Jericho Writers

Here are the latest Jericho Writers newsletters for my followers to peruse:

What’s the best route to publication? Choosing between Big 5 publishers and independents What works out best for the author – a ‘Big 5’ publisher such as Hachette or Penguin Random House? Or an independent publisher, such as Galley Begger Press, or Granta? We hear from a number of different publishers this week, to help you decide the best option for you when the time comes. Having trouble with links? View the newsletter in your browser here: https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=119

Webinar: I’m an agent – Ask me anything! (Members only) 15 April 6.30pm BST. Join Ben Clark from The Soho Agency for this intimate Ask Me Anything webinar. Ben will be on hand to answer questions on writing, submissions, publishing and the market as it stands right now. REGISTER NOW

Become a member

NEW on Jericho Writers

MASTERCLASS: Commissioning editor panel with Transworld, Granta and Amazon (FREE for members) Join Darcy Nicholson from Transworld; Anne Meadows from Granta and Laura Deacon from Amazon Publishing UK for this unique insight into publishing with large and independent presses. WATCH NOW

BLOG: The battle of the eBook formats Rather self-publish your book? This new blog reveals the difference between Mobi, ePub and PDF file eBooks – and which is the best option for you. READ NOW

WEBINARS: The Writing Process and After You Get an Agent (Free for members) We’ll be joined by author Holly Seddon on 22 and 30 April for two webinars, revealing her writing process and the often little-talked-about time after you land a literary agent. REGISTER NOW

Content corner: Big vs Small (the pros and cons) Bigger isn’t always better. Below are the top-line arguments for publishing with a Big 5 publisher, vs a small independent press. BIG 5 (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster) Pros: When it comes to sales reach, these powerhouses dominate. Want to see your book in a bookshop window? These publishers are most likely to make that happen. Cons: Big name publishers attract big name authors, and as a small debut, you could find yourself at the bottom of the pile, with a short marketing window and budget. INDEPENDENT PRESS Pros: When a small press buys a book, they often love it like one of their own. You'll struggle to find an author experience like it anywhere else – there’s a good chance your will be their highest priority. Cons: Budgets are small, advances are smaller and physical sales reach is often limited. However, a good independent press can punch above their weight in terms of marketing, so you never know... Which would you prefer to publish with – a small press, or a Big 5? Sign up to the Townhouse and share here.

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Follow us on Instagram for more of our 'The Life of a Writer' cartoon series by our very talented Stephanie!

As always, happy writing and remember, you can contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 345 459 9560* or info@jerichowriters.com for any writing-related advice. Best wishes, Sarah Juckes Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call toll free on +1 (646)-974-9060

Plus – don’t miss: Complete Novel Mentoring (Discounts available for members) Work with an expert tutor as you write or edit your book. We have three world-leading authors at your disposal covering everything from children’s books to sci-fi. Manuscript Assessment (Discounts available for members) Our most popular editorial service matches you to your dream editor and gives you tailored feedback on your work. It doesn’t get better than that. Self-Edit Your Novel Bursary Win a free place on our upcoming June Self-Edit Your Novel tutored course – exclusively for under-represented writers.

