Category Archives: Writing Journal

Why Ello’s $450,000 in funding is a really, really good thing

Ello is the hip young social network that this week seemed to cross the threshold, from one of many, to the single most serious contender for Next Big Thing in the social online world. It has picked up an unknown but significant number of new users, many of them power user migrating from Twitter. And,Continue reading “Why Ello’s $450,000 in funding is a really, really good thing”

Ello – why is everyone moving to this half built social network?

Trust me, this post really is about Ello, it just needs a little context. The world appears to be complicated. But really it isn’t. oh sure there are 7 billion people crowded on to this relatively tiny lump of orbital debris we call a planet, divided into some 196 states and some 2,896 major cities, operatingContinue reading “Ello – why is everyone moving to this half built social network?”

3 things books must do to survive in an attention economy

Much of my first decade as a writer was spent helping people read and write. I ran workshops and development projects for libraries, a part of my professional life I wrote about not so long ago. A big part of my work then was caught up with the question, asked in various different ways, “whyContinue reading “3 things books must do to survive in an attention economy”

FUCK YOU AMAZON! Fuck you for being right! Again!

Sigh. Writers and publishers are again up in arms about Amazon, this time because of a letter sent directly to thousands of self-published writers by the book behemoth, and repeated on a new Readers United website. Full text of the email below for non-KDP authors who are curious. So here we are again. Amazon isContinue reading “FUCK YOU AMAZON! Fuck you for being right! Again!”

Authors! Book pirates aren’t your best friends, they’re your only friends.

There are 7 billion people on planet Earth. 7,000,000,000. That’s a vast audience that in the digital age is only really limited by language and literacy barriers. But let’s be really tight, and say that the operational potential upper audience for your book is 1 billion people. 1,000,000,000. “Your enemy is not piracy, but obscurity.”Continue reading “Authors! Book pirates aren’t your best friends, they’re your only friends.”

What is Hachette fighting for?

The Amazon books team deliver some interesting, but non-specific, data on ebook prices. Bottom line – lower prices deliver higher revenue and profits because e-book prices are “highly elastic”. So indie authors putting their work on for £2.99 against the standard publisher price of £8.99 are doing exactly the right thing. It’s worth noting hereContinue reading “What is Hachette fighting for?”

Look at the state of British Sci-Fi

Strange Horizons publishes a large an interesting report on “The State of British Sf and Fantasy” which with the input of six authors does a fairly good job of reflecting many current trends. I take issue with Juliet McKenna’s opening essay The Market and Trade. Not because it is incorrect – it is well researchedContinue reading “Look at the state of British Sci-Fi”

Why do you hate indie authors?

Hugh Howey once again shares another interesting perspective on the indie publishing revolution, in this case a refutation of the frequent criticisms of the Author Earnings reports methodology, from the unnamed Data Guy behind those reports. I do apologize to those whom this information proves troubling, but it is a fair view of what isContinue reading “Why do you hate indie authors?”

I tell you, ergodic is the future of fiction

The novel’s great strength is also its great weakness. A novel is (with a few rare exceptions) the work of one author. That can give it a depth, coherence and unity that is rare in our modern world. But it is also a challenge to our modern way of being. We’re creatures obsessed with socialContinue reading “I tell you, ergodic is the future of fiction”