authors

Authors, Great and Smallminded

authors, bigotry, Joanne Harris, victory 17th November 2022 Musings, writing

Encouraging news: Society of Authors chair Joanne Harris has seen off a campaign by a handful of hasbeens, bigots and whinyarses to have her compelled to stand down. Despite a lifetime of writing, I’ve never actually been a member of … Continued

Should you self-publish?

authors, money, publishers, self-publishing, writing 23rd August 2022 Other Things, Uncategorised, writing

(The first in an occasional series for new or new-ish authors) If you’ve written, or are writing, your first book, you’re probably at least considering whether to self-publish. There are a lot of good reasons to go right ahead and … Continued

Threats, disagreement and attention-seeking

authors, community, disagreement, free speech, threats 16th August 2022 Musings

Almost everyone who uses social media regularly has had threats from some or other wingnut. I got some little 4Chan tosspot send an ART after me a few years ago which, due to circumstances, was more comedy gold than a … Continued

Author self-own of the week

authors, self-own, self-promotion, vanity publishing 17th May 2022 New Books, Other Things

I suppose it was about time we had another author self-own. It has, after all, been six years since one last annoyed me to the extent of blogging about it. She, however, was more tiresome silly bitch than grifter, unlike … Continued

Book thieves and book poseurs

authors, book piracy, bookselling, posing, robbery 1st April 2022 Rantings

It’s not particularly new for social media, or sectors of it, to be enabling book thieves. Just like music thieves, and film thieves, the internet is full of the idea that stealing art, particularly digital art, is somehow sticking it … Continued

Shenanigans signing – win tickets for yourself and a friend

author event, authors, bookselling, signed books, writing 16th February 2022 Events

During the early, volatile stages of the spring of 2020, some of us were hoping Shenanigans would go ahead even as all the other dominoes were falling: unfortunately it became unfeasible to hold it, and the same was true of … Continued

Review Rage – Right and Wrong

authors, bad behaviour, books, criticism, reviews 27th April 2021 Musings, Other Things

Reviews can be the bane of any author’s life. Some people would advise never reading them because too many bad ones will make you miserable – and perhaps too many enthusiastic ones will make you bigheaded. Certainly one author recently … Continued

In an alternate timeline…

#eroticon, authors, bloggers, conferences, social, writers 13th March 2021 Events, Musings

… It would probably have been Eroticon this weekend. In an alternate timeline, this previous post would have been rather more on the mark, perhaps. Lastyear’s Eroticon was, understandably, cancelled a few days before it was due to happen, … Continued

Fiction and predictions

authors, erotica, prediction, speculative fiction, stories 13th January 2021 Other Things 1 Comments

Poor old Stephen King must be getting rather tired of denying he’s writing predictions rather than simply good stories. First he had everyone insisting that Trump is the hideous Greg Stillson (from The Dead Zone) made flesh, then everyone lost … Continued