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

The world turned upside down

I had thoughts, I really did. A useful laundry list of wonderful tips for making your prose shine and your plots glitter. But – maybe another time. I can’t help noticing that it is not merely Good Friday, but Good Friday in the Age of Plague. A lot of people are feeling isolated or scared. The wheels of history are grinding and they don’t care too much who they overrun. I’m not fearful for myself or my family. We’re comfortably isolated in the country. The weather is wonderful. We have a big garden and our village community is actually more active and friendly than it ever has been before. Likewise, my brother and sister, my mother, their families, my in-laws – they’re all fine. They’re OK. But one of the things that fiction achieves is to take us to the edge of inversions and new recognitions. Fiction takes you to a place where you realise something quite unexpected – or impossible – is also true. In Pride and Prejudice, we know for sure that Lizzie doesn’t love Darcy. She makes it clear. She turns down his proposal with force and asperity. Lizzie does not love Darcy. FACT. But – boom – fiction does its thing, it turns its wheels, and we realise she loves him with all her heart, and all her soul, and all her mind. The Lizzie/Darcy love is as complete and perfect as any we could imagine. FACT. Fiction isn’t so crass as to say the first view of things was false. More like, it was incomplete. The old binary view of truth buckles a bit at the hands of good writing. And those inversions and completions are an essential part of fiction. But reality is pulling the same trick right now. We’re a celebrity obsessed culture, right? Any teenage YouTube vlogger can sell some weirdly huge mountain of books just because they know about (I don’t know) eyebrow threading or vegan yogurt. FACT. But cometh the plague, cometh the inversion. It turns out we have no interest in these posing celebrities. (Billionaire David Geffen putting pics of his yacht on Instagram as he outlines his isolation strategy. The moron.) We have an interest and respect for the people who work in healthcare, without acclaim and often enough without much cash either. We turn out in our city streets to clap and cheer and bang saucepans and say, these are our heroes. Not just today, but forever. We have loved you always and have only known to say it now. FACT. And we’re the same. We’ve had a couple of emails from healthcare workers who have told us that they’d love to become JW members but can’t afford the fee. In more normal times, we’d act like commercially responsible businesspeople. Ones with budgets and targets and marketing plans. But you know what? Stuff that. Our budgets are already shredded and our marketing plans are in the bin. So here goes: If you are a healthcare worker, then tell us – and we’ll give you 75% off your JW membership. We don’t care if you’re a trainee nurse, a top consultant, or a citizen volunteer. If you’re supporting the health service at this time of crisis, just tell us. All we need is a picture of some form of ID that shows you are what you say you are, and we’ll tell you how to get your 75% discount. This isn’t a clever marketing strategy, so there are no strings attached. No ulterior purpose. Just – the world doesn’t really need more writing mentors at the moment, but it sure as hell needs more nurses. This is our version of standing outside our homes and clapping. (I should probably also say that we won’t see your email before Tuesday at the earliest and we’ll have a huge backlog of emails to get through at that point. So if you do want to take us up on this offer, please bear with us. We’ll be with you as fast as we can.) That’s it from me – or almost. When I write these emails, I often discover something I hadn’t realised at the start. And that thing about fiction inverting an apparent reality to reveal a true one underneath – the Lizzie/Darcy love story, for example – I wonder if that is true of all great fiction? Or all fiction? I wonder if it’s true of mine. Just now, I don’t know, but it’s a damn interesting thought. Let’s bundle over to Townhouse and have a chat about that. Again, if you’re a healthcare hero, let us know. We’d like to reward you. Stay safe. Keep writing. Keep clapping. Till soon. Harry

PS: Townhouse has just redecorated the library, purchased six new leather chesterfields, and we’ve poached the Head Barman from the Ritz. If you want to learn from other writers, swap peer-to-peer critiques, or just talk about how your feeling, then Townhouse is the place for you. It’s free to sign up (here). And if you’re already a member, then tell me please whether your fiction achieves one of those strange inversions I’ve spoken about here. I need to figure it out myself. The thread is here: https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=116 As usual, if you want to chat to me about something privately, just hit reply. PPS: Hope the email is perfectly clear already – but if you are a healthcare hero and would like to become a member of Jericho Writers at 75% off, then just reply to this email with an explanation of who you are / what you do. Include a picture of any ID document or similar. We’ll get back to you with an explanation of how to claim your discount. Remember, it may be a week or so before we can get back to you, because we’re going into a holiday weekend and our little (remote-working) team is somewhat overwhelmed as it is. PPPS: And while we’re on the theme of helping out, please don’t forget that we have a permanent rolling bursary programme aimed at helping under-represented writers. Information here. We’d love submissions, please. PPPPS: Hate writing? Decided you want to broadcast pictures of your own $500 million yacht / self-isolation paradise? Unsubscribe now. You and your sort can yacht right off.

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

Stick with us to receive a free first page critique

Hi Karen, Many literary agents (and readers!) know from the very first page of a manuscript whether or not it’s for them. Your two-week membership to Jericho Writers expires at midnight tonight. But… Take out an annual membership with us in the next 48 hours, and get your opening page critiqued by our in-house experts Holly Seddon, Harry Bingham or (me!) Sarah Juckes for FREE.

JOIN JERICHO WRITERS

Remember, your membership is not set to renew, so if you’d like to continue exploring Jericho Writers, you can join now for a year, or even just for another month – all still with no lock-ins or hidden fees.

