(7867,1,'2011-03-21 16:10:37','2011-03-21 16:10:37','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself, particularly for those who do not happen to live in America...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America. In case you hadn\'t noticed America (population 307 million) is a very big country with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in America than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? If you lose your agent you lose...</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\r\n	<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-19','','','2011-03-21 16:10:37','2011-03-21 16:10:37','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-19/',0,'revision','',0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (7863,1,'2011-03-21 16:08:38','2011-03-21 16:08:38','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself, particularly for those who do not happen to live in America...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok.[/pullquote] Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course. First, this stuff is taking off big time in America. In case you hadn\'t noticed America (population 307 million) is a very big country with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in America than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? If you lose your agent you lose...</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\r\n	<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-15','','','2011-03-21 16:08:38','2011-03-21 16:08:38','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-15/',0,'revision','',0),(7865,1,'2011-03-21 16:09:38','2011-03-21 16:09:38','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself, particularly for those who do not happen to live in America...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok.[/pullquote] Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course. First, this stuff is taking off big time in America. In case you hadn\'t noticed America (population 307 million) is a very big country with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in America than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? If you lose your agent you lose...</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\r\n	<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-17','','','2011-03-21 16:09:38','2011-03-21 16:09:38','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-17/',0,'revision','',0),(7864,1,'2011-03-21 16:08:45','2011-03-21 16:08:45','<p>Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.</p>\r\n<p>There\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself, particularly for those who do not happen to live in America...</p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>[pullquote]A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok.[/pullquote] Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course. First, this stuff is taking off big time in America. In case you hadn\'t noticed America (population 307 million) is a very big country with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in America than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n<li>If you do the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? If you lose your agent you lose...</li>\r\n<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\r\n<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\r\n<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along.</li>\r\n<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\r\n<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p>Don\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.</p>\r\n<p>Until then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.</p>\r\n','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-16','','','2011-03-21 16:08:45','2011-03-21 16:08:45','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-16/',0,'revision','',0),(7866,1,'2011-03-21 16:09:45','2011-03-21 16:09:45','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself, particularly for those who do not happen to live in America...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok.[/pullquote] Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course. First, this stuff is taking off big time in America. In case you hadn\'t noticed America (population 307 million) is a very big country with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in America than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? If you lose your agent you lose...</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\r\n	<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-18','','','2011-03-21 16:09:45','2011-03-21 16:09:45','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-18/',0,'revision','',0),(7868,1,'2011-03-21 16:10:45','2011-03-21 16:10:45','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself, particularly for those who do not happen to live in America...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America. In case you hadn\'t noticed America (population 307 million) is a very big country with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in America than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? If you lose your agent you lose...</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\r\n	<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-20','','','2011-03-21 16:10:45','2011-03-21 16:10:45','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-20/',0,'revision','',0),(7870,1,'2011-03-21 16:13:17','2011-03-21 16:13:17','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\n\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\n<ul>\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears...</li>\n	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\n	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\n	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when yo.</li>\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\n	<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\n</ul>\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\n\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-22','','','2011-03-21 16:13:17','2011-03-21 16:13:17','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-22/',0,'revision','',0),(7871,1,'2011-03-21 16:13:25','2011-03-21 16:13:25','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears...</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\r\n	<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-23','','','2011-03-21 16:13:25','2011-03-21 16:13:25','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-23/',0,'revision','',0),(7872,1,'2011-03-21 16:13:36','2011-03-21 16:13:36','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears...</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>\r\n	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street.</li>\r\n	<li>You won\'t be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-24','','','2011-03-21 16:13:36','2011-03-21 16:13:36','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-24/',0,'revision','',0),(7873,1,'2011-03-21 16:15:59','2011-03-21 16:15:59','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed booked means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-25','','','2011-03-21 16:15:59','2011-03-21 16:15:59','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-25/',0,'revision','',0),(7874,1,'2011-03-21 16:16:09','2011-03-21 16:16:09','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed booked means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'re be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-26','','','2011-03-21 16:16:09','2011-03-21 16:16:09','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-26/',0,'revision','',0),(7875,1,'2011-03-21 16:17:49','2011-03-21 16:17:49','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\n\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\n<ul>\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as man, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home some so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\n</ul>\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\n\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-27','','','2011-03-21 16:17:49','2011-03-21 16:17:49','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-27/',0,'revision','',0),(7876,1,'2011-03-21 16:18:45','2011-03-21 16:18:45','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies, each and every week.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. If you get away with $5,000 a title to do it properly I think you\'d be doing well, which makes break even a lot tougher.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\r\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-28','','','2011-03-21 16:18:45','2011-03-21 16:18:45','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-28/',0,'revision','',0),(7877,1,'2011-03-21 16:21:54','2011-03-21 16:21:54','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\n\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\n<ul>\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies, each and every week.</li>\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\n	<li>Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</li>\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write... No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</li>\n</ul>\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\n\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-29','','','2011-03-21 16:21:54','2011-03-21 16:21:54','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-29/',0,'revision','',0),(7878,1,'2011-03-21 16:22:42','2011-03-21 16:22:42','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies, each and every week.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n<ul></ul>\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-30','','','2011-03-21 16:22:42','2011-03-21 16:22:42','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-30/',0,'revision','',0),(7879,1,'2011-03-21 16:22:49','2011-03-21 16:22:49','<p>Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.</p>\r\n<p>There\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...</p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies, each and every week.</li>\r\n<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p>[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a lot more difficult. The answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. And here\'s my big worry...</p>\r\n<p><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...</p>\r\n<p>No criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.</p>\r\n<ul></ul>\r\n<p>Don\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.</p>\r\n<p>Until then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.</p>\r\n','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-31','','','2011-03-21 16:22:49','2011-03-21 16:22:49','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-31/',0,'revision','',0),(7880,1,'2011-03-21 16:24:34','2011-03-21 16:24:34','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies, each and every week.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. The answer? It\'s there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-32','','','2011-03-21 16:24:34','2011-03-21 16:24:34','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-32/',0,'revision','',0),(7881,1,'2011-03-21 16:25:34','2011-03-21 16:25:34','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies, each and every week.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. The answer? It\'s there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-33','','','2011-03-21 16:25:34','2011-03-21 16:25:34','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-33/',0,'revision','',0),(7882,1,'2011-03-21 16:27:44','2011-03-21 16:27:44','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies, each and every week.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. The answer? It\'s there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-34','','','2011-03-21 16:27:44','2011-03-21 16:27:44','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-34/',0,'revision','',0),(7884,1,'2011-03-21 16:30:27','2011-03-21 16:30:27','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\n\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\n<ul>\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies.</li>\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\n</ul>\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. The answer? It\'s there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\n\nBut...\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\n\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\n\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\n\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-36','','','2011-03-21 16:30:27','2011-03-21 16:30:27','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-36/',0,'revision','',0),(7883,1,'2011-03-21 16:29:19','2011-03-21 16:29:19','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies, each and every week.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. The answer? It\'s there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. In five or ten years... things may be different.\r\n\r\nUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-35','','','2011-03-21 16:29:19','2011-03-21 16:29:19','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-35/',0,'revision','',0),(7885,1,'2011-03-21 16:34:44','2011-03-21 16:34:44','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\n\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\n<ul>\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\n</ul>\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\n\nBut...\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\n\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\n\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. I worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. I\'d rather be working on a book frankly.\n\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settlsesUntil then, if you\'re outside the US and someone offers you a half a million dollar deal... I\'d bite their hand off.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-37','','','2011-03-21 16:34:44','2011-03-21 16:34:44','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-37/',0,'revision','',0),(7886,1,'2011-03-21 16:38:39','2011-03-21 16:38:39','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\n\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\n<ul>\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\n</ul>\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\n\nBut...