Getting Published - Art, Science or Luck?

Ginny Porter and Helen Osborne have spent many years in executive positions with the South African Writers' Circle.  Helen was chairman of this organisation for four years, and now lives and works in England.

After compiling and facilitating many writing workshops and seminars, it also became obviouse that many people, although brimming with ideas, were lacking basic writing skills.  To address this and many of the other questions that were thrown at them on a regular basis, they put their knowledge and expertise into a book.

Many writers had completed a story or a book and the questions was, 'Where to from here?' Mostly, writers want to know how to get published.

There are many steps, and sorry to say, often stumbling blocks, on the path to publication, and Ginny and Helen have written a book that addresses most of these problems, and which gives authors the best chance possible of achieving that dream - a publisher's contract.

Getting Published - Art, Science or Luck? 

This book deals with the three aspects separately, although they overlap to some extent:

Art - a CD is included in the book, which contains many exercises and ideas to stimulates creativity

Science - the basics of writing.  It advises on format, plot, sub-plot, characterisation, dialogue, how to submit your manuscript, and mistakes to avoid.

Luck - we all need it, but by following the advice in the first two sections, luck won't play such a large part in your endevours.