Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
A great site for writers |
| Disadvantages: |
none |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Stewart Ferris is a publisher and also a published writer in his own right. His book How to be a Writer is where I found out about his highly useful resource for writers, www.stewartferris.com
The introduction on the website says: "Welcome to StewartFerris.com. Stewart is the author of books about writing, publishing and self-publishing. With over 15 years experience as a publisher (during which time he has published 500 books and rejected 10,000 authors) he is uniquely placed to help writers achieve their dreams. This website is designed to supplement Stewart's writing books, with free resources for writers, other essential books and amazing products to help writers get published." And that is pretty much an accurate description of the website.
The website is very well designed and the navigation is easy to follow. There are sections where you can download free, sample sections of How to be a
writer, How to Get Published and more besides. There's also a free to download full play script, so that you can see how a play should ideally be laid out and there's a free to download character questionnaire and a free to download section of a variety of script writing formats which will prove very useful for those of us who are trying to break into writing for the stage, film or TV.
There are also other sections of the website that help aspiring or perspiring(!) writers find out about Information for writers, Writing screenplays, Writing comedy, Getting published, Writing classes, Writing groups, Writing magazines, Spelling and grammar and Computers.
Stewart also offers for sale some "cool gear" for writers. This is actually a link to a Café Press site for Stewart, where he sells a wide range of items that proclaim to the world that you are a writer, from mousemats to cuddly toys from hats to mugs. On a different section you can buy Stewart's other books and books by other authors that are of potential value to writers.
The website also carries details of some of the books that Stewart has written, and also some of the TV and radio programmes he has written and presented. Some of them are of interest to writers, but some of them are not. For example, Becoming a Writer Made Easy a 60 minute DVD, written and presented by Stewart is of interest to writers. Whilst How to Chat-up Babes a 45 minute DVD, is not. Oh… hang on, maybe that would be of interest to SOME writers!
In general this is a great website for writers. There are a couple of parts of the website that are under construction, but that is good, as it means it is a work in progress.
It is useful for people just taking their first steps as writers and for those who are more experienced, too.
