My last post on Amazon for a little while, I promise. As previously noted Amazon have cornered the digital marketplace for ebooks, which has the potential to mean the end of booksellers and publishers as we know them. Once Amazon have destroyed the industry infrastructure, there is little doubt they will bring down the 70%Continue reading “A modest proposal to combat Amazon (oh and piracy)”
Category Archives: Writing Journal
Why Author Earnings makes sense
Hugh Howey and his team have published the latest Author Earnings update. And the story, as with all previous updates, is that self-published authors (working primarily through the Amazon Kindle marketplace) are doing very nicely thank you. In fact, much better than debut authors published by the Big 5. The data and methodology used toContinue reading “Why Author Earnings makes sense”
Amazon is not a bookseller, and why that matters for writers
Technology behemoth Amazon is in the firing line of publishers, authors and the combined might of the literary world again today. Like the ultimate alpha predator Godzilla on a rampage across Tokyo, Amazon crushes a little bit more of the publishing industry just by moving. And it’s about as worried by the protests of writers asContinue reading “Amazon is not a bookseller, and why that matters for writers”
Only a creator culture can save us
We’re trying to rebuild a failed consumer culture. We need to make a new creator culture instead. Published in Culture – A Reader for Writers, editor John Mauk, Oxford University Press. I arrived in Leicester in the late ‘90s as a student, a year after losing my mother to cancer. Having little support, I workedContinue reading “Only a creator culture can save us”
We DO need diverse books.
Watching the #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag scrolling up the screen on Twitter. Hundreds and thousands of people a minute adding their voice to the conversation on diversity in writing. We need diverse books, writers, characters and more. I needed to see this today. The genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy that I enjoy reading and write inContinue reading “We DO need diverse books.”
Superhero teams. Proof positive that women are at most 25% of the human population
For most of my life I’ve been led to believe by statistics that women represented some 50% of the human population. Scientific people have suggested that the ratio of male to female births is around 106 boys to 100 girls, but scientific people also argue about this ratio. External factors like gender-control and gendercide furtherContinue reading “Superhero teams. Proof positive that women are at most 25% of the human population”
A Nebula award shortlist that makes me feel good about SF
The Nebula award shortlists have just been announced by the Science Fiction Writers of America. And they are excellent. Focusing on Best Novel… We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood) The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review) Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen) Hild,Continue reading “A Nebula award shortlist that makes me feel good about SF”
Welcome to viral book selling
UPDATE: sadly Baboon Fart Story reached #9 on the narrower >General bestseller list, selling a mere 21 copies before being pulled by amazon. But still an interesting example of a book catching some viral publicity. Today a book called Baboon Fart Story climbed to #9 on the Amazon bestseller list. The book featured the wordContinue reading “Welcome to viral book selling”
You are not going to improve the world
Human beings are largely engaged in wasting enormous amounts of psychic energy in attempting to do things that are quite impossible. All sensible people therefore begin in life with two fundamental suppositions. You are not going to improve the world. And you are not going to improve your self. You are just what you are.Continue reading “You are not going to improve the world”
The Principle of Digital Abundance – thoughts on author earnings
Hugh Howey has caused a brand new stir in the writing and publishing world with the Author Earnings report. If you don’t know, Howey is one of the most significant breakout “indie authors” of recent years. Now he’s disrupting the industry in a much more direct way with Author Earnings. Both Amazon and the BigContinue reading “The Principle of Digital Abundance – thoughts on author earnings”
Publishers have missed the boat on digital genre fiction
Publishers are making moves to exploit the success of genres like romance and sci-fi in digital book sales onplatforms like the Amazon Kindle. “Certain categories [of eBooks] have a much larger digital adoption than others,” Dobson said. “The genres were among the first where readers took to the digital format and the ratio of readersContinue reading “Publishers have missed the boat on digital genre fiction”
Everything that’s wrong with the Men’s Rights movement summarised
I had been ignoring the Men’s Rights movement as one of the many pointless things that finds a space on the internet, until I wrote about the male bias in geek culture recently. That column for The Guardian produced a torrent of bile from hundreds of male commenters. Many identified as Men’s Rights activists. TheContinue reading “Everything that’s wrong with the Men’s Rights movement summarised”
Damien Walter 