\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\n\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\n\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. I worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. I\'d rather be working on a book frankly.\n\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-38','','','2011-03-21 16:38:39','2011-03-21 16:38:39','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-38/',0,'revision','',0),(7887,1,'2011-03-21 16:38:43','2011-03-21 16:38:43','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. I worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. I\'d rather be working on a book frankly.\r\n\r\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-39','','','2011-03-21 16:38:43','2011-03-21 16:38:43','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-39/',0,'revision','',0),(7888,1,'2011-03-21 16:39:50','2011-03-21 16:39:50','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand 99p copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. I worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. I\'d rather be working on a book frankly.\r\n\r\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-40','','','2011-03-21 16:39:50','2011-03-21 16:39:50','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-40/',0,'revision','',0),(7889,1,'2011-03-21 16:40:48','2011-03-21 16:40:48','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand 99p copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. I worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. I\'d rather be working on a book frankly.\r\n\r\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-41','','','2011-03-21 16:40:48','2011-03-21 16:40:48','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-41/',0,'revision','',0),(7890,1,'2011-03-21 16:40:55','2011-03-21 16:40:55','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand 99p copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" />Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets. I worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. I\'d rather be working on a book frankly.\r\n\r\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-42','','','2011-03-21 16:40:55','2011-03-21 16:40:55','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-42/',0,'revision','',0),(7891,1,'2011-03-21 16:43:55','2011-03-21 16:43:55','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\n\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\n<ul>\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand 99p copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\n</ul>\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\n\nBut...\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52.png\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" /></a>Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\n\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost. Worthy, literary, modest sale publishing seems to have little place hewre.\n\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets.\n\nI worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. A lot of this is just plain tedious. I\'d rather be working on a book.\n\nI wish Joe and Barry -- to bright and very entertaining people I\'ve met at many conventA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-43','','','2011-03-21 16:43:55','2011-03-21 16:43:55','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-43/',0,'revision','',0),(7892,1,'2011-03-21 16:44:52','2011-03-21 16:44:52','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand 99p copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52.png\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" /></a>Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost. Worthy, literary, modest sale publishing seems to have little place hewre.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets.\r\n\r\nI worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. A lot of this is just plain tedious. I\'d rather be working on a book.\r\n\r\nI wish Joe and Barry -- to bright and very entertaining people I\'ve met at many conventions -- well. It\'s working for Joe already and I don\'t doubt it will work for Barry too. That doesn\'t mean this model is going to be a success for lots of others who copy the same route to the market.\r\n\r\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-44','','','2011-03-21 16:44:52','2011-03-21 16:44:52','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-44/',0,'revision','',0),(7893,1,'2011-03-21 16:46:40','2011-03-21 16:46:40','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\n\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\n<ul>\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand 99p copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\n</ul>\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\n\nBut...\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52.png\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" /></a>Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\n\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost. Worthy, literary, modest sale publishing seems to have little place hewre.\n\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets.\n\nI worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. A lot of this is just plain tedious. I\'d rather be working on a book.\n\nI wish Joe and Barry -- two bright and very entertaining people I\'ve met at many conventions -- well. It\'s working for Joe already and I don\'t doubt it will work for Barry too. That doesn\'t mean this model is going to be a success for lots of others who copy the same route to the market.\n\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-autosave','','','2011-03-21 16:46:40','2011-03-21 16:46:40','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(7894,1,'2011-03-21 16:45:33','2011-03-21 16:45:33','Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of \'legacy publishing\' (the business I\'ve been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href=\"http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here\'s the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he\'s taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.\r\n\r\nThere\'s such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few little-spoken of issues to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course[/pullquote]First, this stuff is taking off big time in America which, in case you hadn\'t noticed, is a very big country (population 307 million) with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in the US than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>\r\n	<li>If you do go the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who\'s shifting the lion\'s share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? Let\'s count what you lose when your agent disappears... Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income). Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals. Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what\'s going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along, and a slap round the cheek when you have a <em>really</em> stupid idea. If you don\'t have an agent you lose nothing, I guess. But if you do, and it\'s a good agent, you lose money and opportunity.</li>\r\n	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it\'s hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won\'t deal with self-pubbed titles. You won\'t be in airports. You won\'t be in the High Street. To many people (hate them for this all you like but it\'s true) you won\'t be a <em>real </em>author at all.</li>\r\n	<li>To hell with the people who think you\'re not real. That you can deal with. But we\'re back to money again. No printed book means you won\'t be in libraries either. So European authors will lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. [/pullquote]Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It\'s one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you\'ll be receiving a mere thirty odd pence or cents per sale. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 of those 99p books each and every week to reach the same pay level as someone behind the counter of McDonalds. To reach the median weekly wage of £499 you will need to shift more than twice as many, more than 1,400 copies. That\'s a lot.</li>\r\n	<li>We\'re talking gross income here. Not net. Yes, I know people always say to themselves, \'But I\'m working for myself from home so I have no overheads.\' You do. A web site and broadband connection. Cover costs, editing and formatting advice. Barry Eisler estimates $600 for the cover and formatting for his short story, which sounds on the low side to me. For a full length novel I\'d expect to be paying at least three times that, and paying it up front before you\'ve sold a single copy. Then there\'s the question of...</li>\r\n	<li>[pullquote]You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department.[/pullquote]Promotion and marketing. You\'re on your own now, remember? No publicist. No marketing department. You have to generate interest in your work, through constant activity on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Or you have to find someone who will do this for you in return for a fee (and there seem to be more of them every day). Either way this will cost you time and/or money. With editing, cover design, promotion and marketing I doubt a properly-launched full-length ebook can come out for less than £3,000 and stand a chance of making it.  You need to sell ten thousand 99p copies just to cover that cost, before you start to earn anything for yourself.</li>\r\n	<li>Your promotional opportunities have now narrowed greatly. Festivals and other public events aren\'t going to be so interested in a self-published author. Nor will the media. If you\'re an established writer, well known and with a track record, it may be different. But for a newcomer... it\'s going to be tough to stand out among the crowd.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[pullquote]Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear is \'product\' and \'margins\'.[/pullquote]Is it impossible to make these economics work? No. But it\'s going to be a lot easier in the vast US market where a writer can be a formidable success simply by being popular in the state of California alone. In the UK it\'s going to be a struggle for all but a handful. One answer is there in the Konrath-Eisler exchange. You\'re going to have to write more. Short stories. Novellas. And dig out stuff from the back list (which will eventually run out, of course). One book a year used to be considered healthy and quite prolific output. Not any more. If you can get six new 99 cents or 99p titles into the market a year your chances of making a living improve a lot. But that\'s six things you\'ve got to write. There you go, folks. A big hand for the return of pulp fiction, which doesn\'t worry me in the slightest, in fact I welcome it.\r\n\r\nBut...\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52.png\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7858\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-21 at 15.57.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-21-at-15.57.52-300x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" /></a>Who\'s talking about books here? All we hear about all too often is \'product\' and \'margins\'. Very little about quality and breadth and innovation in terms of editorial. Here are the top ten free and paid-for titles on Kindle UK as I write...\r\n\r\nNo criticism of any of the books on the lists here. I\'m sure they all deserve to be there. But it\'s a pretty narrow range, don\'t you think? Mainly mainstream thrillers with the odd chicklit and horror title. No science fiction title, no fantasy, no general fiction. \'Legacy\' publishers often get criticised for putting out down market titles that sell in their millions but don\'t carry much literary weight. One reason they do this is to subsidise works of more \'merit\' that don\'t sell as well and may one day build a worthwhile career. The ebook market is as ruthless as it gets. If you sell you\'re there. If you\'re not, you\'re lost. Worthy, literary, modest sale publishing seems to have little place hewre.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I think ebooks are a good thing. I\'ve put up some of my backlist and one new short story on Kindle. I\'ll doubtless add a few things in future. If I lived in the US then perhaps I\'d be mulling the route others are taking over there. But I don\'t, and I fear a lot of people will get burned outside the US thinking the healthy sales available there can be easily replicated in smaller, more difficult markets.\r\n\r\nI worry, too, that people who ought to be writing are being diverted into other things, endless conversations on Twitter and Facebook, constant sorties into forums to try to establish some kind of foothold in this new world, attempts at marketing, often pursued in ignorance and in a ham-fisted fashion. A lot of this is just plain tedious. I\'d rather be working on a book.\r\n\r\nI wish Joe and Barry -- two bright and very entertaining people I\'ve met at many conventions -- well. It\'s working for Joe already and I don\'t doubt it will work for Barry too. That doesn\'t mean this model is going to be a success for lots of others who copy the same route to the market.\r\n\r\nA few people get rich by being early into a cycle of technical innovation. Most are better served by waiting until the dust settles then learning the lessons of those who went before. So if someone offers you a half a million dollar deal my advice is... bite their hand off. By the time you\'re out of it you could be looking to enter a very different publishing environment, and with some money still in the bank.','The self-publishing frenzy : a view from this side of the pond','','inherit','open','open','','7847-revision-45','','','2011-03-21 16:45:33','2011-03-21 16:45:33','',7847,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7847-revision-45/',0,'revision','',0),(7895,1,'2011-03-22 11:07:08','2011-03-22 11:07:08','Further to yesterday\'s post -- and <a href=\"http://howpublishingreallyworks.com/?p=4098\" target=\"_blank\">many thanks to Jane Smith for spotting this</a> -- I can only express huge admiration to John Scalzi for summarising the epub debate in a very simple and amusing fashion.