Authors Electric

A friend of mine who is an author has recently signed up for an MA in creative writing.  It's going to cost her a lot of money and won't necessarily make her a better writer, but she's convinced that it is the magic ingredient she needs to be successful.  A lot of people seem to think so, and universities are currently making a lot of money out of their creative ambitions.  But, as someone who has taught creative writing in universities and tutored students at MA and Ph.D level, I'm not convinced that it will. In fact, it might be counter productive. Here are some questions you need to ask and a run-down of the pros and cons. 1. To begin with, there's the Cost  - a part time course at a small university starts at around £3,000 a year. Most charge much more. That's quite an investment in your future, considering that the average author earns less than £10,000 a year.  £5 - 6 thousand would be quite usual. UEA has turned out some bestselling authors su...

If you're thinking of going to the London Book Fair next year I'd give the pokey little Author's Lounge stand a wide berth (Lounge... LOUNGE?!! with those toadstool benches and hard-sell salesmen?). Instead pause for rest, refreshment and author interviews at the splendid English PEN Literary Cafe and plan your day around the numerous seminars that take place in the conference rooms scattered throughout the building.  It was good to see more author-centric seminars this year, like this one, "Has Anyone Spoken To The Author?" chaired by Unbound's John Mitchinson. All sorts of interesting new possibilities in this "era of broken models" were discussed.  Bundling - get an ebook free when you buy a hardback. Building on the all-important "word of mouth" phenomenon by having credit buttons in ebooks so that readers can send recommended titles to friends. Readers, basically, becoming part of the sales force. The amount of control that self...