Keeping It Local

Simon Whaley explores the benefit of authors getting involved with their local literary festivals …

Keeping It Local - Society of Authors magazine

Keeping It Local was published in the Autumn 2015 issue of The Author, the Journal of the Society of Authors

Keeping it local

Phyllis Blakemore will always remember her appearance at the Wellington Literary Festival’s ‘Meet the Local Author’ event, in 2014. She sold three copies of her book, Gentlemen of the River: The Last Coraclemen of the Severn Gorge, to the same reader who’d bought a signed copy from her at the 2013 local author event. The reader wanted signed copies to give as gifts and, knowing Phyllis was local, had searched specifically for her in the new festival brochure. 

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Another Visit to Age UK

Pick up a copy of the 18th July 2015 issue of The People’s Friend to see the latest monthly instalment of a year in the life of an Age UK …

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Business of Writing – Get Help Through Business Synergies

BoW - Get Help - Business Synergies _ July 2015

 

Businesses make themselves stronger by joining forces. Simon Whaley discovers how this can help your writing.

Writing is a lonely occupation, but those writers who succeed tend to be the ones who seek support from elsewhere. In the world of business this is known as a synergy, when two or more businesses co-operate to produce a result greater than their separate parts. As individual writers we have strengths, but we also have weaknesses. In order to develop as writers we need to recognise those weaknesses and then join forces with another business that can help us overcome them, making us much stronger in a competitive world.

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Ideas and The Complete Article Writer

No writer worth their weight in text is without ideas. But sometimes conjuring them up feels more challenging than pushing a brussels sprout up to the top of Snowdon using …

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Business of Writing – Free Words?

BoW - Free Words

 

Is it good business to write for free? Simon Whaley explores the value of your words.

Picture the scene: an email pops into your inbox. The editor loves your submission and wants to publish it. Sadly, there’s no budget to pay contributors, but it’s a great opportunity to see your name in print, and it’ll give you a piece to put in your published portfolio. So, what do you do?

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Age UK – The People’s Friend

  If you can get hold of a copy of The People’s Friend, dated 21st March 2015, then check out the feature exploring the life of an Age UK charity …

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Age UK Magazine Models

My latest batch of Age UK photos has been published in The People’s Friend magazine. They’re such a lovely team at the Newport, Shropshire shop, and they are all fantastically friendly, especially when they hate having their photos taken! Mind you, I can understand their reticence. When you give up your time to volunteer in a charity shop you don’t expect to find yourself as a magazine model strutting your stuff in front of over 400,000 readers.

Age UK feature in The People's Friend magazine
Age UK feature in The People’s Friend magazine

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Writer’s Wheel Article – Course You Can

My latest article for Writer’s Wheel, the online magazine for writers, is entitled Course You Can and looks at how to make the most from a residential writing workshop. You …

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