Articles: Tell Us! Is 2012 the golden age to be a writer?

CompletelyNovel is an online community which gives writers access to professional tools so that they can publish books and reach their audience.
This summer we want to give new writers an extra boost to promote themselves and their writing on our website.
We are publishing a series of articles to answer the question:

Is 2012 the golden age to be a writer? (…or is economic meltdown stifling creativity?)

Bearing this theme in mind, we’d like to know if you have any innovative approaches to writing, any strong opinions on the writing or publishing business, or valuable wisdom regarding the tools and techniques you use.

We want to share your opinions and experience with other writers to help them be as successful as possible.

We’re looking for articles of no more than 800 words, including some relevant web links. Your article can also include links to your books on CompletelyNovel and your website/blog if you have one.

We will post those selected on our news pages and promote them via Twitter, Facebook and our newsletter. Those channels reach over 20,000 people.

Authors of published articles will also be sent a discount code for either:

*2 months Plus Plan subscription for free. (For new users, current Free Plan and Plus Plan subscribers)
This enables you to publish two books with ISBNs and have them uploaded to the retail distribution catalogue.
OR
*1 month free Pro Plan subscription. (For current Pro Plan subscribers)

See here for more information on our Publish Plans.

Please get in touch if you have any questions, and email entries to news@completelynovel.com by 15th July. We will start selecting and publishing articles from the start of June so get yours in early for the best chance of having it published!

You can read past articles here and check out our advice on how to promote your writing for more ideas.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

We’re passionate about empowering and encouraging people who are new to the publishing process to give it a go. Find out how the Shuttleworth Foundation has helped us do this .

• 
  Arthur

  16 Jun 20:34

  My top tip for aspiring novelists is “Don’t bother about a concept”. In any creative art, concepts are unnecessary, and may even be a hindrance.

  Many years ago, I wrote a novel about reincarnation. An interesting concept, no doubt; the problem was that it didn’t work as a novel. Worse still, it put me off writing novels for more than thirty years.

  A few months ago, I found myself thinking “What would be a good first paragraph for a novel”? After some thought, I came up with the following, which I hoped a reader would find intriguing: “It was the phone call that Greg had been waiting for. The call that he would soon wish he had never received.” Well, it certainly intrigued me; in fact, I had to write the rest of the novel, just to find out what happened!

  I’ve now published it (by courtesy of Completely Novel) as ‘Embargo’ by Guy Stobbert. I have no idea what the concept is, other than perhaps “We humans are a rum lot”. But I think it works as a novel. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for the next one!