Want to ask questions? Got any follow-up? Don't agree with something I said? Then here's the place to do it. I'll follow the chat thread on this post for a few days following my email, and I'm happy to talk about anything at all.
Meantime, here's a picture of a scary-but-pretty bug.
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When I have better understood the system here (I am a late entry to this world of posting all sorts of stuff) I would like to send you a synopsis.
Uh, yes, if you do, I probably won't read it, I'm afraid! I'm too short of time for that kind of thing. If you're a member of Jericho Writers, you can get free feedback on query letters and synopses. Or you can send your work for a regular manuscript appraisal (details here: https://members.jerichowriters.com/bazaar/full-manuscript-assessment/ ).
Either way, we'll be happy to help.
Glad to join the Townhouse. Will post more as I get the drift of how this site works. Just discovered JerichoWriters and joined the club. Wonderful resources there and I look forward to the forums here.
Fab! Willkommen und bienvenue. Townhouse at the moment has a kind of new house on a new estate kind of quality. All rather shiny, but not very lived in. I especially hope that people start using it to critique each other's work. That will be its very best use, I think.
Hello, Mr Bingham. I'm greatly enjoying this new Townhouse and have you to thank for that, I suppose.
This question has nothing really to do with your email, but it has been bothering me for a while, so I will risk asking it here (😕). I apologise if this is the innapropriate place....
If a writer were to choose the self-pub route (on Amazon, for example) is it still worth trying to get an agent at any point? Are there are any pros/cons that they should be aware of?
Thanks in advance, and again, please forgive me if this is not the correct place for such questions.
If you self-publish, and do so successfully, then it's unlikely the trad route will look enticing for your US/UK work. On the other hand, agents can still unlock good stuff in overseas markets, with TV & film, and audio. So yes, many very successful indies will end up with agents. And of course you may have some projects that you want to publish in a traditional way. But all that lies quite well ahead of you. If you self-publish, you won't need or want an agent for some years yet.
Thank you!
C
J
Am I right in saying that the cover picture for your book 'The Dead House' (as above) is a photo of the loggias under the Bute Hall, Glasgow University, Gilmorehill, G12 8QQ? Having been there literally thousands of times myself I recognise it is an iconic pic and a favourite of photographers (the BBC seems to like it a lot, whenever they want to show a gnarly old Uni building in the background, they choose that one).
Pls forgive me but I haven't read that particular novel, but if I saw it in a bookshop I'd immediately recognise the location and wonder whether it was a - presumably, crime - story set in a University, probably Glasgow University, As would at least 100,000 others of our graduates (we graduate about 4,000 students a year).
Just a thought, but I'm curious, why *that* pic? I once took a visitor to the West Quadrangle on a drizzly November afternoon by when the huge, overbearing towers were gleaming with moisture. He looked up and said, in awe 'Gormenghast!' You have to pick your shot...