\r\n\r\nGo here to view in full the story behind Scalzi\'s <a href=\"http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/20/the-electronic-publishing-bingo-card/\" target=\"_blank\">Electronic Publishing Bingo Card</a>...\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/20/the-electronic-publishing-bingo-card/\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7898\" title=\"5543339001_077853c2ce_z\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/5543339001_077853c2ce_z.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"557\" height=\"640\" /></a>','The Electronic Publishing Bingo Card','','publish','open','open','','the-electronic-publishing-bingo-card','','','2011-03-22 12:38:39','2011-03-22 12:38:39','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7895',0,'post','',0),(7896,1,'2011-03-22 11:07:03','2011-03-22 11:07:03','Further to yesterday\'s post -- and <a href=\"http://howpublishingreallyworks.com/?p=4098\" target=\"_blank\">many thanks to Jane Smith for spotting this</a> -- I can only express huge admiration to John Scalzi for summarising the epub debate in a very simple and amusing fashion.\n\nGo here to view Scalzi\'s <a href=\"http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/20/the-electronic-publishing-bingo-card/\" target=\"_blank\">Electronic Publishing Bingo Card</a>...','The Electronic Publishing Bingo Card','','inherit','open','open','','7895-revision','','','2011-03-22 11:07:03','2011-03-22 11:07:03','',7895,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7895-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7897,1,'2011-03-22 12:38:25','2011-03-22 12:38:25','Further to yesterday\'s post -- and <a href=\"http://howpublishingreallyworks.com/?p=4098\" target=\"_blank\">many thanks to Jane Smith for spotting this</a> -- I can only express huge admiration to John Scalzi for summarising the epub debate in a very simple and amusing fashion.\n\nGo here to view in full the story behind Scalzi\'s <a href=\"http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/20/the-electronic-publishing-bingo-card/\" target=\"_blank\">Electronic Publishing Bingo Card</a>...\n\n<a href=\"http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/20/the-electronic-publishing-bingo-card/\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7898\" title=\"5543339001_077853c2ce_z\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/5543339001_077853c2ce_z.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"557\" height=\"640\" /></a>','The Electronic Publishing Bingo Card','','inherit','open','open','','7895-autosave','','','2011-03-22 12:38:25','2011-03-22 12:38:25','',7895,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7895-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(7898,1,'2011-03-22 12:37:53','2011-03-22 12:37:53','','5543339001_077853c2ce_z','','inherit','open','open','','5543339001_077853c2ce_z','','','2011-03-22 12:37:53','2011-03-22 12:37:53','',7895,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/5543339001_077853c2ce_z.jpeg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(7899,1,'2011-03-22 11:07:08','2011-03-22 11:07:08','Further to yesterday\'s post -- and <a href=\"http://howpublishingreallyworks.com/?p=4098\" target=\"_blank\">many thanks to Jane Smith for spotting this</a> -- I can only express huge admiration to John Scalzi for summarising the epub debate in a very simple and amusing fashion.\r\n\r\nGo here to view Scalzi\'s <a href=\"http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/20/the-electronic-publishing-bingo-card/\" target=\"_blank\">Electronic Publishing Bingo Card</a>...','The Electronic Publishing Bingo Card','','inherit','open','open','','7895-revision-2','','','2011-03-22 11:07:08','2011-03-22 11:07:08','',7895,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7895-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7900,1,'2011-03-22 16:20:13','2011-03-22 16:20:13','One of the things you hear all the time about book theft is the refrain, \'But if I like the book I just pirated I will go out and buy one of your titles afterwards.\'\r\n\r\nYou get this anecdotally so often it gets deeply tedious. Being of a practical nature I have to ask myself, \'Why would someone do this? If you can steal book one in a series, and the rest are available on the torrents... what sudden shift in morality makes you want to start paying when you don\'t have to?\'\r\n\r\nBut that\'s anecdotal too. So let\'s look at an author who\'s set down some facts about how free -- in this case legally free -- ebooks translate into print sales.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/Blog/Entries/2011/3/18_So_youre_thinking_of_self-publishing_an_I.T._book.html\" target=\"_blank\"><!--more-->Keir Thomas documents it all very fully in this post. </a>He <a href=\"http://ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">wrote a pocket guide to Ubuntu</a> and placed the pdf version online for free <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440478295?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=beginningubun-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=1440478295\" target=\"_blank\">with a link to Amazon</a> where it\'s for sale for $12.99 as a print book. It looks like an excellent book I must say -- the reviews on Amazon are very flattering indeed, and Keir is clearly very experienced in this field.\r\n\r\nHe says...\r\n<blockquote>I’ve lost count how many people have downloaded the eBook but the last time I audited the figures, which was around six months after the book’s release, it’d seen around 500,000 downloads. I suspect that number has doubled since then. I encourage people to redistribute the PDF, including via BitTorrent, so auditing is practically impossible.</blockquote>\r\nSo how easily did those ebook giveaways turn into income through the print version?\r\n<blockquote>Since going on sale at the start of 2009, the book has made me $9,000. Bearing in mind the book took three months to produce, that’s a salary of $3,000 per month, although costs such as hosting have to be deducted, and I also spent quite a few days marketing the book once published.\r\n\r\nI’ve had worse salaries in my life, and I’m very grateful, but I know total royalties would probably have been higher had I gone through the traditional route of working with a mainstream publisher.\r\n\r\nI estimate I have to give away 446 copies of the eBook for every sale of the print edition.</blockquote>\r\nHis verdict...\r\n<blockquote>The book’s been a success in terms of providing a free educational resource for the Ubuntu community, and I’m very proud of this achievement. But as a commercial endeavour, I wouldn’t recommend anybody take a self-publishing route.\r\n\r\nIf you want to earn money from writing, write magazine journalism. If you really want to write a book, get signed to a publisher. If you want an adventure then try self-publishing. Just don’t expect to do much more than cover your costs, though.</blockquote>\r\nThis is, in today\'s terms, a slightly unusual venture in that involves self-published print (where the selling price is relatively high) not ebooks. Keir is <a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/kindle_books.html\" target=\"_blank\">now trying the 99 cent Kindle model</a> for some newer books, without the giveaway editions, which makes sense. I\'ll be interested to know what he thinks of that system after a while.','Do free ebooks sell real print books? Not really...','','publish','open','open','','do-free-ebooks-sell-real-print-books-not-really','','','2011-03-22 16:20:13','2011-03-22 16:20:13','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7900',0,'post','',0),(7901,1,'2011-03-22 16:14:05','2011-03-22 16:14:05','One of the things you hear all the time about book theft is the refrain, \'But if I like the book I just pirated I will go out and buy one of your titles afterwards.\'\n\nYou hear this anecdotally so often it gets deeply tedious. Being of a practical nature I have to ask myself, \'Why would someone do this? If you can steal book one in a series, and the rest are available on the torrents... what sudden shift in morality makes you want to start paying when you don\'t have to?\'\n\nBut that\'s anecdotal too. So let\'s look at an author who\'s set down some facts about how free -- in this case legally free -- ebooks translate into print sales.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/Blog/Entries/2011/3/18_So_youre_thinking_of_self-publishing_an_I.T._book.html\" target=\"_blank\"><!--more-->Keir Thomas documents it all very fully in this post. </a>He <a href=\"http://ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">wrote a pocket guide to Ubuntu</a> and placed the pdf version online for free <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440478295?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=beginningubun-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=1440478295\" target=\"_blank\">with a link to Amazon</a> where it\'s for sale for $12.99 as a print book. It looks like an excellent book I must say -- the reviews on Amazon are very flattering indeed, and Keir is clearly very experienced in this field.\n\nHe says...\n<blockquote>I’ve lost count how many people have downloaded the eBook but the last time I audited the figures, which was around six months after the book’s release, it’d seen around 500,000 downloads. I suspect that number has doubled since then. I encourage people to redistribute the PDF, including via BitTorrent, so auditing is practically impossible.</blockquote>\nSo how easily did that turn into income through the print version?\n\nSince going on sale at the start of 2009, the book has made me $9,000. Bearing in mind the book took three months to produce, that’s a salary of $3,000 per month, although costs such as hosting have to be deducted, and I also spent quite a few days marketing the book once published.\n\nI’ve had worse salaries in my life, and I’m very grateful, but I know total royalties would probably have been higher had I gone through the traditional route of working with a mainstream publisher.\n\nI estimate I have to give away 446 copies of the eBook for every sale of the print edition.\n\nHis verdict\n\n&nbsp;','Do free ebooks sell real print books? Er... no','','inherit','open','open','','7900-revision','','','2011-03-22 16:14:05','2011-03-22 16:14:05','',7900,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7900-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7902,1,'2011-03-22 16:16:25','2011-03-22 16:16:25','One of the things you hear all the time about book theft is the refrain, \'But if I like the book I just pirated I will go out and buy one of your titles afterwards.\'\n\nYou hear this anecdotally so often it gets deeply tedious. Being of a practical nature I have to ask myself, \'Why would someone do this? If you can steal book one in a series, and the rest are available on the torrents... what sudden shift in morality makes you want to start paying when you don\'t have to?\'\n\nBut that\'s anecdotal too. So let\'s look at an author who\'s set down some facts about how free -- in this case legally free -- ebooks translate into print sales.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/Blog/Entries/2011/3/18_So_youre_thinking_of_self-publishing_an_I.T._book.html\" target=\"_blank\"><!--more-->Keir Thomas documents it all very fully in this post. </a>He <a href=\"http://ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">wrote a pocket guide to Ubuntu</a> and placed the pdf version online for free <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440478295?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=beginningubun-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=1440478295\" target=\"_blank\">with a link to Amazon</a> where it\'s for sale for $12.99 as a print book. It looks like an excellent book I must say -- the reviews on Amazon are very flattering indeed, and Keir is clearly very experienced in this field.\n\nHe says...\n<blockquote>I’ve lost count how many people have downloaded the eBook but the last time I audited the figures, which was around six months after the book’s release, it’d seen around 500,000 downloads. I suspect that number has doubled since then. I encourage people to redistribute the PDF, including via BitTorrent, so auditing is practically impossible.</blockquote>\nSo how easily did that turn into income through the print version?\n<blockquote>Since going on sale at the start of 2009, the book has made me $9,000. Bearing in mind the book took three months to produce, that’s a salary of $3,000 per month, although costs such as hosting have to be deducted, and I also spent quite a few days marketing the book once published.\n\nI’ve had worse salaries in my life, and I’m very grateful, but I know total royalties would probably have been higher had I gone through the traditional route of working with a mainstream publisher.\n\nI estimate I have to give away 446 copies of the eBook for every sale of the print edition.</blockquote>\nHis verdict...\n<blockquote>The book’s been a success in terms of providing a free educational resource for the Ubuntu community, and I’m very proud of this achievement. But as a commercial endeavour, I wouldn’t recommend anybody take a self-publishing route.\n\nIf you want to earn money from writing, write magazine journalism. If you really want to write a book, get signed to a publisher. If you want an adventure then try self-publishing. Just don’t expect to do much more than cover your costs, though.</blockquote>\nThis is, in today\'s terms, a slightly unusual venture in that involves self-published print (where the selling price is relatively high) not ebooks. Keir is now trying the 99 cent Kindle model for some newer books, without the giveaway editions, which makes sense.','Do free ebooks sell real print books? Er... no','','inherit','open','open','','7900-revision-2','','','2011-03-22 16:16:25','2011-03-22 16:16:25','',7900,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7900-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7903,1,'2011-03-22 16:16:38','2011-03-22 16:16:38','One of the things you hear all the time about book theft is the refrain, \'But if I like the book I just pirated I will go out and buy one of your titles afterwards.\'\r\n\r\nYou hear this anecdotally so often it gets deeply tedious. Being of a practical nature I have to ask myself, \'Why would someone do this? If you can steal book one in a series, and the rest are available on the torrents... what sudden shift in morality makes you want to start paying when you don\'t have to?