Mark Charan Newton

Okay, it’s the weekend. I’ll be busy. And on Monday I go over to the offices at Macmillan/Tor to meet the legendary editor Peter Lavery and my agent, Sir John Jarrold. I’ll update about that on Tuesday, and report from the inner sanctum of a major London publisher. There’ll be all sorts of contract signing [...]

[Read more →]

Big fan of the dude. He’s the reason I started writing.

Share: [...]

[Read more →]

This section should really start off with the sub-heading: “Dodgy Agents”.
Well, firstly, I want to state that you should never part with any cash. There are some scumbags people in this industry that want to prey on aspiring writers. They say, “Yeah, I’ll represent you. Oh, there’s just this processing fee” and away they go, [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve steered away from the technicalities, but I think it’s worth dropping a few words of wisdom. I saw some advice from my agent, John Jarrold, on a forum, and it was 10 thing to avoid, basically:

Awful dialogue - read it out loud, does it sound natural, coming from your mouth?
Hackneyed plots. No discernable focus to [...]

[Read more →]

Musical interlude.
 
Share: [...]

[Read more →]

What makes a good synopsis? Well, these are just my opinions, but worth thinking about. 

Be concise as you can for the length of the work. Three or four pages should be the limit, although it’s useful to include a general one paragraph summary at the start. Unless you’re doing a chapter by chapter breakdown, which [...]

[Read more →]

Continuing the path to publication discussion, here’s the follow up from having an idea of the types of books that sell.
Now you’ve written something. You’ve chucked out your TV, trimmed your social life so you can get things down on paper. It’s a full novel now, not a patchwork of ideas. It’s all the way through. [...]

[Read more →]

Darren, master of UKSF Book News, mentioned that I ought to blog about the process of my path to publication and what happens when the book is bought. To shed light on things in the industry. I’m all for this.
One of the things I’ve learned from writing, as well as being an editor at Solaris, and [...]

[Read more →]

Almost forgot. Soon, it’ll be Fairtrade Fortnight.
Fairtrade has improved the lives of millions of people - farmers, workers and their families - in developing countries. But, we need to keep promoting Fairtrade to ensure people know that buying Fairtrade products can make a positive difference.
If you’re not normally into this stuff, then come on, just [...]

[Read more →]

Been busy wrapping up the delivery of the book for editor extraordinaire, Peter Lavery at Macmillan, to work his legendary red pen across. In the meantime, have some music. From this very fine collection of indie funksters. They’re a sort of cross between Paul Simon’s  Graceland and the Stokes. And it works.

 
Share: [...]

[Read more →]