What's happened, and happening
January newsletter: Wuthering Heights, free resources for small businesses, poetry news – dive in!
I’m deep in lots of editing, anglicising and project managing this month – poetry, literary fiction, two types of non-fiction, for publishers & indie authors. I love the continual surprise of my inbox. I had a query this week from someone who wasn’t sure which Anna Davidson she wanted. There are so many! But only one me. That’s what I tell myself.
EDITORS AND WRITERS
I’ll be running a webinar on ‘Demystifying Self-Publishing’ for the CIEP (Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading) on 31st March. It’s open to non-members as well as members, and it’s for writers as well as editors – anyone who would like to know what they can and should expect when they hire an editor with a view to publishing their book. More info here.
NEED A BOOST?
I took a moment at the turn of the year to reflect on what The Right Word had done in 2025 and ambitions for 2026. A freelance colleague recommended Digital Boost. It’s an amazing resource – support and advice for small-business people [watch where you place the hyphen], run by high-powered and skilled volunteers. I benefitted from excellent one to one mentoring. I’m also booked in for a session on Making Tax Digital: time to take my head out of the sand. It’s all free of charge. I thoroughly recommend them – they’ve restored my faith in the world. Being mentored also made me realise I should give people who like my poetry, or indeed my newsletter, the opportunity to buy me a coffee. Don’t all rush at once!
BUILDING COMMUNITY
Part of my 2026 planning is around newsletters and community. It’s been interesting to see the co-founder and director of the Alliance of Independent Authors, Orna Ross, arrive on Substack in her capacity as a poet and novelist – very inspiring. I find navigating Substack unintuitive, but it’s also an incredibly powerful platform. If you’re reading this newsletter in the Substack app (as opposed to in your email inbox), perhaps click on the little heart so I know you’re here. I won’t get soppy and read too much into it.
THIS MONTH’S READING
I’ve just finished Wuthering Heights, my first encounter other than via Kate Bush. I’m curious now to see what Emerald Fennell (director of Saltburn) does with the new film adaptation, out next month. (Trailer here.) My takeaway? Yes, too much screen time is bad for us but THANK GOD for the internet, not to mention the telephone, the Royal Mail and the motor car. I love modern life.
Fiction editors, publishers nowadays are very exercised by loose plotting so I was fascinated by how, as far as I can tell, nobody seems to care how implausible a key plot point is (Heathcliff becoming rich and gentlemanly in a short space of time by disappearing off somewhere mysterious, maybe the army). Perhaps someone who’s done an English literature degree can talk me through that.
Other reading: two poetry books, both with fabulous covers: Tess Jolly’s Intimate Architecture (Blue Diode Press) and Janice Warman’s These Are the Things We Have Lost (Fly on the Wall Press).
Janice’s book has exquisite sprayed edges and equally high calibre poems. I was lucky enough to hear her read some at her launch, attended by many members of the Kent & Sussex Poetry Society, including me. (I feel I’m bona fide now, as I entered their Members’ competition, judged by Ella Frears, and have a poem in this year’s Folio. Deadline to enter their Open competition, judged by Mimi Khalvati, is 31st January.) Tess’s book was praised by the Guardian who said – I concur – ‘Jolly skilfully depicts the tensions within human relationships as well as the desire for intimacy’. Tess is a fellow poetry editor (Poems and Proofs).
Up next: Harriet Tyce. Yes, she was so classy on The Traitors (until she got sick of the whole thing and decided to blow herself up, metaphorically) that I bought one of her books – along with many other people. Her sales were up 95.6% week on week after her debut on the show, according to The Bookseller. Authors are so under the radar for most of the world – her psychological thriller Blood Orange was a Richard & Judy choice, a massive success, and yet she seems to have been presented as little-known.
The wonderful Poetry Pharmacy is in the exciting process of fitting out a brand new branch in York. Do support them if you’re local, or you can buy a loyalty card from them wherever you are.
That’s it for now. Hope it’s not too muddy and rainy in your fiefdom.
Until next time,
Anna
P. S. If I might be the Anna Davidson for you, get in touch via my website.
Came here to say I've bought my Poetry Pharmacy 'bookmark' as, by pure chance, I'm going to be in York (for my first visit ever) shortly after the new shop opens.
Serendipitous surely!