Reading newspaper in English ( P.10 )

T H E U K ’ S B E S T S E L L I N G W R I T I N G M AG A Z I N E

JULY 2016

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“Starting to write seriously
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E D I TO R ’ S L E T T E R

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T H E U K ’ S B E S T S E L L I N G W R I T I N G M AG A Z I N E

JULY 2016

What’s the

story?
Create a
page-turning plot

Your self-publishing

success
stories

NEWS YOU CAN USE!
20 PACKED PAGES OF

Exclusive competitions
Win over £31,000 in prizes
What to write
Where to get published

MASTERCLASS
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readers like

Andy
McNab

Feature
perfect

How to hook
readers from your
first line

MAGGIE
O’FARRELL

“Starting to write seriously
was life-changing”

p001_wmagJuly.indd 1

24/05/2016 10:03

Published by
Warners Group Publications plc,
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Website: www.writers-online.co.uk
Publisher: Janet Davison
Email:
Editor: Jonathan Telfer
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Assistant editor: Tina Jackson
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Dear Reader

We hear a lot of statistics and analysis about the publishing industry
these days, much of it contradictory. It’s sometimes difficult to follow the
ups and downs of writing and publishing, but how much should you let it
bother you? There are trends that self and e-publishers need to be aware
of on a practical level (for example, see p11 for a thorough analysis of the
current e-publishing options available), but as writers, I’d say not at all.

You’ll tie yourself in knots trying to second guess the market, and by the
time you’ve noticed a trend and reacted to it, the landscape has changed
again. The beauty of writing is its freedom. We create our own worlds, we
populate them. We describe them in our own unique ways. We express
ourselves. And isn’t that what why we’re all drawn to writing?
Judging the Self-Published Book of the Year Awards (p24) this month,
it struck me how many of the titles would suit mainstream publication,
if publishers’ lists weren’t already too crowded. And how many of them
wouldn’t. But that’s irrelevant. What matters more is that all those authors
have invested themselves fully in their titles. All of them are labours of love
and their fulfilment is its own reward. So go ahead, write that 250,000word epic. Invent a new genre. Diligently double space your manuscript or
scribble it on the back of envelopes. Shout it from the rooftops or hide it in
your bottom drawer. Just create, and enjoy it for its own sake.

TAP HERE
TO WATCH

A WELCOME FROM
THE EDITOR

Jonathan Telfer
Editor

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When you have finished with
this magazine please recycle it

JEFF LYONS
is an author and professional

screenwriter with more than 25
years’ experience in film, television
and publishing as a writer, story
development consultant, and
editor. He teaches craft-of-story
workshops through Stanford
University’s Online Writer’s Studio
and guest lectures through UCLA
Extension Writers Programme, and
is a regular presenter at leading
entertainment and publishing
industry conferences in the
US and UK. Visit him at
www.jefflyonsbooks.com and
follow on Twitter @storygeeks

is the ebook manager for the
Troubador Publishing Group.
She oversees the ebook
department while working
alongside retailers’
merchandising teams to push
titles into promotions. She
educates authors and colleagues
about developments in the
digital publishing field. Rachel
is also the editor of the Self
Publishing Magazine website:
www.selfpublishingmagazine.
co.uk, which is a free online

resource that informs authors
about indie publishing.

DAVE GRIFFITHS
is a freelance proofreader, writer,
copy editor, journalism tutor,
reporter, and page designer for
various organisations, newspapers,
and magazines. He has been a
journalist for 27 years, working for
the Manchester Evening News
series of newspapers, PA New
Media/Ananova, and newspapers
in Congleton, Ormskirk, Wigan,
and London. Visit Dave on
his personal website: http://
davegriffithsjournalist.tumblr.
com/ and check out Barmcake
here: http://barmcakemag.
tumblr.com/

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© Copyright Warners Group Publications plc. ISSN 0964-9166
Warners Group Publications plc are not able to investigate the products or services provided by the advertisers in Writing Magazine nor to make recommendations about them. Readers
should make sensible enquiries themselves before sending money or incurring substantial costs in sending manuscripts or other material. Take particular care when responding to
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thousands of pounds) and readers should remember there can be no guarantees such publishing arrangements will prove profitable. There have been cases in which subsidy publishers

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Cover Image © Colin Hattersley/ Writer Pictures

p3 Editor's letter.indd 3

RACHEL GREGORY

www.writers-online.co.uk

JULY 2016

3

24/05/2016 10:20


In this issue ...
INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

PUBLISHING
10 Grumpy Old Bookman: Printing money

COVER STORY

Explaining the big bucks behind the big books

16: Star interview:
Maggie O’Farrell

11 Ebooks: Beyond Amazon

The leading contemporary novelist
says personal relationships are at the
heart of all her novels and her own
family is her muse

Understand the constantly changing e-publishing landscape

COVER STORY

28 Beat the bestsellers

32 Publishing behind the scenes:
Arriving at the end point

The style and technique of
Andy McNab

Our Matador novel comp winner reaches final marketing
and preparations for launch

30 On writing:
Lewis Carroll

85 Research tips: Group focus

13 From the other side of the desk:
Piers Blofeld

Plan your questions to get the best answers from a focus group

30 How I got published:
Women’s fiction author Anna Bell

44 Shelf life: Donna Leon

WRITING LIFE

The esteemed crimewriter shares her five
favourite reads

20 Beginners: Boxing clever

COVER STORY 52 Subscriber Spotlight

Join the writers’ training programme

WM subscribers share their writing success stories

22 Author experiences: The one-man magazine

58 Circles’ Roundup

How Dave Griffiths launched his own indie magazine

Writing groups share their interests and activities

34 Ten top tips: Keeping your cool as a writer

74 Crime file: Sarah Hilary

Don’t let writing stress make you hot under the collar

86 Author profile: Belinda McKeon

46 Talk it over: Find your voice

The award-winning writer talks about swapping her writer
and editor hats

Advice on finding your unique writing voice

108 My writing day: Scott Mariani
The prolific thriller writer’s approach is to
get his head down and get on with it

47 Novel ideas

WINrvon

A 6-day A eat
writer’s retr 0
worth £60

p21

WRITERS’ NEWS

56 Subscriber Spotlight: Escape. Learn.
Explore. Create
Our Iceland Writers Retreat competition winner shares
her experiences in the Land of Fire and Ice

78 Technology for writers: Digging deep
Secrets of successful research

110 Notes from the margin
Technology troubles drive our columnist to thoughts of destitution

88 Your essential
monthly round-up of
competitions, paying
markets, opportunities
to get into print and
publishing industry news

p4 contents.indd 4

23/05/2016 12:57


CONTENTS

POETRY

FICTION

COVER STORY

26 Story structure:
What’s the story?
Do you have a story or just a
situation? What’s the difference and
why should you care? Hollywood
script doctor Jeff Lyons explains

40 Open short story winner
Read the winning entry in our
First Line Short Story Competition

48 Under the microscope
We critique the first 300 words of a
reader’s YA novel

50 Fiction focus: Whose life
is it anyway?
Putting real-life characters into
fictional stories may be tempting,
but consider it carefully

42 Poetry competition winners
Read the winning entries in our Open
Poetry Competition

62 Subscriber-only
competition winner

64 Poetry workshop:
A verse monologue

Read the winning entry
in our Anticipation Short
Story Competition

Alison Chisholm explores a subscriber’s
scene-setting poem

74 Behind the tape
Crimewriter and police officer
Lisa Cutts answers your crime
procedure queries

65 Poetry in practice

76 Fantastic realms:
Town & country

66 Poetry primer: Poetry from A to Z

Assess the quality of your imagery with
practical poetry advice

Horror has a rich tradition of
rural settings, but urban locations
are increasingly
common. We
explore the

Writing
landscape and
fo
r children:
current trends

An alphabetic guide to the language of poetry

Animal
Magic!

RESOURCES
6 Miscellany
8 Letters
31 Editorial calendar

p70

80 Writers’ Web Watch
81 Computer clinic
82 Helpline

OUT AND ABOUT
33 Away from your desk
Get out of your garret and feed your head
with some writer-related cultural activities

COMPETITIONS
AND EXERCISES
36 Pen pushers:

Setting the scene
Exercises to inspire creative use of setting

37 Train your brain: Red editing pen

THE SELFPUBLISHED
BOOKS OF
THE YEAR
p24

Back soon!

NON-FICTION
14 Non-fiction: Five mistakes beginner writers make
Start your non-fiction writing on the right path

68 The business of writing: Time travel
39 Open competition launch
Win cash prizes and publication in our
1,000-Word Short Story Competition,
open to all writers

61 Subscriber-only
competition launch
Win cash prizes and publication in
our Travel Short Story Competition,
open only to subscribers

Work several months ahead to meet print deadlines

72 Features desk: Feature perfect
How to structure your feature article from snappy first line
to satisfying conclusion

83 Going to market
103 Travel writing know-how

www.writers-online.co.uk

p4 contents.indd 5

JULY 2016

5

23/05/2016 12:57


MISCELLANY

THE WORLD OF

WRITING
Audience gripping, bodice ripping, jargon busting, magic making
and cutting lit... it’s all go on the worldwide writing stage

Editors rule

Love is all around
Sisters Bea and Leah Koch

own The Ripped Bodice,
in Culver City, California,
claimed to be the only exclusively romance bookstore
in the United States. Bea looks after Regency and
other historical romance, and Leah checks out the
contemporary, paranormal and erotica subgenres,
especially witches and sports romance.
Destiny Jackson, writing in the Hollywood Reporter, said
Bea Koch had told her: ‘I was writing my thesis, Mending the Ripped Bodice, about
the portrayal of romance in fiction. We realised there was no dedicated bookstore
to the genre. Which is crazy! It seemed like it should lend itself to a bookstore
experience because romance is such a personal genre for so many people.’
Men make up twenty percent of the readership of romance novels, Bea said.
‘But I think there is a taboo topic around it. There is an issue to talk openly
about sex and books. There is some embarrassment that might have contributed
to it, but that’s the exact opposite of we’d like to present. There should be no
embarrassment when walking into The Ripped Bodice.’

Figures of speech

Revealing snippets about the relationships
between famous writers and their editors
were revealed by Miriam Cosic, writing in
Australia’s Financial Review.
‘Literary history is sprinkled with
stories of tempestuous relations between
famous writers and their editors,’ she said.
But she pointed out: ‘There’s a
flipside. Editors are also a writer’s coach, psychiatrist and chief
advocate, and the masterpieces that thrill us would never reach

our outstretched hands without them.’
She explained that Max Perkins had told Ernest
Hemingway, ‘that epitome of gun-toting, punch-swinging
masculinity’, to ‘tone it down’… and survived.
Max Perkins (pictured) fought for Hemingway’s The Sun
Also Rises, which in 1926 was considered too profane to publish
by conservatives at his firm.
And she described how the world eventually ‘found out that
Raymond Carver’s famously spare writing style was the result of
his editor, Gordon Lish, slashing and burning every sentence’.

