CLARENDON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS

Clarendon House Publications has produced dozens of anthologies at this writing and I wondered if you would be interested in some general comments about what I have found as an editor. You might be able to make use of some of these comments to improve your rate of acceptance not only with me but with others, and they should provide perhaps an entertaining look behind the scenes. The first part of this is to do with what I thought was going to happen as opposed to what actua

You’ve decided to activate your passion and become a writer. The problem is, so have several million other people. Your passion lies in an industry that’s already over-saturated with writers just like you - at least, they're like you on the surface. The internet and the advent of self-publishing models mean that the market has been flooded with options for readers. But you don’t have to give up just because you’re not the first person to want to make a success of writing.

It might be considered an odd thing, but many writers struggle not because they can’t communicate but because they have nothing significant to communicate. A rambling series of images, even when accurately and passionately described, does not necessarily constitute ‘good writing’ and will not on its own guarantee success for a writer. A brief scan over some of the most enduring pieces of literature in the world reveals that most of its authors had deeply felt ideas which ac

Imagine a world in which human beings communicated solely by telepathy, transferring thoughts directly from one person to another. Would this be a world in which writers were defunct? Because surely as a writer, what you are trying to do is to move what is in your mind and heart across to another’s mind and heart? I’m not so sure. Take this passage from Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children: Oh, spell it out, spell it out: at the precise instant of India's arrival at indep

Let’s say a writer has been writing all his life. He isn’t successful. So how is it supposed to happen that a writer, just by writing more and more, will become commercially viable? It won’t. In order to be successful, writers need basic editing skills. They either have these themselves, or they seek out someone who has them. What are these basic editing skills? 1. A good editor has to know the correct fundamentals of what makes fiction work. This includes knowing

There’s obviously a place for writers just writing without paying any attention to any kind of need to communicate to readers. First drafts are all about opening up the writer’s heart. If any kinds of qualifications are put on what a writer ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ do in this early stage, then the core of the story may evade capture - the depths may be unplumbed, the centre of the whole thing might not be discovered. First drafts are exploratory, adventurous, free. 'Write un

What’s the difference between a story and the simple relation of an incident? I ask because I get to read quite a lot of ‘flash fiction’ in the course of a week or so. ‘Flash fiction’ is defined as a fictional work of extreme brevity that still offers character and plot development. And that definition really holds the answer to the question. Much of what is presented to me as flash fiction is the relation in words of an event. Sometimes that event is dramatic, sometimes

Edith Nesbit (whose married name was Edith Bland) 1858 – 1924 was an English author and poet who published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit. A political activist and co-founder of the Fabian Society, she wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television (including most famously The Railway Children). Born in Kennington, Surrey, the death of Edith’s father when she was four and the con

You would think, looking at the decade-long success story of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, earning billions with every film and regularly topping fan polls with superhero adventures one after unfailing one, that Marvel Comics would be doing a roaring trade, wouldn’t you? Actually, the opposite is true. In brief, the comics industry, and Marvel in particular, are in real trouble in terms of turnover and readership. Why is this? In answering that question, we can learn a