What do readers want from frontmatter and endmatter?

April 10, 2013

A while ago I stumbled on this post from Eric Hellman exploring the question of what sort of front- and endmatter makes sense for ebooks, given that many of the pages that we see in the front of paper books have a purpose related to the printing process. Says Hellman: A good example is the […]

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New short story: The Lacemaker

April 9, 2013

Right at the end of last year, I wrote the first draft of a short story, The Lacemaker. It’s had a good ol’ polish and now it’s an ebook – in mobi, epub and pdf format. It’s now available for 99p from my ebookstore or, if you fancy getting it for free, you can join my mailing […]

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We need a female Dr Who

March 30, 2013

We need a female Dr Who. We also need women writing Dr Who. I was quite shocked to read in an excellent piece by Mathilda Gregory that the last episode of Dr Who written by a woman was in 2008. Said Gregory:  [S]eason seven of Doctor Who will feature no female scribes at all. Not in […]

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IfBookThen: Keep It Up!

March 21, 2013

Javier Celaya, Dosdoce How can we have publishers working with start-ups? How are publishers using new technologies. Asked 174 publishers and start-ups and asked what were the relationships with them?  Tech is changing the publishing world. First transformation has been content driven. Next stage is driven by devices, not devices, but services.  Moving to service […]

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IfBookThen: Book of One

March 21, 2013

Nille Svensson, Publit If the printed book is not going to die or be replaced by the ebook, what can we expect from the future? Assumptions: – Commerce moves towards an on-demand economy. People will have more influence on the things they consume. – Physical objects will increasingly become integrated parts of the digital world. […]

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IfBookThen: Letters by Numbers

March 21, 2013

Tove Leffler, The Swedish Bookseller Discoverability: how do we find books and how do we find readers? Over last ten years, number of books in bookstores has decreased, see less books and more other stuff like cards and toys. Death or the physical bookstore that has happened in UK and US is not yet here, […]

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IfBookThen: Stories at Heart

March 21, 2013

I’m at the IfBookThen conference in Stockholm today. Later on I’ll be talking about direct sales, but in the meantime I’m looking forward to some really interesting sessions which I will, of course, blog here in as much detail as I can capture. As usual, I’m live-blogging, so expect errors! Joanna Ellis, The Literary Platform […]

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Kickstarter reward options for Queen of the May

February 14, 2013

Progress is being made on the final draft of Queen of the May, so it’s time for me to start thinking about the Kickstarter project for the physical book. Just like with Argleton, I want to produce hand-bound copies of Queen of the May with a variety of options for cover material. And, as usual, […]

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The Lacemaker, Queen of the May, & Tag

January 20, 2013

Towards the end of last year I had an idea for a short story. I scribbled it down in my notebook – see my blog post on Forbes for how I’m trying to get the best out of my notebook – and promised myself that I’d get it finished by the end of the holidays. […]

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Ovarian Cyst Mark 2

January 20, 2013

After my ovarian cystectomy last August, everything seemed to be going very well indeed. I healed quite quickly, stopped aching all the time, started sleeping properly again, and soon felt incredibly energised. It made me realise how much waking several times in the night was wearing me out. I was supposed to get another ultrasound […]

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Starting as I mean to go on

January 2, 2013

Over the Christmas break, I had a couple of quiet days where I could pretend I was a full-time author. Having plotted out the new end of The Queen of the May early in December, and having promised myself that I would finish the second draft before the end of 2012, I spent 31st December […]

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In memoriam: Michael O’Connor Clarke

October 14, 2012

“Brace yerself,” said Michael in a 2004 email, as he sent me a photo of himself and his three children, Charlie, Lily & Ruairi. “A tad more up to date,” he said of this snap. “Gone, the floppy fringe of my Martin Fry period. Back to the wash-it-and-leave-it version.” Back then, Michael was in PR and I was […]

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Argleton book reading and a discussion on sock puppeting

September 23, 2012

Brixton Book Jam I’m  going to be reading an extract from Argleton for the Brixton Book Jam on Monday 1 October, if you want to come along and see my first ever book reading! Zelda Rhiando, who helps organise it, describes it as “a free quarterly literary event, where famous and not so famous authors […]

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New cover for Argleton

September 23, 2012

I’m delighted to finally reveal the new cover for Argleton, designed by Thomas James. I asked Tom to put together something for me that was stylistically simple, informed by the effortlessness of classic Penguin designs, and which could form the basis of the covers for my next few novellas. The design also had to work […]

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An open letter to the British media

September 12, 2012

Dear The British Media, especially Freeview broadcasters, You may have noticed that something extraordinary happened this summer, something wonderful. The Great British Public were treated to the most amazing sporting spectacular – Sportsmas, as one friend of mine puts it. We saw, in the Olympics but especially in the Paralympics, years and years of hard work, […]

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