Bravo for the Bard
peare gushed
Praise for William Shakes
appreciation in
from the wells of literary
his genius 400
a worldwide celebration of
years after his death.
Observer,
Robert McCrum, of the
: ‘As well as
rds
wo
sen
added his well cho
a kick-start,
ge
gua
lan

h
giving the Englis
jure characters
Shakespeare can also con
e, giving ‘to airy
apparently out of nowher
and a name’.
nothing a local habitation
nation like
agi
He has populated our im
iet’s Nurse,
Jul
et,
no other writer: Haml
Lear, Othello,
ly,
ick
Qu
ss
Macbeth, Mistre
and Romeo…
Shylock, Portia, Prospero
s stretches out
the list of classic archetype
acbeth), a cast of
to the crack of doom (M
real to us than any
characters perhaps more
.’

others in our literature
plays, ‘often
Robert explained that the

p6 Miscellany.indd 6

Image: Andrea
Vail CC/Flickr

rooted in
ancient
myth, in
ends appear,
which these theatrical leg
ries, too’.
have become archetypal sto
‘More
He added with a flourish:
ethe for
Go
s,
than Dante for the Italian
ssia,
Ru
for
in
the Germans, or Pushk
Englishfor
n
ico

an
s
Shakespeare remain
ut the world.
speaking peoples througho
urally. From the
Such ambitions came nat
ng his work on
first, he was always pitchi
le. The motto
the biggest stage imaginab
s Totus
wa
e,
of the Globe, his theatr
whole
he
(T
nem
mundus agit histrio
).’
use
world is a playho

23/05/2016 09:14


MISCELLANY

Short focus

Journalist Anthony Cummins was obviously disappointed
when a friend did not want to read the book of short
stories he recommended.
‘Short stories are for magazines,’ she told him; ‘if I’m
reading a book, I want it to be a book.’
Anthony told the tale in The Daily Telegraph, adding
Spot the difference: Mark Haddon’s
that he didn’t think she is alone in assuming that the
The Pier Falls in the UK (left) and US (right)
short story is the novel’s poor relation in this country,
whereas ‘North American writers are more likely to make
a name for themselves from stories…’
Anthony, who also writes for the Big Issue and the Times Literary Supplement, said it is
now fashionable to build novels out of short stories. Two of the writers to publish short story
collections this year have previously written novels in this style – Mark Haddon (The Red House),
and Philip Hensher (The Emperor Waltz).
He praised recent collections – ‘a new crop of short fiction proves how nimble the form is’…
‘several new collections of short fiction are as carefully designed as a pre-iTunes LP.’ Anthony concluded:
‘It’s a form that asks for more attention, not less. But going by the current crop, it deserves it.’

The magic of books
American popular scientist
Carl Sagan (1934-1996),
who was author, co-author
or editor of twenty books,
including The Dragons of Eden
(1977), which won a Pulitzer
Prize, once wrote: ‘What an
astonishing thing a book is.’
He continued, the

Goodreads website recalls:
‘It’s a flat object made from
a tree with flexible parts on
which are imprinted lots of
funny dark squiggles. But one
glance at it and you’re inside

the mind of another person,
maybe somebody dead for
thousands of years. Across
the millennia, an author is
speaking clearly and silently
inside your head, directly to
you. Writing is perhaps the
greatest of human inventions,
binding together people
who never knew each other,
citizens of distant epochs.
Books break the shackles
of time. A book is proof
that humans are capable of
working magic.’

www.writers-online.co.uk

p6 Miscellany.indd 7

Make it easy
to understand
Successful non-fiction authors are,

by definition, experts in their subject
matter, but should avoid using too much
specialised language, suggested Phil
Stamper-Halpin, manager of publishing
development and author platforms
for Penguin Random House, on the
company’s News for Authors website.
Phil, who wrote an article on this
topic, together with editors from several
publishing imprints, said this tendency
could lead to ‘overuse of jargon or
professional lingo, or to explain things
in a way that’s difficult for a layperson
to understand’.
He emphasised the importance of
knowing your readers. ‘What is their
background? How much do they
already know about the subject matter?
When you connect with readers and
develop a relatable but unique author
voice, you can become a permanent
part of your readers’ lives.
‘The writing process is full of pitfalls
that writers of all experience levels can
slip into, but great stories are made by
how you address and overcome them.
Whether by focusing on showing your
story to readers or drawing out the
lesson for a richer reading experience,
you will end up with a stronger story

by watching out for these pitfalls in
revisions. And in this way, your readers
will stay engaged and learn from your
words,’ he added.

SEPTEMBER
JULY 2015
2016

7

23/05/2016 09:14


TITLE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
We want to hear your news and views on the writing world, your advice for fellow writers
– and don’t forget to tell us what you would like to see featured in a future issue...
Write to: Letters to the editor, Writing Magazine, Warners
Group Publications plc, 5th Floor, 31-32 Park Row, Leeds
LS1 5JD; email: (Include your
name and address when emailing letters. Ensure all

STAR LETTER
Don’t give up, submit
Giving up? I’ve thought about it.
When I first told my friends about my plan to submit
my novel to agents and publishers, they all cried ‘No!’ in
horror. They worried how I’d cope with rejection.

‘You’re too sensitive,’ said my girlfriend. ‘You are!
You changed the voice on your SatNav, because you
said the default voice sounded… “too judgemental”
of your driving.’
Well… I am a little sensitive, it’s true. But, this was
different. I had confidence in my book. Secretly, I
thought I’d get a handful of rejections before someone
recognised my genius and signed me up. Don’t we all
harbour that secret hope when we submit our work?
It didn’t happen like that. To date, I’ve had seven
rejections. For someone like me, that’s a lot. I dread
opening my email now, but you can’t read email with
your eyes screwed shut. You have to do this with your
eyes and your heart wide-open. Yeah, it’s scary.
Rejection isn’t all bad, though. I’ve received some great
feedback from publishers. This whole experience has
been a lesson in humility, reality and it has definitely
made me stronger. I know there will be many more
rejections, and I’m ready for them.
In the meantime, here is my submission survival-guide:
1 Take any rejection gracefully, and not personally.
2 Watch all the Rocky movies for inspiration.
3 Keep reading and writing, to improve your work.
4 Keep trying.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

The star letter each month earns a copy
of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2016,
courtesy of Bloomsbury,
www.writersandartists.co.uk

8

JULY 2016

p8 Letters.indd 8

letters, a maximum of 250 words, are exclusive to Writing
Magazine. Letters may be edited.)
When referring to previous articles/letters, please state
month of publication and page number.

Inspiring features
I found Tina Jackson’s advice in Basic Features (WM, May) about
generating a good idea and constructing a story quite inspiring. It’s not
enough to just attend a workshop or a gallery opening and think you
have a story – you need to have an angle. I found this out last year when
I walked the Isle of Wight coastal path and pitched the idea of walking
round an island to a national magazine well in advance of the Isle of
Wight Walking Festival and they snapped it up.
You don’t have to travel far to find a good story; explore your
home town with a pair of fresh eyes, as if you were a tourist on your
first visit and seek out a good idea and an upcoming event to hang
it on. Perhaps someone famous stayed there and the anniversary of
their birth or death is later in the year. Just remember that national
magazines usually plan months ahead, so make sure you pitch your
idea at least six months in advance.
Happy explorations!
FIONA TROWBRIDGE
Sandown, Isle of Wight

://FILE_FULFILLED
In my work as event director, I plan the project
month by month; keep on top of deadlines; have
great notes in readiness for meetings – yet, when it
comes to meeting competition deadlines, I’m pants.
2016 was to be the year when I took myself in
hand, and entered every competition in Writing
Magazine but here we are, April, and not a single
entry submitted. Paper Post-it notes drop off the
board; computer Sticky Notes get overlooked on an over-crowded screen, and
the wall calender is overcrowded with dentists, doctors, rowdy suppers – all the
good things in life – so no hope there. Then a flash of inspiration!
When the March issue dropped through my letterbox, I worked my way
through the competition and the Writers’ News pages, picking up the pieces I
wanted to target. For each one, I created a blank Word doc using the story’s
subject, word count and deadline as the file name, bringing them all together
in one folder. Now, when I open the folder, whatever I am working on, I am
gently reminded of the other deadlines.
I know it sounds a bit anal but here we are: file “01. : Letter to the Editor_
wordcount open_end_April”... mission accomplished. “02.Paranormal_
May16_1500” is in hand, so this may indeed be the year that I actually write.
The only problem is – where to file the folder?
JO SCOTT
Broadstairs, Kent
www.writers-online.co.uk

23/05/2016 09:15

Flash of inspiration
I’ve just discovered a sneaky writing trick.
In the past I’ve found that if I’m given a prompt or a theme for a writing
competition, I’ll think up scenarios that I would never have dreamed of had
I been given the ‘any genre, any theme’ open brief. The constriction acts as a
kind of creative pressure with successful results. (I’m just one of those people
who find too much choice daunting.)
In April’s issue of WM I noticed a flash fiction competition with a certain
theme. Inspiration came immediately and in no time I had my piece written.
However when I read the guidelines I realised it wouldn’t quite fit. I was
disappointed as I thought the story good. Then I remembered another flash
fiction competition advertised in WM. This one had an open brief, but I’d
already put it aside as I hadn’t come up with any good ideas for it. With a little
bit of editing down to the shorter word count, my story now fitted perfectly.
So from now on whenever I see the ‘dreaded’ any genre, any theme open
brief in WM, I’ll just have a sneaky look at the themed competitions and see if
they’ll give me the inspiration I need.
MARY SHEEHAN
Dunmore East, Co Waterford, Ireland

Walking in someone
else’s shoes
May I share a revelation that I hope might help
others struggling with the choice of first or third
person for their novels?
I was fifty pages (all in the first person) into my family
saga when I ran into a brick wall. My protagonist – my
fault not his – had become a bore. His point of view, his
feelings, his problems. He was strangling my story.
I rewrote it in the third person. Ever take off a pair

of tight shoes? Or get out of your girdle, ladies? Or stop
watching paint dry? Wow, what a relief! My characters
danced for joy and skipped onto the page laughing and
shouting and turning cartwheels. Free! Thank God we’re
free at last! Here we are, now write about us! Never
mind him and his boring same old feelings.
My book was transformed from a wishy-washy
watercolour to a brilliant eye-watering Jackson Pollock.
Now I can see for miles, not just to the end of the street.
Now you can see the circus – not just the ringmaster.
Even my protagonist was impressed and
bloomed and blossomed like a rampant bamboo.
First person? Last choice!
FRED CANAVAN
East Cowes, Isle of Wight

