Writing

Blood and Death Became My Refuge Mats Strandberg, author of Blood Cruise, on losing a parent, grief and the power of writing. My mother died a few weeks after I had finished the first draft of Blood Cruise. All things considered, we had a good last couple of days while she was in the hospital. We […]

Whether it’s cosying up on the sofa with a new diary, or having getting creative with your journal in the sunshine, here are just three little steps to help you put pen to paper. Write about a time in the past that brought you joy. Maybe it was one of those perfect days in your […]

Hi everybody, Thanks so much for sending in your submissions, it’s incredibly exciting to think we could find something amazing in the material we’ve received. We just wanted to update everyone that we are diligently working our way through the books we’ve received over the past few months, and that we read each and every […]

Welcome to our final collection of amazing advice for authors, with contributions from Aliette de Bodard, Anna Caltabiano, Jon Wallace and AJ Dalton. The previous parts are here, here and here. We hope you’ve found something useful in this collection of sometimes contradictory advice, and look forward to seeing you at #gollanczfest!   Aliette de […]

For our third collection of #gollanczfest authors providing suggestions and advice on how to be a writer, we welcome Elizabeth Bear, Stan Nicholls, Alex Lamb and Joanne Harris. If you missed the first two parts, click here and here.   Elizabeth Bear: The editor is actually rooting for you to pull it off. Don’t disappoint […]

Welcome to the second of our #gollanczfest collection of advice and hints from authors. This time around we have pieces from Jaine Fenn, Simon Morden, Tom Lloyd and Steph Swainston, all of whom are lovely people and you should buy their books. And if you missed part one, click here.   Jaine Fenn: Learn the […]

A publishing list would be nothing without its authors, and we’re always astounded by how welcoming, helpful and downright nice ours are. So as part of #gollanczfest we asked them to provide us with some suggestions and advice for aspiring authors. We have four posts for you today from authors such as Joanne Harris, Aliette […]

As many have noticed the two-month deadline  we set ourselves for responding to all submissions has passed. We are truly sorry about this as we have been trying our hardest to get through  them, but there are just not enough of us to go through them quickly and still give each one the care and […]

Today we’re over the moon to have one of the world’s leading hard SF authors, Greg Bear, guest blogging for Gollancz. KILLING TITAN, book two in his War Dogs trilogy, is out in paperback and Greg is reflecting on the incredible body of work he’s amassed so far… As I put the final touches on […]

We are delighted to welcome Tom Lloyd back to the Gollancz Blog. Tom’s stunning new epic fantasy, Stranger of Tempest is out in bookshops and online today. We caught up with Tom and asked him to share some of the secrets behind his writing process.  For my birthday I was given a book called How […]

First, of all, thank you for your patience! Second, we hope you have just a little more left in you and ask that you bear with us for a little longer. Gollancz’s direct submissions period was an outstanding success in numbers terms with around 1800 submissions received in the three weeks we were open. However, […]

We are delighted to welcome Alex Lamb back to the Gollancz Blog. Alex’s latest book, Nemesis, the sequel to the hard-hitting and action-packed Roboteer, is out now in bookshops.We asked Alex to tell us the five things that make world-class Science Fiction. Here’s what he had to say  . . . I’ve spent my life […]

We are delighted to welcome Alex Lamb back to the Gollancz Blog. Alex’s latest book, Nemesis, the sequel to the hard-hitting and action-packed Roboteer, is out now in bookshops. To celebrate the publication of Nemesis we asked Alex to tell us about the process of writing the book and following up the epic Roboteer.  How […]

Literary agencies Curtis Brown and Conville & Walsh hold an online event, #PitchCB on Twitter, every fourth Friday of every month. You tweet your pitch using the hashtag; if an agent likes it they hit the much-ballyhooed like button and you’re thus invited to submit directly to that agent. It’s a brilliant idea. I spent all last […]

Calling all NaNoWriMo participants! We are very happy to bring you a special guest post from Edward Cox. Nominated for the British Fantasy Society Award for best fantasy and best newcomer, Edward Cox is the author of The Relic Guild trilogy. Today, he returns to the blog for some very important NaNoWriMo writing tips.  It’s November […]