Blog | Sarah Bullen Author

WRITING ADVICE FOR AUTHORS

Wild rapture and dance in Botswana

It is closing in on three in the morning and sleep is the furthest thing from my mind. I am in Botswana again. This is the third trip I have taken up here in the two years in which we’ve been on these parallel treatment and healing journeys. Life is slowly returning to a level of relative normality. The well-wishers have tailed off, MRIs are less terrifying and have all come back clear. Llewelyn is now very firmly on the path to becoming a koma doctor – a doctor of rite

Should you plan or just write?

There is only one answer to this question (in my view). YES of course you should plan a book! I believe in writing with intent if you want to get published. If you are writing non-fiction you are going to be 100% clear about what is going to go into your book. You are going to have a clear list of your chapters and what material you will cover in each. Your planning will become your book proposal and it will guide your entire book. But is a novel different? No.

From 'Hey Baby' to 'The Other Side'

It’s been 20 years since my first book was published, and I wanted to reflect on the long journey of being an author, as well as working...

How to write poems that get published

By Miriam Sagan for Writers Digest No poet likes to hear the expression "slush pile"_ it implies that our creations have gone into a heap...

Proof of Heaven?

When I woke up from the coma in late 2012, the topic of near death was on everybody’s lips. This was due to an American neuroscientist...

What’s the theme of your story?

Your book needs a theme. A theme is closely aligned to your plot and often the words are used interchangably. I see them as different howeve

What are publishers looking for in 2025-2026?

Once again we look forward to the publishing market for the upcoming publishing cycle. It is so useful for an author to be aware of...

Some Things You Need to Know as an Author

What does it actually t ake to write a book? Below is a list of 10 things (five short and five longer ones). Join me in 2025 and finally...

How to write a great back cover book blurb

Think of your back cover blurb like a movie trailer. There is a good reason movie trailers are not made by the writer. It’s so hard as writer to think of your book as a product. It feel like an oversell and a bit awkward to hype it so much right? Not true. This tight piece of writing needs to be SO crafted and SO clever. It also needs to make your book seem dramatic and desperately exciting (far more than it really is). Look, no book – or movie – can sustain that level of exc

What if my book sucks?

Here's the question we all ask. What if my book sucks? It doesn’t matter how many books you have written (like me); lalunching a book is a

A meeting with the devil in a NDE

Mohau Malope believes that some of the things he did in high school saved him from staying in hell during his NDE. We are sitting in the...

An epiphany and a change of tack

Niall Campbell is also known by his traditional name Phokojwe (The Jackal) and is traditional doctor nyanga (medicine man) and a Ngaka...

Sarah Bullen is an international writing mentor and literary agent. She works with writers all over the world to tell their stories, and write that book. Founder of The Writing Room and Kent Literary, she has had over 180 books published by writers she has mentored over the last two decades. As well as being a regular guest on talk shows, podcasts, literary festivals and writers’ circles, Sarah has been leading international writing retreats and adventures since 2014.