Creative writing degrees have sprung up like weeds in the literary landscape. At upwards of £9,000 a year, it’s easy to see their appeal to universities: they are nice little earners. For students they offer access to publishing, as well as the chance to concentrate on writing and to benefit
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Why do badly written books become bestsellers? It’s a question that banged against my consciousness as I tried to read 50 Shades of Grey, E L James’s unintentionally hilarious erotic fanfic tribute to Twilight. An ebook, it has become a self-publishing phenomenon, earning the British author an eye-watering advance from
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I am going to have a rant. Sorry, but after this weekend, I need one. What is the point of offering choice when those choices are ignored? That is the question I was left asking after the local education authority refused my child – among others – a place at
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Cue Entertainment Magazine Faced with flatlining sales, the end of the money-spinning Twilight and Harry Potter series and severe competition from rival media, it has been hard for book publishers to feel optimistic recently. But 2012 began with a glimpse of sunlight through the clouds. Hardback books have been thrown
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ALCS News Autumn 2011 An independent publisher tweeted me the other day. His company had developed a free iPhone app, that had done well, but hadn’t produced a single sale of the book it was created to promote. His tweet summed up the problem that faces bewildered authors and publishers after
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A friend of mine is a therapist and says you should always charge clients. If you don’t, she tells me, they take your work for granted and the sessions are a waste of time. I wish somebody would tell this to the myriad events organisers who think professional writers gain
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What do you get if you get a Cabinet of millionaires? A concerted attack on women. No wonder Chris Huhne’s ex appears to be so bitter. I realised this when Nick Clegg was wheeled out earlier in the week to defend government proposals to abolish Child Benefit for families where
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Was it a full moon on Friday? I ask, because the trolls were out, and four friends blocked people on Twitter following abusive tweets. All are in the business – high profile authors and literary agents. I am telling you because their night of the trolls highlights one of the
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As well as being a fine poet and novelist, Sarah Salway could teach some of her contemporaries about how to use social media to spread the word about their work. An avid user of Twitter and Facebook, as well as a blogger, Sarah admits social media has revolutionised her approach to publicising
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‘Rejection.’ Nothing cushions the impact of those three syllables. Last week I wrote about how to submit to agents, this week I want to look at the ‘R’ word. How do we turn something so negative – our precious child returned unwanted – into a positive that helps us get
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