Blog

A Book Launch Review

1st December

I left the official launch of It’s Not About You: The Psychology of Leadership feeling exactly as I believe a publication event should make you feel: energised, affirmed, and quietly proud to have been part of something meaningf ...

The Ghost Of Book Launches Present

24th November

There’s a book launch taking place later this week… A proper one, too-nice venue, proper lighting, glasses being polished in anticipation, and, if we’re lucky, at least one slightly bewildered microphone. Somewhere in England, ...

The Reality Of The 'Christmas Book' Market

17th November

I touched on this subject in a recent blog, when I wrote about clients who ask me in October or November if they can still get their book out in time for Christmas, outlining why it isn’t a good idea, why rushing something as pe ...

Literary Agents-Yes Or No?

10th November

For decades, the phrase ‘I just need to find an agent’ has echoed through writing circles. It’s become almost a rite of passage, the golden ticket to publishing success. The idea that, until an agent plucks you from obscurity, ...

Publishing Your Book In Time For Christmas?

3rd November

At this time of year, many of the writers I work with—and I’m usually juggling between three and six book projects at various stages of progress—ask the same question: ‘Do you think we can publish in time for Christmas?’ It’s ...

The Myth Of The 'Perfect' Writer

27th October

Somewhere, out there in the collective imagination, there’s said to be a creature known as the perfect writer.They wake early, of course. They glide downstairs to their desk (spotless, naturally) and open their laptop to a symp ...

Why Shakespeare Would Have Written For EastEnders

20th October

Last week, I wrote about the idea that some grammar rules are made to be broken- and how the real artistry of language lies not in rigid obedience to convention, but in knowing when to bend the rules to make something sound righ ...

Why Captain Kirk Was Right...

13th October

There’s a special kind of British pride in obeying rules. We love queues, we love manners, we love saying sorry when someone stands on our foot… …and we simply live for correcting other people’s grammar-and usually with more z ...

The Things You Don't See

6th October

Most people think writing is about putting words on a page. Sit down. Type. Job done. But the truth? The finished piece is only the tip of the iceberg. What you don’t see is everything beneath the surface: the false starts, ...

Don't Mind The Gap

29th September

We don’t talk enough about white space. Not the white space of empty rooms or clean canvases. But the white space on the page. The gaps. The pauses. The room to breathe. You may have noticed this in these blogs. It’s becom ...