Welcome to Litopia - the net's oldest community for writers
stablished over a decade ago, Litopia Writers' Colony is quite simply the 'net's pre-eminent community for writers. If you're serious about your writing, this is where you need to be.
By Writers, For Writers
We're run by writers, for writers. Many websites claim to have writers' interests at heart; most of them turn out to be - what shall we say? Disappointing. Don't be fooled.
Litopia is often copied, but rarely equalled. Your time spent in the Colony will be well invested. Stimulating and intelligent company is guaranteed: many lasting friendships have been forged here.
The warmth and friendliness of the place is breathtaking. We have members from all over the globe, from all walks of life, and from all backgrounds. What unites us is our shared passion for excellence in writing.
At the social heart of the Colony is an area we call Café Grande: a literary salon in the grand European manner. Here you'll find high-minded banter rubbing shoulders with low-down wit: just what a literary salon ought to be. Express an opinion, share a yarn, catch up with industry gossip or just spend time recharging your gray matter.
But Litopia is far more than a mere talking shop. It's a sweat shop, too: this is where your skills will be honed and your talent nurtured and burnished. Our unique "Houses" system can take your manuscript from first draft and see it through to its fullest potential.
And that's not all. There have never been more publishing options for authors than there are these days; making sense of them all is almost a full-time job.
Fortunately, you're not alone - expert support and guidance is available inside the Colony, from writers who speak from their own experience.
"Joining Litopia is like signing up for a post-graduate creative writing degree at a top-notch university" a member wrote recently, "without the fees, the pompous professors and the dawn lectures".
Read what our other members say, and then decide if Litopia is for you.
Better yet, try Litopia for yourself - for free!
We're delighted to announce that in addition to all your other listening options, you can now hear Radio Litopia live on iTunes! Litopia's shows have been available as podcasts to download for some time. Now, however, our entire...
Wordsmith
“Money please. I'd like something to drink and a llama,” announced my daughter.
Slightly startled, I...
Litopians Get Published
Hone your talent & make the connections, right here in The Colony. Litopians get publishing deals - click here for the latest.
This week we talk about trademark-eating zombies, how signing a check may cost you your copyright, why you might already be a public figure, which famous writer’s heirs’ reign of terror is over, a publisher...
Annauthor
To say that 2011 was a milestone year in my life is putting it mildly.
- I achieved my first publishing contracts
- Etopia Press and Gypsy Shadow both published books of mine
- I achieved my first ebook sales on both sides of the Atlantic
- I found out how great it is to work with a professional editor - and to have fantastic cover art
These were the good things.
But there was another darker, and more dangerous, side to 2011.
It was the year, I became ill with work related stress....
Donna
I know I don’t usually talk about criminal procedure here in The Write Report. My forte is civil law, not criminal. But a recent Supreme Court case put the kibosh on a very common plot device, so I wanted to alert you to it. You see it all the time on TV. The cops put a tracking device under the...
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Carolyn Rosewood
This is the second story of six from reader prompts. I'm only posting part of it here because it's a bit racy. Your FREE READ contest story #2 comes from the prompt by Romance...
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Crowe
It’s an iconic image, this shot of a juvenile bittern. Its throat is extended, as if it’s about to loose its distinctive booming call. The bird is clearly visible but the effective camouflage of its striped plumage as it stands among reeds is apparent too. Emma Turner photographed the bittern at Hickling Broad, Norfolk, in 1911. She waded out into the reed bed where this bittern was about to fledge, removed it, kept it overnight... |
Agring
They can generate an arch. They can anchor a character. They can, once we see them, wipe out a once compelling story into the bowls the hackneyed hole that is unoriginality. I am of course speaking of clichés, and how our love and hate bond with them have us tearing our hair out.
I’ve become a cynic about clichés in just the last few years. And...
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Elen C
I thought I would chime in in what appears to have become an unofficial and impromptu publicity week on the blog. We've had great posts already from... |
oscuridad
Hard, isn't it? I know it can be. I've been thinking about it. There are projects I have that I shelved years ago that I still have faith in. They have flaws, Often very deep ones. One is a 120K...
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Carolyn Rosewood
And this one comes from a prompt by our very own Adonis Devereux. Don't worry - this story is PG-13....
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J Katrin
Not physically, no--I would disappear if that happened. But I've recently dropped a lot of mental baggage by the wayside. Most of it's about other people, and nothing that needs to be... |
RL Sutton
I may be wrong, but today, reading a closing report on the Digital Book World expo written by Sarah Weinman for Publisher's Lunch gave me a decidedly positive feeling about the biz. For... |
Carolyn Rosewood
Last year I did a blog post about apostrophe abuse. It bears repeating but today I have a different rant. Your versus You’... |
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Wordsmith
January guilt has struck again. However, I’m beginning to feel that rather than giving up chocolate, cheese, alcohol and losing weight (that's losing weight; not giving up losing...
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WoleryWol
With the advent of Hughes House for poetry critiquing on the colony, some of you might be interested in visiting my blog to see my three posts this week about a multimedia collaboration between...
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keystrokes
Only entrepreneurs can save the UK from going over the cliff. The following is a letter I had published in the Financial Times almost three years ago. While the numbers may have changed a little,...
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Donna
Writers love to show lawyers using twins to trick witnesses into false identifications. The plotline will have the witness asked, “Can you show me the man who attacked you?” The witness points to... |
SeaSerpent
There's something about old discarded farm equipment that fascinates me. It's lying around all over the place - in thickets beside the fields, by old gateways, or in a clump of nettles by the side...
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RL Sutton
The NY Times magazine of this past Sunday, posed an intriguing question in its table of contents. The article, written by Garth Hallberg, was titled,...
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Bragging Writes
Celebrating the latest successes of our talented Litopians...
