10 Downing Street meeting
I may have mentioned my involvement, in quite a small way, with the National Cyber Awards and the annual ceremony and presentation of those awards which this year will take place in London on Monday September 25. It’s quite a glitzy affair, where the great and the good of the world of cyber protection and […]
Only a fool doesn’t write for money
Obviously I’m not the first person to make a statement like the title of this blog post, but I recall an article from a decade ago that emphasised very clearly just how little money most authors of ebooks actually make as a result of all their hard work. The article referred to a report by […]
Abandoned books and other stuff
Ten years ago I remember seeing a list of arguably the most unpopular novels of the time, on the basis that they were the titles most commonly abandoned in hotel rooms, the data being compiled by the budget chain Travelodge. The publishing world was somewhat different in 2012 to the present day and I thought […]
Should we burn books, or just ban them?
As a nation, America is far more religious than the United Kingdom, and its residents appear to be far more sensitive to what they read, or can or should read, in books. There’s an annual programme called Banned Books Week (bannedbooksweek.org), that is intended to call attention to threats to the First Amendment of the […]
The real Jack the Ripper?
As I said in my last blog post, almost exactly ten years ago Simon & Schuster published my thriller The Ripper Secret. Their marketing was quite successful, with the novel being available in all the major supermarket chains and the high street retailers. As well as the usual kinds of promotions, the publishing house also […]
The Ripper revisited
This week is something of an anniversary, at least for me. Almost exactly 10 years ago, on 11 October 2012, Simon & Schuster published The Ripper Secret, the second of my two books for that publishing house. So the good news is that in this post I’m not going to be banging on about the […]
Nothing new under the sun
One of the perhaps unrecognised advantages of the advent of the ebook is the speed of reaction to real-world events that has been made possible by its creation. You will all recall the sudden and initially inexplicable disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which vanished on 8 March 2014. To research the few established facts […]
The writing is on the (electronic) wall
A decade ago, the world of publishing was very different to what we see today, for several reasons. Amazon had taken the world by storm, and not just in publishing though that is the most obvious focus. Figures released by Bowker Market Research in 2012 showed that the online retailer was then responsible for the […]
Publishing problems and piracy
I know we keep on returning to the same subject, but for that I make no apology. Anybody involved in any way in the world of publishing will be aware that the industry is in a state of flux, with nobody quite knowing what’s going to happen next. By far the most important factor driving […]
Specialist writing software
As you might reasonably expect, on the occasions when I meet a fellow author we almost inevitably end up talking about writing. That shouldn’t come as very much of a surprise because authors, like people involved in any trade, usually take a keen interest in how other people approach their work. One author I met […]