Chapter 09

Companion studios

This guide stops at the agent’s door. The rest of the writing life — money, contracts, the query log, publicity, prizes, and the reasons a manuscript comes back — lives in these companion studios by Stewart Ferris.

• How Writers EarnRoyalties, advances, translation rights, self-publishing, festivals, teaching and the rest of the ways a writing life actually pays.Open the studio
• Inside the ContractRoyalties, advances, subsidiary rights and what a literary agent changes in a book deal, read from both sides of the desk.Open the studio
• The Query BookA private log for manuscript and script submissions: who you queried, what you sent, and when a silence becomes a no.Open the studio
• The Author’s DeskBook marketing after the deal or the upload: press letters, publicity sites, local rooms, and how to be found beside household names.Open the studio
• The Prize CalendarWriting competitions ordered by deadline: short stories, poetry, novels and scripts, with fees and the official entry pages.Open the studio
• Why Books Get RejectedSixteen preventable reasons a publisher says no, from a writer who has also sat on the other side of the pile.Open the studio