Authors Electric

As a technology journalist by trade, it is not only fascinating to see how new technologies emerge but also to watch established technologies stumble and lose their way – not least when the corporate ship finally hits the long observed rocks, it is always the fault of someone else and not the doomed vessel’s captain – or the corporate CEO. Or, to put it another way, we all love a bit of schadenfreude , which brings us nicely to the publishing world. Faced with the challenges of the ebook revolution, the decline of traditional bookstores and the rise of self-publishing, it is fascinating to watch the traditional publishing industry wriggle and squirm as it tries to justify its own practices and rubbish the alternatives, while frequently simultaneously shooting itself in the foot. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde in his lecture on Charles Dickens “One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell/Traditional Publishing without laughing.” For example, we are frequen...

It’s an old saying in writing circles,  kill your darlings . The instruction is not to commit filicide – thank goodness, because there are writers out there who would seem prepared to do  anything  for a bestseller – no, it means cut out the best bits of your writing.  Whenever you think your prose has hit the most wondrous heights – delete it. The reason that’s usually given for this is that if you love those words so much, then you have lost a sense of objectivity and that’s dangerous. If all that fabulous language isn’t moving the story along efficiently, then it’s got to go whether you love it or not. It can’t just sit there looking pretty. Unless you're Zadie Smith. The phrase is usually ascribed to  William Faulkner  and an earlier version -  murder your darlings  - originated from a lecture at Cambridge University given by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writin...

I had something else lined up for this month, written and ready to go, but some inner compulsion told me to post up this instead, and as I’ve based much of my writing life around inner compulsions, here goes. I’ll begin with a story - something that happened a few weeks ago. I was writing at my desk one day when a fight broke out outside my window [my office overlooks a public passageway].  I hoped it would go away, but it doubled in ferocity so I did what's known in my family as my mum-in-old-bat-mode thing and charged out brandishing my phone, threatening to call the police – only to find myself staring into the lens of a camera. One of my neighbours was making a film. Not in Hollywood or London, but in downtown Shrewsbury. It involved zombies, steampunk and intergalactic Nazis. I swapped a few friendly words with the actors, whose take I’d ruined, and retreated indoors.   A few nights ago, one of that film crew came knocking on my doo...

I just had this email exchange: 'Hi Roz, I'm reviewing for the New York Journal so get your publicist or publisher to send me your books. We don't take self-published.' Let's pause for some naughty words.  There. Frustrating though this is, cherished policies are not updated easily. But the age of enlightenment is being held back by bare-faced misrepresentation from traditional publishing. I've seen two examples in the publishing press in the past month - and it’s time to call them out.  Misrepresentation #1 The first was a post on the blog of top UK literaryagent Andrew Lownie , where editors list what they're looking for.  Every one of them says they want new work that twists a genre, unique concepts and voices, unforgettable books that defy expectations and break the mould. Read this and you'd think all the exciting authors get the recognition they deserve. That those who don't are not special enough. What’s really ...

Well, did he? This is my second Kindle Christmas. In 2011 I got so fed up waiting for Santa to bring me one that I gave myself a Christmas present, a lovely brand new Kindle which I quickly clothed in a swish red leather jacket. I was in book heaven, and my fingers just itched to load it up with books. Then this Christmas, the 2012 one that’s now just a memory, I decided I’d been such a good girl I deserved another reward, so I bought myself a brand new Kindle Fire. Now I get to see all the books in my library in their full colour covers. Not sure if it makes the reading experience any better, but it does make my Kindle library look awsome. So, I imagine that if Santa was good to you and brought you a Kindle, whether it was a keyboard one, or a Touch, or a Paper White, or the newest of the new, the Kindle Fire, you’ll be looking forward to filling it with books. Well, you’re in luck because Amazon has loads of reasonably priced and free books in their Kindle store, some of the...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an indie author in possession of a manuscript must be in want of an editor. Or several. Few writers question this. Not in public, anyway. Although you might be surprised to learn that privately, a great many experienced novelists disagree. I could name (but I won't. Your secrets are safe with me) a number of well reviewed, nay celebrated, novelists who - perhaps I should be whispering this - self - edit. Mostly. Although they are not afraid to ask for professional help as and when they need it. And will even pay for it if necessary. Beta testing anyone?  When the number of editors is legion, unpaid volunteers, they are sometimes called Beta Readers. The original Beta Testers were, and still are, groups of people invited to use a new software product or video game and report on irritating faults or bugs. So - conventional wisdom goes - you find yourself a group of readers, let them loose on your manuscript and follow their instructi...

WRITE ABOUT WHAT YOU ...   NOOOOO!!         Sherry Ashworth One of the most puzzling pieces of advice I was ever given came from an editor some years ago.   Think of the book you’d like to read, she said, and write that! Even now, as I type those words, my head spins.   What kind of books do I like to read?   Books that tell me something I didn’t know before.   Novels set in countries I’ve never been to.   Characters that have the type of personalities that I’ve never explored until now.   A set of circumstances I’ve never met, or a situation that has never occurred to me.   For example, one of my top reads recently was Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex , which ticks all of the above boxes. Also, the editor’s advice seemed to conflict with that age-old writer’s mantra – write about what you know.   If I know about something – if I know about something VERY well – I might be an authorit...