As I discovered when I went pro, handing in a completed book is just the start; as well as the background activities you’ll never see except by their results (marketing, cover design, typesetting etc), there are three main tasks that require further author input. The first is the structural edit. This is where the editor […]
In keeping with the recent theme (in my garret anyway) of short(ish) stories rather than novels, I thought I’d mention the excellent variation on a POD that is AnthologyBuilder. The site is great for writers, as it lets them keep previously published short stories ‘alive’, and great for readers, as they can create bespoke anthologies […]
Aside from the obvious benefits like fame and fortune (yeah, right) why do writers write? My instinctive answer would be ‘to tell stories’, but that’s just me, and only applies to fiction (notwithstanding the accuracy of reporting in certain newspapers). There is another pleasure, an actual high, that I think all writers get. It was […]
… links. You can find some excellent pictures from the recent SciFi London event at the Royal Observatory here, courtesy of the multi-talented Simon Bradshaw. Just to set the record straight: in that second one of us panellists having a pre-panel mill I’m not actually telling Simon to get down off the balcony, I am […]
So far this month I’ve chalked up 5,401 words, 4,833 of them on a new story. It’s not much compared to some of the NaNoWriMo hares out there (keep up the good work, chaps) but it’s a massive improvement on my recent (in)ability to produce first drafts. More importantly, I’m actually enjoying writing ‘The Ships […]
If anyone out there is doing National Novel Writing Month, then I’d just like to say: good luck, have fun and why are you reading this blog when you could be writing? I’m not doing it this year, partly because of other commitments – a long weekend away that will take out at least two […]
I get to see most of the online reviews of my books, courtesy of Google Alerts, which is a useful free service, though with titles like Principles of Angels and Consorts of Heaven I don’t half get some odd pages coming up (the religious fundamentalism I expected, but there’s also a surprising amount of baseball […]
As novelling season approaches, I thought I’d share the ‘miracle’ of how I do it. I offer this little list not as a recommended strategy so much as a confession, or possibly a warning. 1. I’ve had this BRILLIANT idea … 2. … And now all these other ideas are flocking to it, along with […]
Firstly, a correction: that Jeter bloke I was on about last time? That would be K W Jeter not (the possibly entirely fictional outside my own muddled head) J W Jeter. Apologies for any confusion caused there. Also, the next section I read in Noir did have the ‘F’ word in it. Apparently it is […]
(Before I get going, let me just say that the word in question will appear in this post as f*ck. This isn’t because I find said word offensive – as you’ll know if you’ve read much of my stuff – but because others might; plus, there’s a distinct risk of the unexpurgated form prompting unwelcome […]