Author | Writer | Photographer
Securing a non-fiction book contract means having a business plan. Simon Whaley reveals what to put into your next book proposal Do you have an idea for a great non-fiction book and want to secure a traditional publishing deal? Then what you need is a business plan.
I nearly called this piece Oscillating Oswestry, such is the number of times it has moved (from one side of the Welsh Borders to the other). Although it’s most recent move came courtesy of the Ordnance Survey. To find out why, you’ll have to check out the article in this week;s edition of The People’s…
It was hot, hot, hot yesterday! It’s not often the Welsh Borders gets up to 30 degrees, but we hit it yesterday (and I think today will be even hotter). But at least I got up early and climbed Ragleth Hill before it got too hot to take my WeatherWatcher photo for the day. Turns…
The July 2020 issue has my Ellesmere route in it. It’s a classic route because it’s one of the best ways to see three of the largest meres in Shropshire. First, though, there’s the small matter of negotiating the 80-metre Ellesmere tunnel. (It is possible to avoid this by climbing up to the road and…
It was while updating Photography for Writers, that I realised I had the perfect opportunity to create a box set, combining this book with The Complete Article Writer. Now available in eBook format (via Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc), The Complete Article Writer’s Box Set contains everything a budding article writer needs to…
I can’t believe it’s been six years since Photography for Writers was first published. At the time, I wasn’t able to pursue my goal of including photographs within the book. Sadly, the publisher explained that would make the book uneconomical.
If I could ask the BBC WeatherWatcher service to make one minor change, it would be to show where our images had been used. You see, this morning, a friend messaged me to say they’d seen my photo on the telly last night. Puzzled, I checked out my BBC WeatherWatcher page and sure enough, the…
This week’s issue of The People’s Friend (dated 6th June 2020) has my travel piece about Exmoor on the front cover.
Virginia Woolf famously called for a ‘room of her own’ in which to write. Simon Whaley chats to three wordsmiths about where they work and why. A year ago, the Royal Society for Literature released the results of a survey in which 80% of writers said they needed a room of their own in which…
This week’s issue of The People’s Friend (30th May 2020) contains my article about a fascinating organisation: The Lions Barber Collective. It was set up by barber, Tom Chapman, after the sudden death of a friend through suicide. Tom realised that a barber shop was a safe place where men could talk, and his Lions…
The June issue of BBC Countryfile explores Britain’s coastline, and my 3-mile walk around Dinas Head kicks off this month’s Great Days Out section. (Don’t forget – always abide by current Covid-19 lockdown guidance.) WHOOPS! Gremlins at the magazine have inadvertently used the wrong route map. To view the correct map, click this link: https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/4637100/BBC-Countryfile-Magazine-Dinas-Head-Pembrokeshire
This week’s issue of The People’s Friend carries my travel piece about Caldey Island on its front cover.
It’s ben rather hot here in the Welsh Borders, recently. In fact, we’ve not had much rain at all. As the cliché goes, the ground is rock hard … except it isn’t. When I strolled onto the summit ridge of Ragleth Hill today, the ground sounded hollow. I’m not sure if I should be worried…
Blink and you might have missed this one! This appeared on the weather forecast on the national BBC One o’clock news, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it wasn’t one of mine because it wasn’t credited.
Should self-published authors go exclusively Amazon, or dip their toes into the wider world of Kobo, Apple and more? Simon Whaley explores the pros and cons. Ask any self-published author which ebook platform they sell their books on, and most will say Amazon. It’s easy to understand why. In the UK and USA, Amazon is…
The latest issue of the People’s Friend has my feature about Shrewsbury in it and on the front cover.
No, not a new double act between the poet and singer, but a search engine’s use of one of my photos to celebrate the anniversary of Wordsworth’s 250th birthday. Bing has used one of my photos for their search page background for today – it’s of daffodils flowering at Dora’s Field, near Rydal, in the…
The Business of Writing – You’ve Got Mail What makes a good author email newsletter? Two authors tell Simon Whaley how they keep in regular touch with their readers. Mailing lists. Every author should have one. Why? Because once we have our readers’ email addresses, we control how and when we communicate directly with them….
It’s a troubling time at the moment, and while the Government permits us to go outside and exercise, I shall continue to do my daily walk. I was already aware of how lucky I am to live on the Welsh Borders, but the current Covid 19 shutdown is only bringing it to the fore. Exercising…
The Business of Writing – You Can Bank On It Has your writing business come of age? Simon Whaley looks at when to get a business bank account. We all remember our first time. It was 1989, I was 18, and I couldn’t believe what I was holding in my hands. (It was a postal…
Well, what can I say? Each year the number just keeps getting bigger. Thank you to everyone who’s bought a copy of my first book One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human. Lifetime sales through all outlets up until the end of 2019 now stand at an amazing 272,222. That’s a lot…
The latest issue of The People’s Friend magazine has my travel feature about Worcester.
The February 2020 issue of Writing Magazine is out now, and my Business of Writing column looks at how writers can organise their own booksignings in WHSmiths.
Out now in the February 2020 issue of Country Walking is my 7-mile wander around Lower Whitcliffe and Wheelers Vallets – just west of Ludlow. It’s a gentle wander, perfect for taking slowly to explore the surrounding landscape, and offers some wonderful views, as well as the opportunity to spot some pretty impressive Victorian engineering.
Well, that was a surprise! A nice way to round off 2019 with a WeatherWatcher photo on the evening regional news forecast.
Issue 185 of The People’s Friend Special has just hit the newsstands, and it contains my feature on the Centre for Alternative Technology, near Machynlleth, Wales. It really is one of those places that you have to visit for yourself, to get a greater understanding of what they do there. I was fortunate to visit…
Snow! We didn’t have much, but there was enough in places on top of Ragleth Hill to feel like you’d trudged through it. It was one of those gorgeous days when the only clouds were the light, wispy ones amidst an ocean of blue – a vast improvement on the dark, depressing, grey, rain-pouring clouds…
In this week’s bumper, double issue of The People’s Friend, there’s an article about my visit to Europe’s biggest tinsel-making factory: Festive Productions, near Cwmbran, Wales. They’re a fantastic bunch of people there, and we had a laugh as they showed me round the factory. Cheryl Roach is the Production Manager, and she gave me…
The front cover image of the bumper, double issue of this latest issue of The People’s Friend is of Ironbridge in the snow. It’s inspired by an image the magazine found a few years ago. When they commissioned me to write the piece, I asked them what colour the bridge was in the picture. Answer:…