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

poetry

NOVELS

SHORT STORIES

photographs

family histories

p8 Letters.indd 9

In almost every interview in WM the author says ‘Read extensively.’
I’ve tried – I really tried.
I tried historical fiction – two pages in I put it down never to pick up again.
I tried romance. I got as far as the heroine swooning (or the modern version of it)
and dropped it in disgust. I’ve never seen a woman swoon for love in my life.
I tried a gritty chicklit (my daughter loves them) and hated it.
Women behaving like thugs doesn’t interest me.
Erotica is a non-starter – I must be one of the few who never read
50 Shades of Grey.
I love sci-fi and detective – but I was trying to keep away
from them so I tried fantasy. Mostly werewolves and vampires.
Can’t get my head around them being ‘nice’ – well, nicer than
the original Dracula.
Even modern sci-fi mostly leaves me cold. The most recent one I
read starts with robots making love – another concept I struggled to
assimilate. I got past that and waded through the book – waded
being the word and wondered why I bothered.
I pick up a book, attracted by the cover, read the
blurb on the back and put it back. Sometimes I read
the opening pages of a book online. I would love to
read extensively, but I can’t find anything to read.
Am I the only one to find modern book
trends uninspiring?
CATHERINE SMARIDGE
Ivybridge, Devon
Find some books you love and read
them for pleasure, Catherine! Don’t worry
if they’re not contemporary – Ed
COOKBOOKS

Self-publishing a book is cheaper
and easier than you think

biographies

From design
to distribution

Widely disappointed

YORK PUBLISHING SERVICES LTD
Tel: 01904 431213
email:
www.yps-publishing.co.uk
YPS are recommended by the
Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook

23/05/2016 09:15


GRUMPY OLD BOOKMAN

Printing money
Michael Allen explains the big bucks behind big books

T

here has always been big
money in publishing. I’ve
never seen much of it

myself, and you probably
won’t either – but it’s interesting to
know how it’s earned.
So we’ll start with Sir Walter Scott.
In the early nineteenth century Scott
was a highly successful novelist, but he
was also a partner in a printing firm
owned by his friend James Ballantyne.
In 1825 this firm went bust. Scott was
left with a personal liability for debts
which amounted, in present values,
to over £9.6 million. He refused the
many offers of help and dedicated
himself to writing more books at a
prodigious rate. By the time of his
death in 1832 he had almost paid off
the debt, and it was fully discharged
shortly after he died.
The fact that the right sort of book
could generate huge sums did not go
unnoticed. As a result, books which
were thought capable of being big
sellers (particularly novels) became
valuable properties. Publishers began
to offer big advance payments just
for signing the contract.
By the end of the 19th century the
smell of money had attracted a new
breed of middleman into the bookpublishing business. He (and to begin
with it was usually a he) became known

as a literary agent. Publishers, such as
William Heinemann, despised him
and referred to him as a parasite. But
writers soon realised that having an
agent could be a big help in negotiating
a contract and maximizing income.
AP Watt was arguably the first
important agent, and he represented
such famous names as Wilkie Collins,
Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling.
In the 20th century there were
further developments that affected the
way in which serious money was made.
The first was the growth of sales in
paperback form, particularly after the
end of World War II. This increased
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JULY 2015

p10 Grumpy.indd 10

against each other, just for the right to
the power of the agents still further,
represent one promising new author.
because now they could sell the same
A lady called Felicia Yap, who has
book twice, even in the home market.
taken a course at Faber’s creativeFirst they could sell it in traditional
writing academy, has produced a

hardback form; and secondly they
thriller which has been considered so
could do a deal with those distressingly
absolutely red-hot that no less than
vulgar upstarts, the paperback guys. For
eight literary agents were willing to
example, in 1980 the paperback rights
bid for the right to represent her.
to Judith Krantz’s Princess Daisy sold
Who dreamed up this cunning
for a then-record $3.2 million.
plan, and how the auction was
It took the traditional
conducted, I am not in a
publishers some time to
position to say. In any event,
wake up to reality (it
the winner was Jonny Geller,
usually does), but once
An agent who acquired
the joint chief executive
they noticed the large
a thoroughly commercial
of that venerable firm of
profits being made in
agents, Curtis Brown. Mr
paperbacks, the bigger
author – either through
G is well known, to those
firms either bought

skill or pure chance – was paying
proper attention, as
up one of the new
in a powerful position.
the representative of such other
paperback companies as
successful thriller writers as Sam
a going concern, or they
Bourne and SJ Parris.
built their own paperback
However… Before we get too
divisions from scratch.
excited, let us remember that things
Either way, an agent who
can sometimes go pear-shaped, even
acquired a thoroughly commercial
with a powerful agent behind you.
author – either through skill or pure
Back in the noughties, 4th Estate
chance – was in a powerful position.
was persuaded to pay a reported
Armed with a potentially valuable
£350,000 for the rights to Gautam
piece of intellectual property, the
Malkani’s novel Londonstani. But
agents could drive a hard bargain.
sales did not go quite as expected. So
And they soon found a way to pit one
Malkani is no longer with his original
firm against another: they did it by

publisher and is being obliged to
selling the anticipated bestseller via
crowd-fund the publication of his
an auction. The agent sent the same
new novel through Unbound.
book to the ten biggest publishers in
Similarly, Louise Walters’ first novel,
town. Simultaneously. The biggest offer
Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase, published in
secured the deal. This didn’t make the
2014, had respectable sales figures for
agent popular but it certainly made
a debut book and did particularly well
him and his author a pile of money.
in foreign rights: the book has been
And so we continued, much until
translated into fourteen languages, and
the present day, with large sums of
two of her foreign deals were for
money occasionally being paid in
six-figure sums. But the publishers
advance, sometimes to previously
have flatly rejected her second novel
unknown authors. And now, courtesy
(‘too difficult’) and now she is taking
of a report in The Bookseller, I
the self-publishing route.
can tell you of a further dramatic
So, my advice, as ever, is to tread
development. Some really smart

carefully though the minefield of
thinker has come up with a kind
modern publishing. And don’t get
of preliminary auction. This time,
too excited about the money.
the agents are being invited to bid

“”

www.writers-online.co.uk

23/05/2016 09:16


EBOOKS

Beyond Amazon

O

E-publishing is a constantly changing landscape. Understand the
marketplace and distribution options available with advice from
Matador ebook manager Rachel Gregory

place for distributors in America in
ften, I’m contacted by
terms of the number of new ebooks
prospective and existing
made available for sale through them
clients who are convinced

each month, with Google Play and
that the only way they will
Kobo following closely behind. So,
be successful as an ebook
what does this keen competition
author is to publish exclusively
between Amazon and other retailers
through Kindle. There are inarguable
mean for authors? The answer is not
benefits to doing this for some authors
clear-cut. While earning information
but from my experience of the market,
indicates that over 80% of paid
it isn’t the best option for everyone
indie ebook authors were
– and it’s certainly not the only
publishing through Amazon
route worth considering.
in 2015, the oft-publicised
It’s fair to say that it’s
opinion that this means
becoming harder to make
Retailers who are
there is no real contest
sales in an increasingly
selective about the content
in terms of distributors
competitive market. It’s
they acquire will start to
is shortsighted. When

also true that Amazon
considering
the return
remains the dominant
see customers moving
that an author receives
ebook retailer and the
across to them.
per sale, Amazon is far
distribution options that
from generous. Kindle’s payare available to indie authors
per-page system, brandished
are diminishing… but there are
as a new, fairer remuneration
still plenty of choices to make.
method for authors, can result in
a fluctuating, minimal royalty rate.
The digital publishing
Retailers take varying percentages
landscape is changing…
from each sale and Amazon’s cut
It’s impossible to ignore the influence
is among the lowest, provided an
that Amazon is having in the evolving
ebook is priced within a certain
digital publishing landscape. There is
threshold, but it is the only retailer
no disputing that it holds the lion’s
to take a delivery charge in addition
share of the ebook market; the figures

to their cut in many cases. According
are too significant to be overlooked (it
to analysts of the Author Earnings
is home to almost 75% of all ebooks,
Survey (www.authorearnings.com),
including indie titles, and around
when considering indie ebooks as
85% of all self-published ebooks).
well as those published by the trade,
Apple and Nook hold joint second

“”

www.writers-online.co.uk

p11 Changing ebooks.indd 11

the smaller ebook retailers were found
to be giving a larger return to indie
authors; over a third of the royalties
that Kobo currently pays go to selfpublished authors.

Saturated by self-publishing
Self-published writers are forging
their way ahead in the ebook market.
This has elicited a mixed response
from the industry. With a saturation
of new titles comes the inevitability
of a more selective customer base
and the resultant fallout… there is

reluctance from trade publishers to
sell their ebooks at a lower price (in
a bid to maximise the return they
receive for every hard-earned sale).
Increasingly, suppliers are seeing
publishers as competitors as
opposed to collaborators, which
in turn creates complications in
the form of competitive pricing,
hefty retailer-imposed discounts,
price matching as the norm across
the industry and more limited
merchandising opportunities for
independent authors.
Also concerning (and relevant
because of its affect on retailers’
earnings, their reputations and their
willingness or reluctance to distribute
new titles) is the problematic issue of
questionable quality assurance in the
ebook sphere. This has long been a
simmering issue but now, retailers are
JULY 2016

11

23/05/2016 10:37


EBOOKS

taking action. It may have had a part
to play in a number of ebooks being
removed in Scribd’s summer 2015
purge of romance titles, wherein they
cited the need to keep content ‘fresh’.
It has certainly led to a generalised
reluctance to purchase indie unless
there is an assurance of quality. Some
retailers have even blocked new
publisher sign-ups. This does not
signal the end of ebooks. Authors and
publishers might have to work harder
to be featured, but it may mean
that those retailers who are selective
about the content they acquire will
start to see customers moving across
to them, rather than turning their
backs on the ebook format. This
could be why Amazon launched its
error-reporting system for ebooks
early this year, whereby readers can
flag errors and inaccuracies in a title
they are reading… missing the point
that quality assurance should not
take place after a title has been made
available for sale.

How are these changes
affecting authors’ options?

