publishing

 
Rewriting the Publishing Fairy Tale
‘Once upon a time there was a little girl who wanted to be a writer. She worked very hard, scribbling lots of stories. Then, one day, a fairy godagent promised to make all her dreams come true.' Ann Morgan reconciles the myth and business of being an author.
The Confusions of Teaching Creative Writing
How does one teach writing? It’s not a craft. I attended a one-day workshop in wooden spoon making, great fun it was, and that was a craft. Or in my case a bodge. Literature is an art form. As Doris Lessing said, ‘There are no laws for the novel'.
Women and Writing: The Life You Save May Be Your Own
'I’ve felt that not doing an English literature degree has been the making of me. Knowing how lacking in confidence I was as a young woman, it seems such great good fortune that I was nourished by so many writers outside of those parameters.'
Michaela Morgan — Getting Published: What No One Tells You
'Gather a few authors together in a room and does the conversation veer towards culture, philosophy, art…literature? No, it does not. It focuses on complaints — publicists, publishers, party invitations (lack of), editors and of course…earnings. '
Charlie Hill — My Most Treasured Moments As A Writer
'Wandering around a music festival, a fella pointed a camera at me. ‘You wrote that book, didn’t you?’ he said. ‘I did!’ I said, thrilled, ‘did you like it?’ ‘I’m not sure,’ he said and hid any fanboy excess behind a look that might be described as unnerving...'
Sarah Jasmon — Letter To My Younger Self
'The advice that the editor gave, that the readers want to know more about the kestrel flying above the rainbow that you see from the mountain pass in Wales and less about what it’s like to change a tyre in the rain? They’re not wrong.'
Richard Lambert — Rejection
'I began to internalise the rejections, to believe in a way I hadn’t when I was younger, that the editors, agents, publishers were right — my work wasn’t good enough; of course they didn’t want it. The rejections began to affect me. They began to fray me.'
Martyn Waites
07-12-2023

Martyn Waites speaks with Doug Johnstone about learning crime writing on the job, adopting a female pseudonym and the joys of writing daleks.

Sarah Hilary — In My Bottom Drawer
'Only we know how deeply we felt those words, how hard we clung to the belief that they would one day find a shelf in a library or bookshop. And our characters! We cannot turn them out of the house. In any case, no word is ever wasted, we’re told. '
CD Rose
30-11-2023

CD Rose speaks with Ann Morgan about blurring the lines between fact and fiction, being persuaded to write a book and finding ways to commemorate geniuses whose work is never discovered.

Jasbinder Bilan — The Biggest Surprise Of My Writing Life
'I come from a long line of home-grown storytellers. At extended family gatherings my mother would cook big pots of fragrant Indian food and suddenly stories about our beloved farm close to the Himalaya would spring into the conversation.'
Beth Miller — Rejection
'Why is rejection inevitable?’ I eventually came up with my game-changing theory. It’s called the Rejection is Actually an Essential Part of the Process theory. I’m aware that the name needs some work.'
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