Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Yowzah! Watched Me and Orson Welles last night - brilliant movie if you haven't see it - and they used this Yowzah word in it (the film is set in 1937): I didn't realize the word had such old roots! Anyway, talking of literary trivia, I see there's a kerfuffle brewing over the "Oxford Comma". You may be wondering what all the fuss is about... It's that little comma that goes before the 'and' in a list, as in: The protagonist was cold, wet, and tired. Purists like the Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk and White and even The Oxford University have argued that it's not strictly necessary - except where the sense demands it. Oxford Uni has apparently changed its mind and advises students to use its eponymous comma liberally (at least in their internal correspondence.) This - believe it or not - has caused a bit of a storm, at least in Twitterdom. My experience has taught me that Americans favor i...

Bit frazzled today - last night was the opening night of a play I'm acting in: Are You Being Served? (based on the old TV series). I'm playing Mr Humphries of all people! Here's the poster: No rest for the wicked , as I often say. Next I'm directing a musical set in a nightclub - a cross between That 70s Show and Glee . Should be lots of fun! This week, I was sent this amusing link by an esteemed subscriber - showing how writers should NOT react to a bad review! It's also an object lesson on the importance of doing a very good self edit on your material BEFORE you let ANYONE see it! Keep Writing. Rob@easywaytowrite.com Writers! Click here to get published free by Magellan Books. THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE: Surfing the Write Side Rob Parnell I was shocked to see the revenue generated by modern media products last year. Hollywood - as you'd expect - ge...

I hope you're well and happy and writing! We're releasing two more ebooks on Magellan this week. The success of the first two books has been a welcome and gratifying surprise to myself and the authors. Both Billie Williams and Ian Randall have received high praise for their books - and now have royalties due to them as a result! Why not send in your own ebook for us to publish? ( See our FAQs ) I'm sure it'll be worth your while! THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE: Writing at the Pit Face I often get emails about how to submit correctly to publishers and agents. The guidelines for most publishers and agents is easily attained, usually on their websites - or in offline Writer's Guides at your library. The most fundamental issue here is that you shouldn't even consider submitting a manuscript UNLESS you've read those guidelines. Never think that you can shirk this primary consideration! In general terms though, the majority of guidelines go like this: 1. Double spaced...

Sometimes I wish there were clones of me. Then I could get everything done. One clone to write my novels. One clone to publish everyone's books. Another to submit short stories and screenplays. Another to do the housework and the gardening. And another to be a family man, focusing on looking after children instead of trying to be a creative dynamo. But then I think, what if the clones decided they wanted to be real me? What if they started fighting, warring over my personality. What if one decided to kill all the others? There I go again. Starting with an idea that becomes the germ of a story. Because probably what would happen would be that the extra clones would simply come up with more ideas, more ways to fill my time - and then each clone would need his own team of clones and pretty soon, I'd have an army of Robs to contend with. They'd all need feeding and would have to pay their way. And what would Robyn think? Which would be the real me - and how could she tell... Ap...

Writing is a long term vocation. You may have to keep reminding yourself of this. Especially when you want everything - money, writing projects, publishing success - to go faster. Do you ever feel like this? I do. I read a guy's blog this week where he talked about burn-out. He was so determined to get a novel finished he wrote 16 hours a day for about three weeks. He said that suddenly he couldn't make out the words on the screen. He was looking at a foreign language and he realized his brain had shut down. The experience frightened him so much that he stopped writing and suffered a long period - over six months - of angst over what had happened. For a long time he was too afraid to start writing again for fear that his mind would play this trick on him again. Luckily that's not happened to me yet. Sounds awful. The worst thing that happened one year was that I got one of those humps on my right wrist - apparently they're caused by hitting the keyboard too hard. It too...

It's funny. Last week I was nervous about putting out a blog that was so down on the publishing industry. Little did I expect so many emails agreeing with me! And literally three days later, comes an article from the Wall Street Journal (no less) that basically said the same things. Fact is most insiders agree that the publishing industry is in trouble. Their inability to spot bestsellers - indeed to spot anything that may even become commercial - is now causing them problems. The heavy reliance on promoting TV and film related books means that ordinary authors suffer. Marketing budgets that might have gone to their 'list' authors is now being funneled into blockbusters - and little else. The main reason would seem to be that publishers' B list authors simply can't sell enough books to support these corporate giants. Far be it from me to suggest that perhaps publishers 'choose the wrong books' - I think it's more to do with the fundamentally unwieldy nat...

It's hard enough to actually get the words on paper - but after that you have to do the self promotion thing. That's when you find out that, rather than the world clamoring to read you work, you're just one of thousands upon tens of thousands of writers in exactly the same place. Writing a book used to be the goal - that many splendorous achievement that marked you out as special. Now? Join the queue. Getting publishers interested in your book is - and always was I guess - a total uphill struggle. But it's getting worse. The whole publishing industry seems set up to say 'no', before you've even had time to pitch your idea, hone your proposal or edit down your synopsis. Publishers explain they already have a huge back catalogue of work they have yet to publish, that, really, they don't need to see your manuscript, even before they know what it's about. But then you read that traditional publishing is on the way out anyway. Kindle i...

Let me make a prediction. By 2015, based on current trends, 50% of the books available online and even offline, will be self published. How will this happen? Simple. Print on Demand technology has already progressed to the stage that even the big traditional publishers are using it - which means, yes, now we're all equal. Plus, distribution networks are now seeing that there is money to be made stocking and distributing self published books - as long as the writers are diligently involved in their promotion. Book marketing is now no longer the sole responsibility of a publisher's sales staff. More and more trade publishers are requiring, even demanding, that authors self promote their books. So, whichever way you go, you will have to get out there and sell your books yourself. But what does self promotion actually involve? Are there any special skills you need? Yes, but don't fret - you're a writer. Much of what you need to do is already within your skill base. Here are...

Getting published is every writer's dream. It's what we want, it's what provides the motivation and gives us the spark to keep going - and keep writing and submitting until we finally crack the big one: a publishing deal, a proper one, with a trade publisher who will promote our books for free - and pay us royalties every six months for the rest of our lives! Now that's the dream, right? But how close is this to the reality of being a modern working writer? Certainly having a bestseller can change your life. Desk bound introverts can become movie moguls (Dan Brown). Single-parent mothers can become very rich media celebrities (JK Rowling). And advertising executives can become household names (James Patterson). But having a bestseller is not the only definition of success. Just because the average person in the street hasn't heard of a writer doesn't mean that they aren't rich and successful. As authors, we get this all the time. You're judge...