One of the main questions that writers ask me about the CompletelyNovel is: “What makes you different to any other self-publishing service out there?” There is a large degree of suspicion regarding any mention of ‘self-publishing’. Having seen the extortionate prices and questionable services offered by some of the self-publishing companies out there, I can see why. So when we tell people that they can publish their work for free and keep 100% of the royalties, they think there must be a catch. But there isn’t. It’s just that CompletelyNovel has taken a new and different approach to the book publishing industry, based on an alternative business model. This means we don’t have to take money from the writers, the people who keep the whole industry going in the first place!

Well…it was the best pun* I could come up with to introduce the news that we have now added in some more functionality so that now on CompletelyNovel you can review any book, by any writer. So…if you fancy yourself as a bit of a critic, or just want to help people out when it comes to choosing their next bit of bedtime reading, CompletelyNovel is the place to get those thoughts down and out in the open. If you’re not on CompletelyNovel yet, you can still start working on some right now…so they are all fit and ready to be published when you log in. We’re looking forward to reading them!

*I did think of ‘Review to a Kill’...but that made even less sense, so I abandoned it. I probably should have given up after that!

In the wake of the Orange Broadband prize for fiction, it seems quite apt that this week has become slightly more female focused than usual…and extremely enlightening too! On Monday I paid a visit to the Women Writers Network where I got to chat to writers from very varied backgrounds. There was a very interesting talk from Toby Eady, a literary agent who, amongst other things, sold the idea of Wild Swans to Harper Collins.

I think it’s going to be fantastic to be somewhere that has so much creativity flying around. We are really looking forward to talking to more writers and getting their feedback on CompletelyNovel.com. Also excited about seeing Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse at the conference…although I find I am always surprised to see that he doesn’t look more like John Thaw. Too much exposure to Inspector Morse re-runs courtesy of my Dad I think!

For more information on the conference, see the Winchester Writers’ Conference website