On Hackery (inspired by Delany’s About Writing)
Samuel R. Delany’s book About Writing will not get out of my brain. I keep thinking about his concept of the usefulness, no, the essentialness of doubt (good! I got plenty of that), about how slavishly...
View ArticleMy hero
Scott just hit his tenth anniversary as a freelance writer. Congratulations, Mr Hardest-Working-Writer-I-Know. He shares some cool statistics. Here’s two: in that time he’s published well over one...
View ArticleGetting paid, or, don’t quit your day job
I promised some friends that I wouldn’t blog about the business of writing for a while and I haven’t in ages so, um, you two? Avert your eyes. Recently some dear friends of mine sold books for the...
View ArticleFourth Anniversary
Today is the fourth anniversary of my becoming a full-time freelance writer. That’s right, on 1 April 2003 I stopped getting a regular salary and set about trying to earn dosh with the words I write....
View ArticleWaiting
Someone just asked me what the worst thing about being a writer is. Took me less than a second to answer: Waiting. I’m always waiting for my editors, or agents, or publicists, or someone to get back to...
View ArticleMoney writing advice
Someone wrote to Victoria Strauss over at Writers Beware asking for advice on pursuing writing as a career. Namely will it make me money? Strauss was honest about what a hit-and-miss career writing is...
View ArticleTo freelance or not to freelance . . .
A friend of mine is thinking of quitting their day job. They’ve had a novel published, which is doing very well indeed thank you very much. Their publisher is solidly behind them and eager for more...
View ArticleBook fair horror
Carole Cadwalladr writes very entertainingly about the Frankfurt book fair. Especially about all the gossip. One of my favourite bits is her glancing mention of inflated print runs.1 Apparently this...
View ArticleA drop in the ocean
Several people have been bewildered by my enjoyment of this article about the Frankfurt Book Fair. Don’t you get depressed by how it’s not about the authors? they ask. How it’s about books as product?...
View ArticleNot that anyone asked . . .
. . . but I am hundred per cent in favour of the WGA strike. Doris Egan, who’s a writer on House,1 eloquently explains why. And, yes, a lot of it is about dosh. Why the hell shouldn’t writers be...
View ArticleMoney advice for writers
John Scalzi has some excellent advice for writers who are trying to make money out of said occupation. Go forth, read, take notes. While I strongly agree with most of his advice, I have issues with two...
View ArticleLet’s talk about luck
Since I finally managed to sell a book, I’ve had a fair few letters asking me how I managed it and what advice can I give a struggling unpublished writer. I also read lots of other writers’s and...
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