The international Welsh Poetry Competition has just launched their 2021 contest. The 15th international, English language competition is now open and accepting entries! 1st Prize – £500 2nd Prize – £250 3rd Prize – £100 plus 17 runners up mentioned on our
Do You Have A Poetry Book?
The Poetry Book Awards is an annual, international book award given to the best poetry books produced by indie writers, self published authors or books published by small, truly independent presses. Even though more and more people are enjoying and participating in
Self-Promotion Tips For Authors During Lockdown
Any self-published author will tell you that promotion is an uphill struggle. You would have thought that writing the book would be the hard part, but once that manuscript is all polished, the beta readers are happy and you’ve made
Support Local Bookshops & Writers
There seems to be a bit of a revolution in the book world happening at the moment. Lots of people, retailers, especially the smaller outlets are struggling with the giant that is Amazon and many local book shops are going
New Welsh Crime Novel – The Welsh Man
Welsh writer Dave Lewis has just launched his fourth novel, an uncompromising look at the British underworld played out against a background of love and harsh landscapes. Following on from the success of his ‘Cymru noir’ technothriller Hagar trilogy this
Poetry Book Awards – Winners!
Jocelyn Simms Wins The International Poetry Book Awards The contest organisers have announced the winners of their prestigious contest, judged by Welsh poet and writer Dave Lewis, and the overall winner was Jocelyn Simms for her book ‘Tickling the Dragon’. The winners were as
Poetry Book Awards – Shortlist
The organisers of the Poetry Book Awards have just announced the shortlist of winners for the 2020 contest with some fabulous poetry collections. ‘Amongst our top ten we have various themes: barrack banter, Spanish art, drug addiction and redemption, sexual
Poetry Book Awards Longlist Announced!
Founded in Pontypridd, South Wales the international ‘Poetry Book Awards’ gives self published writers and small indie press authors a chance to gain recognition in the competitive, and often snobby, world of poetry publishing. After much soul searching, Welsh poet Dave
Book Marketing Tips
Just a short blog post today but one which is very important for all those authors who are struggling to sell any books. Book cover designer and marketing guru, Derek Murphy, has a great newsletter, that I subscribe to and
Why does the multi-paragraph quotation rule apply?
The standard rule is that when you have multiple quoted paragraphs, each new paragraph starts with an opening quotation mark, but only the final quoted paragraph has a closing quotation mark at its end. Example: “That seems like a strange way
New Poetry Book by Welsh Writer
Just a quick post to tell you about my new poetry collection – ‘Scratching The Surface‘. The kindle version is now available for pre-order at the reduced price of £2.99. The paperback version will be released on Friday 8th November.
Goodreads
You may or not have heard of ‘Goodreads’ but if you like books, writers and literature then maybe you should take a look. It’s the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Their mission is to help people find
Brackets & Full Stops
The English language is a funny old thing. There are often many different ways of doing the same thing but there are also many rules that we can use to make things easier. Ever wondered how to punctuate text when
23 Ways To Promote Your Book
OK, you’ve written a great book but no-one has bought it yet? How do you get people to see your work of art? Below are lots of simple, free ways to promote your book. Tweet about it Ask your readers
You’re or Your?
You’re You’re is a contraction of you are. It has no other uses. This is a 100% rule. If you cannot expand it to you are in your sentence, then it is wrong. Examples: The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win,
Welsh Writers Database Launched!
Writers of Wales How many famous Welsh writers can you think of? Roald Dahl, Dylan Thomas, Catrin Collier? But who else I wonder? Well you’d probably be surprised to hear that one of the best-selling authors in the world was
Verb Time
The English language is a weird one alright. There are rules for this and rules for that but just when you think you’ve got to grips with them then the exceptions come! Grammar Tips For Verbs When adding -ing and
Famous Poetry Contest Launched!
How many people know that the world famous International Welsh Poetry Competition began life in a small, independent pub, tucked away down a quiet side street in Pontypridd? Founded by Welsh poet Dave Lewis in 2007 the contest has been
Seasons
A short blog post this month but an important one. Should the seasons have capital letters? The simple answer is no. They are common nouns, not proper nouns and should be written lowercase. Unless they are incorporated in a name, e.g.
13 Famous Writers Who Were Rejected By Publishers
Many famous writers, even those that have sold millions of books were rejected by traditional publishers at one time or another in their careers: HERMAN MELVILLE Moby-Dick, was turned down by multiple publishers. ERNEST HEMINGWAY The Sun Also Rises was rejected
Author Websites
Most authors - independent, traditionally published, or otherwise – need a website. You can have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, Instagram or LinkedIn profile but they aren’t really the same. A good website can feature your writing, your various channels of engagement (social media, live
One thing successful self-publishers do
What really makes the difference between a successful self-publisher and one who fails? Well, it all really comes down to one simple factor… How many people see your book. The more that see it, the more that buy it. Now,
Instagram Poet – Daniel Holmes
Instagram: It seems that everyone is using it. It’s become a convenient platform for people to share themselves and their interests. For poets it has become a fantastic medium for them to display their work as poetry is concise and gets
Spell Checker
Do not rely solely on your spell-checker, as the following illustrates: I have a spelling chequer, It came with my pea sea, It plainly marks four my revue, Miss steaks eye kin knot sea. Eye strike a key an type
Is it OK, ok, Ok, or Okay?
The word was popularised and begun in 1840 as a slogan of the O.K. Club, a Democratic party political club of the 1840s. It stands for Old Kinderhook, the nickname of President Martin Van Buren, from New York. It became
Online, on line or on-line?
These days, when talking of the Internet world, most users will use ‘online’ and this denotes the Internet concept. Way back, when these words were starting out, many forms were seen in written communications (online, on line and on-line); the difference
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