Although some people are predicting
the end of the ebook, there is still
plenty of growth in the market;
self-publishing is a prime example
but there is also related progress
in the form of new start-ups who
are introducing innovative ways to
publish. In the wake of each closure,
other companies inevitably fill the
void, bringing ingenuity. Existing
businesses may step in and salvage
the useable elements, combine them
with their own ideas and launch
something new that might just work.
This is not about trying to predict
future progressions. Not many critics
thought the ebook subscription
model could withstand the market
when it was launched, particularly
not when Kindle Unlimited was
pitched against it. Yet, Scribd
continues to thrive since its 2007
conception. Similarly, who could
have predicted the surge in demand
for ebooks in libraries, even during
the height of ebooks’ popularity?
All you can do as an author is to
research your target audience and
each distributor in order to make
informed decisions about how and

where to publish.
People are still buying ebooks, but
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JULY 2016

p11 Changing ebooks.indd 12

WHAT DO YOU WANT?
WHAT DO READERS WANT?
In addition to looking at retailers’ requirements, decide
what is most important to you when it comes to
publishing an ebook. Consider the genre and the target
audience/reader demographic. Where do these people
buy their ebooks? Certain retailers appeal to specific
customers; do your research. For example, children’s
and young adult publishing is one of the main growth
areas for digital at the moment, with some retailers
recognising this trend and dedicating additional time
and money to these digital store fronts.

they are making their buying decisions
differently. Largely gone are the days
when a consumer would make a
decision based solely on a seductive
price. Now that print is in resurgence,
authors need to pay ever more careful
attention to their readership, as well as
to the products that they are producing.
In a changeable industry, there is one

constant – as an author, your motivation
lies in gaining readers. The catch is that
the reduction in indiscriminate ebook
buying coincides with the diminishing
distribution options that are available.
As each channel folds (first Blinkbox
Books, then Oyster, Flipkart’s ebook
store, and now Nook’s UK sales
channel) the choices for authors are
reduced. In light of this, what is the
most effective way to e-publish?
Whether you are working with a
company or going DIY, you have
options. Different solutions suit varying
budgets and aims. There are companies
that will guide authors through some or
all of the production process. Despite
the more restricted choices, you are still
far from being tied to one retailer. In
fact, in the wake of so many retailers
shutting down, many of the remaining
ones have introduced tempting
initiatives to attract the best new content
– and the most promising authors.
So, with a fair amount of choice still
available to you, how should you tailor
your approach to ebook publishing?

Assessing your
distribution options

With second-place so closely contended
among several of the best-known ebook
retailers, it’s important to know what
demarcates them from one another.
The following is just a
sample of distributors

that you can publish through. Some of
them accept manuscripts from authors,
others require publisher affiliation; a
legitimate self-publishing company is
likely to have contracts signed with
several of these companies.

KOBO WRITING LIFE is a
possible option for those who are
keen to distribute through Canada’s
popular ebook store. Affiliated with
WHSmith, its own figures show that
its customer base is heavily weighted
towards women aged 40+ and readers
of popular fiction. It offers lots of
opportunities to feature ebooks in
themed promotions on its homepage,
which are promoted worldwide. It
is worth noting that while it offers a
manuscript conversion tool, it produces
files to meet its specific requirements.
NOOK PRESS is free to use and

carries the clout of a major book
retailer (it is owned by Barnes &
Noble). However, its ebooks are
placed in a segregated section of their
store. This may be a selling point for
you – it’s certainly intended to be a
USP – but it won’t suit everyone. It’s
now only available in the US; the UK
store has closed.

APPLE iBOOKS If an ebook adheres

to its strict specifications then it can
be sold on its site, whether or not you
used the epub creation tool, iBooks
Author, which creates ebook files in a
proprietary format. If you are publishing
a picture book, Apple might be your
preferred option – it offers an intuitive
design tool and gives the best return
to authors on sales of complex ebooks.
Currently, there are no obvious moves to
push indie content over other content,
which creates the impression of a level
playing field for authors.

GOOGLE PLAY has recently put a

hold on new publisher accounts. It will
not accept submissions from individuals,

but you can sell ebooks with it via a
publisher or aggregation service that
already has a Google Play account.

www.writers-online.co.uk

23/05/2016 10:37


NEW SERIES!
OVERDRIVE supplies ebooks to

libraries worldwide as well as to some
retailers, predominantly in America.
If you publish through a publisher,
independent or otherwise, they
will probably have an account with
OverDrive, allowing you to make your
ebook available to most libraries in the
UK and the USA.

AMAZON KINDLE KDP SELECT
is not the only way to self-publish
an ebook with Amazon, but it is the
prevalent method. If you use a publisher,
they may have access to some other
Amazon platforms with consistent
royalty options for authors. One of the
terms of KDP Select is that it requires
exclusivity; once you sign up, you

are locked in for ninety days. During
that period, you can arrange a fiveday promotion, making your ebook
available for free or for a reduced price
that increases incrementally. It may
also approach you about featuring your
ebook in a Daily Deal, and there are
paid-for advertising opportunities that
you can bid for.

Don’t overlook libraries!
At the end of 2015, OverDrive
announced that its readers had borrowed

Things to consider when
choosing your distributor(s)
Do you mind its exclusivity
terms, if it has them? Do
the benefits outweigh any
negatives? Is this the place
where your target audience
shops? Does the retailer
have a good reputation with
customers and authors? Are
merchandising teams open to
suggestions from individuals or
publishers about relevant new
content? Does it supply content
to other, smaller retailers? Are
schools and/or libraries crucial
to your selling strategy? Know

the answers to these questions
before you proceed.

over 169 million ebooks in the course
of the year. That’s fractionally below a
25% increase on digital lending through
them in the previous year. According
to the Chartered Institute of Library
and Information Professionals (CILIP),
47% of the UK population has used a
library in the last twelve months and
there is huge demand for content in
ebook format. Libraries are a vital part
of the digital supply chain. This is
reflected in the success of BorrowBox,
an Australian ebook distributor that is
enjoying growing success. It supplies
to the majority of libraries in Australia
and New Zealand, as well as to some
libraries in the UK. The great thing
about distribution through libraries is
that there is real competition because
one library can purchase its ebooks
through several sales platforms so
they each want to provide the best,
wide-reaching content.
Put simply, acquisitions librarians are
the gatekeepers between new content
and their patrons – for them, a lot
rests on making good buying decisions

and acquiring the best content… but
they are willing to take a chance on
new titles, provided they are priced
competitively and they are associated
with a reputable publisher. Librarians
make their buying choices quickly and
on a tight budget. The only way to
stand a chance of being purchased by
librarians, even if your ebook is readily
available to them through a supplier
they use, is to produce excellent quality
content, and to be noticed. As with
retailers, securing merchandising spots
and promotion through respected
review sites such as NetGalley.com, are
crucial in securing the first few sales;
word of mouth can help from there.

To conclude…
As with any aspect of self-publishing,
the distribution process can be an
experimental one; try not to see it
as an either-or decision. There are a
number of great ebook publishing
platforms available to authors. Their
efficacy really depends on what you
hope to achieve when publishing
your ebook. Good luck!

www.writers-online.co.uk

p11 Changing ebooks.indd 13

From the

OTHE R SIDE
OF THE DESK

Don’t expect personalised feedback and
when you get it, don’t take it as gospel,
warns Sheil Land agent Piers Blofeld

O

ne of the biggest complaints authors make about
the process of submitting their work to agents is the
fact that the chances are they will get a standard one
or two line rejection and that there will be no feedback
contained in it. But the fact is that even if you do get
‘feedback’ it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
It is rare that it is exactly what it seems.
At least ninety percent of what crosses my desk just
gets our standard rejection. I’d love to give feedback
on more, but not only do I not have the time to give
everyone the attention they probably deserve, I just
don’t have the stamina either.

One of the curses of self publishing is
that it encourages authors to stay with
novels they should let go of. Move on,

write more, write better!
For the remaining ten percent I have a variety of
responses. A very small number, mostly writing nonfiction, are told they should approach specialist publishers
direct: if your book has a clear niche appeal this makes
sense and the sums of money involved will likely mean
there’s no point in involving an agent.
A few others, pretty much always first time novelists, get
turned down but encouraged to keep going, develop their
craft and to come back to me with their next book. I can’t
stress enough how much I believe the bottom drawer is
an aspiring author’s best friend. One of the curses of selfpublishing is that it encourages authors to stay with novels
they should let go of. Move on, write more, write better!
Mostly, though, the reason I get in touch is because there
are elements that I really like but there is also significant
work will be required for the book to be ready to show to
publishers. In other words, I really only get in touch because
I think there is something practical I can actually do.
And it is this practical aspect that is I think so often
overlooked by writers (and I know, I’ve been there myself)
who are often preoccupied by being told that they are ‘good’.
That is not an agent’s – or a publisher’s – job. Our job is to
find things that will work in the market place and that is a
slightly different thing, and it is that which is at the heart of
ALL rejection letters.
JULY 2016

13

23/05/2016 10:37

Five mistakes

BEGINNER WRITERS MAKE
Starting off in non-fiction writing? Get yourself
on the right path by following advice from
writing tutor and experienced feature writer
Alex Gazzola

‘Give your mistakes the respect they deserve, learn what they
have to teach, and they will propel you forward.’

A

lthough I’m not normally a
fan of so-called motivational
or inspirational quotes, that
one, from Ralph Marston of the
Daily Motivator, strikes a chord. You
could argue it is true for almost all
aspects of life, but in my view it is
certainly true of writing.
Even those of us who have been
working with words for years make
mistakes, and I expect to be committing
howlers and bloopers until I retire.
There is no avoiding them. They are
a sign you are human, and that what
you’re trying to achieve is challenging.
As a writing tutor, I’ve worked with

many students nervous of putting a
foot wrong when they embark on a
writing journey – and hamstrung by
the essential constructive criticism
which follows when they dare take a
step forward.
It shouldn’t be like this, and the only
way to get over it is to celebrate the
error, laugh at it, talk freely about it, be
proud of it – essentially, ‘out’ it.
As writers, we should aim towards
becoming fearless about making
mistakes, unashamed of them when
we do, and satisfied to have improved
because of them. Beginners have the
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JULY 2016

p14 5 mistakes.indd 14

most to learn – and the most mistakes
to make from which to learn. No
matter how shameful you think yours
are, someone, somewhere, will have
beaten you for cringe value. Surely my
own early-career toe-curler – inviting
myself to the offices of an editor who
had commissioned me, in order to
use her ‘library’ for research (she had

neither a library, nor a spare desk,
nor an inclination to spend time
with me) – will put your apostrophe
humiliation to shame?
However, learning from your mistakes
is conditional upon your recognition
of them. What if you don’t see where
you’re going wrong? What if you’re
repeating mistakes, and can’t understand
why you’re not progressing? Could these
unseen mistakes be holding you back?
It was this idea that drove my new
ebook, 50 Mistakes Beginner Writers
Make. Faithful to its title, it explains the
things you might be getting wrong as
you kick start your non-fiction writing
career – and offers guidance towards
putting things right. Here are five.

