Did anyone see that amazing, marathon tennis match between Nicholas Mahut and John Isner? It finally produced a winner in John Isner, but not before Isner had notched up 70 games to Mahut’s 68 in the fifth and final set.

I’m a mad keen tennis fan so I followed every second. And, incidentally, me being a mad keen tennis fan also explains why I tend to go a bit slower at this time of year as far as Writers’ Advice Centre work is concerned – apologies. On the TV it’s the French Open, followed by Queens, followed by Wimbledon. And that’s not to mention the various exhibition events that go on which I somehow manage to get to if I can.

Anyway back to Mahut/Isner. That match got me thinking about the nature of winning. When two players are so equal what does it take for just one to come out on top? It’s not just down to talent…although obviously that helps. And it’s not really luck…although that comes into it just a bit. It’s not fitness either because Isner looked the loser on that score for most of the match yet he still won. No, winning in sport is largely down to belief. And to a certain extent that’s the same in writing.

A few years ago I was approached by a keen and enthusiastic new writer. She deluged me with work, as she did with every other editor I knew at the time. I tried to help her but, at the end of the day, I didn’t think she would ever make it as a writer. In my opinion she simply wasn’t good enough. However she wasn’t to be deterred and when one of those editors (not me thankfully) accidentally returned his brutally honest, uncomplimentary notes on her work (meant for his eyes only) she had an epiphany.

First of all she cried – buckets and buckets. But then she looked again at the notes. Agonising though it was she took every single negative point on board and acted on it. A year on from that moment she had one picture book published, another one in the pipeline and several publishers commissioning her to write series read fiction.

So was I wrong about her? No, I don’t think I was. I don’t – and still don’t – think her writing is particularly special. She will never receive glittering reviews nor receive literary prizes. However I was wrong about her not making it as a writer. She did…she has…and it was all down to her own massive self-belief.

As Serena Williams said, when she lifted the Venus Rosewater Plate upon winning Wimbledon this year, “Everyone’s dream can come true if you just stick to it and work hard.”

When I hit fifty last year I seemed to develop my own personal version of Tourette’s Syndrome. Having previously been a fairly reserved person who, on the whole, let things pass her by unremarked upon, I suddenly found that I was speaking my mind on almost every subject, but particularly on subjects that annoyed me.

Only last week I sought out the manager in my local supermarket. I couldn’t understand why the shelves were crammed full of New Zealand lamb when our own English fields are overflowing with sheep of every description. Driving over Wandsworth Bridge yesterday I subsequently emailed my MP to demand why, when there are two perfectly good cycle lanes on the extra-wide pavements, cyclists still insist on using the road, causing me, in my car, to attempt involuntary suicide in order to avoid them. And this morning I found myself banging on my neighbour’s door having finally lost patience with their barking dog waking me up every morning well before I am ready.

When it comes to dealing with writers I try to keep my patience, I really do. Giving advice, after all, is my livelihood and, having recently launched a dedicated advice line, you would think that, on the other end of the line, I am the soul of patience and gentle wisdom. Most of the time I am (because most of the time my callers are genuine, lovely people who simply want a sensible answer to a sensible question), but sometimes, SOMETIMES, I just can’t help myself. Sometimes the sheer stupidity and tedium of the calls I receive drive the blood to my brain and a tetchy sigh to my lips. So here they are. Twenty reasons to be angry:-

Call 1: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I’ve wrote this book’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 2: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I’ve written this book. Do you want to publish it?’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 3: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, my book could be enjoyed by anyone from newborn babies to teenagers.’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 4: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I’ve come up with this really original concept about a squirrel called Cyril.’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 5: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I’ve written the next Harry Potter. It’s called ‘Harriet Totter & the Psychotherapist’s Pebble’.’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 6: ‘Hello Ms Corner. That IS Helen Corner from Cornerstones isn’t it?’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 7: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, no I’m afraid I can’t tell you what my story is about. You might steal it!’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 8: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I thought your appraisal of my manuscript was rubbish. I think it’s brilliant.’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 9: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I thought your appraisal of my manuscript was rubbish. My niece thinks it’s brilliant.’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 10: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I’ve been rejected by every publisher and agent in The Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook. Can you help me?’ Tetchy sigh – although I probably can.

