Chaplin Books

Chaplin Books Independent publishing house specialising in books on social history, popular culture and more.

Chaplin Books is an independent publishing house specialising in books on social history and film.

Wise writing advice from Elmore Leonard, himself a master of style. Having edited manuscripts containing  hundreds and h...
27/10/2025

Wise writing advice from Elmore Leonard, himself a master of style. Having edited manuscripts containing hundreds and hundreds of exclamation marks, we certainly agree with number 5.

It's always fun to work on a children's book and we've especially enjoyed producing 'Barney's Brave Adventure' by Teresa...
06/09/2025

It's always fun to work on a children's book and we've especially enjoyed producing 'Barney's Brave Adventure' by Teresa A Middlebrook, which is about a Bedlington Terrier. There are charming illustrations by Claire Yates.

We've edited dozens of autobiographies over the years, often ones that authors want to publish just for family and frien...
19/08/2025

We've edited dozens of autobiographies over the years, often ones that authors want to publish just for family and friends. But even the most devoted family member would struggle to get through some of them, so here's four ground-rules if you're thinking of writing your life-story:

1. Don't start with your birth: start with the most dramatic incident of your life, in order to grip the reader, then go back to when you were born.
2. Write it as if it were a novel and include dialogue (yes, you'll be making up most of the dialogue but it will have its basis in truth)
3. Don't keep stepping out of the time-period by telling readers things like: 'well, of course we didn't have mobile phones back then' - it spoils the reader's immersion in the period
4. Constantly ask yourself 'who cares?'. That's a tough one, because although YOU may still care about the fact that the coach that picked you up for your special holiday was an hour late, your reader sadly does not.

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75b West Street
Titchfield
PO144DG

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