Write to be Published has been a huge success over the last few months – whipping budding authors into shape and setting them on the right path towards an agent and a publishing contract. In most cases you’ll send an agent or publisher a covering letter, three chapters and a synopsis and we’re delighted to be holding an event on Saturday 28th January where Nicola will pass on some valuable advice on how to make your submission as good as it possibly can be.

Nicola says: “The exciting thing about this event is that, because you will already have a copy of Write to be Published, I can now go into selected aspects in even greater detail. AND you can ask questions. So, we’ll look at actual covering letters and what makes them good or awful; I’ll show you how to create a great hook and the ins and outs of writing a synopsis. Plus, we’ll look at the faults that are most often revealed in the first three chapters of the book.

What do you need to bring? Paper, pen and all your neurons. Also, please try to read WTBP in advance. I’m not going to test you on it (!) but it means I can leap into the practical detail and not spend too long on the theory of getting published. Please note: I do want you to enjoy this event so there will be no stressful role-playing or activities. No one will have to read out work and I will not be crabbit at all, not even a bit. Also, there will be cake.”

Tickets are £15 which includes a copy of Write to Be Published and a free copy of Nicola’s forthcoming new e-book, out in January. And cake, as Nicola said.

It is the perfect Christmas present for the writer in your life and ticket and book come in a gift-wrapped package. We can even post it to the recipient on your behalf if you wish – call the bookshop on 0131 447 1917 for more information.

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro This highly acclaimed debut tells the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England. Dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter and retreating into the past, she finds herself reliving one particular hot summer in Nagasaki, when she and her friends struggled to rebuild their lives after the war. But then as she recalls her strange friendship with Sachiko – a wealthy woman reduced to vagrancy – the memories take on a disturbing cast.

Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2011-11-16
End Time: 21:00

Come along and tell us what you are reading, talk about books and meet other book loving children.There is no set text, simply turn up with what you have been reading and get introduced to new and old favourites.

Please call in to The Edinburgh Bookshop for more information and to register interest.

Come along and tell us what you are reading, talk about books and meet other book loving children.There is no set text, simply turn up with what you have been reading and get introduced to new and old favourites.

Please call in to The Edinburgh Bookshop for more information and to register interest.

Come along and tell us what you are reading, talk about books and meet other book loving children.There is no set text, simply turn up with what you have been reading and get introduced to new and old favourites.

Please call in to The Edinburgh Bookshop for more information and to register interest.

Bought a book from us (or from anywhere else for that matter) and loved it so much that you want to tell other people about it? Want to find your next book in a more serendipitious manner? Fancy spending an evening hanging out with other booklovers and listening to a couple of special guests talking about the books they’ve brought along and what they love to read?

Then you probably want to come along to The Edinburgh Bookshop’s bookswap which is being hosted by the lovely people at Henderson’s Cafe in the crypt at St John’s Church, Princes Street. Tickets are £5, which includes homemade nibbles and if you fancy a quick bite before the bookswap, show your ticket at the till and get 20% off your bill – told you the people at Henderson’s were lovely.

If you are not already on our mailing list, and would like to be added, please click to join. You will receive a weekly newsletter with up to date news and events from The Edinburgh Bookshop.

Invisible by Paul Auster
The coming-of-age story dazzlingly reinvented by one of America’s greatest novelists.

Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Invisible opens in New York City in the spring of 1967 when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and studen at Columbia University meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born, and his silent and seductive girlfriend Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life. Three different narrators tell the story, as it travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from New York to Paris and to a remote Caribbean island in a story of unbridled sexual hunger and a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us to the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, authorship and identity to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as one of America’s most spectacularly inventive writers.


Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2011-10-19
End Time: 21:00

Alastair Darling, MP for Edinburgh South West, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, was at the centre of this economic turmoil and Back From the Brink is a first-hand account of the crisis; a fascinating view of life inside the Downing Street bubble and of Gordon Brown’s premiership.

The Edinburgh Bookshop is delighted that Alastair will be joining us at Christ Church, Morningside (just opposite the bookshop) to talk about his new book. In conversation with Eleanor Updale (formerly producer of Newsnight and Radio 4’s World at One), Alastair will also answer questions from the audience and will be signing copies of his book afterwards.

Tickets are £7.50 with £5 redeemable against a copy of Back From the Brink.

If you are not already on our mailing list, and would like to be added, please click to join. You will receive a weekly newsletter with up to date news and events from The Edinburgh Bookshop.

The Ephrussis came from Odessa, and at one time were the largest grain exporters in the world; in the 1870s, Charles Ephrussi was part of a wealthy new generation settling in Paris. Charles’s passion was collecting; the netsuke, bought when Japanese objets were all the rage in the salons, were sent as a wedding present to his banker cousin in Vienna.

Later, three children – including a young Ignace – would play with the netsuke as history reverberated around them. The Anschluss and Second World War swept the Ephrussis to the brink of oblivion. Almost all that remained of their vast empire was the netsuke collection, dramatically saved by a loyal maid when their huge Viennese palace was occupied.

In this stunningly original memoir, Edmund de Waal travels the world to stand in the great buildings his forebears once inhabited. He traces the network of a remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century and tells the story of a unique collection.

If you’d like to join in, please get in touch.

Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2011-09-15
End Time: 21:00

Tickets are £10, including light snacks (a bar is also available) and with £5 discount against books bought at the event.

Tickets are now SOLD OUT.

You can be added to a waiting list, in case of returns: please contact us.

If you are not already on our mailing list, and would like to be added, please click to join. You will receive a weekly newsletter with up to date news and events from The Edinburgh Bookshop.