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FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS - FICTION
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We hope this website covers most of what you need to know, but if it doesn’t, don’t worry. Please just phone or email and we’ll tell you whatever else you need to know.
Further info on how to submit your MS / payment options / etc can all be found on our Fees and How to Submit page. |
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If I want to go ahead and submit a manuscript,
how should I do this?
Easy. Just send manuscript and payment to
us at: The Writers' Workshop, Pritchards Cottage, Steeple Barton, Oxfordshire OX25 4QP. As soon as we receive this, we will
send you an email confirming receipt. For more, please see Fees & How to Submit.
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How long will it take before I get a report?
Almost never more than four weeks. We usually
average more like two to three. Reports are
sent by email, unless you request otherwise.
How do I arrange
to discuss the report with my reader?
Your reader will contact you to sort out a time.
Discussions are held
by telephone (Face to face meetings are hard to arrange, and not always productive).
Discussions work best when you are well-prepared.
We suggest you read the report a couple of times
and note down any queries. Also give yourself
a few days to mull the report before discussing
it. That way, your questions will be more thought
out.
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Do I get a set amount of time for the discussion?
No. The discussion will last as long as it takes
for you to understand and absorb where the reader
is coming from.
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Will
I get my manuscript back?
Yes, if you want it back. If so, you should
send your manuscript out with a self addressed
envelope and sufficient postage.
On the other hand, if you don’t need it back (and bear in mind you’re probably about to start revising it) then you can save yourself the postage.
How should I protect my copyright?
You really don't need to. You automatically have copyright protection under UK law, without you needing to do anything to register it. Professional authors seldom worry about copyright at all.
Do you handle overseas submissions?
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You bet. We have a large proportion of overseas clients. We can take manuscripts by email and offer many different ways to take payment internationally. For more see: Fees and How to Submit.
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What should I put in my covering letter?
The covering letter is your chance to address your editor directly. Sometimes we get a one-line covering letter - basically, "Here's my MS. What do you think?". Other times we get two pages. Either way, it's up to you.
But if you've told us stuff on the phone that you want your editor to be aware of, then do repeat it in your covering letter. We get a lot of phone calls and we can't always pass on all that we've spoken about.
Can you guarantee to get me an agent?
Of course not! The only way to secure an agent is to write a gob
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smackingly good book. We'll do all we can, of course, but getting an agent is very tough. Your best bet, always, is to write the very best material you can.
Do your fees cover as many rewrites as it takes to get an agent?
Alas, no. We charge a fee each time we read and report on a book - though second and all subsequent reads are charged at a discount to our first read prices. We simply can't reduce our prices any further. Sorry!
I've just started a book. Can you give me guidance now, or do I have to finish it first?
We can help you with whatever you've got. What's more getting advice early means you can save yourself a lot of labour down the line, by picking up mistakes early.
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I've written the whole book - but can I submit a synopsis and the first few chapters
only for a reduced fee?
Yes, but we do advise against this. First of
all, plot is an essential element of fiction,
commercial and literary. Our feedback on plot
is often the most valuable thing we have to
give. Short extracts just don’t let us
do this properly. And secondly, most of our
time is taken up not with reading, but with
responding – writing a detailed report
and talking it over with you. A reduced fee
limits how much
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time we can afford to give you. If this were
our manuscript, we’d want it read in full
and discussed in full.
Do I need an agent? Why can't I go direct to a publisher?
In nearly all cases, writers do need agents - publishers just won't take you seriously unless your MS comes via an agent. (The exceptions: Picture books are often agented, but it's not essential. Also specialist non-fiction - Koi Carp Fishing in Northern Thailand, say - may as well go straight to specialist publishers.)
What do you think about self-publishing? While there are legimitate self-publishers and can be good reasons for self-publishing, the industry is also strewn with bandits making wholly implausible claims about what they can do for you. Want to know more? See: Bandits
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The
Writers’ Workshop Run by writers
for writers |
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