1 Going it alone
Think you need to chain yourself to the
keyboard? Take the phone off the hook?

Hang up a Do Not Disturb sign at your
door? Lock yourself away until your
work is done?
It’s untrue that writing is – or should
be – a solitary pursuit. One of the
pleasures of the job is the interaction
with people whose paths you wouldn’t

ordinarily cross. Setting aside your
friends and family, your writing team
has to include other writers, editors,
press officers, researchers, librarians,
experts, spokespeople – and ordinary
members of the public.
Fellow writers will furnish
you with support, feedback,
companionship. Editors will offer
guidance, leads. Members of the
public will provide case studies to
support the themes of your articles.
Experts will offer quotes with which
to lend authority to them. Librarians
will help if you’re stuck on research.
In non-fiction you need people,
because people solve the problems
you encounter.
‘Is my article any good?’ (Ask a more
experienced writer – he’ll tell you.)
‘I can’t find an expert in thingamijigs
to interview!’ (Ask your editor – she
might know one.)
‘I don’t know what to write about!’
(Eavesdrop on members of the public
– they want you to write about the
price of milk and the inefficiency of

www.writers-online.co.uk

23/05/2016 10:35


NON-FICTION

the bus service.)
I understand some new writers may
want to work independently of outside
influence, but it can’t work that way.
The process of publication involves
editors, sub-editors and designers, all of
whom take the words you provide and
shape them into a finished product on
which not only your fingerprints will
be found. Publishing is a team sport.
Embrace it in your writing too.

2 Me, myself and I
A knock-on effect of seeking to work
alone is introspection. You mine only
the content of your head for material.
You’ll have heard the advice to ‘write
about what you know’ – and what can
you possibly know better than, well,
you? If you’re like one of the many
students of mine who choose writing
because they ‘can’t wait to tell the
world what I think’, then writing about
oneself or one’s opinions may seem an
obvious choice.

It’s not that this can’t lead to sales. If
you have a dramatic story or adventure
to relate, you may interest an editor.
If you have a controversial opinion on
a niche issue, and can argue your case
well, you may be able to sell a ‘my shout’
piece to a newspaper or magazine.
But there are problems. Beginner
writers can find it difficult to know
which aspects of their lives are
marketable, and which aren’t. Getting
it wrong and failing to sell yourself
in this way can be demoralising.
A rejection of your opinion can
also sting. The thin-skinned can be
knocked sideways. It hurts.
Mostly, readers are selfish. They
want to read about themselves, more
than about you. It’s a harsh truth, but
readers aren’t interested in who you are
– merely in what you write. Mainly,
it’s what you write for them or about
them that matters.
This article is, I hope, interesting
to you because it deals with your
mistakes, not mine. Most other
articles in this magazine are profiles of
writers – offering useful and practical
insights – or advice articles to writers
about their work. There is a far greater

market for writing about the reader –
than about you.
Look outside of your head for ideas,
and look to those people I mentioned in
No. 1 to help you. They will sustain you
in the long run.

3 Not reading
‘If you don’t have the time to read,’ said
Stephen King, ‘you don’t have the time
or the tools to write.’
I hear the ‘no time to read’ excuse
a lot. No time to read – but plenty to
write? Take half of your allotted writing
time and dedicate it to reading.
It is that important. Reading
inspires ideas, broadens your mind
and stimulates your intellect. It boosts
word power, improves grammar and
punctuation, and shows you what
language can achieve. It fills you with
questions and inspiration – lifeblood
to any writer. It makes you more
interesting, which will eventually make
you more readable. Reading is fuel to
your writing fire.
Take time to find material you like. It
could be recipes; it could be superhero
comics. To begin with, it doesn’t matter,
so long as you start to read. If you’re

stuck, ask one of those people from No.
1 for recommendations – tell a librarian
a bit about yourself, for instance, and
she’ll find you a book, no problem.
Don’t worry about the impact reading
widely may have on your writing style
or ‘voice’ – another common concern
among beginners. Good non-fiction is
straightforward, factual and educational.
Editors and readers of non-fiction
aren’t bothered with signature literary
flourishes or artful linguistic displays.
And once you’ve got the reading
habit, you’ll find you want to read
more, and a greater diversity of
material. Indulge yourself. Local and
national papers, glossy magazines,
cheap magazines, books, ebooks, and
blogs. Boxes of cereal, road signs, ‘lost
cat’ notices on lampposts. Classified
ads, notices in windows, terms and
conditions and legal smallprint. The
junk mail through your door; the
fliers that drop out of your magazines.
Catalogues, phone directories and
dictionaries. Twitter streams, Facebook
rants, Daily Mail comments. The quotes
on movie posters. Read everything.

TAP

HERE
To learn more
about the craft
of feature
writing

5 Forgetting your reader

For more mistakes and
how to avoid them, see
Alex’s book 50 Mistakes
Beginner Writers Make:
/>50beginners

4 ‘I have no ideas’
It’s important to disavow beginners of
this myth because all sorts of negative
consequences stem from it – writer’s
block being just one.
You never have no ideas. Your actual
problem is you have too many.
Every thought you have had as you’ve
been reading this article is an idea.
www.writers-online.co.uk

p14 5 mistakes.indd 15

If you read No. 1 and thought you
need even more people than I suggested
you might – then that’s an idea. How

about ‘The ten people you need to write
a novel’? There’s a piece right there, for a
writing magazine or literary magazine.
Every thought you have while reading
something I urged you to read in No.
3 is an idea. You may read a ‘lost cat’
notice on a lamppost and wonder how
effective such notices are. You may be
curious enough to eventually follow
up with the number provided to see
whether the campaign was successful.
You may then call cat charities and see
whether some research has been done
on the subject. And you may, then,
have a great idea for Cat World on your
hands – ‘What to do when your cat goes
missing’ or ‘Five great lamppost “lost
cat” signs that worked’.
Everything you experience through
your five senses is an idea. Everything
you feel is an idea.
You have an absurd amount of ideas.
Nurture them and explore them.
This article is for beginner non-fiction
writers. Others may have come along
for the ride, but I haven’t (I hope) lost
sight of my target reader, nor stopped
speaking to him at any point.
It’s a common mistake to do just that.
But first, you need to know who

your reader is. Before you write, you
must decide for whom you are writing.
Writing without a reader in mind is like
lecturing to an empty hall.
Once you have decided who he is,
do not get sidetracked and address
others. If I were to abruptly start
talking about poetry, I would be
turning away from the target reader
I captured in my introduction, and
addressing wannabe poets who may
have long ago turned the page.
I do understand the beginner’s urge to
write for ‘everyone’ and to want to reach
as many people as possible. Writers want
to communicate with the masses. That
is honourable. But the problem is the
masses aren’t reading. The readers of
this magazine are writers, a minority,
not non-writers, the majority. Every
publication has a specific demographic
you cannot ignore – a tiny fraction of
the billions on the planet. Speak to
them. If you speak to them well, they
will want more. And they will propel
you forward.
JULY 2016

15

24/05/2016 10:05


PLACES
IN TIME

Personal relationships are at the heart of all Maggie O’Farrell’s
novels and the Northern Irish novelist’s own family is her muse,
she tells Tina Jackson

I

t’s no surprise that prize-winning
and bestselling novelist Maggie
O’Farrell, that subtle chronicler of
her characters’ circumstances, has an
intuitive way of writing.
Northern Irish author Maggie’s new
book, This Must Be the Place, is a wideranging sprawl of a tale that moves through
different times and locations across the
world to tell in various voices the complex,
involving story of the relationship between
American academic Daniel and reclusive
film star Claudette.
‘The book is sort of about their marriage
and why they can’t be together,’ says
Maggie. ‘I knew I wanted to write a big,
wide-canvas novel with a large number of
different views.’ Having settled the middle
of her three children, off school with a

bug, with an audiobook on the sofa in her
home in Edinburgh, she is warm, friendly,
and talks fast.
‘I didn’t know if I could do it but I
wanted to try. I knew I wanted it to be huge
– it almost covers most of Daniel’s life and
beyond and a life isn’t a simple thing. It’s
incredibly complicated, you have experiences
in childhood that resonate. I don’t think one
person can tell that story. I wanted to write a
book that had a polyphony of voices.’
The story, shifting between locations
16

JULY 2016

p16 interview.indd 16

and voices, appears to the reader in the
order Maggie conceived it. ‘I pretty much
wrote it as it appeared on the page. I
didn’t write the sections and then move
them upon the page.’
This Must Be the Place was written as
a reaction to Maggie’s last novel, 2013’s
Instructions For A Heatwave, set in the
famously hot summer of 1976, and
featuring a London Irish family against a
backdrop of the Troubles. ‘Instructions For A
Heatwave followed very strict technical rules

– it took place over four days, it had four
narrators – and I set myself those challenges
deliberately because you like to see if you
could do it,’ says Maggie. ‘So after that I had
the urge to write a large, unfettered book.
I’ve never worn a corset, but I imagine it’s
what it feels like to take one off. I wanted to
take off all my own self-imposed rules and
write something that felt full of life.’
It’s a broad sweep of a tale that teems
with life, all the more memorable for being
rendered with Maggie’s nuanced delicacy.
With locations including Donegal in 2010,
Brooklyn in the 1940s and China in 2003,
Maggie captures snapshots of the episodes
relating to the lives of Daniel and Claudette
that will have lasting resonances.
The novel builds up a picture but is not
related chronologically. ‘Part of the way I
www.writers-online.co.uk

23/05/2016 12:24


S TA R I N T E RV I E W

“”

