The Editor welcomes readers to this edition of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook
This Yearbook is full of advice, practical suggestions and thousands of updated contacts. Think of it as your little black book (or rather as your rather sizeable red reference resource) of all the individuals and organisations across the media that will be useful to you as you write and prepare your work for publication.
New articles this year celebrate the range of non-fiction being published. Frances Jessop suggests what makes for a well-conceived sports book (Writing sports books, here). Ruby Tandoh provides her recipe for success in Writing a cookbook here and Jane Robinson charts her route to becoming a bestselling writer of social history books (see Making facts your mission: the pleasure of writing non-fiction, here). The joys of writing fiction are captured in David Lodge’s For the love of language and books (here) and Writing speculative fiction by Claire North (here). Andrew McMillan shares his advice on How to become a poet here and Helen Chaloner provides details of organisations that support writers in Developing talent: support and opportunities for writers (here).
For those of you starting out, you might be inspired by Wyl Menmuir’s Debut success with an indie publisher (here) and surprised by how little authors earn when reading The mathematics of publishing by Scott Pack (here). If you want to know more about the money side of writing, take a look at Managing a successful writing career by Tony Bradman here, Crowdfunding your novel by Alice Jolly here, and at our annually updated features by Tom Tivnan (News, views and trends: review of the publishing year, here) and Philip Jones (Electronic publishing, here).
New, too, is practical advice from agents Andrew Lownie (How to submit a non-fiction proposal, here) and Hellie Ogden (Putting together your submission, here), as well as a list of Software for writers here. James Peak gives his insider knowledge of a blossoming area of publishing in Should I make an audiobook?, here. Also aimed at authors considering the indie or self-publishing route is Sheila O’Reilly’s Getting your book stocked in a high-street bookshop here. If your ambitions lie in the journalistic direction, read Suzanne Elliott’s Writing for online and print, here. Lynette Owen in UK copyright law and publishing rights (here) distils her professional expertise on the subject for the non-lawyer.
As always, our intention is that you find much here to guide and inspire you in your writing and in your quest for publication. Joanne Harris, in this year’s Foreword (here), describes how she became a writer (and consulted this tome along the way).
Alysoun Owen
All articles, listings and other material in this Yearbook are reviewed and updated every year in consultation with the bodies, organisations, companies and individuals that we select for inclusion. To the best of our knowledge the websites, emails and other contact details are correct at the time of going to press.