to weave something solid out of air.  The author knows it is an impossible task - that is why he keeps on trying.' David Beaty in our Writers' Quotations.

23 June 2003

 The latest article in our Inside Publishing series focuses on Direct selling and how it affects the author.
'The original writer is the one who creates a new genre instead of repeating the last.' Margaret Drabble in the Independent on Sunday  quoted in our
Are you out of print?  WritersPrintshop now offers an inexpensive way of reprinting your own book - or any other title you may want to get back into print.
 News Review reports on a conundrum: why can't fiction writers get published when 125,390 titles were published in the UK in 2002, an increase of 5% on the previous year?
‘No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft.' H G Wells  in our Writers' Quotations.
Please note that our server is being updated during the week of 21-28 June and we regret that you may experience short interruptions to services.

16 June 2003

 Bob reflects on how much he has learnt: from working on EastEnders 'Six months ago I would have cut the arm off anyone who had the temerity to suggest a single change.' In his Journal.
‘The funny thing is that the more you say no to Hollywood the more it wants you.' Harlan Coben on Hollywood in our Comment column.
Find out about everything you ever wanted to know about Looking after your mouse in our latest new Web How-to page.
 News Review reports on the biggest book of the year.  ' By publication there will be 13 million copies of ‘Harry 5’ in print', but could sales be slowing?
Our revised page on picture technologies is now bang-up-to-date.  Find out why images take up prodigious amounts of digital space on the web.
New Writer magazine has just announced its 2003 Poetry and Prose prizes - see their listing in our Links  section.
‘Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men. 'Confucius  in our Writers' Quotations.

9 June 2003

 If you're working on a non-fiction book, our new software review looks at Indexing Software, showing you how the various packages can help.
'It seems to me a reader should expect a novel to take her outside the tight circle of her own knowledge and concerns.' Hilary Mantel's enlightening views in our Comment column.
We've extended our Links  section with reviews of 15 more wonderful poetry sites.
 News Review reports on Amazon, E-books and Saga: Amazon has produced 'some amazing behind-the scene achievements too, not least a stock-turn of 20 times a year'.
 Thinking about self-publishing?  We've added a page on choosing your publication date.
‘The attributes you need to be a travel writer are somewhat contradictory.  For travel you need to be tough and resilient and to write you must be sensitive and sympathetic.’  Colin Hebron in the Independent on Sunday  in our Writers' Quotations.

2 June 2003

 Bob's Journal: Bob's latest diary entry on EastEnders:  'Late afternoon Laura emails to say Louise wants us to completely rework at least two of the main stories in my episode.'
'A gap has emerged in the market for enterprising independents that do not have to trade basic bookshop efficiency for institutional shareholder satisfaction.'  David Blow writing in Publishing News. In our Comment column.
Our new Competition: answer the three questions correctly to go into the draw for copies of The Writer's Handbook Guide to Crime Writing.
Our new Review this month is for The Writer's Handbook Guide to Crime Writing: 'This may be a slim book but it’s packed with detail. Every aspiring crime writer should have a copy close at hand.'
 In News Review  Bowker figures show US title output increasing by 5.86% to a whopping 150,00 new titles and editions in 2002.
In our June extract from From Pitch to Publication you'll find Carole's extremely useful checklist of the things you should be looking for when choosing an agent, 'Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted'.
 ‘Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.'  Rebecca West in our Writers' Quotations.

26 May 2003

What is PEN?  Find out about the international writers' organisation that fights for freedom of expression all over the world.
By special arrangement with Writers' Forum magazine, WritersServices will feature the editor's monthly column.  Hot off the press, John Jenkins' column from the June issue.
 In News Review  the purchase of BertelsmannSpringer by buyout specialists Candover and Cinven has brought about another seismic shift in the rapidly-changing world of scientific and academic publishing.
Also reprinted from Writers' Forum magazine, Chris Holifield's article about the history of WritersServices.  In our Media Centre.
 'A writer's problem does not change...  It is always how to write truly and having found what is true, to project it is such a way that it becomes a part of the experience of the person who reads it.' Ernest Hemingway in our Writers' Quotations.
 ‘My job is to write as honestly as I know how, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction' is the view of bestselling writer Stephen King. In our Comment column.
English PEN are running an International Writers' Day in London on 7 June.  Find out more and book for this mini-festival at www.englishpen.org/events.
You can still sign up for our weekly newsletter.

19 May 2003

Inside Publishing 11 looks at the topical subject of book clubs and mail order: 'You can’t altogether blame the bookshops for resenting the idea that the big new book of the season is being widely ‘sold’ for 25p or 25 cents'.
Bob makes progress with EastEnders scripts:  'She’s much less brutal with this one – because it’s much better, why else?' In his Journal.
The Big Read finds the best-loved books: 'James Joyce vies with Jeffrey Archer, Lord of the Flies with Lord of the Rings... but how can books fail to benefit from this huge publicity bonanza?  In News Review.
 ‘To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.' William Shakespeare in our Writers' Quotations.
The Annual Writers Conference in Winchester at the end of June is Britain's biggest.  Make your booking now.
In updating our Web How-to, there are new pages on looking after your keyboard and useful keystrokes.
'Even after writing 29 novels, I hate the loneliness, the doubt.' Bestselling novelist Wilbur Smith on being a writer.  In our Comment column.

12 May 2003 

In a major revamp of our WritersBookstall, we've just added 60 more titles, so now you can find over 200 specially selected books for writers, categorised so it's easy to track down what you want.
We've just added a new page to Preparing an Index in WritersPrintShop, showing how to Make an Index using Word®.
 The little guys see off the big battalions. Overlook Press acquires Duckworth. Perseus looks likely to buy Time Warner Books. In News Review.
 ‘All fiction is for me a kind of magic and trickery - a confidence trick, trying to make people believe something is true that isn't.'  In our Writers' Quotations.
The third article in Computing on the Cheap takes you