Call 11: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, my manuscript has been with Top Literary Agency Inc. for three years. Do you think I’m still in with a chance?’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 12: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I’m thinking Quentin Blake as my illustrator and Disney to make the film. You can guarantee that, right?’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 13: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, yes I want to write for children. No I never read children’s books. Why do you ask?’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 14: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, can you read and advise on my 600,000 word trilogy? What do you mean you charge a fee?’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 15: ‘Hello Ms Gordon…’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 16: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I’m sending over my manuscript in a safe, accompanied by a non-disclosure agreement and David Cameron’s outriders.’ Tetchy sigh…although just very slightly impressed.

Call 17: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, how come you haven’t returned my calls? No I didn’t leave my number.’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 18: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, it’s more than just a book I’m offering. My sister’s done the illustrations, my granny’s knitted the toys and my uncle has promised to stock it in his paper shop.’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 19: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, my three year-old son, Sean, has written a poem and his teacher says it should be published.’ Tetchy sigh.

Call 20: ‘Hello Ms Jordan, I’m Sean’s teacher and I’ve wrote this book…’

Slam down the phone. Enough!

(With thanks to Sarah Davies who wrote the original, much funnier, version of this blog on her site www.greenhouseliterary.com. Although I should point out that all the above queries are ones that I’ve received personally – albeit with a bit of poetic licence thrown in!)

Homework for our home study course always includes a reading list and the focus is on books published within the last ten years. This isn’t because I feel that there were no good books published before the year 2000. Of course there were. Thousands of them, going back hundreds of years, not just ten. The point is, though, as new writers in a new millennium we have to be concentrating on creating new and different material for a new and different age.

Jacqueline Wilson has just been named the most popular library book author of the decade with her best known book The Story of Tracy Beaker being named the most borrowed individual title. Three Harry Potter titles took second, third and fourth place, and of the top ten most lent authors no less than five children’s authors featured – Jacqueline Wilson, Mick Inkpen, Roald Dahl and Janet & Allan Ahlberg.

Renowned children’s editor, Rosemary Stones (my ex-boss and editor of Books for Keeps magazine which, incidentally, is definitely worth subscribing to), writing in Books for Keeps, names her own highlights of the past decade and on the whole I feel she’s made pretty good choices.

Stand alone titles for older children included The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time, Millions and How I Live Now.

Series titles included Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials, Harry Potter (of course), Twilight, Artemis Fowl, the Alex Rider books (Stormbreaker etc.), Horrid Henry, How to Train your Dragon (and other titles featuring Hiccup Horrendus Haddock 111), Mr Gum and Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines quartet .

Picture book titles included Traction Man is Here, Wolves, Lost and Found, Clarice Bean That’s Me and The Gruffalo’s Child.

But what about my own personal favourites. I’d second Rosemary’s choice of How I Live Now and the Mortal Engines books. I also loved (oh, how to choose?) The Knife That Killed Me and Private Peaceful. For younger readers I’m a big fan of David Almond and loved My Dad’s a Birdman.

One of my biggest moans, as a champion of new children’s writers, is that during the last decade publisher’s budgets have generally been taken up publishing and promoting a few favoured authors at the expense of the many. But perhaps it’s not necessarily the publishers that are at fault. Perhaps the fault lies with the writing community, with not enough of us pushing boundaries and coming up with new, innovative and exciting material.

Do share your own favourite titles of the past decade and, also, your ideas as to where children’s publishing should be going in this new decade.

This month’s blog doesn’t come from me but from Greg McQueen, the brain behind the 100 Stories for Haiti project mentioned on our news page.

Greg’s Story: The title of the project comes to me as I research some facts about the earthquake online. ‘100 Stories for Haiti’. I type some notes. A few strung-together facts from the news reports I’ve seen about the earthquake in Haiti. I print them and switch on my webcam. I glance at the notes but I’m not really reading them. The words come out because they are already there.

‘Dear Twitterverse,’ I hear myself say. ‘On January 12th 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Haiti’s capital…’

When I am finished I post the video on YouTube, and embed it on my website. I post it on Facebook and Twitter for good measure, and then wander downstairs and stick the kettle on. As I am making tea, my mobile phone chimes. It’s an e-mail. Someone commenting on my YouTube video. Blimey, I only just posted it. I read the comment. Then I read it again. What the heck have I done?

I hear the front door open, and my wife comes in. She smiles, peels off her coat, and dumps it on a chair before joining me in the kitchen. She slips her arm across my shoulders and kisses my cheek. Then she frowns, because she’s seen the look on my face.

‘You okay?’

