Funding literary writers
26 May 2014In an article in the print edition of the Bookseller, Philip Gwyn Jones offered a clear-sighted analysis of the current model of funding literary writing. He is the former publisher of...
View ArticlePrint on demand plunges/Frankfurt Book Fair sets up self-publishing programme
1 September 2014Recent figures from Bowker in the US show a startling plunge in the number of titles printed print-on-demand by 46% year-on-year. Even more surprising perhaps is that this decline is...
View ArticleAuthors take the long view - publishers don't
2 February 2015Amazingly, it looks as if many authors are having a longer-term business outlook towards the publishing of their books than traditional publishers have managed to achieve. The latest...
View ArticleEbooks challenged by print books
11 May 2015The trends on ebooks show a backwards shift. Whilst in 2012 there was a rapid shift towards ebooks, this has now reversed itself in favour of print books. To some extent this seems to be...
View ArticleHas self-publishing changed publishing?
18 May 2015There's so much talk about the way self-publishing has changed publishing, but has it really? There's plenty of evidence that, for the authors trying to get themselves taken on by a...
View ArticleSelf-publishing or traditional publishing, which is best?
2 November 2015To self-publish or to go for a publisher? To publish your own book confidently as an indie author or to feel that only a publisher will be able to give you what you want? Read more
View ArticleDigital Census has plenty of surprises
9 November 2015The recent Digital Census 2015 revealed some surprises in the responses. In the book trade in general there's been much talk of a slowdown and reversal in the speed of ebook adoption,...
View ArticlePublishing your book
11 January 2016Getting published is a major preoccupation for many writers. How do you get an agent? How do you self-publish? And how do you decide which to do - and when to give up on agents and go...
View ArticleTo self-publish or be traditionally published?
28 March 2016The battle rages on about whether self-publishing or traditional publishing is best from the author's point of view and it all seems to come down to your own experience. If you're happily...
View ArticleA traditional publisher or self-publishing?
18 July 2016There was a time when the main concern of writers coming to the site was how to find a publisher. That's when series such as Inside Publishing were created in order to answer the demand for...
View ArticleThe changing role of the agent
15 August 2016A recent interview with Sheila Crowley in Bookbrunch threw an interesting light on changing patterns of agenting. She is a wonderfully enthusiastic agent at Curtis BrownSee Curtis Brown...
View ArticleNew Report shows massive increase in self-publishing
12 September 2016Bowker has published a huge report on self-publishing in the US and, although the detailed figures are rather dry, some of the conclusions are quite explosive in their picture of a...
View ArticleSelf-publishing and Amazon
19 September 2016The growth in self-published books reported last week comes from Amazon, whose DIY print business CreateSpace has become far and away the biggest self-publishing platform in the United...
View ArticleIs self-publishing replacing traditional publishing?
14 November 2016There's been a lot of discussion recently about how things have changed for writers over the last few years. In some ways it's a radically different picture, in others not so much so....
View ArticleSelf-publishing has changed the world for writers
21 November 2016So what can we say that's positive about the big changes in the situation for authors over the last few years? It's really a matter of the way writers now have the opportunity to get...
View ArticleReaders expect low ebook prices
28 November 2016The question of how to price ebooks is still of great concern to indie authors and to publishers alike, and recent research from Good e-Reader reveals that readers are prepared to pay...
View Article'The black hole of modern publishing practices'
20 February 2017Coming from the tech arena is a fairly hostile view of traditional publishing, which assumes that it is dead and will shortly be totally replaced by indie publishing. But is this really...
View ArticleEbook sales plummet
24 April 2017Some sensational figures have just been released showing the trend towards book sales in print form as opposed to ebook is continuing, as sales of consumer ebooks in the UK dropped by a...
View ArticleCan this be true?
31 July 2017Can this be true? A recent study quoted in Bookbrunch claims that 52% of UK adults believe they have a book in them. And, according to the old adage, that's where it should stay. Read more
View ArticleAmazon's sensational growth
30 July 2018Amazon's latest figures are astounding and cement its dominance of the book business, particularly self-publishing, as well as the huge inroads it is making in many other areas. Read more
View Article