Alison Morton | Alison Morton Author

A “good” rejection

Agents are busy people – we know that – so when I read this (handwritten) note, I was strangely pleased:

“Please forgive my incredibly slow response, but I liked your writing and had put it aside to get back to. It’s not right for my list, but I’m sure you will find an agent to […]

As I promised in the previous post, I’ve turned my beady eye to current bestsellers and read through some of the Amazon bestselling rankings reviews. These are some of the words the readers and critics used about them:

The Thread – Victoria Hislop Twin timeline, discovery, history, fast narrative, sense of pace, fresh, intrepid storytelling, […]

Security for the Olympics - a perspective

I don’t get ranty very often, but the anti-rant barrier broke this morning as I listened to the mouthings on Yesterday in Parliament on BBCRadio 4.

The Olympic Games security plan looks poorly planned and executed, so further military personnel have been brought in to help.

Several points: Thank goodness we have professional, well-disciplined forces […]

Why do you buy the books you do?

Wouldn’t every publisher, agent and writer want to know the answer to that one?

I’ve been on the Goodreads site, rating the books I’ve read. Analysing my own behaviour as a reader, I’ve been surprised by what I’ve picked out: historical fiction, adventure, romance, thriller, literary, fantasy, young adult, psychological, crime, contemporary, epic, speculative/science fiction, […]

What do readers really want?

A fun thing around Twitter #thingsnottosaytoawriter recently had some wry and clever responses from writers, some tinged with irony, even bitterness. Some were made up, but some were things that had been said to them in true life: Does this sort of thing sell, then? Where can I download your book for free? Since you […]