\'\r\n\r\nBut that\'s anecdotal too. So let\'s look at an author who\'s set down some facts about how free -- in this case legally free -- ebooks translate into print sales.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/Blog/Entries/2011/3/18_So_youre_thinking_of_self-publishing_an_I.T._book.html\" target=\"_blank\"><!--more-->Keir Thomas documents it all very fully in this post. </a>He <a href=\"http://ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">wrote a pocket guide to Ubuntu</a> and placed the pdf version online for free <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440478295?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=beginningubun-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=1440478295\" target=\"_blank\">with a link to Amazon</a> where it\'s for sale for $12.99 as a print book. It looks like an excellent book I must say -- the reviews on Amazon are very flattering indeed, and Keir is clearly very experienced in this field.\r\n\r\nHe says...\r\n<blockquote>I’ve lost count how many people have downloaded the eBook but the last time I audited the figures, which was around six months after the book’s release, it’d seen around 500,000 downloads. I suspect that number has doubled since then. I encourage people to redistribute the PDF, including via BitTorrent, so auditing is practically impossible.</blockquote>\r\nSo how easily did that turn into income through the print version?\r\n<blockquote>Since going on sale at the start of 2009, the book has made me $9,000. Bearing in mind the book took three months to produce, that’s a salary of $3,000 per month, although costs such as hosting have to be deducted, and I also spent quite a few days marketing the book once published.\r\n\r\nI’ve had worse salaries in my life, and I’m very grateful, but I know total royalties would probably have been higher had I gone through the traditional route of working with a mainstream publisher.\r\n\r\nI estimate I have to give away 446 copies of the eBook for every sale of the print edition.</blockquote>\r\nHis verdict...\r\n<blockquote>The book’s been a success in terms of providing a free educational resource for the Ubuntu community, and I’m very proud of this achievement. But as a commercial endeavour, I wouldn’t recommend anybody take a self-publishing route.\r\n\r\nIf you want to earn money from writing, write magazine journalism. If you really want to write a book, get signed to a publisher. If you want an adventure then try self-publishing. Just don’t expect to do much more than cover your costs, though.</blockquote>\r\nThis is, in today\'s terms, a slightly unusual venture in that involves self-published print (where the selling price is relatively high) not ebooks. Keir is <a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/kindle_books.html\" target=\"_blank\">now trying the 99 cent Kindle model</a> for some newer books, without the giveaway editions, which makes sense.','Do free ebooks sell real print books? Er... no','','inherit','open','open','','7900-revision-3','','','2011-03-22 16:16:38','2011-03-22 16:16:38','',7900,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7900-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7904,1,'2011-03-22 16:17:43','2011-03-22 16:17:43','One of the things you hear all the time about book theft is the refrain, \'But if I like the book I just pirated I will go out and buy one of your titles afterwards.\'\r\n\r\nYou hear this anecdotally so often it gets deeply tedious. Being of a practical nature I have to ask myself, \'Why would someone do this? If you can steal book one in a series, and the rest are available on the torrents... what sudden shift in morality makes you want to start paying when you don\'t have to?\'\r\n\r\nBut that\'s anecdotal too. So let\'s look at an author who\'s set down some facts about how free -- in this case legally free -- ebooks translate into print sales.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/Blog/Entries/2011/3/18_So_youre_thinking_of_self-publishing_an_I.T._book.html\" target=\"_blank\"><!--more-->Keir Thomas documents it all very fully in this post. </a>He <a href=\"http://ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">wrote a pocket guide to Ubuntu</a> and placed the pdf version online for free <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440478295?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=beginningubun-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=1440478295\" target=\"_blank\">with a link to Amazon</a> where it\'s for sale for $12.99 as a print book. It looks like an excellent book I must say -- the reviews on Amazon are very flattering indeed, and Keir is clearly very experienced in this field.\r\n\r\nHe says...\r\n<blockquote>I’ve lost count how many people have downloaded the eBook but the last time I audited the figures, which was around six months after the book’s release, it’d seen around 500,000 downloads. I suspect that number has doubled since then. I encourage people to redistribute the PDF, including via BitTorrent, so auditing is practically impossible.</blockquote>\r\nSo how easily did that turn into income through the print version?\r\n<blockquote>Since going on sale at the start of 2009, the book has made me $9,000. Bearing in mind the book took three months to produce, that’s a salary of $3,000 per month, although costs such as hosting have to be deducted, and I also spent quite a few days marketing the book once published.\r\n\r\nI’ve had worse salaries in my life, and I’m very grateful, but I know total royalties would probably have been higher had I gone through the traditional route of working with a mainstream publisher.\r\n\r\nI estimate I have to give away 446 copies of the eBook for every sale of the print edition.</blockquote>\r\nHis verdict...\r\n<blockquote>The book’s been a success in terms of providing a free educational resource for the Ubuntu community, and I’m very proud of this achievement. But as a commercial endeavour, I wouldn’t recommend anybody take a self-publishing route.\r\n\r\nIf you want to earn money from writing, write magazine journalism. If you really want to write a book, get signed to a publisher. If you want an adventure then try self-publishing. Just don’t expect to do much more than cover your costs, though.</blockquote>\r\nThis is, in today\'s terms, a slightly unusual venture in that involves self-published print (where the selling price is relatively high) not ebooks. Keir is <a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/kindle_books.html\" target=\"_blank\">now trying the 99 cent Kindle model</a> for some newer books, without the giveaway editions, which makes sense. I\'ll be interested to know what he thinks of that system after a while.','Do free ebooks sell real print books? Er... no','','inherit','open','open','','7900-revision-4','','','2011-03-22 16:17:43','2011-03-22 16:17:43','',7900,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7900-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7905,1,'2011-03-22 16:18:37','2011-03-22 16:18:37','One of the things you hear all the time about book theft is the refrain, \'But if I like the book I just pirated I will go out and buy one of your titles afterwards.\'\r\n\r\nYou hear this anecdotally so often it gets deeply tedious. Being of a practical nature I have to ask myself, \'Why would someone do this? If you can steal book one in a series, and the rest are available on the torrents... what sudden shift in morality makes you want to start paying when you don\'t have to?\'\r\n\r\nBut that\'s anecdotal too. So let\'s look at an author who\'s set down some facts about how free -- in this case legally free -- ebooks translate into print sales.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/Blog/Entries/2011/3/18_So_youre_thinking_of_self-publishing_an_I.T._book.html\" target=\"_blank\"><!--more-->Keir Thomas documents it all very fully in this post. </a>He <a href=\"http://ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">wrote a pocket guide to Ubuntu</a> and placed the pdf version online for free <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440478295?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=beginningubun-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=1440478295\" target=\"_blank\">with a link to Amazon</a> where it\'s for sale for $12.99 as a print book. It looks like an excellent book I must say -- the reviews on Amazon are very flattering indeed, and Keir is clearly very experienced in this field.\r\n\r\nHe says...\r\n<blockquote>I’ve lost count how many people have downloaded the eBook but the last time I audited the figures, which was around six months after the book’s release, it’d seen around 500,000 downloads. I suspect that number has doubled since then. I encourage people to redistribute the PDF, including via BitTorrent, so auditing is practically impossible.</blockquote>\r\nSo how easily did that turn into income through the print version?\r\n<blockquote>Since going on sale at the start of 2009, the book has made me $9,000. Bearing in mind the book took three months to produce, that’s a salary of $3,000 per month, although costs such as hosting have to be deducted, and I also spent quite a few days marketing the book once published.\r\n\r\nI’ve had worse salaries in my life, and I’m very grateful, but I know total royalties would probably have been higher had I gone through the traditional route of working with a mainstream publisher.\r\n\r\nI estimate I have to give away 446 copies of the eBook for every sale of the print edition.</blockquote>\r\nHis verdict...\r\n<blockquote>The book’s been a success in terms of providing a free educational resource for the Ubuntu community, and I’m very proud of this achievement. But as a commercial endeavour, I wouldn’t recommend anybody take a self-publishing route.\r\n\r\nIf you want to earn money from writing, write magazine journalism. If you really want to write a book, get signed to a publisher. If you want an adventure then try self-publishing. Just don’t expect to do much more than cover your costs, though.</blockquote>\r\nThis is, in today\'s terms, a slightly unusual venture in that involves self-published print (where the selling price is relatively high) not ebooks. Keir is <a href=\"http://www.keirthomas.com/Keir_Thomas_professional_website/kindle_books.html\" target=\"_blank\">now trying the 99 cent Kindle model</a> for some newer books, without the giveaway editions, which makes sense. I\'ll be interested to know what he thinks of that system after a while.','Do free ebooks sell real print books? Er... no','','inherit','open','open','','7900-revision-5','','','2011-03-22 16:18:37','2011-03-22 16:18:37','',7900,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7900-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(7906,1,'2011-03-23 10:37:56','2011-03-23 10:37:56','<strong>April 26, 2011.</strong> US release of <em>The Fallen Angel</em> from Delacorte\n<div>\n\n<strong>June 21, 2011 </strong>Crime in the Court, London. An open evening with fellow writers at that excellent bookstore Goldsboro. Advance booking required.\n\n<strong>July 6-9 2011</strong> <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thrillerfest</a>, New York\n\n</div>','Events','','inherit','open','open','','5260-autosave','','','2011-03-23 10:37:56','2011-03-23 10:37:56','',5260,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/5260-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(7907,1,'2011-01-31 18:19:16','2011-01-31 18:19:16','<strong>February 4, 2011</strong>\r\n\r\nUK launch of the ninth Costa book, <em>The Fallen Angel. </em>\r\n\r\n<strong>February 21, 2011</strong>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nI\'ll be taking part in a series of literary talks at the Italian Institute in London next year, curated by Maxim Jakubowski. My gig is on February 21 which ties in neatly with the launch of the ninth Costa novel, <em>The Fallen Angel. </em>The brave Barry Forshaw will be taking on the daunting task of trying to get me to give interesting answers.\r\n\r\nYou can read <a href=\"http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/29071\" target=\"_blank\">more about this interesting series of events here</a>, and browse the list of writers involved over the next few months.\r\n\r\n<strong>April 26, 2011.</strong> US release of <em>The Fallen Angel</em> from Delacorte\r\n\r\n<strong>July 6-9 2011</strong> <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thrillerfest</a>, New York\r\n\r\n</div>','Events','','inherit','open','open','','5260-revision','','','2011-01-31 18:19:16','2011-01-31 18:19:16','',5260,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/01/5260-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7911,1,'2011-03-23 10:41:14','2011-03-23 10:41:14','','wpc639d411','','inherit','open','open','','wpc639d411','','','2011-03-23 10:41:14','2011-03-23 10:41:14','',7910,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/wpc639d411.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(7912,1,'2011-03-23 10:39:58','2011-03-23 10:39:58','I\'ll be joining a growing bunch of writers at the new premises of that wonderful London bookstore Goldsboro on June 21 for the inaugural Crime in t','Crime in the Court, June 21','','inherit','open','open','','7910-revision','','','2011-03-23 10:39:58','2011-03-23 10:39:58','',7910,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7910-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7913,1,'2011-03-23 10:41:43','2011-03-23 10:41:43','<a href=\"http://www.crimeinthecourt.com/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7911\" title=\"wpc639d411\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/wpc639d411-212x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" /></a>I\'ll be joining a growing bunch of writers at the new premises of that wonderful London bookstore Goldsboro on June 21 for the inaugural <a href=\"http://www.crimeinthecourt.com/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Crime in the Court</a>. Do come along if you can make it -- Goldsboro are quite an institution these days and it should be a very sociable evening.