The Word Cloud

Another year done and gone, descending below the horizon in a brandy-scented, fairylit glow of slightly befuddled good cheer and good intentions. Some thoughts before I go to get my elf costume on:

It's been tough
It's been an awful year economically. We've noticed that at the WW: there are simply fewer people with the disposable cash to spend on manuscript appraisals and the like. You don't need to be hard up to feel the pinch these days. You just need to be normal.

You lot are fab
But lousy economy or no, you lot are still incredibly serious about and committed to your writing. That's just the way you ought to be. It's where good art comes from - and I'm including good genre art every bit as much as good posh art. It's all the same thing really; you just get better shootouts in the genre stuff.

Good writing gets its reward
I have never yet seen a really, really good book turned down by agents. Turned down by a few, yes - that can happen easily. But if a book is truly good enough, it will find an audience. The only slight modifier there is that the book needs to understand today's market as well as being good in the abstract. Given that we're all trying to get into the publishing business, I don't think we can complain about having to be a little businesslike.

You lot are fab (2)
And blimey!, have we had a good year on the succcesses front? It's been deal after deal, agent after agent. That's testiment to you guys: real writers, taking your passion seriously. I think the WW has the best clients in the industry. I think the Cloud is the best writing community around. That's not us; it's you.

We really do make a difference
I also, however, want to give everyone at the WW a pat on the back. It would be easy to do what we do, take money for it, do an honest job and leave it there. And we don't do that. There's always a sense of pushing a bit harder, doing a little bit more. One story is illustrative.

One writer, who had a couple of regular critiques from us, came to us with a story that he wanted to have properly copy-edited prior to self-publication. We gave it to our copyeditor (who is also a novelist) and she said the story was just too good not to find a commercial outlet. So she told us at the office. We nuzzled around, found an agent, sent him the story - and he loved it. He thought it didn't work for the market in its current form and suggested a different approach altogether. Maybe the writer concerned will go with those ideas - or maybe not. It's his call. But at least he has a realistic choice and one that he had not originally comtemplated having. And all this extra stuff was free: the client paid for copyediting at the normal rates but not a bean more. We never charge for finding agents.

The best thing about this story is that the momentum to push harder came not from me or the client but from everyone else. The copyeditor loved the MS and urged us to read it. In the office, I had commercial reservations about the MS, because I couldn't see it having a market niche. (The agent agreed with me, hence his suggestion of a new approach.) But Laura and Nikki simply ganged up on me and insisted that we were here to push quality writing. And they were right. So I did what I could - and got lucky. But it was the passion and commitment of the copyeditor, Laura, Nikki and (finally) me that made this all happen.

Elf costumes & naughty jokes
I'll sign off by advertising two things. One, Laura's invitation to poke around our new website searching for a Christmas elf. If you find it, just email info@writersworkshop.co.uk to let us know. We'll pick a winner from the hat when we get back in the New Year, and offer a free Quick Review (worth £95) to that lucky so-and-so. Three runners up will get some kind of lucky dip prize. You can see the elf dancing here.

And the naughty joke? It's from one of our client's websites. The client is Mitch Feierstein. His book - sold July 2011, out Feb 2012 - is Planet Ponzi. The joke is here.