Articles for Writers

What I know now about publishing a book

newsroom.co.nz – Wednesday July 22, 2026

It’s Saturday morning, five days after my book launch. I’m at a GP conference in a provincial town. I hadn’t considered seeing my book in an actual book shop. That was only an ethereal idea. But I make myself duck uneasily into Whitcoulls and PaperPlus, self-conscious that every shop assistant knows I am an author looking for their own book, and I pick up a Chelsea Winter, then Become Unstoppable, then Lessons on Living, then Habits of High Performers, flicking through them like I’m legit. I edge around shelves and finally at floor level, in the health and wellbeing section I find one copy of my book Everything but the Medicine: A doctor’s tale between Befriending Your Gut Biome and Menopause Conquered. WTF. I run out the door.

On Google maps I find the Indie bookshop. That will be better. The door sticks and clatters. I avoid eye contact, pretending to browse the Māori and literary sections, my eyes flicking around for my book cover but I can’t see it anywhere. I pause, consider running again, but bravely go to the desk, introduce myself and my book. She looks blank, consults her computer and the computer says, “No.” I desperately wish I’d stayed at the conference and learned more about heart failure.

Publishing your first book is a strange experience. There’s a lot I didn’t know. Here’s what I would tell my pre-book self now that I’ve done it.

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The Real Book Ban No One Talks About

dailywire.com – Sunday July 19, 2026

Move over, Leonardo Da Vinci. There’s a new Renaissance humanist on the block — at least, according to the internet. You might know her as the global pop star Dua Lipa, and she wants you to read banned books.

This past week, the “Levitating” singer unveiled her new “Manifesto Library” in Portugal, which features hundreds of books she claims were once banned or otherwise controversial. Posing with a copy of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a book that has now sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, she tells her 650K+ “Book Club” followers that her initiative opens up “conversations around censorship, resistance and the importance of preserving voices that challenge power and refuse to be silenced.” 

There’s only one problem. None of the books in her library were ever “banned” or “censored” in the first place. 

Among the other titles in Dua Lipa’s library are George Orwell’s “1984,” a book that has sold over 30 million copies as of 2024, and J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” a novel that is read in virtually every single high school English class across the country. I don’t necessarily disagree with Dua Lipa that we all should read these great books, but calling “1984″ and “The Catcher in the Rye” “banned” books is like calling “Game of Thrones,” one of the world’s most widely watched TV shows, a “banned” show.

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Meeting the publishers – self-publishing vs a publishing house

yorkshirebylines.co.uk – Sunday July 19, 2026

The most popular tickets at any literature festivals are always the Meet the Publisher slots. For the average aspiring writer, getting a face-to-face with a publisher is well-nigh impossible, with the most sought-after speaking only to agents, not authors. Tickets to the event sell out almost instantly and the waiting list is substantial.

The brief is to send an example of your work ahead of the meeting, to allow the publisher to provide you with feedback. No-one’s going to find themselves signed to a company at one of these meetings, so it’s important to limit your expectations. However, you’ll receive feedback and you’ll make contact, both of which are essential to a future as a writer.

This year’s publishers at the Bradford Literary Festival were from Bloomsbury Publishing, one of the biggest publishing houses and most famous for publishing the Harry Potter series, and Bluemoose Books, an independent publishing company based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Bluemoose publishes literary fiction and has just celebrated its 20th anniversary with a star-studded event at the local town hall.

Solid advice based on experience

As a creative writing lecturer tasked with guiding aspiring writers, I’m constantly assessing the best route to publication. My students are currently very keen on the idea that self-publishing is now a better route than the soul-destroying traditional route of first finding an agent, then a publisher, usually across years of submissions and disappointment. They love that self-publishing appears to allow the writer to retain greater control as well as avoiding high agency fees.

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