\r\n\r\nThere\'s an interesting story behind the premises too, as you can see if you follow the link.','Crime in the Court, June 21','','inherit','open','open','','7910-revision-2','','','2011-03-23 10:41:43','2011-03-23 10:41:43','',7910,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7910-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7914,1,'2011-03-23 10:42:21','2011-03-23 10:42:21','<a href=\"http://www.crimeinthecourt.com/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7911\" title=\"wpc639d411\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/wpc639d411-212x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" /></a>I\'ll be joining a growing bunch of writers at the new premises of that wonderful London bookstore Goldsboro on June 21 for the inaugural <a href=\"http://www.crimeinthecourt.com/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Crime in the Court</a> evening. Do come along if you can make it -- Goldsboro are quite an institution these days and it should be a very sociable get-together\r\n\r\nThere\'s an interesting story behind the premises too, as you can see if you follow the link.','London event: Crime in the Court, June 21','','inherit','open','open','','7910-revision-3','','','2011-03-23 10:42:21','2011-03-23 10:42:21','',7910,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7910-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7916,1,'2011-03-23 10:38:03','2011-03-23 10:38:03','<strong>April 26, 2011.</strong> US release of <em>The Fallen Angel</em> from Delacorte\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<strong>June 21, 2011 </strong><a href=\"http://www.crimeinthecourt.com/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Crime in the Court, London</a>. An open evening with fellow writers at that excellent bookstore Goldsboro. Advance booking required.\r\n\r\n<strong>July 6-9 2011</strong> <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thrillerfest</a>, New York\r\n\r\n</div>','Events','','inherit','open','open','','5260-revision-2','','','2011-03-23 10:38:03','2011-03-23 10:38:03','',5260,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/5260-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7917,1,'2011-03-24 08:41:20','2011-03-24 08:41:20','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\r\n\r\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'Ignore those others... deal with me, me, me.\'\r\n\r\n<!--more-->In short I have to prioritise, and this process brings home to me how really bad I am at this. I whinged about it on Twitter half jokingly thus, \'Today I need to prioritise several things. But in what order?\'\r\n\r\nCouple of suggestions came in very quickly. From Gavreads, \'MIT first\'. I was unsure what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had to do with this but it turns out MIT means Most Important Thing. Ah... But they\'re all important really, and deciding which one is more important than the other is work in itself. And possibly beyond me because I don\'t know how I\'d judge that really.\r\n\r\nThen from inksmithy, \'fastest/easiest to longest/most complex. That way if you hang up on something, the day hasn\'t been a complete wash.\'\r\n\r\nI can see the sense in that. But again it means I have to sit back and contemplate which of the several things to do would actually turn out to be easiest or longest or most complex. And the problem with writing -- well one of them anyway -- is you never really know that. Sometimes something that appears simple turns out to be rather difficult and prolix. Equally there are intractable problems that can occasionally be solved by rewriting a single paragraph.\r\n\r\nWhat does my consternation over these choices mean? That I\'m dreadful at multi-tasking and organising my day I guess. I can\'t have my head inside more than one project at a time. It just doesn\'t work. Nor do any of the \'systems\' such as Getting Things Done succeed for me, though I\'ve often tried. I don\'t enjoy trying to put priorities on things. The act in itself seems to be a waste of time (my problem, not yours).\r\n\r\nSo how do I decide?\r\n\r\nI think I\'ll stick with my usual system. Either I pick the thing I feel will be most enjoyable. Or I grit my teeth and get the least fun task out of the way first so that I can say it\'s done.\r\n\r\nThis is a simple decision and it saves me from thinking about how I\'m going to work instead of doing some actual work instead. Would-be writers often, as I\'ve said before, spend too much time thinking and talking about writing and not enough getting down words and reading books that might inspire them.\r\n\r\nI\'m temperamentally suspicious of all systems and methods. This half-assed philosophy is not the basis for building a successful multinational company. But for a lone professional writer it seems to do the business. At least it does for this one.\r\n\r\nToday? Today is a \'do what I like first\' day. Now on with it...','Please Lord spare me from all priorities','','publish','open','open','','please-lord-spare-me-from-all-priorities','','','2011-03-24 09:03:03','2011-03-24 09:03:03','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7917',0,'post','',5),(7918,1,'2011-03-24 08:28:14','2011-03-24 08:28:14','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\n\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\n\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'I','Please lord save me from having priorities','','inherit','open','open','','7917-revision','','','2011-03-24 08:28:14','2011-03-24 08:28:14','',7917,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7917-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7919,1,'2011-03-24 08:34:54','2011-03-24 08:34:54','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\n\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\n\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'Ignore those others... deal with me, me, me.\'\n\n<!--more-->In short I have to prioritise, and this process brings home to me how really bad I am at this. I whinged about it on Twitter half jokingly thus, \'Today I need to prioritise several things. But in what order?\'\n\nCouple of suggestions came in very quickly. From Gavreads, \'MIT first\'. I was unsure what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had to do with this but it turns out MIT means Most Important Thing. Ah... But they\'re all important really, and deciding which one is more important than the other is work in itself. And possibly beyond me because I don\'t know I\'d judge that really.\n\nThen from inksmithy, \'fastest/easiest to longest/most complex. That way if you hang up on something, the day hasn\'t been a complete wash.\'\n\nI can see the sense in that. But again it means I have to sit back and contemplate which of the several things to do would actually turn out to be easiest or longest or most complex. And the problem with writing -- well one of them anyway -- is you never really know that. Sometimes something that appears simple turns out to be rather difficult and prolix. Equally there are intractable problems that can occasionally be solved by rewriting a single paragraph.\n\nWhat does my consternation over these choices mean? That I\'m dreadful at multi-tasking and organising my day I guess. I can\'t have my head inside more than one project at a time. It just doesn\'t work. Nor do any of the \'systems\' such as Getting Things Done work for me. I don\'t enjoy trying to put priorities on things. The act in itself seems to be a waste of time (my problem, not yours).\n\nSo how do I decide?\n\nI think I\'ll stick with my usual system. Either I pick the thing I feel will be most enjoyable. Or I grit my teeth and','Please lord save me from having priorities','','inherit','open','open','','7917-revision-2','','','2011-03-24 08:34:54','2011-03-24 08:34:54','',7917,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7917-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7920,1,'2011-03-24 08:37:29','2011-03-24 08:37:29','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\n\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\n\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'Ignore those others... deal with me, me, me.\'\n\n<!--more-->In short I have to prioritise, and this process brings home to me how really bad I am at this. I whinged about it on Twitter half jokingly thus, \'Today I need to prioritise several things. But in what order?\'\n\nCouple of suggestions came in very quickly. From Gavreads, \'MIT first\'. I was unsure what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had to do with this but it turns out MIT means Most Important Thing. Ah... But they\'re all important really, and deciding which one is more important than the other is work in itself. And possibly beyond me because I don\'t know I\'d judge that really.\n\nThen from inksmithy, \'fastest/easiest to longest/most complex. That way if you hang up on something, the day hasn\'t been a complete wash.\'\n\nI can see the sense in that. But again it means I have to sit back and contemplate which of the several things to do would actually turn out to be easiest or longest or most complex. And the problem with writing -- well one of them anyway -- is you never really know that. Sometimes something that appears simple turns out to be rather difficult and prolix. Equally there are intractable problems that can occasionally be solved by rewriting a single paragraph.\n\nWhat does my consternation over these choices mean? That I\'m dreadful at multi-tasking and organising my day I guess. I can\'t have my head inside more than one project at a time. It just doesn\'t work. Nor do any of the \'systems\' such as Getting Things Done work for me. I don\'t enjoy trying to put priorities on things. The act in itself seems to be a waste of time (my problem, not yours).\n\nSo how do I decide?\n\nI think I\'ll stick with my usual system. Either I pick the thing I feel will be most enjoyable. Or I grit my teeth and get the least fun task out of the way first so that I can say it\'s done.\n\nThis is a simple decision and it saves me from thinking about how I\'m going to work instead of doing some actual work instead. Would-be writers often, as I\'ve said before, spend too much time thinking and talking about writing and not enough getting down words and reading books that might inspire them. I\'m temperamentally suspicious of all systems and methods when it comes to my working day.  is not the basis for building a successful multinational company. But for the working day of a lone professional writer it seems to do the business. At least it does for me.','Please lord save me from having priorities','','inherit','open','open','','7917-revision-3','','','2011-03-24 08:37:29','2011-03-24 08:37:29','',7917,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7917-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7921,1,'2011-03-24 08:37:56','2011-03-24 08:37:56','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\r\n\r\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'Ignore those others... deal with me, me, me.\'\r\n\r\n<!--more-->In short I have to prioritise, and this process brings home to me how really bad I am at this. I whinged about it on Twitter half jokingly thus, \'Today I need to prioritise several things. But in what order?\'\r\n\r\nCouple of suggestions came in very quickly. From Gavreads, \'MIT first\'. I was unsure what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had to do with this but it turns out MIT means Most Important Thing. Ah... But they\'re all important really, and deciding which one is more important than the other is work in itself. And possibly beyond me because I don\'t know I\'d judge that really.\r\n\r\nThen from inksmithy, \'fastest/easiest to longest/most complex. That way if you hang up on something, the day hasn\'t been a complete wash.\'\r\n\r\nI can see the sense in that. But again it means I have to sit back and contemplate which of the several things to do would actually turn out to be easiest or longest or most complex. And the problem with writing -- well one of them anyway -- is you never really know that. Sometimes something that appears simple turns out to be rather difficult and prolix. Equally there are intractable problems that can occasionally be solved by rewriting a single paragraph.\r\n\r\nWhat does my consternation over these choices mean? That I\'m dreadful at multi-tasking and organising my day I guess. I can\'t have my head inside more than one project at a time. It just doesn\'t work. Nor do any of the \'systems\' such as Getting Things Done work for me. I don\'t enjoy trying to put priorities on things. The act in itself seems to be a waste of time (my problem, not yours).\r\n\r\nSo how do I decide?\r\n\r\nI think I\'ll stick with my usual system. Either I pick the thing I feel will be most enjoyable. Or I grit my teeth and get the least fun task out of the way first so that I can say it\'s done.\r\n\r\nThis is a simple decision and it saves me from thinking about how I\'m going to work instead of doing some actual work instead. Would-be writers often, as I\'ve said before, spend too much time thinking and talking about writing and not enough getting down words and reading books that might inspire them. I\'m temperamentally suspicious of all systems and methods when it comes to my working day. This half-assed philosophy is not the basis for building a successful multinational company. But for a lone professional writer it seems to do the business. At least it does for me.','Please lord save me from having priorities','','inherit','open','open','','7917-revision-4','','','2011-03-24 08:37:56','2011-03-24 08:37:56','',7917,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7917-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7922,1,'2011-03-24 08:38:17','2011-03-24 08:38:17','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\r\n\r\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'Ignore those others... deal with me, me, me.\'\r\n\r\n<!--more-->In short I have to prioritise, and this process brings home to me how really bad I am at this. I whinged about it on Twitter half jokingly thus, \'Today I need to prioritise several things. But in what order?\'\r\n\r\nCouple of suggestions came in very quickly. From Gavreads, \'MIT first\'. I was unsure what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had to do with this but it turns out MIT means Most Important Thing. Ah... But they\'re all important really, and deciding which one is more important than the other is work in itself. And possibly beyond me because I don\'t know I\'d judge that really.\r\n\r\nThen from inksmithy, \'fastest/easiest to longest/most complex. That way if you hang up on something, the day hasn\'t been a complete wash.