Well, if you have, you are in pole position for entering one of these competitions.
Especially if yours revolves around food and drink, in which case it might qualify for the one that closes on 7th January.
But the deadlines come thick and fast, so check what you could go for now, before you forget…
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Lots of books benefit from having a map.
And if you have ever had a go, you will know that it isn’t as easy as you think. It is all very well deciding you need help, but where do you start? This post gives some useful guidance about how to work with map artists.
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As if things aren’t busy enough in December, here are 27 writing competitions to enter before the end of the year
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Self publishing is all very well if you just want to produce a basic book. But if you want to make your work more widely available, you need to explore more channels.
I’ve seen several posts about how to produce an audio book, but this is the first time I have seen one about producing a large print book.
Which is very strange, when you consider the size of the market. But it makes it all the more important to share.
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Most authors don’t like marketing. But the sad truth is that if you aren’t going to do any marketing, there wasn’t much point in going through the trouble and expense of getting published.
So here are some posts to help with marketing your book.
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I’ve always been fascinated by place names. Annoyingly, I’m not very good at remembering the information.
When I lived in North Yorkshire, there were many pairs of places that did not quite join up with each other. I lived in one village, Asenby, that was very close to its neighbour, Topcliffe. That is a slightly unusual case, because even if the two villages had expanded to meet each other, they would still have been kept apart by the river Swale. Apparently, when the Vikings arrived, they set up their settlements near to existing places, but they kept them slightly apart. The Viking settlements all ended in “by”. The area is littered with examples:
And there are many more.
But without this post on English place names to remind me, I wouldn’t be able to tell you which of the pair is Viking.
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Publishers’ Licensing Services are running a campaign to modernise the law which charges VAT on electronic books. Even though the budget is over for this time, it is still worth making the point. There are many reasons why this tax is unfair and unjustifiable, as you can see from this post, which also has a link to the petition.Visit my websites via the links at the top of this page.
There are some interesting linguistic meanderings in this debate. Why do we say tiptoe, not toetip?
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I suspect this isn’t going to be practical for most of us, but it is worth thinking about.
The Universal Writers Program is recruiting. They want people to be based at the Universal Studios Lot in Universal City, California, a year. You would work full time under a writing service agreement, full-time (at least 40 hours per week) for a year, for a salary of $72,662.
On the down side, you need to be able to work legally in the USA, which I suspect isn’t as easy as it might be. But then, it might just be worth reading more…
The deadline is 31st October. Good luck!
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Bridget Whelan has put together another of her lists of opportunities for writers. This time there are several jobs, as well as some competitions, so it is well worth a look.
But do it today: September is half gone already!
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The Proof Angel 