Given what happened to Leila Samarrairecently, she has now learnt the hard way that everything is not as it seems in the often murky periphery of the literary world. Happily Leila has now found someone trustworthy to translate her work Till Words Do Us Part, from her native Serbian into English.

The accompanying post below could not be more timely, or indeed relevant, not only for her but for all of you. As usual, Derek states the blindingly obvious. Like myself, he has been writing for years. If someone like Derek or I don’t drum some much needed common sense into your heads, who will? Remember that both of us have learnt the hard way. So pay attention!

Face it people, we’re in a cut-throat business. The writing game isn’t for the faint hearted, easily offended, or the blissfully naive among us. If you want to survive within…