\'\r\n\r\nI can see the sense in that. But again it means I have to sit back and contemplate which of the several things to do would actually turn out to be easiest or longest or most complex. And the problem with writing -- well one of them anyway -- is you never really know that. Sometimes something that appears simple turns out to be rather difficult and prolix. Equally there are intractable problems that can occasionally be solved by rewriting a single paragraph.\r\n\r\nWhat does my consternation over these choices mean? That I\'m dreadful at multi-tasking and organising my day I guess. I can\'t have my head inside more than one project at a time. It just doesn\'t work. Nor do any of the \'systems\' such as Getting Things Done work for me. I don\'t enjoy trying to put priorities on things. The act in itself seems to be a waste of time (my problem, not yours).\r\n\r\nSo how do I decide?\r\n\r\nI think I\'ll stick with my usual system. Either I pick the thing I feel will be most enjoyable. Or I grit my teeth and get the least fun task out of the way first so that I can say it\'s done.\r\n\r\nThis is a simple decision and it saves me from thinking about how I\'m going to work instead of doing some actual work instead. Would-be writers often, as I\'ve said before, spend too much time thinking and talking about writing and not enough getting down words and reading books that might inspire them. I\'m temperamentally suspicious of all systems and methods when it comes to my working day. This half-assed philosophy is not the basis for building a successful multinational company. But for a lone professional writer it seems to do the business. At least it does for me.','Please Lord spare me from all priorities','','inherit','open','open','','7917-revision-5','','','2011-03-24 08:38:17','2011-03-24 08:38:17','',7917,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7917-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(7923,1,'2011-03-24 08:38:25','2011-03-24 08:38:25','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\r\n\r\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'Ignore those others... deal with me, me, me.\'\r\n\r\n<!--more-->In short I have to prioritise, and this process brings home to me how really bad I am at this. I whinged about it on Twitter half jokingly thus, \'Today I need to prioritise several things. But in what order?\'\r\n\r\nCouple of suggestions came in very quickly. From Gavreads, \'MIT first\'. I was unsure what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had to do with this but it turns out MIT means Most Important Thing. Ah... But they\'re all important really, and deciding which one is more important than the other is work in itself. And possibly beyond me because I don\'t know I\'d judge that really.\r\n\r\nThen from inksmithy, \'fastest/easiest to longest/most complex. That way if you hang up on something, the day hasn\'t been a complete wash.\'\r\n\r\nI can see the sense in that. But again it means I have to sit back and contemplate which of the several things to do would actually turn out to be easiest or longest or most complex. And the problem with writing -- well one of them anyway -- is you never really know that. Sometimes something that appears simple turns out to be rather difficult and prolix. Equally there are intractable problems that can occasionally be solved by rewriting a single paragraph.\r\n\r\nWhat does my consternation over these choices mean? That I\'m dreadful at multi-tasking and organising my day I guess. I can\'t have my head inside more than one project at a time. It just doesn\'t work. Nor do any of the \'systems\' such as Getting Things Done work for me. I don\'t enjoy trying to put priorities on things. The act in itself seems to be a waste of time (my problem, not yours).\r\n\r\nSo how do I decide?\r\n\r\nI think I\'ll stick with my usual system. Either I pick the thing I feel will be most enjoyable. Or I grit my teeth and get the least fun task out of the way first so that I can say it\'s done.\r\n\r\nThis is a simple decision and it saves me from thinking about how I\'m going to work instead of doing some actual work instead. Would-be writers often, as I\'ve said before, spend too much time thinking and talking about writing and not enough getting down words and reading books that might inspire them. I\'m temperamentally suspicious of all systems and methods when it comes to my working day. This half-assed philosophy is not the basis for building a successful multinational company. But for a lone professional writer it seems to do the business. At least it does for me.','Please Lord spare me from all priorities','','inherit','open','open','','7917-revision-6','','','2011-03-24 08:38:25','2011-03-24 08:38:25','',7917,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7917-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(7924,1,'2011-03-24 08:40:31','2011-03-24 08:40:31','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\n\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\n\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'Ignore those others... deal with me, me, me.\'\n\n<!--more-->In short I have to prioritise, and this process brings home to me how really bad I am at this. I whinged about it on Twitter half jokingly thus, \'Today I need to prioritise several things. But in what order?\'\n\nCouple of suggestions came in very quickly. From Gavreads, \'MIT first\'. I was unsure what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had to do with this but it turns out MIT means Most Important Thing. Ah... But they\'re all important really, and deciding which one is more important than the other is work in itself. And possibly beyond me because I don\'t know how I\'d judge that really.\n\nThen from inksmithy, \'fastest/easiest to longest/most complex. That way if you hang up on something, the day hasn\'t been a complete wash.\'\n\nI can see the sense in that. But again it means I have to sit back and contemplate which of the several things to do would actually turn out to be easiest or longest or most complex. And the problem with writing -- well one of them anyway -- is you never really know that. Sometimes something that appears simple turns out to be rather difficult and prolix. Equally there are intractable problems that can occasionally be solved by rewriting a single paragraph.\n\nWhat does my consternation over these choices mean? That I\'m dreadful at multi-tasking and organising my day I guess. I can\'t have my head inside more than one project at a time. It just doesn\'t work. Nor do any of the \'systems\' such as Getting Things Done succeed for me, though I\'ve often tried. I don\'t enjoy trying to put priorities on things. The act in itself seems to be a waste of time (my problem, not yours).\n\nSo how do I decide?\n\nI think I\'ll stick with my usual system. Either I pick the thing I feel will be most enjoyable. Or I grit my teeth and get the least fun task out of the way first so that I can say it\'s done.\n\nThis is a simple decision and it saves me from thinking about how I\'m going to work instead of doing some actual work instead. Would-be writers often, as I\'ve said before, spend too much time thinking and talking about writing and not enough getting down words and reading books that might inspire them. I\'m temperamentally suspicious of all systems and methods when it comes to my working day. This half-assed philosophy is not the basis for building a successful multinational company. But for a lone professional writer it seems to do the business. At least it does for me.','Please Lord spare me from all priorities','','inherit','open','open','','7917-revision-7','','','2011-03-24 08:40:31','2011-03-24 08:40:31','',7917,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7917-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(7925,1,'2011-03-24 08:41:20','2011-03-24 08:41:20','Happily, most days consists of two things only. Writing and dealing with the ephemeral side of writing, email, the odd phone call, sending out the odd gibberish message on Twitter, writing a blog post when I feel like it.\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to priorities it\'s not hard to work out which is the most important there: writing, naturally. If I haven\'t done something about that (and it doesn\'t necessarily mean producing more words, as we\'ve discussed before) I haven\'t really worked at all. I\'ve malingered. And malingering is bad.\r\n\r\nBut today I am faced with a true horror. I have several important things facing me. Writing the present project. Very soon revising next year\'s book. Plus a couple of projects I can\'t talk about yet, both of which keep beeping at me from my subconscious saying, \'Ignore those others... deal with me, me, me.\'\r\n\r\n<!--more-->In short I have to prioritise, and this process brings home to me how really bad I am at this. I whinged about it on Twitter half jokingly thus, \'Today I need to prioritise several things. But in what order?\'\r\n\r\nCouple of suggestions came in very quickly. From Gavreads, \'MIT first\'. I was unsure what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had to do with this but it turns out MIT means Most Important Thing. Ah... But they\'re all important really, and deciding which one is more important than the other is work in itself. And possibly beyond me because I don\'t know how I\'d judge that really.\r\n\r\nThen from inksmithy, \'fastest/easiest to longest/most complex. That way if you hang up on something, the day hasn\'t been a complete wash.\'\r\n\r\nI can see the sense in that. But again it means I have to sit back and contemplate which of the several things to do would actually turn out to be easiest or longest or most complex. And the problem with writing -- well one of them anyway -- is you never really know that. Sometimes something that appears simple turns out to be rather difficult and prolix. Equally there are intractable problems that can occasionally be solved by rewriting a single paragraph.\r\n\r\nWhat does my consternation over these choices mean? That I\'m dreadful at multi-tasking and organising my day I guess. I can\'t have my head inside more than one project at a time. It just doesn\'t work. Nor do any of the \'systems\' such as Getting Things Done succeed for me, though I\'ve often tried. I don\'t enjoy trying to put priorities on things. The act in itself seems to be a waste of time (my problem, not yours).\r\n\r\nSo how do I decide?\r\n\r\nI think I\'ll stick with my usual system. Either I pick the thing I feel will be most enjoyable. Or I grit my teeth and get the least fun task out of the way first so that I can say it\'s done.\r\n\r\nThis is a simple decision and it saves me from thinking about how I\'m going to work instead of doing some actual work instead. Would-be writers often, as I\'ve said before, spend too much time thinking and talking about writing and not enough getting down words and reading books that might inspire them.\r\n\r\nI\'m temperamentally suspicious of all systems and methods. This half-assed philosophy is not the basis for building a successful multinational company. But for a lone professional writer it seems to do the business. At least it does for this one','Please Lord spare me from all priorities','','inherit','open','open','','7917-revision-8','','','2011-03-24 08:41:20','2011-03-24 08:41:20','',7917,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7917-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(7926,1,'2011-03-24 13:32:34','2011-03-24 13:32:34','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nI\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is uses an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later one specifically aimed at tablets not phones called <del>Gingerbread</del> Honeycomb. I\'ve no idea what Honeycomb is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','publish','open','open','','confession-mostly-i-dump-the-ipad-for-this','','','2011-03-24 15:10:52','2011-03-24 15:10:52','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7926',0,'post','',0),(7927,1,'2011-03-24 13:11:06','2011-03-24 13:11:06','','samsung_galaxy_tab_4','','inherit','open','open','','samsung_galaxy_tab_4','','','2011-03-24 13:11:06','2011-03-24 13:11:06','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(7928,1,'2011-03-24 13:18:00','2011-03-24 13:18:00','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. This thing is a bargain.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\n\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and one you can stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\n\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\n\nGeeks will moan that is used an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later version, specifically aimed at tablets not phones, call Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\n\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing -- the screen is too small. But then I don\'t use the iPad','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision','','','2011-03-24 13:18:00','2011-03-24 13:18:00','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7929,1,'2011-03-24 13:23:34','2011-03-24 13:23:34','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. This thing is a bargain.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\n\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and one you can stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\n\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\n\nGeeks will moan that is used an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later version, specifically aimed at tablets not phones, call Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\n\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\n\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\n\n&nbsp;','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-2','','','2011-03-24 13:23:34','2011-03-24 13:23:34','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7930,1,'2011-03-24 13:27:08','2011-03-24 13:27:08','','Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39','','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13-24-39','','','2011-03-24 13:27:08','2011-03-24 13:27:08','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(7931,1,'2011-03-24 13:26:10','2011-03-24 13:26:10','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. This thing is a bargain.