Having to take a break while I juggle two kids at home. Hope to be back soon!

Macmillan New Writing

Macmillan is one of the UKs largest book publishers though they operate in over 70 countries. Most of their companies do not accept unsolicited submissions, but they have set up a department called Macmillan New Writing that accepts and considers any new fiction. They promise to read all submissions and to respond within 12 weeks, but due to the volume they will only respond to successful submissions.

They trade-off for this 'easy' route into being published is that they do not pay any advances and the rate they pay to authors that they publish is 20%. This may not be as good a deal as an agent could negotiate for you but than again, for a first-time author who hasn't got an agent, it's a pretty good set-up.

Check out their site here

Margaret Hollingsworth - Toronto, Canada

Margaret Hollingsworth is an award winning writer of short stories, plays and fiction. Originally from the UK, Margaret emigrated to Canada in 1968 where she has lived and written since. For a full biography and profile go to her website.

FE: How did you get your first novel published?
MH: It's all who you know! Without an in, even a small one, it's a real uphill slog to get anything published or produced. I'd advise people to socialize at literary or writer's gatherings, go to readings and talk to whoever is there, take writing courses, one of your fellow students will probably get into some sort of position of power - or maybe it will be you - read the journals, contribute stories to literary mags. subscribe to Quill and Quire so you have an understanding of the Canadian scene. (Libraries usually have it behind the counter and are loathe to part with it).

1st book of fiction was a collection of stories 'Smiling Under Water' and thereby hangs a tail and a tale. The editors at Collins read it, courtesy of a friend who was 'well in', and decided it would be the lead volume in their new line of fiction. Just before it was due to be published they were bought up by a consortium led by my agent. I thought I was made for life until he decided not to publish my book! I was too upset to send it to other large publishers (this always takes months or years and I'd already waited two years), so, when an acquaintance who has a small publishing firm offered to publish it I said yes please. It's out of print now of course, but still available on sites like Amazon.

FE: Why do you write?
MH: I think I write to punish myself. Sadly it's the only thing I feel I do well, the thing that gives me most pleasure (and pain) i.e. makes me feel alive, connects me to the world of words which has always been my structural underpinning, and theatre which I fell in love with when I saw my first amateur production of an Agatha Christie play when I was six.

FE: What’s your greatest challenge with writing?
MH: The greatest challenge right now is motivating myself - I've had a career and I'd like to rest on my laurels. I don't feel like having to make the effort to keep reinventing myself as is the case for all but the lucky few of 'senior' writers - if I don't make the effort I'll be starting from ground zero which is pretty much where I am now.

FE: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
MH: Keep writing, keep schmoozing, don't be discouraged - it's a very competitive world out there and opportunities seem to be diminishing. It goes without saying that you should look to the electronic media as a means of broadcasting your skills and maybe inventing new forms. Don't let rejection discourage you - be playful.

FE: What are you currently working on?
MH: I'm working on a play and I have ideas for a novel - I swore I'd never write another - and a memoir revolving round my father and his connections with the British communist party in the North of England.

FE: What's the worst 'day job' you've had to hold to support your writing habit?
MH: Day jobs? So many - I think the most boring was being a facer at the Post Office - i.e. I had to spend days and weeks making sure the stamps were in the top right hand corners and the mail was the right way up. I was also a filing clerk in the United Africa Department of Unilever, filing cables about Ground Nuts waiting to be promoted to the heady heights of the typing pool - it never happened.

FE: Who are your inspirations?
MH: Inspiration? I don't think I have any - certain authors give me a real lift and urge me to try harder - I've always had an affinity with Japanese writers - my current favourite is Haruki Murakami. I like the seemingly careless mixture of surreal and earthbound.I'm not a great fan of conventional narrative.

FE: Are there any writing programs, workshops or courses that you're a big fan of?
MH: I don't think it matters which workshop or writing programme you attend. If you find a teacher who inspires you, or who is willing to spend time over your work, stay - if not think about leaving. Beware of creative writing teachers who teach their own style and preferences as an example. Look for a teacher who is well-read, eclectic, flexible and intent on drawing out the best in their students rather than imposing 'rules' and 'should-be's'.

