John S Alty

That’s definitely one of the problems Bella – people, self included, really want these things to go well and can easily blind themselves to the problems. There’s that siren voice of ‘yes, but you’ll be published…’ – as if that means anything by itself

Go for it, Stevie. I bet you can knock out more words in 5 months than you think. And worst case scenario, you’ll still have the makings of a story if you don’t hit the deadline.

I don’t think you should feel silly at all. It’s very easy to fall into such traps, especially when we’ve been trying for EVER to get published. Someone I know fell hook line and sinker into the claws of a fake/vanity agent and there was no telling her, though I and several others tried.

Thanks @philippaeast – you’re most welcome. I feel very silly having made all these avoidable errors, but I wouldn’t want anyone else to fall into the same trap. Mostly I don’t want people to get stuck with publishers who act in bad faith.

Would you mind retweeting the link the next time you’re on Twitter? Just to get the highest circulation…[Read more]

Oh goodness, @daedalus. How awful. Please put Part 3 up soon! I can’t bear seeing you in this awful pickle!!

Thanks again for sharing. I really hope your own experience will serve successfully to protect other authors who may otherwise have gone down the same line.

Thanks for posting this, Jules. I really fancy having a swing at it and I’ve got the makings of an idea but no confidence I can knock out 20k+ words of quality copy in five months!

Ah, decisions, decisions.

And you’re doing brilliantly at it John 😉

Thanks, Bella, will take a look 🙂 x

Congrats and good luck both – John, don’t do yourself down, you have a talent with the short story

Amazing news, John and Elle! Fingers crossed for the shortlist…

I’ve just published Part 2

My Publishing Nightmare – the story of a book deal gone bad (Part 2)

@Newbie – your stuff would seem to fit the bill here. Can’t see anything to say you can’t have self-pubbed, but I have not read the terms in detail.

Queer, Asexual, Intergender and Pansexual. These all sort of fall under a Non-binary umbrella but the acronym includes the separate forms.

Er, scuse my ignorance. I know LGBT, but what’s QAIP?

That’s excellent! Congratulations, John and Elle.

Thanks @katemachon and @raine.

I have no idea when the shortlist will be announced. I didn’t even know the longlist was out until I saw someone twitting about it! There are so many great and experienced writers on that list I’m really chuffed I made it that far.

Congrats @johnalty and @elle – that’s great news and I’ll keep fingers crossed for teh next stage – when is the short list announced?