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\n\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and one you can stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\n\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\n\nGeeks will moan that is used an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later version, specifically aimed at tablets not phones, call Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\n\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\n\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\n\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\n\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\n\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru James Kendrick who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years (his masthead boasts whose column boasts','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-3','','','2011-03-24 13:26:10','2011-03-24 13:26:10','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7932,1,'2011-03-24 13:27:33','2011-03-24 13:27:33','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. This thing is a bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and one you can stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is used an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later version, specifically aimed at tablets not phones, call Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-4','','','2011-03-24 13:27:33','2011-03-24 13:27:33','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7933,1,'2011-03-24 13:27:46','2011-03-24 13:27:46','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. This thing is a bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and one you can stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is used an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later version, specifically aimed at tablets not phones, call Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-5','','','2011-03-24 13:27:46','2011-03-24 13:27:46','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(7934,1,'2011-03-24 13:28:18','2011-03-24 13:28:18','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and one you can stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is used an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later version, specifically aimed at tablets not phones, call Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-6','','','2011-03-24 13:28:18','2011-03-24 13:28:18','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(7935,1,'2011-03-24 13:28:19','2011-03-24 13:28:19','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and one you can stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is used an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later version, specifically aimed at tablets not phones, call Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-7','','','2011-03-24 13:28:19','2011-03-24 13:28:19','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(7936,1,'2011-03-24 13:30:18','2011-03-24 13:30:18','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\n\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\n\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\n\nGeeks will moan that is uses an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later on, specifically aimed at tablets not phones, call Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\n\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\n\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\n\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\n\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\n\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-8','','','2011-03-24 13:30:18','2011-03-24 13:30:18','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(7937,1,'2011-03-24 13:30:34','2011-03-24 13:30:34','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is uses an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later one specifically aimed at tablets not phones called Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-9','','','2011-03-24 13:30:34','2011-03-24 13:30:34','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-9/',0,'revision','',0),(7938,1,'2011-03-24 13:30:36','2011-03-24 13:30:36','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->I\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is uses an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later one specifically aimed at tablets not phones called Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-10','','','2011-03-24 13:30:36','2011-03-24 13:30:36','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-10/',0,'revision','',0),(7939,1,'2011-03-24 13:31:10','2011-03-24 13:31:10','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nI\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is uses an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later one specifically aimed at tablets not phones called Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-11','','','2011-03-24 13:31:10','2011-03-24 13:31:10','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-11/',0,'revision','',0),(7940,1,'2011-03-24 13:32:17','2011-03-24 13:32:17','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\n\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\n\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->\n\nI\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\n\nGeeks will moan that is uses an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later one specifically aimed at tablets not phones called Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\n\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\n\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\n\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\n\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\n\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-12','','','2011-03-24 13:32:17','2011-03-24 13:32:17','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-12/',0,'revision','',0),(7941,1,'2011-03-24 13:32:34','2011-03-24 13:32:34','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\r\n\r\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\r\n\r\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nI\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\r\n\r\nGeeks will moan that is uses an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later one specifically aimed at tablets not phones called Gingerbread. I\'ve no idea what Gingerbread is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\r\n\r\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\r\n\r\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\r\n\r\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\r\n\r\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\r\n\r\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-revision-13','','','2011-03-24 13:32:34','2011-03-24 13:32:34','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-revision-13/',0,'revision','',0),(7942,1,'2011-03-24 15:12:00','2011-03-24 15:12:00','Samsung are coming out with new tablets soon which means their original one, the seven-inch Galaxy Tab, is heading for the discount shelf. Asda has it on offer now for £299. Not long ago it was selling for £499. I picked up mine with a free 16 gb memory card a couple of months ago for £399. Even at that price the thing has turned out to be a very useful bargain.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7927\" title=\"samsung_galaxy_tab_4\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/samsung_galaxy_tab_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"391\" />\n\nWhy do I have this and the original iPad too? Because people at Bouchercon <em>forced</em> me to buy an iPad. And I quite like it around the apartment or in the hotel when I\'m travelling. The trouble is it\'s big and heavy. Yes, the iPad 2 won\'t be as heavy but it will be as big. What I really need when I\'m outside is something much more portable -- and stick an ordinary phone sim card in too.\n\nEnter the Galaxy Tab.<!--more-->\n\nI\'ve used this on a number of trips now. Unlike the iPad I can genuinely leave the laptop at home. Because it takes a sim card -- Tesco\'s £10 a month data offer will do nicely -- I\'m always online, either through the data connection or wifi. My sim is Vodafone too so I can add on their Data Traveller option -- £10 a month for roaming in specific countries. With that in Florence I got 25mb a day (and a lot of stupid unnecessary texts from Vodafone but that\'s another story). I could wander round, take photos (very good camera), check web sites and maps, and store notes directly into Evernote. The thing slipped easily into the inside pocket of my winter jacket. When the weather\'s warmer it can just pop into a small shoulder bag.\n\nGeeks will moan that is uses an old version of Android, 2.2 (shortly to be upgraded to 2.3). The newer tablets all use a later one specifically aimed at tablets not phones called <del>Gingerbread</del> Honeycomb. I\'ve no idea what Honeycomb is like but 2.2 works just fine on the Tab for me. It\'s the same as the system on my HTC phone (and the apps I bought for the HTC phone also work on the Tab too usually since they are tied to your Google account, not your device).\n\nWhat apps do I use? Well, Kindle, which is much better at this page size for me than on the iPad, very close to the Kindle hardware itself but in colour. Evernote, naturally. Mail,  photos, Hootsuite and Facebook. I wouldn\'t use it much for writing anything of length -- the screen is too small. The iPad is definitely better for that, not that I use it much that way. Rail Planner is fantastic for rail journeys, and I am hooked on Tripit for managing longer trips. Google\'s Places and Map are always useful (in Florence I could get a quick check on restaurants close to me, with directions and reviews too). That data connection and the portability of this little thing meant that I just use it an awful lot more than I do the big, bulky and wifi-only iPad. Yes, I know I could buy the iPad with a sim card in it too, but the price is just silly for that, particularly if you go abroad a bit.\n\nOh, and it\'s a phone, at least in Europe (this is switched off in the US for some daft reason I gather). You can take and make voice calls using it as a speakerphone or plug in an earphone/mike set that comes with it and talk like that. It is a very good phone too, picking up weak Vodafone signals where an ordinary phone doesn\'t. And the battery life seems incredible, as long as the iPad from what I can see -- ten hours or more on a single charge.\n\nIt does Skype too, and very well (though probably best through a wifi connection).\n\nA dead useful bit of kit, and at £299, if you have use for such a thing, an absolute steal.\n\nBut don\'t take my word for it. Here\'s mobile guru <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news\" target=\"_blank\">James Kendrick</a> who\'s been writing about this stuff for donkey\'s years.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7930\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 13.24.39\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-24-at-13.24.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"88\" />\'Nuff said.','Confession: mostly I dump the iPad for this','','inherit','open','open','','7926-autosave','','','2011-03-24 15:12:00','2011-03-24 15:12:00','',7926,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/7926-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(7943,1,'2011-03-23 11:02:27','2011-03-23 11:02:27','<strong>April 26, 2011.</strong> US release of <em>The Fallen Angel</em> from Delacorte\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<strong>June 21, 2011 </strong><a href=\"http://www.crimeinthecourt.com/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Crime in the Court, London</a>. An open evening with fellow writers at that excellent bookstore Goldsboro. Advance booking required. Starts at 1830, ends at 2030.\r\n\r\n<strong>July 6-9 2011</strong> <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thrillerfest</a>, New York\r\n\r\n</div>','Events','','inherit','open','open','','5260-revision-3','','','2011-03-23 11:02:27','2011-03-23 11:02:27','',5260,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/03/5260-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7945,1,'2011-04-03 18:32:28','2011-04-03 17:32:28','The ninth Costa book, <em>The Fallen Angel</em>, is out in the US at the end of this month, and there\'s one other unannounced project that will be coming out very soon too. So I thought I\'d pop over for two of my favourite writing events.\n\nThe first is the fantastic <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thrillerfest</a> from ITW which is in New York from July 6-9 at the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Station. This year\'s headline name at the event is the wonderful RL Stine, the most disarming and modest multi-million selling author I\'ve ever met, and someone whose constant support helped get ITW off the ground in its infancy too.\n\nI\'ll be appearing at Thrillerfest and also giving a talk at <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/craftfest-2/\" target=\"_blank\">Craftfest</a>, its teaching side event, about using Word and Scrivener to shape and structure a novel manuscript. If you want to meet thriller authors, learn about publishing, and hear writers talk about their craft in the heart of Manhattan then this is the event for you.\n\nIn September I will be back for the unique institution that is <a href=\"http://www.bouchercon2011.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Bouchercon</a>, a moving feast of mystery, crime and thriller writing that this year will be in St Louis. No idea what I\'ll be doing there yet but you\'ll find me among the throng -- and at Bouchercon there is <em>always</em> a throng, I guarantee.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','This summer\'s US appearances','','inherit','open','open','','7944-revision','','','2011-04-03 18:32:28','2011-04-03 17:32:28','',7944,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7944-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7946,1,'2011-04-03 18:32:39','2011-04-03 17:32:39','The ninth Costa book, <em>The Fallen Angel</em>, is out in the US at the end of this month, and there\'s one other unannounced project that will be coming out very soon too. So I thought I\'d pop over for two of my favourite writing events.\r\n\r\nThe first is the fantastic <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thrillerfest</a> from ITW which is in New York from July 6-9 at the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Station. This year\'s headline name at the event is the wonderful RL Stine, the most disarming and modest multi-million selling author I\'ve ever met, and someone whose constant support helped get ITW off the ground in its infancy too.