There’s a lot of bad stuff on t’internet, not going to deny it. But this story in Wired is a cheering reminder that it’s not all trolling and spamming. Google News Lab collaborated with Visual Cinnamon to analyse translation patterns: ‘Overall, six of the top 10 languages have a remarkably positive focus, with most frequently […]
Continue readingI’ve just been putting together next Monday’s podcast episode, which is one very close to my heart: when I first had the idea for this podcast, Daniel Priestly was high on my wishlist because he illustrates so beautifully the marriage of book and business in his bestsellers such as Key Person of Influence and Oversubscribed. […]
Continue readingI’ve just learned a fascinating fact about Hunter S. Thompson while doing some research for my own book: according to his obituary in the New York Times (following his suicide in 2005), in his early journalistic days: ‘He used to type out pages from “The Great Gatsby,” just to get the feeling, he said, of […]
Continue readingAn interesting article in the Bookseller’s Futurebook about the ebook, which 10 years ago seemed to represent the future of publishing and has so spectacularly failed to deliver – at least for traditional publishers. Simon Rowberry makes some excellent points about why this has happened, and why the picture is rather more complicated than you […]
Continue readingMostly, my business is online. I talk to people via email, Facebook or Skype. I’m more connected, to more people, more of the time, than I’ve probably ever been in my life, but it’s not that often that I’m physically sharing a space with them. Today was one of those days, and I need to […]
Continue readingIn this week’s Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast episode I interview Orna Ross, head of ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. But Orna didn’t start off as an indie author. She went the traditional route, posting off her proposal to publisher after publisher. Finally, on the 55th submission, she got lucky. I asked her how […]
Continue readingI’m not quite sure how I missed this (this would never have happened in the old days, pre-internet and pre-children, when Saturday morning meant a leisurely breakfast and all the many sections of the Guardian spread across the table amongst the coffee and the toast), but Rober McCrum has been running a series in the […]
Continue readingA couple of weeks ago I interviewed Practical Inspiration author Louise Wiles for the Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast. Louise was one of the winners of the first 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge back in June 2016, but she revealed in the interview that she nearly didn’t send it in at all, even though she’d […]
Continue readingI’ve just been talking to one of my authors, who never fails to energise and delight me when we speak – she is so full of passion and energy for her subject, and it’s been wonderful to watch her step up and out over the last year or so as the book’s taken shape. It’s […]
Continue readingOn my way back from London yesterday I caught the Reading train from Platform 1 at Paddington Station and, risking the wrath of the guard waiting to close the doors, I snapped a picture of its famous statue of Paddington Bear, raising his brass nose hopefully to seek someone who will take him home. It’s […]
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