Important tips for authors

Increase your publishing opportunity

When we started this business in 2002, we wanted to give new authors a genuine publishing opportunity when all other avenues were exhausted, and we wanted to give book lovers a chance to read something different. This is still our aim.

As we review material, we see many terrific stories that are just poorly written. We can put that right at a cost but you, as a new author, can help yourself by following the tips below. They are not in any particular order but they are all equally important.

• Every story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning must grab the reader's attention and the middle must hold it, building on the opening and moving the story forward to its conclusion.
• Write crisply and clearly. Vary your sentence length. Use short crisp sentences for impact and longer sentences only where absolutely necessary. See if you can break long sentences into smaller ones.
• Avoid unnecessary jargon that few will understand. Remember that offialese can only be understood by those who use it in their jobs.
• Stick to simple words that everyone will understand. Don't use a thesaurus to look up an alternative that causes the reader to reach for a dictionary.
• Don't use two or three adjectives when one will do. Pick the best; scrap the rest.
• Get rid of words that clutter a sentence unnecessarily. For example - "the book that I wrote" makes just as much sense when you say "the book I wrote"
• Don't put unnecessary words into dialogue. For example, describing an incident in a conversation you might say: "Needless to say, he chased after the thief": in a written description of the same incident, "Needless to say" would be superfluous and should be left out.
• Avoid tiresome clichés. Everybody's heard them all before. If you can invent a new one that describes a particular situation - fine. Otherwise, leave them out. They are not essential.
• Make sure every word is spelt correctly. The manuscript you submit to us will usually be in Word format, or some other compatible word processor. They all have spell checkers so there is no excuse for bad spelling except perhaps when slang or colloquialisms are used in dialogue.
• Check your grammar. Remember what you learned at school. OK some things have changed since some of us were at school and some new grammar is acceptable. That's OK with us. Bad grammar in dialogue is also OK because people with a poor grasp of grammar often speak badly. But they may be characters that you need in your story.
• Punctuate your work properly, particularly where dialogue is concerned. If you've forgotten how to do it pick up a book by a top writer and see how they do it. It will soon come back to you.
• Don't change tense in mid-sentence. Decide whether you are using past, present or future tense and stick to it.
• Aim to make your work active rather than passive.
• Think about any colloquialisms that you use in your story. Don't tie yourself to a specific region by using dialogue that only your neighbours or fellow city residents would understand. Remember this website gets English speaking visitors from all over the world so broaden the appeal of your book and make it read in a way that anyone can get involved in your story - and understand it.
• Paint pictures with words. In most cases, you will be writing a story about something that involved you or it may be a topic about which you feel strongly. Writing comes from the heart but it enters the reader's mind through his eyes. He must see what you see and he must feel what you feel so that he can share your emotions. To you, your book is an experience that may never be forgotten but when you tap it into your computer it is very easy to overlook parts. Result: the reader loses track because he cannot read your mind.
• As you write, close your eyes and play act the section in your mind. Question what you're writing. Is it all there? Have you missed anything? Will the reader see it the way you see it? Does it follow that last section? Does it lead into the next?
• Character descriptions - describe your characters well but don't get so carried away that you devote a whole page to describing every wart. Just write enough to differentiate between your characters. The main character, however, will probably be you or someone you know very well, and you want the reader to become the main character; to see the whole story through your eyes. The description here is not, therefore, so important. Let the reader put his own description on the role.
• Don't introduce too many characters at a time - it gets too confusing. Introduce them gradually so the reader doesn't have to turn back the pages to sort out who is who.
• Don't write a novel with little or no dialogue. Conversely, don't rely entirely on dialogue to tell the whole story. Use conversational dialogue to portray facts that would otherwise be covered by long textual description but always aim to balance the amounts of text and dialogue, and sprinkle long passages of conversation with descriptive text.
• Don't waffle! Look back at everything you write and ask yourself if it's really necessary. Does it add to the plot? Does it move the story forward? If it doesn't, hack it out. It's an easy trap to fall into when you're writing but unnecessary anecdotes take away the page-turning qualities and bore the reader. Okay, it's beautifully written, and very descriptive, and you're ecstatic about your word skills, but if it adds nothing for the reader, lose it. It's hard to do but your passages must all contribute to the plot.
• Read your work out loud. Don't skimp on proofreading because you will certainly have made mistakes and you won't spot them if you merely scan through the work.
• When it's finished, get someone else (as many as possible) to read your work but ask them not to patronise you. They must be brutally honest else their opinion is not worth a carrot.

We hope these tips and hints will help you to produce work that has more chance of success at the first attempt but we are always there to help you in any way we can. We recommend all aspiring authors who want to gain experience to join a Creative Writing class (these are often run by local adult education centres or the WEA) or join a writers' circle. A comprehensive list of such groups can be found in the Directory of Writer's Circles.

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