I finally did it; wrote a book. Better yet I got it published. After 44 years, 9 months and 28 days on this planet I achieved pretty much the only goal I can ever remember having had. If you believe the growing number of 5-star reviews on Amazon it’s pretty good too (although admittedly one of those is by my mother). But these days it’s not enough just to be a good writer with the drive to make your dream happen. As I tell my multimedia journalism students all the time, you have to be able to sell yourself too.  Read more »

So there’s been another spat reminiscent of the Stephen Leather equivalent at Harrogate last year. This time involving US self-pubber Barry Eisler.

Apparently agents and publishers don’t like being told they risk being redundant. Quite a few people have commented on this—at considerable length—so I’ll keep this brief. Read more »

So, RIP the Agency Model. You won’t be missed. What is simply staggering is that publishers thought they could rewrite the laws of capitalism by trying to set the price of a product that they were not actually selling. Read more »

Great to see Iain Dale sticking it to the retailers. The reality is though that small publishers have been railing against WH Smith (among others) for years and years. For a small publisher a large order can represent a cash flow nightmare - a risk they have to take, but to see those books come back, months later in unopened boxes is more than dispiriting, it is a real threat to the health of their business. Read more »