Category Archives: Writing & Publishing

Engineering the myth of the writer

A good writer friend of mine is keen to point out that he does’t just sit around in a smoking jacket, dreaming away the mornings. But maybe he shouldn’t be so keen to demystify the writing life. The wonderful Brainpickings blog collates some of the odder behaviour of writers while they write, but notes thatContinue reading “Engineering the myth of the writer”

How to think about writing

Public intellectual Steven Pinker has a new book approaching, a psychological study of the process of writing called The Sense of Style. And it sounds fascinating: The key thing to realise, Pinker argues, is that writing is “cognitively unnatural”. For almost all human existence, nobody wrote anything; even after that, for millennia, only a tiny eliteContinue reading “How to think about writing”

This Is Your Brain on Writing

We live in a culture dominated by visual imagery. And this includes modern storytelling, which is dominated by film and television. We learn to tell stories visually, and this bias is so ingrained that it is actually reflected in our brain patterns, as this fascinating insight from a recent New York Times feature reveals : As theContinue reading “This Is Your Brain on Writing”

The choice is to self-publish or submit to an agent

Hugh Howey makes another insightful set of comments on the state of self -publishing. If there is a self-publishing revolution, Howey is it’s Napoleon. Will end up being made mad by the wall paper on a small mediterranean island? Let us hope not. Centrally, Howey tackles the false equivalence made when critics of self publishingContinue reading “The choice is to self-publish or submit to an agent”

To be or not to be…pro-Amazon?

David Gaughran is proving himself to be one of the most intelligent independent commentators in contemporary publishing. In a razor sharp post on media bias in the coverage of Amazon, he dissects the overwhelmingly anti-Amazon stance reflected in the media. It’ s a post worth reading in full, including a very valuable summary of whyContinue reading “To be or not to be…pro-Amazon?”

France bails out its publishing monopoly

And thinking a little more about anti-Amazon bias in reporting. Here Melville House comments on the new French “anti-Amazon” law. * The new law forbids the combination of free shipping and a 5% discount on online book sales, meaning that sites like Amazon cannot offer consumers free delivery as a way to undercut independent bookshops,Continue reading “France bails out its publishing monopoly”

‘Weird things customers say in bookshops’ by Jen Campbell

Originally posted on Reading The Universe:
Hello Everyone! It’s certainly been a while, and frankly there are no excuses. I do get the emails reminding me to post each week (which I set up myself!), but whenever I think ‘Oh thats what I need to do tonight’, it slips my mind again. Bad bad bad.…

“I thought that my mothers fans would be angry with me”

It’s really impossible for any of us who haven’t experienced it to really comprehend abuse from a parent. But that experience becomes even more complicated when the abuser is famous. The Guardian today reports the abuse allegations against Marion Zimmer Bradley by her daughter Moira Greyland. In doing so it spoke directly to Greyland. ThisContinue reading ““I thought that my mothers fans would be angry with me””

Why writing workshops fail, and why you need one

Imagine a group of mechanics, faces grimed with sweat and dirt, hands grazed by friction burns, overalls grubby with grease. Imagine them standing around the carcass of a motor car, stripped down to its component parts, sucking their teeth about why it won’t run. “It needs more oomph.” Says one. “Oomph?” Says another. “Yeah, oomph.Continue reading “Why writing workshops fail, and why you need one”

Before Their Books Were Famous, These Authors Worked the Following Odd Jobs

Originally posted on Coffee and Bookaholics:
It may seem as though all the famous writers have full-time writing jobs to which boost their chances of their novels selling and hitting the bookshelves. However, by looking through the authors etched in literary history, this is far from the case. Many of our iconic authors worked odd-end…

Writer’s Digest cuts links with Author Solutions

David Gaughran reports that Writers Digest has cuts its partnership with Authors Solutions. This is highly significant as a bellwether of publishing industry attitudes to the controversial vanity publishing operations run by Author Solutions. Author Solutions aggressively pursues strategic partnerships to lend credibility to its scammy practices. More importantly, these partners help keep the pipelineContinue reading “Writer’s Digest cuts links with Author Solutions”