Don't pick up a penguin -- have Penguin pick you up.

Penguin U.K. have announced that they are open to receive submissions directly from writers -- for a limited period until the end of October, 2010.

They are currently inviting writers to forward submissions to the following address: [email protected].

Submissions should comprise a brief covering note and a synopsis,  NOT a full manuscript. Please do not send attachments. Write your cover note and synopsis in the body of the email.

They will not contact you with feedback on your submission and will only enter into email correspondence with you if an editor within Penguin is keen to progress your idea.

To check it out go here -- you'll find the information buried amid the FAQs at question number 11: How can I get my book published?

What are they looking for? Apologies, but I cannot give you any more information. It may be worth checking out their blog here to pick up a few clues.

Could prove to be a worthwhile opportunity. Must be worth a try. Before Picador paperbacks began publishing Penguin (and Pelican) were always my first choice for a good read. But I'm not so picky about publishers now.

Penguin Ireland will also accept submissions directly from writers, but, please note, NOT email submissions. To check out their submission guidelines go here.  And, yes, they WILL consider work from writers living outside Ireland.

Penguin Australia is NOT currently accepting submissions for their adult lists, but they are accepting submissions for their childrens and young adults lists. You could keep an eye on their requirements here.

Penguin New Zealand seem a bit more ambivalent. Check out what they say here.

Penguin South Africa will gladly look at your submissions. Go here.

Penguin Canada trot out the usual 'thanks, but no thanks' guff here.

Penguin U.S.A. similar story, BUT they are accepting submissions for their DAW science-fiction and fantasy imprint. Go here.

Penguin India are not so standoffish and WILL look at submissions for English-language fiction (novels, novellas and short stories), poetry, general and narrative non-fiction, biographies and memoirs, current affairs, business, travel, cookery, religion, philosophy and se

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Here's a competition you may be interested in. And, you have plenty of time to get your act together.

(UnSir Michael Moorcock could knock off seven novels in the time available.)

Before you click through note that the competition is open only to writers in English resident in the UK and "other countries of the British Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland".

So, what do the competition organisers, Transworld, a division of Random House, want, and what are they offering?

They want a complete and previously unpublished work of fiction of not less than 80,000 words and not more than 150,000 words aimed at adult readers and written in the English language. They also want a a synopsis of no more than 600 words delivered to their offices by December 31st, 2010.

They will offer the winner an advance payment against royalties of ₤20,000. The winner will be required to agree to license exclusive world publishing rights in all print, electronic, audio and any other media formats to the publisher. Shortlisted entrants may also be offered publishing deals with the publisher.

What kind of adult fiction? Speculative fiction.

Sir Terry Pratchett writes:

We will be looking for books set at any time, perhaps today, perhaps in the Rome of today but in a world where 2000 years ago the crowd shouted for Jesus Christ to be spared, or where in 1962, John F Kennedy's game of chicken with the Russians went horribly wrong. It might be one day in the life of an ordinary person. It could be a love story, an old story, a war story, a story set in a world where Leonardo da Vinci turned out to be a lot better at Aeronautics. But it won't be a story about being in an alternate Earth because the people in an alternate Earth don't know that they are; after all, you don't.

(I was never previously aware Jesus Christ went to Rome -- maybe he made it to Newcastle? Rumour or speculation?)

A shortlist of six entries will be announced by March 31st 2011.
The winner will be announced by May 31st, 2011.

More details here.

Best of luck.

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"If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtius flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the soldier flings himself into the enemy's trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner on whom the walls of his gallery have fallen in; if he contemplates difficulties instead of overcoming them one by one ... he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent."

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No writer in his right mind writes by a set of rules. At least, not by somebody else's rules.

Not sure why, but mention of this very useful how-to book - the best I've come across - seems to provoke much agonised ire among some would-be paid and published writers on Authonomy.


There's some very useful stuff in here. And it works. Or, rather, it works in so far as you'll likely feel sufficiently inspired and motivated to try the techniques discussed.

Swain makes considerable effort to impress on the writer-reader that the tips, tricks and techniques discussed are simply tools - and the learning of how to deploy them is easily acquired over time. More importantly for Swain is that you, a writer, understand the why behind the techniques.

Before getting into the meat of how to build a story Swain tackles word choice and arrangement, including healthy discussion of adverbs, active verbs, meaning, denotation and connotation, vividness and brevity.

The essential building blocks of Swain's approach are Scenes and Sequels. Scene is followed by Sequel followed by Scene followed by Sequel, in a chain, from first to last page.

