Showing titles in Writing & Publishing

Brought to you by Penguin. A masterclass in telling stories - and how they shape our world - from the internationally renowned narrative expert To command narrative is to control a sometimes frightening power. What is it that turbocharges some tales, and how is it possible to harness that...

Lionel Barber was editor of the Financial Times for the tech boom, the global financial crisis, the rise of China, Brexit and mainstream media's fight for survival in the age of fake news. In this unparalleled, no-holds-barred diary of life behind the headlines, he reveals the private meetings and exchanges with political leaders on the eve of referendums, the conversations with billionaire bankers facing economic meltdown, exchanges with Silicon Valley tech gurus and pleas from foreign emissaries desperate for inside knowledge.

Most people think the way to write a best seller is to have a lot of talent and even more luck. As you will learn, there is a recipe for success, and luck may be the least important ingredient in creating a best seller. No one has cracked the code better than James Scott Bell. A best-selling author himself, and the author of the number-one best seller for writers, Plot & Structure, Mr. Bell has been teaching the principles of best-selling fiction for over 20 years, principles that apply to any genre or style.

Over his four-decade career, Sid Meier has produced some of the world's most popular video games, including Sid Meier's Civilization, which has sold more than 51 million units worldwide and accumulated more than one billion hours of play. Sid Meier's Memoir! is the story of an obsessive young computer enthusiast who helped launch a multibillion-dollar industry.

When award-winning journalist Nick Davies decided to break Fleet Street's unwritten rule by investigating his own colleagues, he found that the business of reporting the truth had been slowly subverted by the mass production of ignorance.

"They Say / I Say" identifies the key rhetorical moves in academic writing, showing students how to frame their arguments in the larger context of what others have said and providing templates to help them make those moves. And, because these moves are central across all disciplines, the audiobook includes chapters on writing in the sciences, writing in the social sciences, and - new to this edition - writing about literature.

'Informative, amusing, sometimes shocking' – Giles Foden, The Guardian A critical examination of the British press over the last century, from legendary foreign correspondent John Simpson. Through many decades of groundbreaking journalism across the globe, John Simpson has become one of the...

What a Time to be Alive! So lettuce remember Liz Truss, relive the last days of the Tories, meet the guy they called No-Drama Starmer, and succumb to hyper-resistant superbug Nigel Farage. Travel stateside to meet our supranational Silicon Valley overlords, Donald Trump and his cavalcade of henchmen - then head for infinity and beyond with Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos. Experience testing times for misunderstood men in television, create wonder in every moment with Meghan, and relive the horror of the Gwyneth Paltrow ski massacre trial.

A fascinating exploration of how to use the power of storytelling to create irresistible pitches, build passionate brand loyalty, motivate teams and lead with charisma. 'Will Storr is a genius' Rory Sutherland 'A captivating and enlightening read . . Will Storr is an unusually talented and...

Discover the key to positive workplaces and better results from one of Britain's most successful leaders. A Waterstones Book of the Month and Paperback of the Year 2025 'Mr Timpson is a role model as an employer. Other businesses could learn from his approach.' The Guardian The Happy Index: a...

Bestselling children's author Andy Stanton has made a career out of writing differently—from the unconventional ‘hero' of his bestselling Mr Gum series to his penchant for absurdist plots, his children's books are anything but formulaic. When a friend introduces him to ChatGPT, the new large language chatbot, Andy is as sceptical as he is curious. Can this jumble of algorithms really mimic the spontaneity of human thought? Could it one day replace human authors like him for good? And are we soon to be ruled over by despotic robot overlords.

For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.

'The most honest account of addiction I have read. This is an invaluable book'. – Tony Adams. What is an addict? Who is susceptible, and why? How can I recover from addiction? Growing up in a fractious and dysfunctional family, life wasn’t easy for the Secret Drug Addict. By the time he was...

Over the course of the past twenty-five years, Julia Cameron has taught thousands of artists and aspiring artists how to unblock wellsprings of creativity. And time and again she has noticed an interesting thing: Often when her students uncover their creative selves they also undergo a surprising physical transformation - invigorated by their work, they slim down. In The Writing Diet, Cameron illuminates the relationship between creativity and eating to reveal a crucial equation: Creativity can block overeating.

Following on the heels of Lisa Cron's breakout first book, Wired for Story, this writing guide reveals how to use cognitive storytelling strategies to build a scene-by-scene blueprint for a riveting story. It’s every novelist’s greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into...

Marie Colvin was glamorous, hard-drinking, braver than the boys, with a troubled and rackety personal life. With fierce compassion and honesty, she reported from the most dangerous places in the world, fractured by conflict and genocide, going in further and staying longer than anyone else. In Sri Lanka in 2001, Marie was hit by a grenade and lost the sight in her left eye - resulting in her trademark eye patch - and in 2012 she was killed in Syria. Like her hero, the legendary reporter Martha Gellhorn, she sought to bear witness to the horrifying truths of war..

Natalie Goldberg has been writing for the past fifty years. But at the beginning of the pandemic, she suddenly wasn’t able to write anymore. Her imaginative wellspring had dried up, and she was forced to ask herself: what do I do when what has always worked for me doesn’t work anymore? In this beautifully written, inspiring personal account, Natalie shares her harrowing journey out of creative paralysis and back onto the page.

Using his famed on-the-nose commentary, Twitter legend James Felton has dissected 99 of the most outlandish stories The Sun (for a long time the biggest-selling British newspaper) has run since it became a tabloid in 1969, hoping to answer once and for all whether the press has reflected - or manipulated - the British people over the last 50 years.

There are three kinds of feelings when reading a story: boredom, interest, and wow! To become a successful writer, you must create the wow feeling on as many pages as possible, and this requires writing that engages the reader emotionally. In his best-selling book, screenwriter Karl Iglesias explored the working habits of A-list Hollywood scribes. Now, he breaks new ground by focusing on the psychology of the reader.

What makes a romance novel a romance? Writing a well-structured romance isn't the same as writing any other genre - something the popular novel and screenwriting guides don't address. The romance arc is made up of its own story beats. Told in conversational (and often irreverent) prose, Romancing the Beat is like sitting down to coffee with romance editor and author Gwen Hayes while she explains story structure - the way she does with her clients, some of whom are regular inhabitants of the best-seller lists.