Do you find yourself procrastinating or writing endlessly; yet never getting anything completed? Follow seven steps to manage your time more effectively.

Start by noting how you spend your time. Are you checking emails instead of writing? Are you spending too much time in rewriting? This step will help you to identify those things that are literally wasting your time.
Now look at that list of ‘time wasters’. Allocate a specific time …

STARBUCKS, near the corner of Albert Square is crowded with people taking a break from their office work; smart men and women reading a book or a newspaper. There were many strangely named coffees and at the beginning I was confused; espresso, cappuccino, caramel macchiato- all expensively priced.  The cups would be too big for a coffee- and I paid the high price because I didn’t want to look stupid in front of the pretty smiling girl; when all I wanted was a simple cup of regular coffee.
 Across the road …

by Jacqui Lofthouse
There are many stages of the editing process – which may be one reason why many writers find editing a confusing and occasionally frustrating process.  So often, we enjoy the first rush of enthusiasm that seizes us when we begin writing a book, but it is more difficult to keep that verve alive when we have to take our words to the next stage.  We are obliged to return to material that spilled from our right brain almost effortlessly and engage that more rational left brain if we’re …

Part two of top ten writing tips with Jacqui Lofthouse.

by Jacqui Lofthouse
1. Set aside a regular time each week for your writing and make it sacred. Even if you can only find a single time slot, for example Sunday evening, put it in the diary and make it A FIXTURE. Tell everybody you know that you’re busy and honour this time. It may seem a small step, but it’s a way to signal to yourself and others that you are committed.
2. Write only what you love. Nothing is going to make you write if you are not passionate about …

Answers by Lorella Belli from The Lorella Belli Literary Agency
1. Agents sell third parties (for example book publishers) the right to produce market and publish books, not the books themselves. To put it more simply, they sell various types of rights in the intellectual property created by writers, and manage their career.
2. Most agents tend to charge 15% (20% for foreign sales or film/TV rights) of the gross amounts received for any deal they negotiate on behalf of their authors.
3. Agents shouldn’t charge any reading fees. Agents should make …

 
The Writer’s Handbook 2008 Edited by Barry Turner, is by far the single most important book that a writer needs. This is a comprehensive and revised edition of the annual book. Its full of useful information and invaluable advice; a complete and exhaustive list of UK and US publishers, poetry presses, literary agents, book clubs and societies, a list of useful websites along with information about prizes, bursaries and fellowships and more.
The Writer’s Handbook 2008 is published by Pan Macmillan and is available to buy now.  

 
Forget about the authors and their books who claim that writing is impossible, that getting through the slush pile is impossible and getting published is impossible! There needs to be positivity to enable creativity and Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer is a reassuring and comforting friend. Full of good, sensible and practical advice.
Brande’s advice is over seventy years old reminding us that writing in an age old art and like anything you aspire to be good at, you simply have to practise. If you’re going to be published and continue to be published you need …

If you missed Desi DNA when it was on first time round then now is the time to play catch up! Nikki Bedi talks to Sarfraz Manzoor, Greetings from Bury Park (2007), the controversial Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal, Tourism (2006) and Gautam Malkani, Londonstani (2006) to discuss Asian writers and authenticity.
Should we play the race card to get a publishing deal? According to Dhaliwal its the way forward. Manzoor disagrees and believes we should write from personal experience and that is essentially what a publisher is looking for. While Malkani agrees, the Cambridge …