EIBF - Friday 19th August

Once your book is finished, the hard work begins. Attracting the attention of an agent or publisher for your work (for all the right reasons) is challenging. Whether it's fiction or non-fiction, for adults or children, you need to present your book in its best light. Nicola Morgan, award-winning multi-published author of Write to be Published, helps you see what turns publishers on – and off. Sold Out

A Chinese proverb says 'if one man walks through the wilderness we call him lost. Yet if ten men walk the same way, we call their route a journey.' Sam Meekings' The Book of Crows, and Sara Sheridan's Secret of the Sands, tell stories of people whose journeys vary hugely – from a grieving Chinese monk summoned to the Emperor's Palace in 814AD, to a true-life slave girl bought in the Arabian Peninsula in the 1830s. But are these historical tales linked by their enduring relevance to issues that burn brightly today?

He's been a journalist, government officer and a political spin doctor, but we're pretty sure Quintin Jardine is now content in his role as wildly successful crime writer. With The Loner, he has side-stepped his Bob Skinner and Oz Blackstone series to pen a stand-alone novel about Xavier Aislado, a half-Spanish, half-Scot gentle giant whose first assignment as a journalist results in a violent death. Now immersed in tragedy, loss and betrayal, he goes halfway round the world in search of a truth that may ultimately destroy him.

This prestigious literary prize is the oldest in Britain and past recipients have included D H Lawrence, Graham Greene and Iris Murdoch as well as last year's winner A S Byatt. This year's shortlist includes David Mitchell and Julie Orringer in the Fiction category as well as Alasdair Gray and Hilary Spurling for the Biography category. Each winner is awarded a cheque for £10,000 and this year the prizes will be presented by Sally Magnusson.

Nobody predicted the scale of the landslide victory for Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party in May. But this astonishing turn of events also had the unexpected effect of catapulting Scotland's constitutional future right back to the top of the political agenda. In this debate, senior figures from the political and academic communities in Scotland engage with the arguments for and against independence, and discuss the merits – or otherwise – of a so-called 'independence lite' option. Chaired by the editor of the Times in Scotland, Magnus Linklater. Sold Out.

There is much about Alexander McCall Smith's characterisations that is reminiscent of Charles Dickens. This is particularly obvious in his Corduroy Mansions novels, which are serialised on the internet. With the third novel in the series, Conspiracy of Friends, having recently ended its newspaper serialisation, Smith discusses the unlikely fate of some of his funniest characters and explains why he loves letting a story unfold in front of his readers' eyes.

Edinburgh-based journalist Nick Thorpe was the classic stressed-out workaholic hack, until he decided to take a year out and search for a new work-life balance. The result is Urban Worrier, the humorous and often moving story of a journey from clowning and naturism to wing-walking on a biplane. He joins us to reveal whether his adventures unlocked the secret of balance and fulfilment. Chaired by Sheena McDonald.