Literature and writing

Writing is the basis of a huge variety of careers: novelists, scriptwriters, poets, reporters, columnists, reviewers, editors, playwrights, librarians, advertising copywriters, publicists, teachers, academics, literary agents, book festival programmers, the list goes on and on.

Many of the people doing these jobs will have degrees in Literature, Publishing, Journalism or Creative Writing, but there are as many routes into literature jobs as there are people doing them. While a degree in a related subject will always be helpful, it’s not essential.

Much more important is a real love of reading – no one ever became a great writer without being a great reader first. The scope for careers in literature is so wide, that there isn’t space even to begin to cover all the ground here, but the following links will lead you to tips, interviews and articles from a huge range of successful novelists, journalists, film critics, sitcom writers, and many others, on all aspects of writing both as a craft and as a career.