Almost a year ago, I spoke at the Bangkok Literary Festival about Five Stop Story and the state of the publishing industry. Other speakers included Ken Hom, Stephen Leather and Christopher Moore and I felt a little out of my depth. How would people respond to me, an unpublished writer who had just set up a […]
Amazon Breakthrough Novel – Round 2
A few weeks ago I learnt that my novel, “27,” was through to the next round of the Amazon Breakthrough novel. 10,000 people entered and they chose 2,000 people to go through to the next round based on the pitches for their novels. I was one of the lucky 2,000. I know. 2,000 is a […]
Traditional or Self-Publishing?
For ages, I’ve been considering the question of whether to self-publish my novel “27” or to seek traditional representation. A couple of months ago, I couldn’t decide, and so as I often do in these situations, I decided that I would just pursue both options and see which one worked. Using a very useful spreadsheet […]
Neglected!
My blog has been somewhat neglected lately. It’s sat lonely and unloved in some shady corner of the ether, probably reading under a palm tree, while it waits for me to return and bless it with my ramblings. Lots has happened since my last post. Firstly I have decided to bite the bullet and self-publish…More […]
I Don’t Miss my Massive Walkman and Soon we Won’t Miss Books
Today I welcome Adam Charles, Director of iwritereadrate, to my blog to talk about the evolution of digital media and how he eventually managed to separate himself from his clunky Walkman and the stack of CDs in his living room and now only buys digital music. He believes the same process is inevitable for eBooks. […]
Five Stop Story iPhone and iPad App Launch
It’s been a busy month. The Five Stop Story iphone and ipad app is up and running and I’ve been in London putting flyers in bookshops, coffee shops and local libraries to encourage people to download it and discover new writers. We’ve crammed the app with features and you can browse the stories by author, […]
Amy Winehouse: The Curse of 27
It was sad to hear the news this weekend that Amy Winehouse had died. Partly because her life was cut short so young and partly because the path she was on almost made the outcome almost inevitable. It seemed the “curse of 27” had struck again and Amy Winehouse added her name to a long […]
The perils of starting a new novel
I’m about to start my third novel. Well, to be honest, I was about to start my third novel two months ago, but since then I’ve been busy down by editing my other novels, speaking at the literary festival and running Five Stop Story. I may have been procrastinating about starting. You see this time […]
Is a good book always memorable?
Since starting my time off work, I’ve relished the prospect of having more time to read. A couple of weeks ago, I studied my bookshelf, savouring the possibilities. The shelves were creaking under the weight of books I hadn’t read – books I bought from Amazon when I got distracted browsing the internet, gifts from […]
The books that nurture young minds….
What books influenced when you were young? Catcher in the Rye? Lord of the Flies? Intelligent and provocative fiction that made you think and question the very nature of society? I’m not ashamed to admit that for me it was nothing as thought-provoking as all that. It was Sweet Valley High. Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, […]