Gerry will help you write the book you’ve always wanted to write

Gerry said: “Is there a book you’d like to start writing or make progress on? Writing a book is great for your creative expression and can also benefit your professional skills.”

Gerry is leading the course for anyone who finds themselves at any point in the process of creating or publishing their book – fiction or non-fiction, for children or adults – including right at the beginning. You might want to move forward with soemthing: thinking up what your book is about in the first place; planning the book and its overall shape; writing or editing the material; or getting the book published and read.”

Gerry is a successful professional author and writing coach whose own books have sold over half a million copies in 15 languages. He has helped hundreds of authors create their own books for over twenty years. The course fee is £75. Phone 07986 561860; email info@gerrymaguirethompson; or visit www.gerrymaguirethompson.com.

Gerry said: “I find that very many people want to write – and have wanted to write for a long time – but are not doing it. Often they don’t know how to go about it, or they have been unable to get around to it. In other cases they may have made a start but have been unable to continue or to compete. I see myself as a facilitator in this process – supporting potential writers in finding their voice, building discipline, overcoming obstacles, creating a regular space in a busy life for writing, planning the structure of a book, improving material already written, thinking about how material may be published or otherwise reach readers.

“I believe the ability to write and tell stories in one way or another is latent in everyone and can definitely be enhanced by providing support. In my experience the commonest mistakes include: thinking that your writing has to follow some particular model, being overly critical of your own work or adversely comparing it with others, trying to make a first stab at a piece of writing perfect rather regarding it as a very rough draft to be edited later …and putting the project off till some unspecified time in the future. Why not take steps to start it now?”

“I have been in the book industry for a long time, and I know the book industry well. It used to be very easy to get a publisher and to get an agent but really what has made the difference has been the interweb. It is made it very difficult. Publishers are more wary whereas they used to go on instinct but now they want to know that you’ve got ten million followers and a huge online presence first. They’re going much more for people with big followings or people who are already well known and so it’s harder for others to get published and certainly very hard to get an agent but the fact is that self-publishing has become easier and that is an option for many people. I decided to go self-publishing for my last book, and I think it worked very well.”