Category Archives: Writing & Publishing

The Mac app store has a dedicated section of Apps for Writers. It contains Scrivener, and some “distraction free” text editors, and a whole bunch of to-do list apps, pomodoro timers and other productivity aids. I sometimes find myself scrolling through these apps, which I’ve learned is a good indication that my writing day isContinue reading “The 0 best productivity apps for writers”

I’ve been covering the indie publishing revolution both here and for The Guardian since Amazon announced 70% royalties for authors selling ebooks through their Kindle store. It was clear that move was going to create a huge opportunity for indie published authors, and in the six years since that’s certainly been the case. “I amContinue reading “The indie author’s secret weapon – market intelligence”

Either your book is its own best marketing, or it’s doomed for the bonfire. This gets rephrased in polite publishing circles as the importance of “word of mouth” marketing. IE, either people are interested / excited / enthralled by your book and hence tell others who in turn become interested / excited / enthralled by yourContinue reading “The book marketing secret that doesn’t get said enough”

If your actions are so repugnant to the world, so self evidently wrong, and so lacking in basic human empathy, that people who speak out against you happen to gain the respect of others, then you’re the one with a problem. read this, you’ll like it

As white male geeks are keen to point out, they’re often as much the victim of “jockish” patriarchal mainstream culture as anybody else. Last year a much publicised post by Scott Aaronson, who as a professor at MIT represents a paragon of geek achievement, articulated the inner conflicts many geek men feel in their relationshipsContinue reading “If you’re a male geek who acts out macho sexist fantasies with video games, you’ve become a mainstream jock”

Game of Thrones meets Jack Reacher – The Vathiriel Blade is in the top rank of indie published fantasy novels. The collapse of a regime can be a brutal affair. It’s something we’ve seen too many times in the the last decade, as dictatorships across the Middle East have fallen…and sometimes risen again. It’s imageryContinue reading “A stranger comes to town in The Vathiriel Blade”

Snobby attitudes to sci-fi and fantasy can mean missing out on great stories amid popular book series – a publishing genre that is sure to grow. Make of it what you will, but it’s a plain fact of publishing life that more people will read the latest Star Wars franchise novel than all the booksContinue reading “The shameful joys of the franchise novel … and why the force is with them”

There’s no such thing as an average human. The assumption that there is has distorted work and education for a century. Now science is changing that. Follow the author of this post on Twitter @damiengwalter A little over a century ago, the world made a decision. Businesses had a massive demand for educated employees thatContinue reading “Why your expensive education was a waste of money”

Buddhism is called the “middle way” because it winds between two other paths. On one hand is the material path, which we follow in the belief that collecting enough possessions, wealth and influential friends will keep us safe from suffering. When that fails we turn to the spiritual path, the belief that by behaving inContinue reading “Buddhism’s intricate relationship to modern psychology”