There comes a moment when the excitements of buzzing literary gossip become wearisome, and the yearning for golden critical opinions, mind-boggling sales, perhaps the odd little prize, begins to fade. You are a writer. Your basic needs are simple. You want to be left alone to write stories, and then be paid for them by… Continue reading On some useful attributes for a writer
Read moreWriting isn’t life, you know. When you lay down your pen, perhaps having received a rejection note so brutal that not even you can construe it as actually rather positive in its way, the world keeps on turning. In many ways, the life of an ex-, dormant or would-be writer is every bit as varied… Continue reading On writers who prefer to rest
Read moreIt’s hip, it’s profitable, and it reduces words and writing to minor functions in the publishing process. Who could be surprised that ghostwritten books are the must-have adornment for all major lists this year? As publishing increasingly learns its values from the PR industry, any minor embarrassment connected to publishing books that are not written,… Continue reading On the boom in ghost-writing
Read moreIt was a professional event, the horror of which is still with me months after it happened. It could have been a nightmare – the sense of helpless humiliation, the feeling of talking ever louder without being heard, the sensation being trapped in events over which one has no control, the acrid smell of panic… Continue reading On humiliation in a classroom
Read moreOld-fashioned types – the sort of author you and I would have nothing to do with – have taken to complaining that publishers describe their darling, bleeding little volumes as ‘units’. It is as if, these sad individuals will say, their work was nothing more than a can of baked beans. We are almost always… Continue reading On understanding book trade slang
Read moreThere came a moment, as a recent project went through its editorial process, when I realised that I had returned to a place of paranoia and fear, where disaster waits around every corner and everyone is a potential danger. I was back in Lawyerland. My first visit to this place had been 20 or so… Continue reading On being read for libel
Read moreIt is almost always a mistake to agree to speak to a group of young students at one of the publishing courses which have recently become all the rage. The would-be publishers will already have been addressed by senior executives, editors, rights managers, agents and sales supremos. A visit from an author, their tutor has… Continue reading On the different species of publishing wildlife
Read moreIf you write an opinion column on a regular basis for a national newspaper, you will soon, in this great age of email interaction, discover the issues which most excite your readers. In the Independent, where I am a columnist, hunting used to be a great inbox-buster; smoking still is. Make a joke about poets –… Continue reading On writing a newspaper column
Read moreAlthough few authors know it at the time, a moment of truth occurs quite early in their careers. It is when a questionnaire arrives from the publisher requesting, among other things, a brief biography. The point will be made, often with some force, that this little “About the Author” paragraph is an intrinsic part of… Continue reading On playing the publicity game
Read moreAmerica, where writers are bigger, braver and tougher than we are, has just discovered how dependant it is on those unsung heroes tapping out words in the background. During the Great Writers Strike of 2008, the entertainment business, indeed the celebrity machine itself, has creaked wheezily to a halt. Smooth-talking chat show hosts, deprived of… Continue reading On writing for money
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