A Statement for Authors and Readers    ---      Scroll down for our Events

                                                                                                                               [Scroll down for Events]

Fiction Direct is for authors as well as for readers. We are trying to link authors and readers for the benefit and satisfaction of both. We begin with novels from Morelle Smith and Sally Evans, and a fantasy of a university department with four academic authors. We have the next one planned for Spring, and have space for further projects in 2024.
    This little spiel is for authors -- and about them, if you're here as a reader. When you have a good, well written novel to share with others, you don't have to leave it in a drawer and hope your grandchildren will read it some day if you are lucky. You dont have to make a hash of trying to publish it yourself without experience of nitty-gritty publishing. You don't have to pay over the odds for commercial firms to benefit from your desire to find readers.
    If you look back to poetry before about 1980, only privileged people could get any poems published, but now there are all kinds of ways for poets and audiences to get together, in print, in pubs, and on the net. Many of these new poets are very, very good: against the beliefs or pretences of the old privileged group. Poets had to push for these changes. What's needed now, in the 2020s, now that so many people are taught to write as well as they're able, and given that the novel at its best is a supreme literary form, it is time for experiment. We are going to bring you good novels recently written and sensibly produced, and give some insight into the process of producing a novel, because it's interesting, and if you have to do it, you will.
     What has silted up fiction publishing is the investment problem. Small publishers all over the UK are stuck for the wherewithal to print books, well before their investment can be returned. Only the big fellas can crunch along and they too are crunching more slowly. If you believe in your novel, you should be able to make a small investment and break even at the end of the adventure. Our authors are paying their own printing costs and getting as much of it back as they can. What's the difference between forking up a few hundred for a holiday or course, and for doing something else that you really want to do and believe in? If you expect to shift hundreds of your books, and depending on word count, the three figures might rise to a four figure sum. But if you shift the books, you can make something on your investment. You'll find 100 books go a long way if you're starting to publish, and at 50,000 words, the printing cost shouldn't break the bank. When you get to 80,000 words it takes more book sales to cover the costs, but it can still be done. 
     And, importantly, your imaginations can be shared with others. All good writers are readers; all good fiction writers read dozens and dozens of novels every year.
     If, as an author, you're fishing for an agent, you'll know it's near impossible to land one, and if you have an agent, you may know why this is. Agents love their work (as everyone in literature loves their work), but in the slow-moving scene of the moment they can't find enough commissions for the writers they already have on their books. They will need very strong reasons to take on additional writers.  If you're already building readers by publishing novels they'll like that. If you have more than one novel already waiting in the wings, bring it into the light and find your readers. 
     Authors who join Fiction Direct will be writers of some experience who are producing literary novels that many readers will enjoy and a few will love. As Fiction Direct expands, the work of publishing will be shared: accepting books, discussing books, reading and proofing, mutual sub-editing (and editing where desired), design, typesetting, book covers, sales and publicity. These tasks will be shared. The biggest publishers incur huge incidental costs with these necessary steps; the smaller ones devote their time to it through belief that it's all worthwhile.
     And for good measure, we'll share some of the smiles and and secrets with our readers.

Are you an author with a novel?
                                      Contact us via our email help@readfictiondirect.co.uk
                                        or approach us in any other way, e.g. facebook message.
                                    Tell us about your novel, subject and wordcount, what
                                        you've written before, how you'd like to contribute.
                               We guarantee that your novel files will be treated in confidence
                                      and with respect, and we will never pass them on to
                                             anyone else without your express permission.

                                                     We'll be happy to hear from you.

FICTION DIRECT EVENTS

PAST EVENT
The Edinburgh Bookshop, Holy Corner, 219 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh,  Thursday January 25th 2024.  Lettersgait, Beyond the Lion Gate, and Inside DAMMA. Short readings and discussion.
This was a delightful, friendly and well attended event at this most welcoming bookshop. Pictures above.

PAST EVENT
Launch of INSIDE DAMMA, Edinburgh, December 3rd 2023.