Scenes are units of conflict unified by time; built around Goal, Conflict and Disaster.
Sequels are units of transition that link scenes; built around Reaction, Dilemma and Decision.

Another key concept of Swain's method is the Motivation Reaction Unit. A character receives a motivating stimulus and reacts. The character's reaction breaks down into three chronologically ordered components: Feeling, Action, Speech. Each Scene and Sequel is built on a series of Motivation Reaction Units.

Essentially, however, Swain makes vital that the whole of a (selling) writer's endeavours need be based on feeling; without it you die as a writer. After laying out his position on feeling in the introductory chapter - Fiction and You - Swain uses the 47 pages of Chapter Three: Plain Facts about Feelings to discuss the importance of feelings for the writer, characters and the reader.

Without feeling he (the reader) won't care what happens in your story.
If he doesn't care, he stops reading.
And you're dead.

The book is packed with extremely useful fodder for reflection and action. Though the book does not contain any exercises, (Exercises excite no one. Palpably artificial, only tenuously related to the difficulties that beset you, they turn writing into drudgery for anyone. p.20), most honest would-be writers, I think, will find it difficult to resist trying out a few of the techniques.

Given the book was first published in 1965 some writers will cavil at Swain's references and examples, and perhaps, its sometimes antiquated tone. I find such very much part of its charm.

Editors' and readers' tastes, particular

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"A 'living' character is not necessarily 'true to life'. It is a person whom we can see and hear, whether he be true or false to human nature as we know it. What the creator of character needs is not so much knowledge of motives as keen sensibility; the dramatist need not understand people; but he must be exeptionally aware of them."






Thomas Stearns Eliot
(September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965)

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"A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong."








Raymond Chandler
(July 22 1888 - March 26 1959)

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I've only entered two writing competitions - one, many, many years ago for the first and last page of a novel; and, secondly, this year's Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger Award for the first 3000 words of an unpublished crime novel in English.

I finished as an also-ran in both.

Although I did win a prize (Tugs in the Fog, an excellent poetry collection by Catalan poet Joan Margarit) in a competition run by Barcelona, INK (no relation!) and whom, by the way, are actively seeking contributions for the next issue.



When seeking the attention of editors and agents is an unending competition, why volunteer, and pay, for more stress?

Seems the only competitions worthwhile winning - the IMPAC, the Nobel, the Planeta Prize, the Man-Booker, the (U.K.) National Short-Story Prize and the Costa Book Awards, are those you, as a lowly writer, are ineligible to enter on your own behalf.

Having said that, there are a crop of less remunerative competitions, such as the Bridport Prize, and the (U.K.) Forward Poetry Prize which offer winners a certain level of cachet or prestige which could be used to jumpstart, or re-position a writer's career.

The promoters of competitions win far more than the winners - every time, guaranteed.

However, a competition worth winning, and one you may be interested in, is the Provincetown (Cape Cod) Fine Arts Work Center Writing Fellowship program. You can enter on your own behalf and the prize could be considered much more valuable, in terms of creative practice, than any of the big money prizes.

If you scroll down the sidebar you'll see I've opened up another section of links: WRITING COMPETITIONS, it's situated below MARKETS and above POTENTIALLY USEFUL ORGANISATIONS.

I'll add links to writing competition entry guidelines as and when I come across them.
If you know of any competitions you think should be listed please pass on a link.

And, if you're a competition winner, or runner-up, or a serial competition entrant, I'd be very keen to read of your experience. Did winning change your life? Did winning, or simply entering, a competition have any impact on your approach to writing?

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"I was surprised when a friend of mine told me he was going over a story he had just finished to put more subtlety into it; I didn't think it my business to suggest that you couldn't be more subtle by taking thought. Subtlety is a quality of the mind, and if you have it you show it because you can't help it. It's like originality; no one can be original by trying. The original artist is only being himself; he puts things in what seems to him a perfectly normal and obvious way: because it's fresh and new to you you say he's original. He doesn't know what you mean. How stupid are those second-rate painters, for instance, who can't but put paint on their canvas in a dull and commonplace way and think to impress the world with their originality by placing meaningless and incongruous objects against an academic background."

A Writer's Notebook - W.Somerset Maugham - (January 25, 1874 - December 16, 1965)

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Further to the items on markets for writers and the need for literary agents, the following few lines constitute the entireity of Chapter 9: Selling Your Stories in Dwight Swain's book Techniques of the Selling Writer:





A story is merchandise that goes hunting for a buyer.
This is going to be the shortest chapter on record.
To sell stories, do three things:

1. Study your markets.
2. Get manuscripts in the mail.
3. Keep them there.

And that's all there is to it.


