How to Write a Bio.

By Kathryn Evans and Nick Cross




Kathryn writes:

I hate writing biographies. In my head they always sound like this:

Oh look at me, look at all this stuff I do, Aren't I great, aren't I busy?

I don't feel hugely confident in how to write them either, and now I'm being asked for them all the time, I thought I really better learn. Nick Cross, who loves writing them and is typically brilliant at it, has agreed to help.

How do you become a cover designer? Art Director Thy Bui tells all

My latest: Book of Lies,
published by Orchard Books 24 March!

by Teri Terry

I'm taking a break from blogging about writing this time, and moving on to something that can strike hope, fear, joy and despair into the heart of all authors... sometimes at the same time. Yes, you guessed it: book covers. 

Covers are so critical to the success of a book. The most amazing book with the wrong cover will struggle; the most average book with the most amazing cover will do well. Them's the facts. 

When I first saw the cover for Book of Lies, I was still writing the story. It was love at first sight for me: an amazing cover! Actually possibly the most amazing cover in the history of covers! Though instead of thinking, ok, average insides will do the job, it somehow turned the pressure up a notch to get the story just right.

Considering how important they are, there is very little out there about the shadowy figures behind cover design.

Doing Less, Better

By Nick Cross



A month ago, I wrote the following on the wall of our top-secret Notes from the Slushpile hideout:

In the last week, I have:

• Attended two book launches
• Edited a 1500 word story down to 1000 words for the next issue of Stew Magazine
• Formatted and scheduled next week's Alphabet Soup article and started work on the week after
• Commissioned two more Alphabet Soup articles
• Written a Slushpile blog
• Worked full-time for 5 days

So why do I constantly feel like I'm not doing enough?

Why indeed? The Slushpile team were supportive in their replies (apart from Candy Gourlay who I trust was joking when she called me a lazy man!). But for me, the inherent problem lay in that final question. Why wasn't I satisfied with what I'd done, and what did I need to do to make sure that I was?

That led me to take a hard look at my own beliefs. For years, I believed that the more busy I was, the more I would get done. But what if that wasn't true? What if I could get better results and more satisfaction by doing less?