Prior to 2021, Scott Martin Productions was a small, traditional publisher. No up-front payment of any kind was requested, and the publisher took only a small proportion of royalties in recompense for the creation of cover images, editorial work, layout, making the book available online, etc etc. Fiction and non-fiction were both accepted for publication, based on the manuscript's merit.

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It soon became clear that there wasn't enough womanpower to deal with all the publishing requests received, especially from debut writers. There also wasn't enough income generated from the mainly fiction work. This was nothing to do with the quality of the work itself (which was excellent). It was entirely due to us being unable to carry out all the backroom tasks while also being required to be 'out there' promoting and marketing.

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Something else also became clear - that Lesley Atherton was comfortable in the backroom world, but nothing like as comfortable in the cut and thrust world of mingling and networking. That was when Scott Martin Productions became Words are Life.

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And with that change came the decision to concentrate almost entirely on the publication of non-fiction. However, if fiction writers would like to use our editorial services, they are very welcome. We do an excellent job.

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I also have to be totally honest about this. I'm not a salesperson and didn't have the skills to sell fiction. But non-fiction, I could give that a go.

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So, if you have a non-fiction manuscript you'd like us to look at, please email lesley@wordsarelife.co.uk.

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We will take things from there, OK?!

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