What about agents?
An agent is a business manager for writers.
If you have a business to manage - one that makes a solid, consistent profit - an agent can be invaluable to you. If you haven't, why should he waste his time?
One agent, Paul R. Reynolds, has written a book called The Writer and His Markets. It covers the waterfront.
Read it.

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"I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: Try to please everybody all the time."







Herbert Bayard Swope
(January 5, 1882 - June 20, 1958)

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Been fiddling about in the sidebar this past week.

Weeded out a few suspect looking agents from the list of U.S. literary agents and added 84 more, bringing the total to 365.

Added 12 more UK literary agents, bringing the total to 122.

So, altogether you now have a total of 487 literary agents to check out before you start sending off queries.





As ever, though I do what I can to check agents' bona fides before posting links, if in doubt check 'em out - go to: Writer Beware, Preditors & Editors, AAR and Agent Research & Evaluation etc.

I've also added a couple of editors' blogs and a couple of agents' blogs and a couple of potentially useful organisations.

Hope you find the information useful.

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As you'll see over in the sidebar I've posted links to 52 UK publishers who will consider submissions from writers.

I have not included academic publishers, textbook publishers and publishers whose lists are exclusively based on hobbies, collecting and leisure interests and local history.


The links will take you to the appropriate submissions pages. If you come across any broken links then do please let me know.

Not all the publishers listed, Two Ravens Press and Tonto Books, for example, are looking at submissions at the current time - so do check the submission guidelines before wasting your time, and your targetted publisher's time.

There are some highly regarded and respected imprints among the list: Canongate, Headline, Myrmidon, Macmillan New Writing, Quartet and Snowbooks for example.

Please, do not even begin to form the impression that because these publishers are still open to approaches from writers they collectively represent a soft-touch route into print, that their editorial standards are not as exacting as the corporate publishers. It could be said that their standards are higher. Look at Jamie Byng's imprint Canongate for example, note some of the writers: Barack Obama, Philip Pullman, Yann Martel -- hardly newbie scribblers who couldn't place their work elsewhere.

Most of the companies listed are steered by strong, singular personalities whose aim is to put strong individual voices in reach of discerning, individually minded readers.

A point reinforced by Mark Hodkinson at Pomona Books (not currently accepting submissions) who says, "I think the best publishing houses are built on the taste of one or two people and to hell with committees or marketing strategies. If I love a book and believe in it, we'll publish it."

Similarly, Emma Barnes, Managing Director at Snowbooks, asks herself of every book they consider, "Do we love it enough to invest around £10,000 of our own money and eight months of our working life in it?"

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I've added a new category in the sidebar: MARKETS.

You'll find it listed after U.S. Publishers' Blogs.

MARKETS will feature links to sources of information regarding material editors are currently looking for.

Don't get too excited - I'm no mind reader - and I don't share the same executive restrooms as the big boys and girls use in London and New York. But you will find links to the kind of long fiction, short fiction, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and essays that print (magazine, chapbook, anthology) and online editors are looking for.

The first link in the MARKETS sidebar is: Places for Writers, a Canadian based site which has been posting submission calls, writing contests, occasional literary news and publishing information since 1997.
The site also has comprehensive lists of links to Canadian writers' and literary organizations.
In fact, I wish I'd known about this site before I penned my post about Canadian publishers here.

I've also put a link to Dark Markets - which carries useful market information for writers of horror.

And I've put up a link to an anonymous, (from the address I deduce it has been compiled by someone on the staff at Cambridge University), though comprehensive and up-to-date, series of lists of links to print and web based literary magazines and poetry publishers.

And, of course, there's the well-known and award-winning Duotrope's Digest, which lists more than 2850 fiction and poetry publishers.

I've also put a link to Fiction Factor's market listings.

You'll also find a link to WritersWeekly and their listing of current opportunities.

And, finally, I've put up a link to science fiction & fantasy writer Douglas Smith's Foreign Market List. Though, before you head off and start sending work out to publishers on this list YOU MUST read Mr Smith's excellent advice here.

Douglas Smith's website is an excellent, well-organised resource - especially for writers of speculative fiction - well worth a visit.

Please, if you know of any English language sites which list accurate and up-to-date opportunities for writers then do please pass them on - either through the comments box or email the links to haarlson phillipps at gmail.com. Thanks.

Happy scouting for outlets.

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A History of the Army Ordnance Services Volumes I, II & III by Major General A. Forbes, published by The Medici Society, London, 1929.
Volume I: Ancient History - (Medieval Age to Crimean War)
Volume II: Modern History - (Crimean War to the Great War)
Volume III: The Great War - (and including the War of Intervention, Russian & Siberian campaigns March 1918-October 1919).