More future of the book stuff

I am still stuck on this whole future of the book thing that I posted about yesterday. I can't get away from the fact that we are so focused on what's ahead that we don't anticipate the ramifications of if. For those of us who want to get a writing career going there are so many advantages to the written word going online. Just think, I can write an article for almost any publication around the world from any location around the world and get it to them in seconds and read it the moment it is 'published'. There are opportunities to get published, to start building a good 'published' portfolio available now that bypass the years that writers may have had to take to get to the same point in the past. But if by participating in that, we are inadvertently wrecking the things that made us fall in love with the written word in the first place, the book, the newspaper or magazines, well, aren't we missing the point? I am not suggesting that we do things differently, just consciously.

Googlebooks just made a deal to get a staggering number more books online.

Institute for the Future of the Book

I found this site recently when I was looking for something else. Affiliated with the University of Southern California, the Institute for the Future of the Book describes itself as 'a small think-and-do tank investigating the evolution of intellectual discourse as it shifts from printed pages to networked screens. There is a ton of information on their pages, a blog and links to a ton more information.

It's an interesting notion to ponder. Anyone taking the time to read this blog must be interested in the written word and also in technology. I love exploring new ideas in the arts- writing, music and visual art- and we now have the capibility to express ourselves in ever-changing multi-media. Blogs, ebooks, cellphone novels are just a few places that the written word has become a norm. As much as I like experimenting with the new, the thought of a world without books, newspapers or magazines is an alarming one.

If you are interested in this subject you should definitely take time to browse through the work of this think-tank. I will be doing just that myself.

The Hay Festival

If you're lucky enough to live within traveling distance of Hay-on-Wye, on the Welsh border, you should be ashamed of yourself if you don't go to the Hay Festival. Since it's conception in 1988 and now known as the Guardian Hay Festival, this literary event runs for 10 days at the end of May and always features an eclectic mix of guests and performances.

Every year the festival seems to grow a little- it was originally held in various locations around the town but had to move to a location just outside of town due to its size. There is now a children's festival that runs alongside the main festival and it also has 'sister' festivals in Spain and Columbia. This year there are new festivals opening in Nairobi and Beirut.

In case you have never heard of Hay-on-Wye, it's a small, pretty town with a disproportionate number of bookshops. Attracting visitors from all over the world, the prices of everything from real estate to a pint in one of the many pubs have soared over the years and last time we were there we accidentally paid £9 for a Ploughman's Lunch. If you have never heard of a Ploughman's Lunch, it's a typical British pub lunch and is really a plate with cheese, bread pickle and an apple on it. Tasty but not for £9 even if it did contain the world's biggest slice of Stilton on it! Anyway, back to my point......Hay is a lovely place to visit and if you like browsing in second-hand books stores it's heaven. The bookshops are all over. There's books in the old castle on the hill, books in the old cinema and books...well, everywhere.

The Hay Festival runs from May 21st to May 31st this year and you can read more about it at their website and about Hay itself here.

Musings from the Fiction Exchange

This is me, in case you want a face to the name. I've been slow to post recently and I have been thinking a lot about what I am trying to do here. I was trying to hard to be a neutral 'resource' that I don't think I added any personality and so I am going to be a bit more me and a bit less neutral.

I have been working on a new novel and am happy with the progress so far. The process of writing raises a lot of questions for me and I would love it if this site gained followers who contributed their views, thoughts and ideas. The question that I have been pondering today is, whatever it is that you write- whether short stories, poetry, screenplays, novels or whatever, do you plan it all out before you start and if so, in how much detail? If not, how do you manage to control where it goes or how it ends up?

I read a book on writing screenplays some years ago and it changed the way that I planned my stories. Before I read that I planned very little and could easily get stuck or lost. Fast forward to five years later and I am 10,000 words into my latest piece of writing and I know exactly where I am, where I am going and it is so so much easier. The only thing I don't have enough of is time.......

Any thoughts are welcome.....