‘I don’t know. I think I might have just made a total arse of myself.’ Her frown deepens.

‘I just posted a video online, asking writers to send me their stories. I’m going to publish a book and donate all the money to…I don’t know. Maybe the Red Cross.’

She’s still frowning.

‘What about your novel?’ she asks. ‘I thought you needed to finish it?’

‘I do. But…’ I shrug. Don’t know what else to say.

‘You haven’t thought this through, have you?’ she says.

I shake my head, as though I am a ten year-old confessing to breaking a window.

‘I think it’s a wonderful idea,’ she says. Smiling now.

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. I’ll help you make the cover if you like.’

‘Cover?’

‘Books need a cover, don’t they?’

‘Yeah,’ I say, ‘Books need a cover…’

Shit, she’s right. I haven’t thought this through at all.

’...and it needs quite a lot of other stuff, too.’

Starting the project was a rush. I admit it. I started the project thinking that I’d scrape together 100 stories. 400 within a week really was a fantastic surprise.

Two weeks into the project the whole thing nearly collapsed. The first paperback publisher pulled out for totally understandable reasons. Other things were going on. People in the project were telling me to stop. That was a real low point.

As I’m writing this … the new paperback publisher is typesetting the manuscript, and today, they sent through the ISBN number. We’re setting up to take pre-orders in anticipation of the official publication date, March 4th, 2010.

One highlight that hasn’t happened yet … the moment I hold an 80,000 word book in my hand. A book that me and a bunch of other writers banded together to make. I’ll probably stare at it for an hour, cry for a bit, and then climb into bed and sleep for a week.

I am about to get a virtual PA to help out with the mountain of admin work I have been struggling with over the past year or so. I’m actually not sure how ‘virtual’ she’s going to be as I know who she is, I know where she lives and sometimes she may be sharing my office, but it did get me thinking about all things virtual.

These days you can get ‘virtual’ just about anything. You can have virtual friends, courtesy of social networking sites; you can do virtual exercise, courtesy of Wii; you can use virtual doctors as Dan Woolley discovered when he was trapped in a lift-shaft following the terrible earthquake in Haiti. He used a medical app on his Iphone to give him information on treating his wounds. You can even be stalked by virtual stalkers as I myself can bear out with the vile posts from ‘Anonymous’ posted on this very site.

Which brings me to virtual books, or e-books as they are more commonly known. What do we, as writers, feel about them? Are they, as many believe, a threat to the printed word or are they, in fact, an amazing opportunity for writers and readers alike?

If you look at the news section of this site you will see that one of my authors is putting together a collection of short stories to raise money for the Haiti earthquake appeal. Because he is planning to publish the stories as an e-book he can get it out quickly and efficiently without waiting for an editor’s say-so or a publisher’s permission.However, interestingly, he is also publishing the collection as a paperback.

Many people point out that CD sales have fallen since ITunes was launched in this country in 2004. However in my opinion it’s not the same thing as the e-book/book debate. The CD is a mass storage device which has now been replaced by more efficient mass storage devices. The e-book on the other hand is a completely different medium to the printed book and I can see them happily existing side by side. For example I use my Sony e-reader for first readings of manuscripts, but in order to do a proper edit I need to have the full manuscript printed out as hard copy.

And if one needs any more poignant reminder of the importance of the written word you only need to look to the bravery of Miep Gies, who died aged 100 on 11th January. Miep was one of the loyal and brave few who daily risked their lives in order to bring the family Frank supplies as they hid in the famous Secret Annex during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. It was Miep who picked up the abandoned pages of Anne Frank’s diary when the annex occupants were finally betrayed and arrested on August 4, 1944. One can only wonder if Anne’s book would have survived if it had been stored on a laptop or, more importantly, if it would have ever been written at all.

So that’s my say on all things virtual. I’m now off to virtually walk my virtual dog in the virtual rain. If only!

I love rubbish tabloids, breakfast tv and X-Factor. I know I should read the Times, listen to Radio Four and get out more on a Saturday night, but that’s me. And because of my terrible taste in media entertainment I find I have a lot of sympathy with one Simon Cowell.

In the lead up to the live X-Factor shows Simon (and his fellow judges) listens to act after act who think they can sing. He knows they’re never going to make it – hell, we know they’re never going to make it – yet week after week these poor, sad, deluded acts turn up convinced that they’ve got what it takes to break into the big time. I don’t know about you but I feel like screaming at my tv, “ listen to yourself, you’re rubbish, you can’t sing”. Yet despite the obvious they react with fury when Simon tells them, “listen to yourself, you’re rubbish, you can’t sing”.