I wanted to take off
all my own self-imposed

rules and write something
that felt full of life

▲

Click here to
listen to an
extract of This
Must be the Place

or buy the book from Audible
see life is that the past and the present are
not separate,’ says Maggie. ‘The present
is the past amended, particularly in the
way we apprehend it – our memories and
nuances. For this book, I had the idea
that I was going to write something quite
ambitious, with a warped chronology, a
braided chronology.’
Usually Maggie writes a close third
person, but Daniel – a flawed but generous,
larger-than-life man – prompted a change.
‘I’d never written in first person before,
which was defamiliarising,’ describes
Maggie. ‘I’ve never had a male first person
– so that was a challenge. But I really loved
writing Daniel’s section. As soon as he
appeared it was natural – I didn’t have to
struggle to find him, he’s interested and
digressional and uninhibited and that causes

him problems in the novel but as a narrative
device that was very freeing.’
To keep track of the details of her giant
fictional canvas, Maggie went out and:
‘Bought the biggest pinboard money can
buy, really massive, and covered it with
Post-it notes, a different colour for each
character, and every morning I’d move
things around. That was how I tried to
keep track of it all.’ But life, especially with
young children – Maggie and her husband,
the author William Sutcliffe, have three:
Saul, Iris and Juno – does not always go
according to plan.
‘I was cleaning my teeth one morning,
and my youngest daughter, who was two
at the time, came into the bathroom. She
was saying, “All gone, all gone.” In her
hand she had this huge ball of mashed up,
chewed, multi-coloured paper. So my whole
structure was completely destroyed,’ Maggie
creases with laughter – after the event, and
having triumphantly pulled off her self-set
writing challenge. ‘I kept saying, it will make

the book stronger – it did completely force
me to reassess everything.’
Maggie wrote this book as she has written
everything since she first had children: in
between childcare. ‘I’m not saying that

writing with small children is easy but if you
really want to do it you will find a way,’ she
believes. ‘I have to be disciplined to fill in
my tax return and hang out the laundry, but
I’ll write without hesitation if I can.’
For Maggie, motherhood and writing
are inseparable. ‘That Cyril Connelly
quote about the pram in the hall being the
enemy of good art? It’s absolute rubbish!
My children are my muse!’ she exclaims.
Even the wide-ranging territories of This
Must Be the Place were in part inspired by
– and a reaction to – family life. ‘A lot of it
is to do with having small children. Being
a mother is the biggest privilege in my life
but the endless, Sisyphian domestic tasks…
your life is much narrower than it would
be otherwise, and this book was a world
away from that.’
Maggie’s way of writing is not to set out
with a plan, or have a method. ‘My process
is not having a process. I know writers
who plan meticulously. I’m paraphrasing
but William Boyd has said he plans for
a year without putting pen to paper. I’m
the opposite – I cast my net out into the
darkness and see what I get. I like the idea of
something being unpredictable. Something
will take on a life of its own and find its feet.’
In her case, the ‘something’ is likely to be

related to relationships and the seemingly
inconsequential moments that can tip the
balance of a story. From her first novel, 2000’s
After You’d Gone, she has used vignettes
and snapshots from the narrative past and
present to build up layers of intricacies in her
characters’ emotional lives and relationships.
www.writers-online.co.uk

p16 interview.indd 17

This Must Be the Place is Maggie’s seventh
novel, and all of them in some way involve
interrupted close relationships of some
kind. She’s reluctant, though, to pigeonhole
her themes. ‘Part of me is interested in the
anatomy of a person – what makes you who
you are, what shapes you. Families will come
up because we all have one. It’s not so much
a story, it’s a periodic table – elements of who
we are,’ she says.
The part of writing a novel that dismays
many writers – when difficulties emerge,
which they inevitably do – is something
Maggie sees as a way for the writing to work
itself out. ‘I think you have to trust the
problem. A novel knows more than you do.
You have to let it find its form.’
She writes to find things out. ‘Books
start with a question for me, a desire to

understand something, to comprehend how
it could happen.’ Her fourth book, 2007’s
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, had its
beginnings when: ‘I heard about the way
women would be put in asylums for reasons
of immorality and left there, and I wanted
to comprehend how it could happen.’ Her
character Esme has been kept in a mental
institution for sixty years, and when it shuts,
she is released into the care of a great niece.
Absence is another theme that repeats in
her novels, and in This Must Be the Place,
one of the absences is the way Claudette
loses the possibility of living an independent
life when she becomes famous. She is far
and away the most overtly glamorous of
Maggie’s characters. ‘I was slightly reluctant
to make her a film star but I wanted her
to vanish,’ explains Maggie. Two things
fed into Claudette’s occupation. ‘I read
about the folk singers from the 1970s
who vanished – there was Vashti Bunyan,
Shelagh McDonald – and I had a really
JULY 2016

17

24/05/2016 10:33

S TA R I N T E RV I E W

strong memory of a friend of a friend,
who went from being an ordinary bloke to
being a Hollywood movie star. In a week.
I remembered being in Soho with him
and everyone stared and then looked away.
It filled me with horror and I thought, I
wouldn’t want to be you. I’d hate not being
able to hide.’
Maggie began her writing career when she
was editing TV listings at The Independent
in the mid 1990s, but she’d been obsessed
with reading and writing since childhood.
‘I’d always written, even as a child – I’d
graphomania, the urge to record things.
I used to spend all my pocket money on
stationery – I still do, actually!’
At university, she went on a writing
workshop with the poet Jo Shapcott.
‘I wanted to be a poet, I wasn’t very
good though,’ she shrugs. ‘But it was a
revelation. She talked about rewriting, and
writing and pushing it as far as you could
go. She was the first writer I’d ever met
– they’re these mythical beings when you
haven’t met any.’ After she started working
at The Indy, she went to poetry classes
with Michael Donaghy at City University.
‘That was when I started writing seriously.

It was nothing short of life-changing, it
really was.’ An Arvon course with writers
Barbara Trapido and Elspeth Barker was
the game-changer: she showed them an
early draft of After You’d Gone and they
liked it. Maggie was so surprised that she
ran out and fell in a ditch.
Maggie first met her author husband
when they were both undergraduates at
Cambridge. ‘It’s like any couple in the same
line of work – there’s a lot less to explain,’
she says. Having an in-house critical editor
is very handy. ‘We always read each other’s
work and we’re pretty harsh with each other.
When he first read Esme Lennox, he said,
it’s not bad but you’ve got to rewrite half of
it. He was right, but it did take me a while
to admit that.’ During the writing of This
Must Be the Place, the most difficult part for
Maggie was writing about a child character,
Niall, with eczema. ‘Partly because his own
condition is as bad as my daughter’s. She’s
got absolutely chronic eczema, it can be lifethreatening, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted
to write about it. I don’t often write from
life and it brings to the surface how you feel
about watching your daughter suffer. My
husband kept reading it and saying, “too
angry”, “too angry”.’
Maggie’s books are broadly contemporary
– parts of Esme Lennox are ‘historical’ – but

her writing territory largely encompasses
periods within living memory. ‘With any
18

JULY 2016

p16 interview.indd 18

“”

You’ve got to let it go
out into the world,
and write the book
you want to write.

kind of historical writing, you have a huge
responsibility to get anything historical
right – it’s all a construct but you have to get
it right. But it’s a tricky balancing act. You
have to research it, and I believe you have
to read the fiction of the period.’ For 2010’s
Costa Novel Award winner The Hand that
First Held Mine, set in the 1950s, Maggie
read memoirs by May Stott and Katherine
Whitehorn and fiction by Muriel Spark and
Jean Rhys. ‘Women’s status has changed
enormously, but it’s not that difficult to
imagine how they would have felt – I
don’t think people’s emotions would have
been different in the past, although their

circumstances would have been,’ she says.
The key with research, she says, is not
to let the details overwhelm your narrative.
‘You have to throw out about 90% of the
research – the things about how Bakelite
was made, and details about cotton
manufacturing. You see people hanging on
to those details in their work, because they
love them, and it always jars.’
The parts of This Must Be the Place
involving Claudette’s life in 1990s London,
which include an auction catalogue of
artefacts, are based on Maggie’s own
historical memory. ‘The things I had for
the auction catalogue were my own! I went
through boxes of my own stuff, and I felt as
if I’d hit paydirt – mixtapes, floppy discs, my
son asked me what they were! – and these
things seemed nearly antique even though
they’re from the early 1990s.’
Maggie’s novels are widely read as
contemporary women’s fiction, but are so
beautifully written and crafted that they
are also perceived as literary fiction. Maggie
doesn’t care which. ‘I deliberately don’t think
about whether it’s contemporary or literary
fiction,’ she insists. ‘I never even think about
that. I think it’s really bad for yourself to
think you’re being defined. It would feel like
being hemmed in. You’ve got to let it go

out into the world, and write the book you
want to write. The idea of writing with an
imaginary reader is very off-putting – I don’t
think about it being read. It’s a satisfying
conversation in my own head.’

MAGGIE’S WRITING ADVICE:
‘I don’t feel qualified to give advice! But I’d say, keep going. I went on an Arvon course
with Elspeth Barker and Barbara Trapido and that was what they said to me. There’ll
be days when what you’ve written seems like terrible bilge but there’ll be other times
when you’ll see how to go on with it.
‘The other thing is, ring-fence time. Step over the laundry, turn off the router, don’t
check your eBay listings. Say, this is my writing time.’

www.writers-online.co.uk

23/05/2016 12:24


SELF-PUBLISHING

timing is everything

Self-publishing well requires flexibility and solid preparation. Ensure you’ve allowed enough time
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FINAL

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1
4
oing
On-g the
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www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk

p19 Silverwood.indd 19

23/05/2016 12:38


BEGINNERS

Boxing clever
Seconds away, Adrian Magson isn’t pulling his punches in his writer’s training programme this month

I

was told many years ago by

a boxing coach that the most
important thing for a fighter wasn’t
how quickly he got up after being
knocked down, but how often.
I wasn’t sure if there was a hidden
message for me there – I was actually
on my feet and smiling at the time –
but that long-ago lesson came back to
me when reading recently that a writer
who had been ‘floored’ by rejection was
considering quitting altogether.
This led me to thinking that there are
certain aspects of writing akin to boxing.

Get some experience
The ‘contender’ who never sets foot in
the ring is not worthy of the title. In
the same way, the writer who doesn’t
write is only pretending. To find out
if you can write, you have to do it.
Write as much as you can and as often
as you can. Find out what you want
to do, what you could be good at, and
most of all, what you enjoy. If you’re
not enjoying writing, go do something
else, otherwise you’ll never convince
yourself or anyone else.

Learn ringcraft
As with all undertakings, there’s a way

of doing something well… and a way
of ending up on the floor. Writing
is all about telling a good story and
keeping the reader hooked. (Bear in
mind, this is especially important with
editors and agents – all of whom have
to be hooked to take it any further).
You can learn a lot from others by
reading, attending conferences, talking
to authors and other writers to find
out how they do it – even taking a
creative writing course. Basically, don’t
expect it to come easy just because
you want it. That’s a quick way to get
bruised and disappointed.

Expect the unexpected
Many a would-be fighter found
himself on his back saying, ‘I never
20

JULY 2016

p20 beginners.indd 20

saw that one coming.’ In the same
way, many writers don’t expect
their work to be turned down, and
consequently don’t have a plan for
what to do next. (For those in doubt,

it’s get up, dust yourself off and send
the manuscript somewhere else). Some
rejections come simply because what
you’ve written is too derivative, has
passed its read-by date/gone out of
fashion, needs some reworking or was
submitted to the wrong person.

