By Carla Caruso Chick-lit had its heyday in the nineties with Bridget Jones, Sex and the City, and cocktail-adorned book covers. It was so big, it was inevitable it would one day get too big for its Jimmy Choo boots and become the unthinkable: daggy. But true diehard fans know the genre hasn’t died entirely, […]

A Mills & Boon book is sold in the UK every 3 seconds   ‘…the market is enormous, and almost every major publisher has a romance line. Most romances are mass market paperbacks. Most publishers will look at unsolicited unagented queries. Some will also take unsolicited manuscript submissions.’  Rebecca York In the Us, romance fiction […]

By Jennifer Mills There is a good crop of literary journals in Australia at the moment, from stalwarts like Meanjin, the Griffith Review and Overland to newer projects like The Lifted Brow, Stilts, and the Review of Australian Fiction, and many in between. Some, like Voiceworks, have a particular brief (to publish young writers). These […]

52 Tuesdays is a locally produced feature-film by Adelaide-based collective Closer Productions. It explores the relationship between a mother and daughter over a year, a year in which the mother decides to transition to become a man. 52 Tuesdays was filmed once a week, every Tuesday, for a year – with the scripts for each week constantly evolving, […]

By Katy McDevitt NB: SAWC is holding an Editing Bootcamp. Register early to avoid disappointment. Here’s a proposition for you: editors are the most misunderstood of any publishing professional. Let’s test it out. What do you think of when I ask you to imagine an editor? Perhaps a dainty woman in spectacles, wielding a red […]

This was first published in the Australian Society of Authors enewsletter. If you have any questions or concerns about your contract, please contact the ASA for assistance. The ASA is concerned about the increasing number of authors being presented with book publishing contracts which require the author to assign copyright to the publisher. Of particular […]

By Emily Davis In general I’m a bit of a communic-a-tard. This is kind of like being a lactard (allergic to milk), but perhaps with slightly more serious connotations and consequences. I can assure you I can write, and read and speak, and I’m not too bad at a boozy dinner party when I’m tasked […]

Here are some great writing prompt sites to help you bust through any moments of writer’s block (or just keep you in an internet spiral all day long):  Writing Prompts on Tumblr Creative Writing Prompts  Awesome Writing Prompts Daily prompts sent to your inbox  200 Fantasy Writing Prompts  Spec Fic writing prompts  (don’t forget to […]

By Mike Ladd Born: July 5, 1935, Boleroo Centre Died: September 9, 2012, Adelaide. Poet, playwright and short story writer John Griffin grew up at Hammond in the mid-north of South Australia, the son of a farmer and shop owner. The family farm was often in the grip of drought – John used to joke […]

If you missed Adelaide Writers’ Week or wish you could revisit it, never fear – podcasts are now available. Check out the Adelaide Festival Website to hear them. (more…)

By Mark Dapin I started my writing day at six o’clock this morning, when I printed out and proofed the first chapter of my upcoming military history book. I’m already weeks behind schedule with the book, which has to be in the shops in November. I must complete another chapter before the end of the […]

By Johnny von Einem For the last three years I’ve been working away at a journalism and creative writing degree, essentially straddling a line between two seemingly similar, but in practice starkly different worlds. Tight sentences and a strict adherence to hard facts are the main tenets of (good) journalism, whereas beautiful, descriptive and immersive […]

You’ll notice in our program that we have a practical workshop on writing for radio coming up. You may be thinking, why write for radio? Well, there are a number of opportunities to get your writing out there, that you may not have yet considered. One of them being narrative drama for radio. Here, we’ve […]

by Rose Hartley As I fumble my way through the second draft of my novel, writers’ guides call out to me from every corner of my bookcase, claiming to be able to help me craft a story that someone might want to read. The latest one I’ve picked up is Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story, […]

By Fleur Kilpatrick Every now and then you have that moment: the moment when you realise just how foreign the workings of your brain are to the majority of the population. Yes, it turns out that it is you who is the alien. Don’t be alarmed. Our minds are so complex and individual that every […]