I can relate to Simon sometimes. Writers approach me and they seem to have no idea as to how they rate, as writers, in the general scheme of things. More often than not they haven’t looked at the current market and have written something that is wildly unoriginal. Sometimes they have looked at the market and written something that is inadequate. Other times would-be authors are simply illiterate and make the most basic of grammatical mistakes, even in their covering letter or email.

And yet, and yet…

I remember when I was first starting out in this business. At the time I was fiction editor on a popular teenage magazine and a certain George Michael turned up at our office for an interview apologising profusely that the other half of Wham couldn’t make it that day. What losers I thought. They’re just another wannabe pop act and they’ll never make it. How wrong was I!

Which is why I now never give up on would-be authors if they have sufficient self-belief. It’s not all about pure talent no matter how much we’d like it to be. Sometimes it’s about hard work, application and perseverance. Jedward bring it on!

I’ve just finished judging a competition run by the Nottingham Writers Group (hence the picture of Robin Hood!) and thought you might be interested in the feedback I gave them.

When judging this competition I used the same criteria any editor would use should any of the entries find their way into a publisher’s slush pile.

Firstly I looked at the first page of each entry to see if the opening lines grabbed me. Four entries fulfilled this criteria. The trick to writing a good opening paragraph is, firstly, to speak directly to the reader and, secondly, to intrigue the reader. Too many of the entries opened with dialogue or narrative which bordered on the mundane.

Secondly I looked at targeting. Considering this was part of the competition brief I was slightly puzzled as to why three of the seven shortlisted entries made no mention of a target age range. This ruled them out as far as I was concerned because if you don’t have a clear idea of your target readership then you are very unlikely to find a home for your manuscript. Knowledge of the current children’s book market is absolutely crucial if you are serious about writing for children.

Once I had considered first lines and targeting I was left with four manuscripts and, out of the remaining four, I ruled out two more on the grounds that the targeting wasn’t accurate. In my opinion the subject matter of these two stories was too young for the age group they were written for.

By now I was left with two manuscripts ‘A Near Death Experience and An Indian Summer. The former had a more intriguing opening but the latter had a more contemporary feel. And, at the end of the day, it is a ‘voice’ that is the most important aspect of any piece of writing.

However literary agent, Darley Anderson, writing in October 23rd’s Bookseller, says that good writing is the last thing he looks for. Instead he looks for character first and plot second.

So is it first lines, targeting, plotting, characterisation, subject matter…or none of the above? What, exactly, is ‘the most important thing’?

The beginning of the year starts at different times for different people. For many people January 1st heralds the start of the year. However Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is usually in September and, for the Chinese, New Year doesn’t start until the end of January or February. For those of us working in the children’s book world I would say that our year begins in September/October with the start of the autumn term. So, as this is a site devoted to writing for children, it seems like an appropriate time to be starting my new blog.

But what about other beginnings? What about, for example, the beginnings of stories and books? What are we, as editors, looking for when we pick up a manuscript and turn to that all important first page?

Last week I attended the Children’s Bookseller Annual Conference where I learned a number of interesting facts – not least of which is that the children’s book market is showing huge resilience in these difficult times and has grown by 30% in the last five years. And the answer to the question ‘what are editors looking for?’ could well lie with points made by a couple of the speakers.

John Webb, Tesco’s Buying Manager, pointed out that consumers need to know what a book is all about just by looking at it. If they have to get to the last page before they can work it out, it’s too late. Danielle Davis, editor of Spinebreakers.com (Puffin’s teen reading website), underlined this point. A visit to the Spinebreaker’s home page tells you exactly what the site is all about by defining the word ‘spinebreaker’ as ‘any story-surfing, web-exploring, word-loving, day-dreaming reader/writer/artist/thinker age 13 – 18’.

On the other hand some guy speaking at the end of the conference illustrated what editors are not looking for when he tried to explain how his computer gaming system tied in with children’s publishing. None of us could work out what he was on about!

So what’s the answer? What are we, as editors of children’s books, looking for in a ‘beginning’? I think the answer is ‘clarity’. It has to be clear, very quickly, what we are reading about and why. If you get that right then the rest of the story should follow as naturally as…well as naturally as New Year’s Day follows New Year’s Eve!

Share your thoughts on what you think makes a great beginning to a story…