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Here’s a fun wee diversion: a writing analyser that takes your text and tells you which famous writer you write like. I got Douglas Adams, although it seems that if you put in any kind of tech journalism whatsoever it tells you you write like Cory Doctorow. [more]
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Simon Royle’s IndieView is a real friend to indie authors, and I’m happy to help with a tribute he’s organising in memory of Linda “LC” Evans. For one day only on 24th January, anybody who buys one of Evans’ ebooks can get another one free from a big selection of ebooks, including mine. The deal’s… [more]
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I found Coffin Dodgers on a couple of pirate sites yesterday, and it really annoyed me. Assuming it’s actually there – there’s no guarantee that just because a free download site says it’s got a book that it actually has the book – it means I’ve fallen victim to the wrong kind of copying. There… [more]
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I like Michael Marshall, and his blog post about the other side of the piracy debate is worth your time. Not all anti-piracy sentiment comes from swivel-eyed loons or Disney. The government is supposed to be on the side of laws, isn’t it? Copyright is a law too. If they don’t defend that law in… [more]
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An interesting post on the appallingly named tech site Pandodaily: Confessions of a publisher, written by an unnamed “industry insider”. Amazon could probably afford to lose $20 million/year in their publishing arm just to put the other publishers out of business. I think that’s what they’re trying to do–throw money around in an industry that… [more]
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As of right now, Coffin Dodgers is number one in Amazon UK’s technothrillers chart. That’s quite good, isn’t it? Sales are currently sitting at 2,323. That’s quite good too. This is making up for a spectacularly crappy day. [more]
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Today’s the big protest against SOPA, the latest bit of dangerous anti-internet legislation. I’ve written a wee column suggesting that it won’t change much in the long term, because lobbyists are fighting a long war: Copyright industries want the net regulated, and they’re willing to spend huge sums to make it happen: SOPA is a… [more]
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Some interesting figures in this Guardian piece about new novelists: Kate Pool of the Society of Authors confirmed that new writers could expect an average advance of £10,000 around 20 years ago: “Now they’re lucky to get between £1,000 and £3,000.” Research by the society shows that 75% of writers earn less than £20,000 a… [more]
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I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while: The Guardian, the newspaper I’ve bought every day for more than twenty years, appears to be disappearing before my very eyes. I know why sections are being folded into the main paper, why pagination’s being cut and why some of the best columns are being killed… [more]
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The most excellent John Walker has written a wee bit of advice for aspiring games journalists, and I reckon much of it is relevant to all kinds of freelancing.  This job is a not a privilege. It’s something you got by being good at what you do – you earned it. Anyone who tells you… [more]
Read me in books
My debut memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s Literary Salon book of the week, and it was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards book of the year in the Discover category.
My latest book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and is out now.
I’m also a contributor to the excellent anthology Fierce Salvage, which is also out now.