Keep moving
In writing terms, keep writing.
Standing still doesn’t accomplish
anything. If you already have
something out there on submission,
start on something else. Many a writer
has sent off a manuscript and waited,
only to have an agent or publisher
come back and say, ‘What else can
you show me?’ This is not an urban
myth. There are agents and editors
out there who can spot something
special about a piece of writing, and
are willing to ask this question rather
than simply reject the submission and
forget it. You don’t want to be caught
flat-footed, because their attention will
soon move on to someone else and
you’ll have missed the opportunity.

Ignore the crowd
It’s very easy to get swayed by a deluge

of well-meaning advice – usually of
the ‘Why don’t you get a proper job?’
variety, or the ‘If you want to succeed you
should be writing such-and-such.’ Take
no notice. First and foremost, you have
to write for yourself, to satisfy that inner
desire to put an idea on paper. Until
you’ve done that – and I suggest more
than just a few times – you won’t have
given yourself a proper chance. If you’re
wondering where the boxing metaphor
is, it’s simple: turning and listening to
the crowds’ advice – most of whom have
never stepped into a ring – will leave you
hurt, disappointed and confused.

Fight above your weight
Stretching yourself is the only way
to improve. A writer who doesn’t try
harder each time isn’t really moving
on. With each completed project, read
and re-read and look at it carefully to
see how you could do it better, even if
it means more editing and revision.

The best form of defence
is attack
Instead of wishing something to
happen, come out fighting. Don’t wait
for inspiration but put heart, body

and soul into your writing. When
it’s done, send it out. A reluctant,
even half-hearted attempt won’t get
you there and you’ll get nothing
out of it other than a metaphorical
bloody nose. Don’t forget, there are
agents, publishers and self-publishing
channels out there, all waiting for you
to do something.

Don’t ‘telegraph’ your punches
The most captivating writing is the
kind which keeps readers on their toes.
Don’t let them know what’s coming
up; keep delivering surprises, tension,
pace and that ‘page-turning’ skill we
all strive for. Don’t allow your story
to ‘flat-line’. Instead keep injecting
regular peaks of excitement and the
unexpected. If it seems a bit slow,
see where you can make changes. A
chapter which ends on a down note is
an excuse to stop reading.

Keep yourself writing fit
Slacking off leads to wasted muscles,
a loss of coordination and effort, and
consequently, no real progress. In
place of gym work and road running,
you have to keep that muscle in your

head active, alert and constantly
seeking and acting on fresh ideas.
Activity breeds activity and the brain
feeds on energy, promoting new or
alternative directions, all of which are
vital for working writers.

www.writers-online.co.uk

23/05/2016 09:18


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The Writers’ Retreat at The Clockhouse is in the
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For more information about The Clockhouse and Arvon’s other writing centres,
see the website: www.arvon.org
p21 Big competition.indd 21

24/05/2016 10:06

AU T H O R E X P E R I E N C E S

THE ONE-MAN

MAGAZINE
Writer, editor, publisher, ad exec and delivery boy Dave Griffiths
explains how he launched his own indie magazine, Barmcake

T

here wasn’t one big Barmcake
moment. The idea of starting
an entertainment magazine had
been bubbling away for a couple
of years while I was working as
a sub-editor for the Manchester Evening
News series of newspapers.
I noticed there was an appetite for
free magazines and newspapers in
record shops, pubs and coffee
shops, yet most of the titles
were aimed at an underforties audience and some
of them were padded
out with dreary
press releases and longwinded interviews.
There was also a
new crop of paidfor magazines which
prized design over text;
beautiful-looking for sure,

but I felt they

p22 Publish your own mag.indd 22

were more style over substance.
I missed the music ‘inkies’ of my
youth, such as Sounds. I missed the
hectic prose of NME writers like the
late, great Steven ‘Seething’ Wells.
On a more mundane level, I
was struggling to find a decent gig
guide that covered West Yorkshire,
Manchester and Sheffield.
So in early 2014 I thought – what
if I could use the internet to create a
really good print magazine? What if I
could use my 25 years’ experience as a
journalist to write articles that aimed
to be a cut above other entertainment
magazines and websites?
So I did it. Over the last two years,
I have published five 32-page editions
of Barmcake (catchline under title –
Northern entertainment for the middleaged). The issues come out every spring
and autumn.
The 1,500 copies of each issue are
available free in about forty venues in
Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire,
Sheffield and Glossop. I have
written almost all of the articles,

designed the magazines, edited
them and delivered them. I seek
advertising and have set up a
website and also Twitter and
PayPal accounts.
Barmcake covers music
and comedy mainly,
but also books, films,
art, TV, theatre and
pubs. I have had
exclusive interviews
with the likes of
Ken Dodd, John
Shuttleworth, Viv
Albertine, Elkie Brooks,
John Cooper Clarke,
Ian McMillan and Pete
Wylie. I have done features on
a vinyl record club in Glossop
that attracts people from all over
the country and a woman who makes

fabulous cross-stitch portraits of bands
and TV stars.
Barmcake was nominated for
magazine of the year in the 2015
Prolific North awards (the organisation
holds the largest creative/media awards
ceremony outside London).
I’ve also received some lovely

comments from readers:
‘Midlife without the crisis.’
‘A thing of northern indie music/arts
aceness. Aimed at old folk like me but
cool kids will love it too.’
‘It is a refreshing change to read
good, well-researched interviews.’

A LEARNING CURVE
But while the editorial side went more
or less as planned, dealing with the
printers was a steep learning curve. The
advertising and marketing side was
also unknown territory for me. And I
underestimated the amount of time it
takes to make a magazine on my own
(about three months).
And then there’s the money.
Everyone wants to know about the
money. How much do you earn from
it? How do you raise the money?
The first issue of Barmcake was paid
for with money from a Manchester
Evening News voluntary redundancy
deal. I thought it was time to go
freelance: the nature of journalism
had changed and fewer sub-editors
were needed. Being a sub-editor felt
like being a polar bear on a rapidly
shrinking ice floe (except polar bears

are more cheerful).
I became a journalist in 1989,
working as a reporter for local papers
in Cheshire, Lancashire, London and
Essex. I became a sub in the late 90s
and then joined PA New Media shortly
before it changed its name to Ananova.
I wrote and subbed live
commentaries of sports events and
SMS/text message/website summaries

23/05/2016 12:26


AU T H O R E X P E R I E N C E S

of the events. Ananova was a
computerised talking head so I also
wrote phonetic texts for it to read (the
Llanelli rugby report was always a
tricky one).
It was an exciting time to work for
a ground-breaking national website
but it gradually evolved and needed
fewer journalists. I returned to print
journalism at the Manchester Evening
News a few months later.
I’d become disillusioned with digital
journalism. At first, the internet
seemed to offer apparently limitless

ways of covering different stories and
hearing different views, yet many
websites became very samey and
obsessed by the trivial.

PATH TO PRINT
Internet sites lack the personal touch of
a newspaper or magazine. Each edition
of Barmcake is yours to hold, to savour,
to read how you want – not something
borrowed on a screen. That’s why
Barmcake is print first.
I wanted a northern name and across
my circulation area there are different
names for bread rolls – teacake,
breadcake, bun, scuffler and barmcake.
I chose Barmcake as it’s the funniest
word and it also means daft in the
north: ‘Starting a print magazine in the
digital age? You barmcake!’ (No-one
has actually said this.)
Barmcake is A5-size so readers can
stick the magazine in their pockets. It’s
free because it’s easier to distribute in
pubs and shops and I want as many
people as possible to read it.
The design is deliberately simple
and retro (the headline font is similar
to that used on the credits of 1970s
sitcoms). I use Scribus, a free design

program for Windows, which takes
some getting used to after Quark but
is very good.
I start with the four-page listings at
the back of the magazine – I look at
websites of every gig venue, theatre,
cinema, art gallery and museum in
my circulation area. I study book
publishers’ websites and film websites
to check on new releases. I also look
at local papers and pub websites for
suitable events.
As I build the listings, I look for
suitable interviewees, cover stars and
a picture-led centrespread. I contact
possible interviewees early on, either
by their websites or via venues and

book publishers. About 75% of people
I contact agree to interviews. I prefer
email interviews as I think people open
up a bit more.
Once I have got at least three
big interviews, I write mini-essays
on people who aren’t available for
interviews (eg Alan Bennett) and
features (eg Yorkshire’s greatest pub
town) and smaller features from Twitter
or press releases.
In the first four issues, there have

been about eighty articles, ranging from
two-par briefs to four-page interviews.
I wrote all of them, bar a feature by a
friend and two pieces by people who
contacted me. I’d like to feature other
writers but I want to be able to pay
them first.
The photos are free – they are either
from the artistes, their PR folk or I take
them myself.
I only start looking for adverts when
I know I have decent features in the
bag. My advertising rates are similar to
A5 beer magazines in pubs.
There are always difficulties on the
way from first listing to last correction
– people who promised an interview
months earlier need chivvying along or
there is going to be a four-page gap in
the magazine. Or the interview arrives
just before deadline and you have to
shoehorn (er… I mean brilliantly edit)
a huge piece onto one page. At these
tense times, I have to remember to
channel my inner John Le Mesurier
and remain calm and polite at all times.
The reason each magazine takes
three months to do is because I want
to research and write my interviewees
properly. So for issue 4, for example, I

read four books before the interviews.
The essays also take time to get right.
And I have to drop any Barmcake stuff
if I’m busy with my other subbing,
proofing and writing work.
There are technical issues which
seem quite daunting after the comfort
of relying on company IT teams – for
example a lightning strike hit my
computer just before I sent pages to the
printers. And just how do you convert
a pdf into a jpg?
The specs needed for making a
magazine were a mystery to me at the
start. Type of paper for inside pages?
Type of paper for the cover? Where
do you want colour pages and where
do you want black and white ones?
(There are certain restrictions.) How

Barmcake issue
5 is out now.
To buy copies
of issues 1-5,
make a donation
to: http://
barmcakemag.
tumblr.com/