Join for a month Just £30 / €35 / $39 No risk – cancel any time Join for a year £195 / €227 / $248 Save up to 45%

How to redeem your free opening page critique: Join Jericho Writers for a year (and save up to 45%!) Forward your opening page as a Word document to info@jerichowriters.com We’ll send you expert feedback, completely free, within two weeks.

Coming up exclusive for members in the next month: An ‘Ask Me Anything’ webinar with agent, Ben Clark. A commissioning editor panel, featuring Transworld, Granta and Amazon Publishing. A masterclass on writing diversely, with prize-winning YA author, Patrice Lawrence. …and more to be announced soon!

I really hope to see you again in the Jericho Membership! We are adding new things to the site all the time and 2020 promises more events, more webinars and more masterclasses from the leading names in the industry.

Hope to see you again soon! Sarah J

Copyright © 2020 Jericho Writers, All rights reserved.

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

How to get help with editing A new set of eyes on your writing can work wonders Books are made in the editing process. But self-editing can only take us so far. A new perspective on our work can illuminate things we never would have seen ourselves and help take our writing to the next level. This newsletter spotlights the different ways writers can get editorial help on their work. Having trouble with links? View this newsletter in your browser: https://community.jerichowriters.com/page/view-post?id=114

Webinar: I’m an agent – Ask me anything! (Members only) 15 April 6.30pm BST. Join Ben Clark from The Soho Agency for this intimate Ask Me Anything webinar. Ben will be on hand to answer questions on writing, submissions, publishing and the market as it stands right now. REGISTER NOW

Spotlight

MASTERCLASS: How to self-edit your work – part one (FREE for members) Still at the self-editing stage? Watch part one of this mini-course based on the bestselling tutored course by Debi Alper, which has seen 1-in-4 alumni published WATCH NOW

BLOG: What are the different types of editing? Sometimes, you need help nailing plot problems, and sometimes, you need a quick typo check before you submit that full to an agent. This blog explains the different types of editing, and what’s usually involved in each. READ NOW

MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENTS: Get editorial advice on your entire book (10% member discount) We work with ex-commissioning editors, agents and world-leading freelancers from all over the world. If you want detailed, professional advice on your entire manuscript, we can match you to your perfect editor (it’s what we do!). FIND OUT MORE

Content corner: How Jericho can help you write and edit that book I’ve learned more about writing from working one-to-one with an editor than I have from anything else in my career to date. Here’s the low down on how the team at JW can help you do the same: Manuscript Assessments. These are hugely popular at JW, and for good reason. Send in your full manuscript and JW will match it to its perfect editor for a 3000 word+ report covering style, structure, pacing, plot and character development (and, for non-fiction, everything relevant to your specific manuscript.) Similar to what you’ll get from an editor at a Big 5 publishing house. Opening Section Review. Maybe you’ve just started writing, and you’re not sure whether you should continue. Or – maybe pennies are tight right now, and you want feedback on a smaller scale. JW editors will read the first 20,000 words of your book, and give you a report on how to improve it. Agent Submission Pack Review. Getting rejections and don’t know why? JW editors will read your query letter, synopsis and opening 10,000 words. Copyediting, Line Editing and Proofreading. This is only recommended for those of you self-publishing or who have English as a second language. JW editors are here to check your book for inconsistencies, spelling and fact-checking. Mentoring. For those of you still writing, or who need professional help as you self-edit your work – Jericho mentors include prize-winning authors, who will work with you on your book every step of the way. What help do you seek when editing your work? And what are your tips for working with editors? Sign up for the Townhouse and share, here.

Cartoon

Follow us on Instagram for more of our 'The Life of a Writer' cartoon series by our very talented Stephanie!

As always, happy writing and remember, you can contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 345 459 9560* or info@jerichowriters.com for any writing-related advice. Best wishes, Sarah Juckes Author | Jericho Writers *or if you're in the US, give us a call toll free on +1 (646)-974-9060

Plus – don’t miss: Self-Edit Your Novel Bursary Win a free place on our upcoming June Self-Edit Your Novel tutored course – exclusively for under-represented writers. Complete Novel Mentoring (Discounts available for members) Our most popular editorial service matches you to your dream editor and gives you tailored feedback on your work. It doesn’t get better than that. Community Writing book club (Open to all) Join the Townhouse community for the next writing book club. This month, it’s The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human, and How to Tell Them Better by Will Storr.

