For 2012

December 31, 2011

Last year, I laid out my goals for the year. If was a relatively modest list which I had no doubt I’d be able to plough through in no time at all. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. *pauses for breath* Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. At least I managed to [...]

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The role of belief in ebook pricing and what to do about it

December 23, 2011

So yes, I know it’s nearly Christmas Eve and I know I should be turning my brain off, but this blog post about ebook pricing by Declan Burke came across my radar today on Twitter (and yes I know I should have turned Twitter off too) and I couldn’t not reply. Declan writes about his [...]

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Five real-world sci-tech scenarios that would never fly in Hollywood

December 22, 2011

Being a scientist by training and a geek by choice, there are a number of Hollywood tropes about scientists and geeks that do rather get on my wick. So here, without further ado, are some real world situations that would never* make it into a Hollywood script. 1. The loner geniusYou know that loner genius [...]

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The best Christmas present you can give a new author: An Amazon review

December 19, 2011

Last month there was a great blog post by Anne Allen about how important Amazon reviews are to new authors: [...] Amazon reviews, which were only mildly significant three years ago, now have a make-or-break impact on an author’s sales. When you’re buying an ebook, there’s no helpful bookstore clerk to tell you what might [...]

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Argleton cover redesign brief

December 14, 2011

The cover for my novelette, Argleton, was designed rather laboriously by me during my Kickstarter project to produce a paperback, paper-covered hard back and silk-covered hardback. It is, I’m afraid, a bit pants; the experience certainly revealed to me the limits of my design ability! In this blog post I’m publishing my brief for the [...]

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Kindle sales stats: a paucity of information

December 6, 2011

As a newbie to self-publishing, I find myself transported back a decade to the time when I was so obsessed with my blog traffic stats that I made a spreadsheet and noted down what events caused spikes in traffic. After a while I lost interest in the numbers, but now I’m back to tracking thems, [...]

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Argleton: Now available in (a few) libraries

December 5, 2011

A couple of weeks ago I offered a few copies of Argleton to any libraries who wanted to claim them. I ended up with 15 libraries showing interest, so decided to simply say yes to all of them and send out 15 copies. So if you want to borrow a copy of Argleton you will [...]

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O2 suck: Problem now resolved.

November 30, 2011

UPDATE 5 DEC 11: Having been rather robust with my criticism it’s only fair now to be as forthright about the follow up from O2. The web team at O2 got in touch after my rather angry rant last Wednesday and asked me to email them with details, which I did on Thursday. I was [...]

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Lessons from Kickstarter Part 1: Don’t go off half-cocked

November 30, 2011

The last 18 months has taught me a lot about Kickstarter and putting together my own self-publishing project. This is the first of a series of blog posts in which I’ll go through what I’ve learnt, partly in case it’s of interest to anyone else but also to codify it in my own head so [...]

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Anne McCaffrey

November 23, 2011

It was with great sadness that I read today of Anne McCaffrey’s death. I remember the very moment that I discovered Anne McCaffrey’s work. I was standing in my aunt and uncle’s dining room after some family gathering, almost on the way out of the door, when my uncle picked a book off his shelf [...]

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Five copies of Argleton available for libraries

November 23, 2011

ALL COPIES HAVE NOW BEEN CLAIMED! Thank you all for your interest. Fourteen libraries have requested copies and although I was only going to give out five books, I’ve just checked and I’ve enough for all fifteen libraries (including DigitalMaverick’s). All copies will be sent out in the next few days. Back when I was [...]

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Win a copy of Argleton

November 4, 2011

I have decided to give away one paperback copy of Argleton to a random person on my Writing & Bookbinding mailing list, just as soon as it hits 100 subscribers! Yay! Note that this doesn’t automatically go to the 100th person, because that wouldn’t be fair to everyone who signed up in the beginning. Rather, once [...]

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Thinking about an author’s needs

October 17, 2011

The whole discussion about what the British Fantasy Society could morph into after its recent crisis set me to thinking about what, as an emerging author, I need and where I get those needs met (if I do at all). I’m a bit of an edge case, because right now I’m more interested in getting [...]

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What to do with the British Fantasy Society?

October 11, 2011

I don’t know much about the British Fantasy Society, other than what I’ve gleaned from their website or at FantasyCon last year. In many ways, I’m in a poor position to pass any comment whatsoever on what they should or shouldn’t do after the recent controversy around the British Fantasy Awards. I’m not even in [...]

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Emily Cummins – my Ada Lovelace Day Heroine

October 7, 2011

Cross posted from Strange Attractor. Today is Ada Lovelace Day, the annual celebration of the achievements of women in science, tech, engineering and maths. As the Tweets flow thick and fast and the new website holds its ground, it’s time for me to think about my own contribution. This year I have chosen Emily Cummins [...]

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