Hello!
We have a new website at https://ideas4writers.com
Our blog has moved to https://ideas4writers.com/blog/
We look forward to seeing you there!
New ideas4writers website and blog
We have a lovely new website, and have moved to ideas4writers.com
The new website is also the new home of the ideas4writers blog, which now features extracts from our Date-A-Base Books. If you’ve been following the blog for a while you’ll probably remember these from a few years ago. We’ve brought them back!
We’re posting extracts 6 months in advance. As it’s currently June, this month’s extract features 31 historic anniversaries in December 2019 – one for each day.
We’ve also reintroduced Lifetime memberships. New members can sign up for a one-off payment of £79 and get access to all of our books – a total value of more than £230. New members will also be able to download new books and new editions as we release them, at no extra charge.
Current Lifetime members: you can download all of our books at the new site, just as before, but we’ll need to manually move your account from the old site to the new one. Please email us at mail@ideas4writers.co.uk if you would like your account moved.
The writing engines are not yet working on the new site. (They weren’t working on the old one either). They’re still a work-in-progress.
The Date-A-Base Book 2021 – now available
We are pleased to announce that The Date-A-Base Book 2021 is now available.
It gives details of more than 2,000 newsworthy and notable historic anniversaries that you can write about and make money from, including events, discoveries, inventions, famous births and deaths, and more.
As usual it comes in chronological and sorted-by-date versions, both available as PDF ebooks, and the chronological one is also available in print (via Amazon).
Find out more and get your copy at www.ideas4writers.co.uk/2021
Lifetime ideas4writers members: please email mail@ideas4writers.co.uk to request your free copy.
Date-A-Base Books 2019 and 2020 sorted by date
Goods news for fans of our Date-A-Base Book series: we’ve just released the 2019 and 2020 editions in “sorted-by-date” format (1st January, 2nd January, etc) as well as our traditional chronological order. When you buy a copy, you’ll receive the links to download both versions.
If you’ve already bought the chronological version, email us if you’d like the sorted-by-date version and we’ll send you the link. We’re at mail@ideas4writers.co.uk.
ideas4writers members please email us if you’d like a copy. You can download both versions from the members’ area of our website. But that part of the site is currently inaccessible because of a technical issue – we’re hoping to have it back online within the next few days.
Please note that the printed version (which you’ll need to order from Amazon) is only available in chronological order.
The 2021 edition should be available from the end of March 2019.
How to Win Short Story Competitions (Second Edition)
We’ve updated our book How to Win Short Story Competitions.
This new *Second Edition* is available from Amazon in
Kindle (http://mybook.to/storycomps2k) and
paperback (http://mybook.to/storycomps2p) editions,
from just £2.99/$3.99.
Description:
Two highly experienced, award-winning writers and short story competition judges share everything they know about entering, judging and (most importantly) winning short story competitions, in an easy-to-follow Q&A format.
Find out:
* Exactly what the judges are looking for.
* How the scoring system works.
* How to score highly in every category.
* What impresses judges – and what turns them off.
* How to write exceptional short stories.
* Which competitions give you the best chance of winning.
* How to avoid being disqualified.
* And much more.
New to this edition are:
Updated and expanded content – now 140 pages
Table of contents and full index
TWO award-winning short stories
First time available in paperback
The Date-A-Base Book 2020 is here!
The Date-A-Base Book 2020 is now available!
Details of over 1,800 newsworthy and notable anniversaries in 2020, including important events, inventions, discoveries, significant births and deaths, and more.
Get your copy now at www.ideas4writers.co.uk/2020
(Lifetime members can download it free of charge from the members’ area.)
The printed version should go on sale within the next few days – though you will have to buy it from Amazon rather than our own website. We’ll post another message here as soon as it’s available.
Writers Bureau 2018 Limerick Competition Now Open
The Writers Bureau 2018 Limerick Competition is now open, with £620 worth of prizes.
Prizes are:
1st Prize – £100 plus the choice of a Writers Bureau course (worth over £370)
2 x Runners-up Prizes – £50 plus free membership to The Association of Freelance Writers (worth £24.99)
Winners will be published on the competition website and promoted on The Writers Bureau’s social media platforms.
Limericks were popularised by the nonsense poet, Edward Lear, in the nineteenth century and they’ve been a comic staple ever since. They are frequently uncomplimentary and often downright bawdy – a joke form as memorable as they are witty.
The judge this year is Diana Nadin, Director of Studies at The Writers Bureau. She says, “I love a good limerick and I was made to laugh out loud at many of last year’s entries so I’m looking forward to reading this year’s submissions. Limericks are a good way to let your writing hair down, have a laugh and have a good play with words. And, there’s a chance to win a great prize too!”
Entry fee: £5 for 4 limericks, and £1 for each extra limerick.
Closing Date: 31st July 2018.
Winners will be announced by 31st August 2018.
For full competition details and to read the winners of previous competitions visit their website at: www.wbcompetition.com
The Date-A-Base Book 2019 paperback
The Date-A-Base Book 2019 is now available in print as well as a PDF ebook.
The printed version is a large-format paperback.
Size A4 (approx 11.5″ x 8.5″).
100 pages.
To buy the PDF ebook version please go to our website: www.ideas4writers.co.uk/2019
To buy the paperback version please go to Amazon:
mybook.to/dab2019p
The Date-A-Base Book 2019 is here!
The Date-A-Base Book 2019 is now available!
Details of 1,500 newsworthy and notable anniversaries in 2019, including important events, inventions, discoveries, and significant births and deaths.
Buy your copy at www.ideas4writers.co.uk/2019
(Lifetime ideas4writers members can download it free of charge from the members’ area.)
As previously advised, we’ve gone back to our old format, with only the top 1,500 most significant (and useful) events of the year included. This makes it much faster to produce.
We are only producing the chronological version this time, not the “grouped by date” version. But as there are only about 8 pages for each month, you should be able to find the dates you need quite easily.
We should be able to get the printed version on sale within the next few days – though you will have to buy it from Amazon rather than our own website. The advantage is that wherever you live, you should only have to pay local shipping rates rather than airmail from the UK. Unfortunately, it will have a regular paperback binding, not the spiral wire binding we’ve used for the last few years. We’ll post another message here as soon as it’s available.
Is there any demand for a Kindle version? Please let us know in the comments or email mail@ideas4writers.co.uk. Kindle editions have never sold particularly well when we’ve tried them in the past. If there’s no demand, we’d rather get on with producing the 2020 edition.
Best wishes
Dave
The Date-A-Base Book 2019 – saved!
Great news, folks!
Thanks to some creative thinking, we’ve finally managed to save The Date-A-Base Book series. Work on the 2019 edition is now well underway and we hope to release it around the middle of March.
We’re going back to our original format of listing the top 100 – 120 anniversaries per month – as judged by me.
Listing 400 anniversaries per month, as we did in the most recent editions, was unsustainable and unprofitable. And, fascinating as they were, I’m not sure they were really of that much use to people.
We’re going to go straight on and work on the 2020 edition as soon as the 2019 edition is completed. Hopefully, that one will be available around the end of April.
Then we’re going back to updating and rereleasing the ideas collection books. The next ones will be Fantasy (May), Mystery & Suspense (May), Comedy (June), Characters (July), and Writing for Children (August).
The official ideas4writers blog 