This month’s column was supposed to give you an insight into the London Book Fair: publishing trends, who was buying what, what’s hot (and what’s not!), and so on. However, many of you will know that LBF was cancelled last week as a precautionary measure in the light of the coronavirus. Our thoughts go out to anyone who’s been affected by this, and for any other unrelated LBF repercussions, in any way.
The good news is that publishing tends to be robust in hard times. The main positive, perhaps, is that more people at home equals more people reading. After all, reading is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment (and one of the best, in our eyes). Also, for you writers out there, this means more time for writing and editing. It goes without saying that it’s prudent to hone a craft that can add another feather to your career bow - not to mention the wonderful escapism that writing engenders and the rewards that come from that.
On a lighter note, for the past few weeks we’ve been running a Twitter campaign asking for your elevator pitches. Follow @CornerstonesLit and the #CORpitch hashtag to join in. We’ll be offering consultations to writers that catch our attention; if a pitch makes us want to know more about a book then the author’s done a good job. With this in mind, I’m answering some of the most common questions about pitches.