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

Your extra-special member perks

Jericho Writers started life fifteen years ago as an editorial consultancy, connecting writers to trusted and professional editors from all over the world. That hasn’t changed. We’ve added plenty of other bits and pieces to what we offer, but at our heart, we believe that getting professional, tailored advice on your work is sometimes worth its weight in gold.

Get 10% off editorial services as a member We’d love to give all our members completely FREE manuscript assessments, but we firmly believe in fair pay for our editors (and our landlord). However, all members automatically receive 10% off all editorial services when they’re logged in. That includes our popular Manuscript Assessment, Copyediting and Proofreading services, as well as our Agent Submission Pack Assessment.

EXPLORE EDITORIAL SERVICES

Get 10% off events In 2014, Joanna Cannon walked away from our Festival of Writing with seven offers from literary agents. She’s not the only one. Every year, writers walk away from Jericho events with agent offers, or with a clear path to indie stardom. Even in the current environment, we're managing to host incredible events. For now, we've just moved them online – members get 10% no matter what.

EXPLORE OUR EVENTS

We’re coming to the end of our 2-week open door event now, so do jump on all of this. Explore every corner of our membership, make use of discounts and make life-long friends. I’ll be back in a few days with more information on how to extend your stay (alongside an exciting offer). Until then, take care. Sarah J PS: Loving your Jericho Membership so far? Join us in full anytime, for a month, or a whole year! https://members.jerichowriters.com/bazaar/full-membership/

Copyright © 2020 Jericho Writers, All rights reserved.

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560

How to connect with literary agents

Getting an agent is hard. It took me four books and twelve years before I met my literary agent. They get thousands of submissions every year, and may only take on one or two authors. The odds are stacked against us. But there are things you can do to rocket yourself to the very top of that slushpile. And here at Jericho, we’ve become specialists in helping writers do just that.

The AgentMatch search engine We’ve developed a tool that makes finding an agent as delightful as Googling ‘cute baby otters’. Gone are the days when you needed to trawl through a physical book for an agent who represents your genre. With AgentMatch, simply choose your genre from the list and press ‘search’ to find a list of agents in the UK and US who are actively looking for books, just like yours. This is a unique tool that you’ll find only in the Jericho Writers membership. So, even if agents feel a little way off for you yet, why not head over now and see who comes up? There, you’ll also find interviews with literary agents, hints and tips on submitting to them, and helpful information on tailoring your cover letter.

EXPLORE AGENTMATCH

Hear it from the horse’s mouth in the Cinema We’ve interviewed key professionals in the publishing industry, from literary agents to publishers. Grab your popcorn and listen as agents reveal what they are looking for, or explore a ‘Big 5’ publisher in our two-part flagship film at Orion Books. In the cinema, you’ll also find bite-sized Snapshot films from our tutors focusing on one tip, for you to dip in on during your lunch break.

EXPLORE CINEMA

Many of our members come to us specifically to use these tools to find a literary agent. And reader – it works! Check out just a few of our favourite success stories, here. Speak again soon. Sarah J

PS: Remember I mentioned that I got published because of Jericho Writers? Well, a few years ago, I was just like you. I was writing a book and I wanted to see it get published. At this point, I’d amassed well over fifty rejections from agents and publishers, and I was wondering if I’d ever see my work in print. And then I met Jericho Writers. They gave me advice on how to prepare my manuscript properly and took me to an event, where I met a literary agent over drinks. One pitch later – I had my in. And forty-four minutes after sending my manuscript to her, she signed me. So, it does work! In my next email, I’ll let you know about the perks of going to an event like the one I went to, as a member of Jericho Writers. Until then, happy exploring! PPS: Loving your Jericho Membership so far? Join us in full anytime, for a month, or a whole year! https://members.jerichowriters.com/bazaar/full-membership/

Copyright © 2020 Jericho Writers, All rights reserved.

Jericho Writers 4 Acer Walk Oxford OX2 6EX United Kingdom +44 (0) 345 459 9560