Today’s blog is a guest post over at BookMachine, inspired by Matt Watkinson’s view on how to design a book as a reader-centric experience. https://bookmachine.org/2017/08/16/editor-reader-experience-champion/
Continue readingA real accolade for this week’s podcast episode: my Mum, who’s listened to pretty much all of them, reckons this one is the best yet. Matt Watkinson began his career as a designer, and his background is in customer and user experience. Which explains why his books are so beautifully designed for the reader. ‘If […]
Continue readingThere’s lots of reasons to write a book, but one I hear again and again is ‘to get speaking gigs’. There’s no doubt that a book makes you more interesting to anyone who needs to book a speaker: it’s proof that you’ve developed your thinking and have something to say. Even the fact that you’re […]
Continue readingThis was me yesterday morning, as the sun rose… ….and this was me yesterday evening, as the sun set. I know you’re probably struggling to spot the difference, so I’ll help you out: in the top picture I’ve not yet FINISHED MY BOOK!!!!!!!! (With thanks to Bec Evans for the pictures, and for inviting me […]
Continue readingWhen you complete a book proposal form for a publisher, one of the key fields you must complete is ‘extent’: how long will your book be, in thousands of words? Publishers need this information so they can create a p&l, a profit and loss spreadsheet for your book, to see if they can make a […]
Continue readingI think we’ve always known that reading is a qualitatively different (by which I mean better) way of getting your entertainment than watching TV, say, but now it’s official. Kingston University student Rose Turner has conducted research that proves that regular readers of novels are kinder with better social skills than those who get their […]
Continue readingThis is gorgeous: the Guardian is running a series of recipes drawn from literature by Kate Young. Friday’s was Wonton Soup from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, previous recipes have included the Easter fruitcake from one of my favourite books of all time, 84, Charing Cross Road, and Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight from Charlie and the […]
Continue readingI’ve posted before about the Diagram Prize, one of the grandest traditions of the publishing industry, in which a bottle of claret is awarded with great ceremony by the Bookseller’s Horace Dent to the person who nominates the title that is popularly chosen as the year’s oddest. This year’s winner has now been announced: The Commuter […]
Continue readingBig companies have boards of directors, which provide governance, a wide range of expertise and access to useful networks. When they work well, board meetings are focused, challenging, supportive and collaborative. (That’s a big ask, and they don’t always work well.) Creating a board of directors for your book is a bit over the top, […]
Continue readingAfter I’d posted yesterday’s blog on the IKEA effect and how you can use it to your advantage when writing your book, it occurred to me that there’s another interesting was of leveraging the phenomenon in publishing: personalization, where the customer co-creates the book to some extent. Two great examples of this are LostMyName, now Wonderbly, […]
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