New Shoreham course will help you unlock your writing potential

As Gerry says, writing a book can greatly help your career or business and also your creative expression. With that in mind, he is leading a hands-on course for anyone who is anywhere in the process of creating or publishing their book, fiction or non-fiction: “You might want to move forward with thinking up what your book is about in the first place; or planning the book and its overall shape; or writing or editing the material; or getting the book published and read.”

With a quarter of a century of experience of writing and publishing behind him, Gerry is a successful professional author and writing coach whose books have sold half a million copies in 15 languages. Along the way, he has helped hundreds of authors create their own books. Places on the course are limited and must be booked and paid for in advance. The course fee is £75, which can be paid to Gerry by bank transfer or Paypal. To discuss the suitability of the course or to make your booking, contact Gerry on phone 07986 561860; email info@gerrymaguirethompson; or visit www.gerrymaguirethompson.com.

“This is the third time I have run this course. The previous one was in the autumn and the one before that was in the spring so basically I'm running them one per term. It is for people that want to write a book or are writing a book and have started but are stuck somewhere. A lot of people have been meaning to write a book for years but haven't found the opportunity or people have maybe started but find that they have obstacles in their way. The course is for people at all different points in the trajectory. Some people will know what the book is but can't find the structure for it, and we could be talking about fiction or non-fiction or adult or children's books. And then there will be other people who will be further down the line and have made a start but are wanting some feedback so that they can move it forward, and there could be other people that have virtually finished their book and are now looking to think about trying to find a publisher. I will be able to work with each participant during the class time and spend time with them individually and we can look at what the obstacles are and help them make progress with their book project.

“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.”