Things like severe crippling injuries or diseases don’t typically make great fodder for a funny book. But for Ian Simpson, who has lived nearly half a century in a wheelchair, it’s as natural as writing about cups of tea or supermarkets. To find out the wheel story (cringe) we put
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation. This week, we’re getting festive… Q: Season’s Greetings Australian Writers’ Centre! A: Well, you’re in
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation. This week, we go further than ever before…or, wait, is it… Q: Hello Australian
Robert Hollingsworth is the author of The Colour of the Night. Robert, pop your coffee down for a moment and sum up the book in 105 words or fewer. “This story is a gentle rumination on the relationship – and distance – between nature and culture. In a wired world,
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation. This week, a very special/especial edition. And cupcakes… Q: Hello Australian Writers’ Centre, would you
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation. This week, something common in other languages, but a little rarer in English… Q:
Aha, there you are Eva Novy – sitting in your circle-shaped chair all relaxified. And wow, check out the cover of your debut book, Darling, Impossible! – great name by the way. We are certain that every writer currently glancing at the cover wishes they were sitting at that gorgeous
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation. This week, parentheses and brackets… Q: Hi Australian Writers’ Centre, I have a quick
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation. This week, does “practise” or “practice” make perfect? Q: Hi there Australian Writers’ Centre, I have
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation. This week, useless chatter about whether to use “less”… Q: Hi there. I was at the
This week, we sit down to a lesson in ligatures with our friendly Q & A participants… Q: Hello, do you think I have the Ebola virus? A: No. Q: Okay, great, just thought I should check. Now I also want to ask about something I struggle with. A: Your
This week, we examine when it’s okay to hyphenate adverbs and adjectives and when it’s not… Q: Hey there, I wrote something but I have a friend who thinks it’s wrong. A: Oh, you have a “friend” who thinks it’s wrong, do you? <wink> Q: What are you doing? A:
They sit right there above the letters on the keyboard, but how do we go with using them? This week we examine numbers… Q: Hi there Australian Writers’ Centre, can I ask a question? A: Well, that capital Q in front of everything you say suggests that you can. What’s
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation… Q: Hi there, I have a question about possession. A: What kind of possession? We
So, recently on the Q&A segment of our weekly newsletter, we were discussing possessives with proper nouns (names), and one example was compound possessives. When two (or more) people ‘own’ the same thing, and they are named, we only need to indicate possession on the final one: “I was invited
One of our Australian Writers’ Centre community recently asked us to clarify the use of the term “plan ahead” as being somewhat redundant. This led to more examples of tautology and somehow a party invitation… Q: Hi there AWC. I want to talk to you about the term “Plan Ahead”.
Last week our Q&A used the term ‘very unique’, and in doing so, succeeded in waking up the interwebs. An ABSOLUTE catastrophe! Let’s take a look… Q: Well, wasn’t that a great Q&A last week? All ‘reality show’ themed and that. A: Oh, thanks. Um, who are those other people? Q:
The rise of online shopping has revolutionised the way that we buy books. From a bookseller’s point of view, the playing field has been significantly levelled – with every book just a search and a click away. And from an author’s point of view, this makes marketing your book more important than ever.
One man who knows all about this is John Purcell, chief book buyer and head of marketing at Booktopia – Australia’s fastest-growing online bookstore. Not only does he decide which books to stock, but he’s also been a published author himself, seeing first-hand the effect good marketing can have on sales.
Clearly if you self-publish, by definition you do the sales legwork yourself. But when it comes to being traditionally published, don’t assume someone else will do it all. Finding success with a publishing house is definitely impressive (congratulations!), but this is no time to put your feet up and wait for the cheques to start flying through the door. Back in episode 5 of our top-rating podcast So you want to be a writer, we chatted with John Purcell and here are his 3 top tips for ensuring your book meets its marketing potential.
Each week, we take a look at a common confusions and ambiguities in the English language (that gives us about a century’s worth of material!) – making things easier through the power of friendly conversation. This week, a word or two about possession… Q: Hello. Every May and September I
There are millions of fiction books in the world, all different in some way, and yet all with one thing in common – they’re one-sided conversations. You begin reading, then the author tells you things until you’re finished reading. Next.
But what happens when the conversation becomes two-way? In this world of ebooks and global audiences, Sydney writer James Evangelidis has chosen an intriguing device to engage readers. With his debut book, Maze of Keys (being released online on 17 September), he doesn’t just ask you to read the book, he wants you to solve it too – and win big!
Okay, interest piqued. We hunted him down and asked a few questions.
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