Take part in our next all-day online festival on Sunday 5th July!

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Yes, I’m now booking authors for the all-day 5th July 2026 online festival. The schedule is:

  • 10am: editing panel (currently 2 spaces)
  • 11.30am: cover design, illustrations and book formatting panel (currently 5 spaces)
  • 1pm: what else do you need before your book is published? (currently 5 spaces)
  • 2.30pm: publishing (currently 4 spaces)
  • 4pm: marketing/advertising inc. social media, website design etc. (currently 2 spaces)

Full details on https://self-pub-fest.co.uk/online-jan-july/5-july-2026-festival.

If you’re already involved in Self-Pub Fest, pop me an email.

New to Self-Pub Fest? If you are a self-published author or provide any of the services above (or another!) to self-published authors, you’re welcome to take part in this event. If you’re unpublished, a reader or traditionally published you’re welcome to take part in non-all-day events ~ see Calendar. To take part please see the Participate page.

Tonight was all about podcasts and there’s a new page!

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As part of the T&T Panels on 16th June 2026 Sarah ‘SJ’ Banham and Morgen talked about podcasts. The recording is here.

Morgen used to host ‘Bailey’s Writing & Editing Tips’ (see first picture) but that’s on hold at the moment. She does currently host the ‘300-Words A Day’ daily writing prompt podcast, available currently on Spotify but will hopefully be elsewhere in the not-too-distant future, starting with Substack, inspired by Sarah’s recent move there.

Because of today’s session, Morgen’s created a new page within the Information area of this site: Podcasts.

Results of the inaugural Self-Pub Fest 300-word Competition – April/May 2026

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Hello everyone. I’m delighted to announce the results of the inaugural 300-word competition on the theme of ‘The Opening’. There were 14 entries from 12 writers providing a pot of £36.85 after PayPal fees.

Half of that (£18.43) goes to the Self-Pub Fest charities (see https://self-pub-fest.co.uk/charities), leaving £18.42 for the prize pot.

However, a new (anonymous) fan of short stories has promised to top up the prize portion of the pot whenever it falls below £30 so each two-month round ~ including April/May! ~ will have the following split: Winner £15 ~ Second £10 ~ Third £5.

Obviously if there are more entries than a £60 total then the entire pot will be split 50:50 as originally promised but with this guarantee it’ll hopefully mean more entries as time goes on. Please do share the main https://self-pub-fest.co.uk/300-words-a-day/competitionlink on your social media profiles/pages. Thank you!

As with most competition judging I go through each story once, slotting them where I think they may go. I often rejig when going through them in order from the ‘winner’ down to ‘highly commended’ and beyond (where there are more entries than places).

This is a writing competition so, in theory, the more polished stories fair better, wherever there’s a theme I do take this into account. Where I might place two stories equally the one closer to the theme usually has the edge. It’s also how I react to a story. If I go “wow” then the chances are that story will come in the top three, not always but often.

So the results are… <drum roll>

Continue reading →

The latest Monday Mini-Fest was on marketing!

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On Monday 1st June 2026, the panel below, with Morgen hosting, talked about various aspects of marketing for authors. The recording is below.

These are free events but we’re raising money for local book-related charities and we’d be really grateful if you would donate whatever you afford via the Charities & Donate page. Thank you so much.

T&T#18 – Scriptwriting

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On Thursday 28th May at 6pm the panel below talked about: scriptwriting. Do you write scripts? Do you read them? What advice would you give to wannabe scriptwriters? We mentioned JK Rowling ‘Fantastic Beasts’ script in book form…

  • Science-fiction, fantasy, cosy mystery, thriller and comedy author David Wake
  • Crime/women’s novelist and non-fiction author and Self-Pub Fest founder Morgen with an ‘E’ (host)

The recording from this session is below.

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If you’d like to take part in any of these sessions, do take a look at the other topics on The T&T Panels page, and there’s also the weekly Monday Mini-fests.

New to Self-Pub Fest? See the Participate page outlines the process of getting involved.

These are free events but we’re raising money for book charities local to the Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire, England) area and we’d be really grateful if you would donate whatever you afford via the Charities & Donate page. Thank you so much.

We talk about poetry in the latest T&T

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Yes, on Tuesday 26th May the panel below talked about: poetry in all its forms. Do you write poetry? Do you read it? Which form(at) do you prefer? To form or free verse? What’s the difference? How do read poetry aloud? Do you write to a rhyming form or meter?

  • Historical fantasy novelist and short story author BB Elsin
  • Crime/women’s novelist and non-fiction author and Self-Pub Fest founder Morgen with an ‘E’ (host)

The recording from this session is below.

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If you’d like to take part in any of these sessions, do take a look at the other topics on The T&T Panels page, and there’s also the weekly Monday Mini-fests.

New to Self-Pub Fest? The Participate page outlines the process of getting involved.

These are free events but we’re raising money for book charities local to the Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire, England) area and we’d be really grateful if you would donate whatever you afford via the Charities & Donate page. Thank you so much.