These three volumes offer such a wealth of fascinating authoritative detail it really is very difficult to know how and where to begin an intelligent blog length summary.

I came across these volumes while staying with friends in Italy. I couldn't put them down. One of my friend's father was a general in the British Army and wrote a sort of sequel to these volumes - bringing the story of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps up to the Falklands War of 1982.

Any writer writing about any period in English history between the 12th century and WW1 will find something useful in these volumes.

These volumes together form a fascinating history of the English fighting man from the perspective of the efforts over centuries to clothe, equip and feed him.

With virtually every single page my preconceptions were challenged.

The author writes: “To make matters intelligible the reader should have some idea of what manner of man the soldier was, what sort of life he led, how he was treated by his country. In short we must try and breathe life into the lay figure, and convert it into a creature of flesh and blood.”

Drawing from sources such as the Commission of Array of 1132, through discussion of the Assize of Arms of 1181 to the Statute of Winchester of 1285 the author spells out in precise, arcane detail what each and every knight of the realm between the ages of 15 and 60 years old was obliged to own in terms of clothing and equipment. Fascinating stuff.

As the author painstakingly unravels the history of the various systems of English military supply, which finally coalesced around the notion of a national, tax supported procurement system, he reveals many, many interesting byways.
"The English cross was originally white." And we learn that in medieval times "Yellow was the distinguishing colour of the Jew".

We learn that in 1539, during the reign of Henry VIII, the London Trained Bands, then the nearest equivalent to a professional army, "... were dressed all in white, even their shoes, and the soldiers were often called 'White Coats'".

Along the way we learn that, contrary to the popular belief that the British Army adopted khaki service dress during the Boer War, soldiers fighting in Ireland during Elizabeth I's reign were kitted out with “convenient doublets and hose, and also a cassock of some motley or other sand green colour, or russet” … “... for the purpose of concealment.”

The red uniforms later adopted by the army, began as "... at first russet - dull, reddish brown, not scarlet." "... red was seldom worn at this time - a prohibitively

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I've added another 7 UK literary agents' websites to the sidebar here - bringing the total to 110.
There are probably more out there - I'll add the links as and when I come across them.

So, altogether there are now a total of 391 literary agents' websites listed on this blog.


It's as well to keep in mind that there are dozens of agents in the UK who do not have a public web presence.

When looking for UK agents' not listed here the best place to start is at the Association of Authors' Agents, where you'll find a comprehensive list of members.
You could also try Writers Services which maintains a list of agents' contact details.

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Do you?
Have you really considered the options?

It's perhaps too easy for would-be published writers to follow the herd and accept the false maxim that you have to have an agent to land a deal.

It is good practice to occasionally re-evaluate your goals and devise fresh approaches and strategies. Part of that re-evaluation should include challenging perceived common wisdom.

So, do you really need an agent?


You could try submitting your work directly to any of these ten UK publishers, and you could try Macmillan New Writing, or Quartet, or Solidus, and, if you write crime, you could try Crème De La Crime.
And you could try submitting work to these U.S. publishers.

In Chapter Eight of his How To Write Damn Good Fiction, which tackles the subject of a writer's timidity, James N. Frey holds forth, in robust fashion, on how to circumvent agents.
I quote the passage at length here:

Writers run away not only from conflict. They aso run away from editors and agents. ... Go to the bookstore. Find some books similar to yours. Jot down the publishers of these books. Go home and the call the publishers and ask for the editorial department. Tell them you want to speak to the editors of the books similar to yours. When the editor comes on the line, tell her or him how much you admire the book. Say that you have written one like it and ask whether they would take a look. Nine times out of ten they'll say yes. I was horrified. What -- call the Olympian gods? on the telephone? Me? James N. -- for nobody -- Frey?

It was only later, after having attended a slew of writers' conferences and having met a lot of New York agents and editors, that it began to dawn on me that the reason editors are editors and agents are agents is that most of them are failed writers who haven't the guts to face the blank page and the rejection slip.
They do not have any magic ability. In fact, most of them are work-by-numbers kinds of people. They put on their pants or pantyhose one leg at a time. If you call them, they will not send hot lightning bolts over the phone lines to turn you into cinders.

In fact, they will your respect your boldness. They know if a writer believes in himself or herself, chances are the writer is at least a sure-footed one.

While you're at the bookstore, by the way, it might be a good idea to look through the stacks of new arrivals for the bad books that got past the Olympian gods. You'll be amazed

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