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p22 Publish your own mag.indd 23

many pages do you want? (There are
more restrictions.) The first printer I
went to was spectacularly unhelpful.
Fortunately I found another who was
very good.
I deliberately pay over the odds for
the paper and covers and the magazine
is all-colour. I want Barmcake to be a
celebration of print.
Once an issue is finished, Prue, my
wife and also a journalist, proofreads
it. I then bombard Twitter with plugs
for the new issue, advertise it on my
website, the Magpile magazine website
(I once was in the top ten magazines in
the world on that site as people looked
at the new issue!) and on Creative
Kirklees, a council website.
I deliver the copies; choosing places
which have reading material and
welcome readers. Just before I release a
new issue, I put jpgs of the pages from
the previous issue online.
Okay – the money. I didn’t seek
advertising for the first issue and I
didn’t set up my PayPal account for
donations until issue three. So for issues

two, three, and four I received £400
in advertising and donations. The cost
to print one issue is about three times
that. Other costs are a tankful of petrol
to distribute each issue and postage.
I thought about using Crowdfunder,
but it would be difficult to choose
a target amount and too timeconsuming to run. I applied to
the Arts Council for a grant after I
noticed an entertainment website
in Manchester receives money from
them, but I was unsuccessful.
My other work largely pays for
Barmcake at the moment, but I can’t
continue to do that in the long term.
Even though issue five has more adverts
than ever before (five, compared with
two in issue four) I probably need to
employ someone else do the advertising
as I don’t have the time or expertise to
do it properly. Alternatively, I need a
regular sponsor.
But editorial is my top priority.
There are magazines full of adverts
distributed in umpteen places
which no-one reads because the
editorial is terrible.
And as for making money, no-one
writes books or starts bands to make
a profit – they are passionate about

doing it and it feels like the right
thing to do. So do yourself a favour,
try a bit of Barmcake!
JULY 2016

23

23/05/2016 12:26


SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK OF THE YEAR

Self-Publishing
Award winners

C

hoosing the winners of
our annual Self-Published
Book of the Year and
Writers’ Circle Anthology
Awards – organised by Writing Magazine
and sponsored by the David St John
Thomas Charitable Trust – is always
a formidable challenge. Gone are the
days of flimsy pamphlets, poor design
and bad writing. Instead, the WM selfpublishers impress more each year with
the levels of accomplishment shown.
Some would suit the lists of Big Five
publishers. Others would be difficult

to place but could do very well with
the right marketing approach, an area
in which the dedicated ‘authorpreneur’
can often outperform the limited
resources of mainstream houses.
All of these shortlisted titles – and
many other excellent publications
that didn’t quite make the shortlist –
display high production values, strong
attention to detail and exemplary
writing. Congratulations to you all!

SHORTLISTED

Jonathan Nicholas, Who’d
Be a Copper?, £8.99
www.jonathannicholas.org.uk
Promising a rare insight into the
daily lives of members of the
police force, and what they deal
with on the frontline, out on
the streets or behind the station
doors, Who’d Be a Copper? is
sure to find a curious audience,
not least among crime writers
looking to add a realistic feel to
their fiction. And if that doesn’t
entice readers, Jonathan’s savvy
blurb quote – ‘I can write what
I like, even if it brings the police

service into disrepute, because I
don’t work for them any more!’
certainly whets the appetite.
Chris Labinjo, The Living Dolls
Origin, £9.99
www.thelivingdollsbooks.co.uk
With a hefty 580-plus large-format
24

JULY 2016

p24 Self Publishing WINNERS.indd 24

Writing Magazine editor Jonathan
Telfer highlights the best selfpublished titles of the year

SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK OF THE YEAR

An Unknown Woman, Jane Davis, £8.99
www.jane-davis.co.uk
An Unknown Woman is the story of a secure and contented 46-year-old,
Anita. A dramatic house fire kicks off the novel and a chain of events and
revelations that calls into question everything Anita holds dear... and even
her personal identity.
With experience of mainstream publication – after her debut was published
by Black Swan when it won the 2008 Daily Mail First Novel Award – Jane
Davis works to the same rigorous standards in her self-publishing.
‘I refuse to be defensive,’ she says. ‘Instead, I produce a product that
meets professional standards. Knowing your own limitations is key.’
Jane manages a team of supporting freelances and produces trade

quality mass market paperbacks through printers Clays. The result really
does meet those professional standards, and the eye-catching cover has
already been recognised with an award from Book Expo America’s Indie
Author Fringe.
An Unknown Woman is Jane’s seventh novel so she is well versed in
communicating with her audience (her recent promotion of an earlier novel
with a free download month reached 27,000 readers), but says marketing
within a limited budget remains a challenge. However, she maintains a
strong web and social media presence, speaks at author events and book
clubs, holds regular signings and takes stalls at craft fairs: an example for us
all in taking a professional approach to self-publishing.
pages, The Living Dolls
Origin is one of those
genre epics which a firsttime author would have
difficulty placing with a
publisher, but that’s their
loss. It’s elegantly written
and the near-future
setting – in which genetic
manipulation aims to
eradicate disease, creates
mixed species ‘humans’
and ultimately makes
dreams reality – is vividly
realised, in exhaustive
detail. Chris commissioned
the stunning cover, scripted
trailers and managed a
team of freelances before
enlisting Matador to

produce the professionallevel finished product, even going
so far as to blur the lines of reality
by creating a web profile for his
fictitious company, IBC.

£750

Kathy Oldham, Tom Davies Trio:
Motoring in Mid-Air, £9.15
Tom Davies Trio is the embodiment
of a certain kind of book that initially
helped elevate self-publishing towards
respectability, and exactly the kind of
activity our late prize founder David
St John Thomas used to relish: the
niche non-fiction title unlikely to
make its money back in the wider
market but with a ready audience
among enthusiasts. The tale of three
early 20th-century entertainers, it taps
into circus and vaudeville history and
the early days of bicycle racing and
motorcycle stunts, with phenomenal
attention to detail and an admirable
selection of supporting images.
Antony N Britt, Dead Girl Stalking,
£10 www.antonynbritt.com
Determined to produce a finished
book indistinguishable from
professional publications, Antony N

Britt oversaw every aspect of Dead

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23/05/2016 14:48


TITLE

Writers’ Circle Anthology Award
Girl Stalking himself,
enlisting help only for
the two most crucial
things to outsource:
proofreading and cover
design. His dedication
has been well rewarded,
with an attractive book
that meets its market
perfectly. The cover
design, length, prose,
blurb, internal layout...
every element ranks it
alongside mainstream
thrillers, although what
first caught our attention
was his explanatory but
intriguing hook, The
first date ended with her
death; the second was

more terrifying.’
Emma Harding, Thinking about
Fostering? A Practical Guide, £7.50
www.hilltopcommunications.co.uk
A common oversight for selfpublishing authors is the importance
of self-editing. With control of
the product and the purse-strings,
we often throw everything we
have at self-publishing projects in
an attempt to create a definitive
reference, where commercial
publishers might be more
conservative with the page count.
Emma Harding makes the right
choice in Thinking About Fostering?,
a slim, visually appealing, guide,

crammed with practical
information rather than
purple prose. It’s easy to
imagine the book being
shared by agencies and
councils to encourage and
enlighten potential foster
parents, exactly the niche
Emma has been targetting
for sales.
Liz Ringrose, A Salzburg
Sunrise, £8.50
Sunrise

www.lizringrose.co.uk
Liz Ringrose played up the
Salzburg connection to
help sell her first published
novel, persuading the
country’s oldest bookshop,
Buchhandlung Höllrigl,
and Salzburg’s English
Centre Bookshop to stock it. A
well-pitched, page-turning holiday
read, A Salzburg Sunrise is the
story of thirty-year-old Natalie
Grey, who enjoys a holiday
romance as she attempts to get
her life back on track after her
husband leaves her. Liz handled
the typesetting and design herself,
including the back and front cover.
That cover perfectly illustrates
the power of restraint, with the
four key elements – title, author,
teaser and recommendation – given
room to breathe and complement
each other against the Austrian
landscape backdrop.

RUNNER-UP

Chester and the Eggie Boo, Nick Mackie,
£5.25 www.shufti.co.uk

Two eye-catching picture books made the
shortlist this year, both by Nick Mackie. As
an award-winning illustrator, Nick has complete creative
control over his picture books, and the benefits are
clear, with endearing illustrations and exceptionally high
production values. Nick drew the images, designed the
lettering and laid out the pages, allowing for a stylistic
£250
unity that is missing from many self-published books,
although we should emphasise that you should only attempt this if your
design skills are exemplary. The first is aimed at adults, a light-hearted Let’s
Dress Jeremy cut-out book, that sold well as a pre-Christmas novelty, and the
second, for younger readers, is Chester and the Eggie Boo, which earned him
this runner-up spot. Chester immediately caught our eye as an outstanding
example of self-publishing for children’s books, that we quickly shared with the
collective WM children, although the limited text and short page count gave a
couple of small proofing slips nowhere to hide.
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p24 Self Publishing WINNERS.indd 25

WINNER

£250

Ten Minute Tales, Westcliff-on-Sea
Writing Group, £7
Westcliff-on-Sea Writing Group take a
surprisingly uncommon approach to the
production of stories for their second

anthology: using the work initially produced
by members in group sessions. For each
exercise, members had to incorporate three prompts from Jamie
Cat Callan’s The Writer’s Toolbox, and three stories for each set
of prompts have been selected for the anthology, to show the
different ways each member interpreted the brief. It’s a fun
approach, leading to a more cohesive feel than an unrelated
selection of writing, and the stories are mostly on the brief side,
usually no more than three or four pages, fulfilling the readerfriendly, dip-in, implication of the anthology’s title.

RUNNERS-UP
Dining on Words, Yorkshire Writers’ Lunch, £7.50,

Born of a weekly writers’ lunch gathering in Huddersfield
and featuring writing which was originally published as a
blog, Dining on Words takes a cute approach to presenting
its writers’ work, using the format of a menu to group
selections: Appetisers are ‘moreish morsels to tickle your
taste buds’, Main Courses are ‘hearty reads’, etc, with an
occasional culinary flavour to the writing to match. It’s an
accomplished and attractive publication, with all eight group
members contributing £50 towards costs and collaborating
on every aspect of production. There are even some stories
written collaboratively, producing some of the anthology’s
standout pieces.
Delayed Reaction, Just Write, £6.99,
www.delayedreaction.org.uk
Another professional-level selection from last year’s
Anthology Award winners Just Write, Delayed Reaction is
testament to the value of producing anthology pieces to

order. Each of the ten group members wrote one story for
the collection, all set on the same delayed train. They agreed
on background and setting details and shared information
about each other’s characters to allow them to crossover
between stories. The book itself is of the highest standard,
well-designed, with individual title pages for each story,
a reader-friendly layout and attractive cover, all coming
together to create an appealing package that is already into
its second print run.
Narrative Threads, Bridport Story Traders, £5.99
A relatively young writers’ group, Story Traders have grown
in five years from six founding members to over twenty,
sixteen of whom contribute to their first anthology. Stories
were specially written for the book, loosely tied together by
the theme ‘rope’, chosen to allow a wide range of potential
approaches and to pay tribute to Bridport’s rope industry
heritage. A sensible limit of 1,750 words was applied to
all contributions to give every member an equal chance –
although many pieces are much snappier, some less than
a page, and haiku and poems refresh the palate between
stories. The result is an attractive and easy-to-read collection,
hopefully the first of many.
JULY 2015

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