… and how to put them right! Advice and opportunities for new, aspiring and upcoming journalists and writers of non-fiction
Nick Higham’s Meet the Author is always insightful – Higham is always clearly very interested in the people he interviews – and this one with king of ghostwriting Andrew Crofts is particularly pertinent to non-fiction writers. Andrew Crofts is terrific. I couldn’t tell you whether I’ve read one of his books, and that’s one of …
It’s not always appropriate to call up an editor. Email is usually fine. But sometimes – say if you have an idea which is topical and brilliant and you need to move quickly – it is perfectly acceptable, even preferable, to do so. Occasionally a student will need cajoling into making the call. “Editors don’t …
“Is it definitely going in?” This is the question a student of mine asked me towards the end of last year, after having received an acceptance of a speculatively submitted article. She was thrilled. As she had every right to be. She was soon to become a published writer. Or was she? Quite a lot …
You don’t need me to tell you it’s 100 years on from 1914. The War started in August of that year. I imagine there are some commemorative special edition publications due out in August, or sooner. I’ll let you know if I hear of any – though I expect they will be fully commissioned. I …
Quite a lot of new writers tell me upfront that their ambition is to write and publish a book, and that’s cool. But a sizeable number make it also clear that a/ it’s the be-all-and-end-all of their ambition or b/ that they want it to be a fait accomplit by the end of the year. …
Okay. We’ve had a few silly posts about numbers before – see here and here to save you the trouble of searching for them – and another is long overdue. 77 years. That’s how long we “waited” for a British man to win Wimbledon. So said The Times, so said the BBC, and so said …
A lot of new writers break into print via the letters page in a magazine or newspaper. At least, that’s the case with my students, as the course for which I’m a correspondence tutor encourages writers to submit letters and other fillers to magazines quite early on, and it surprises some students how quickly this …
“Is my font okay? Should I indent my paragraphs? My margins are all right aren’t they? Shall I centre justify my title? Ought I number the pages? Is my cover letter too long? Too short? Too casual? What did you say about my font again?” If it’s a font I have seen before, doesn’t have …
I’ve written about ingratitude previously in Mistake No. 48 so perhaps it’s only fair gratitude gets a turn. I am not suggesting you do not thank your mum. She wiped your bottom once, after all. But I am suggesting you consider doing it in person rather than in an article. If thanking someone is the …
I will say upfront that the decision on whether to write for free or not is yours and yours only. As someone who has been making his living from words for 16 years – writing, translating, editing, proof-reading, tutoring – part of me, admittedly, thinks giving away words for free undermines the business in which …
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