\r\n\r\nI\'ll be appearing at Thrillerfest and also giving a talk at <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/craftfest-2/\" target=\"_blank\">Craftfest</a>, its teaching side event, about using Word and Scrivener to shape and structure a novel manuscript. If you want to meet thriller authors, learn about publishing, and hear writers talk about their craft in the heart of Manhattan then this is the event for you.\r\n\r\nIn September I will be back for the unique institution that is <a href=\"http://www.bouchercon2011.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Bouchercon</a>, a moving feast of mystery, crime and thriller writing that this year will be in St Louis. No idea what I\'ll be doing there yet but you\'ll find me among the throng -- and at Bouchercon there is <em>always</em> a throng, I guarantee.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','This summer\'s US appearances','','inherit','open','open','','7944-revision-2','','','2011-04-03 18:32:39','2011-04-03 17:32:39','',7944,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7944-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7947,1,'2011-04-03 18:32:46','2011-04-03 17:32:46','The ninth Costa book, <em>The Fallen Angel</em>, is out in the US at the end of this month, and there\'s one other unannounced project that will be coming out very soon too. So I thought I\'d pop over for two of my favourite writing events.\r\n\r\nThe first is the fantastic <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thrillerfest</a> from ITW which is in New York from July 6-9 at the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Station. This year\'s headline name at the event is the wonderful RL Stine, the most disarming and modest multi-million selling author I\'ve ever met, and someone whose constant support helped get ITW off the ground in its infancy too.\r\n\r\nI\'ll be appearing at Thrillerfest and also giving a talk at <a href=\"http://www.thrillerfest.com/craftfest-2/\" target=\"_blank\">Craftfest</a>, its teaching side event, about using Word and Scrivener to shape and structure a novel manuscript. If you want to meet thriller authors, learn about publishing, and hear writers talk about their craft in the heart of Manhattan then this is the event for you.\r\n\r\nIn September I will be back for the unique institution that is <a href=\"http://www.bouchercon2011.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Bouchercon</a>, a moving feast of mystery, crime and thriller writing that this year will be in St Louis. No idea what I\'ll be doing there yet but you\'ll find me among the throng -- and at Bouchercon there is <em>always</em> a throng, I guarantee.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','This summer\'s US appearances','','inherit','open','open','','7944-revision-3','','','2011-04-03 18:32:46','2011-04-03 17:32:46','',7944,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7944-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7948,1,'2011-04-04 21:26:05','2011-04-04 20:26:05','Look. I know the feeling. I\'m not in the same sales league but I quit Facebook too because of all the hassle. Which is why I\'m now very picky about who I friend after I came back. Here\'s James Ellroy\'s parting shot today...\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7950\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"503\" caption=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-7950\" title=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.54.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"159\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn all fairness though it should be recorded that Mr Ellroy was, only two years ago asking booksellers to use Facebook to flog his book <em>Blood\'s a Rover....</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7953\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"635\" caption=\"James Ellroy embraces Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-large wp-image-7953\" title=\"James Ellroy embraces Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.031-640x425.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"421\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\n</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Hell of a way to go on both occasions. Well done sir!</p>','James Ellroy quits Facebook','','publish','open','open','','james-ellroy-quits-facebook','','','2011-04-04 21:26:05','2011-04-04 20:26:05','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7948',0,'post','',0),(7949,1,'2011-04-04 21:19:26','2011-04-04 20:19:26','','James Ellroy quitting Facebook','James Ellroy quitting Facebook','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21-17-03','','','2011-04-04 21:19:26','2011-04-04 20:19:26','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.03.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(7950,1,'2011-04-04 21:21:52','2011-04-04 20:21:52','','James Ellroy quits Facebook','James Ellroy quits Facebook','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21-17-54','','','2011-04-04 21:21:52','2011-04-04 20:21:52','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.54.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(7951,1,'2011-04-04 21:21:12','2011-04-04 20:21:12','Look. I know the feeling. I\'m not in the same sales league but I quit too because of all the hassle. Which is now why I\'m very picky about who I friend after I came back. Here\'s James Ellroy\'s parting shot today...\n\nIn all fairness though it should be recorded that Mr Ellroy was, only two years ago asking bo to use Facebook to\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_7949\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"690\" caption=\"James Ellroy using Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-7949 \" title=\"James Ellroy quitting Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.03.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"690\" height=\"459\" />[/caption]\n\n</p>','James Ellroy quits Facebook','','inherit','open','open','','7948-revision','','','2011-04-04 21:21:12','2011-04-04 20:21:12','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7948-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7952,1,'2011-04-04 21:22:47','2011-04-04 20:22:47','Look. I know the feeling. I\'m not in the same sales league but I quit too because of all the hassle. Which is now why I\'m very picky about who I friend after I came back. Here\'s James Ellroy\'s parting shot today...\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7950\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"503\" caption=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-7950\" title=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.54.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"159\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn all fairness though it should be recorded that Mr Ellroy was, only two years ago asking booksellers to use Facebook to flog his book <em>Blood\'s a Rover....</em>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\r\n<div class=\"mceTemp mceIEcenter\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><dl id=\"attachment_7949\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 700px;\"><dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7949 \" title=\"James Ellroy quitting Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.03.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"690\" height=\"459\" /></dt><dd class=\"wp-caption-dd\">James Ellroy using Facebook</dd></dl></div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Fair enough.</p>','James Ellroy quits Facebook','','inherit','open','open','','7948-revision-2','','','2011-04-04 21:22:47','2011-04-04 20:22:47','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7948-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7955,1,'2011-04-04 21:24:33','2011-04-04 20:24:33','Look. I know the feeling. I\'m not in the same sales league but I quit too because of all the hassle. Which is now why I\'m very picky about who I friend after I came back. Here\'s James Ellroy\'s parting shot today...\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7950\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"503\" caption=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-7950\" title=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.54.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"159\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn all fairness though it should be recorded that Mr Ellroy was, only two years ago asking booksellers to use Facebook to flog his book <em>Blood\'s a Rover....</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7953\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"635\" caption=\"James Ellroy embraces Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-large wp-image-7953\" title=\"James Ellroy embraces Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.031-640x425.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"421\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\n</em>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Hell of a way to go on both occasions. Well done sir!</p>','James Ellroy quits Facebook','','inherit','open','open','','7948-revision-4','','','2011-04-04 21:24:33','2011-04-04 20:24:33','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7948-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7953,1,'2011-04-04 21:23:45','2011-04-04 20:23:45','','James Ellroy embraces Facebook','James Ellroy embraces Facebook','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21-17-03-2','','','2011-04-04 21:23:45','2011-04-04 20:23:45','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.031.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(7954,1,'2011-04-04 21:22:55','2011-04-04 20:22:55','Look. I know the feeling. I\'m not in the same sales league but I quit too because of all the hassle. Which is now why I\'m very picky about who I friend after I came back. Here\'s James Ellroy\'s parting shot today...\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7950\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"503\" caption=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-7950\" title=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.54.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"159\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn all fairness though it should be recorded that Mr Ellroy was, only two years ago asking booksellers to use Facebook to flog his book <em>Blood\'s a Rover....</em>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"mceTemp mceIEcenter\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><dl id=\"attachment_7949\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 700px;\"> <dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7949 \" title=\"James Ellroy quitting Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.03.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"690\" height=\"459\" /></dt> <dd class=\"wp-caption-dd\">James Ellroy using Facebook</dd> </dl></div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Fair enough.</p>','James Ellroy quits Facebook','','inherit','open','open','','7948-revision-3','','','2011-04-04 21:22:55','2011-04-04 20:22:55','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7948-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7956,1,'2011-04-04 21:25:02','2011-04-04 20:25:02','Look. I know the feeling. I\'m not in the same sales league but I quit Facebook too because of all the hassle. Which is now why I\'m very picky about who I friend after I came back. Here\'s James Ellroy\'s parting shot today...\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7950\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"503\" caption=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-7950\" title=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.54.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"159\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn all fairness though it should be recorded that Mr Ellroy was, only two years ago asking booksellers to use Facebook to flog his book <em>Blood\'s a Rover....</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7953\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"635\" caption=\"James Ellroy embraces Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-large wp-image-7953\" title=\"James Ellroy embraces Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.031-640x425.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"421\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\n</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Hell of a way to go on both occasions. Well done sir!</p>','James Ellroy quits Facebook','','inherit','open','open','','7948-revision-5','','','2011-04-04 21:25:02','2011-04-04 20:25:02','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7948-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(7957,1,'2011-04-04 21:25:13','2011-04-04 20:25:13','Look. I know the feeling. I\'m not in the same sales league but I quit Facebook too because of all the hassle. Which is now why I\'m very picky about who I friend after I came back. Here\'s James Ellroy\'s parting shot today...\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7950\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"503\" caption=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-7950\" title=\"James Ellroy quits Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.54.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"159\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn all fairness though it should be recorded that Mr Ellroy was, only two years ago asking booksellers to use Facebook to flog his book <em>Blood\'s a Rover....</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7953\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"635\" caption=\"James Ellroy embraces Facebook\"]<img class=\"size-large wp-image-7953\" title=\"James Ellroy embraces Facebook\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-04-at-21.17.031-640x425.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"421\" />[/caption]\r\n\r\n</em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Hell of a way to go on both occasions. Well done sir!</p>','James Ellroy quits Facebook','','inherit','open','open','','7948-revision-6','','','2011-04-04 21:25:13','2011-04-04 20:25:13','',7948,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7948-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(7958,1,'2011-04-05 08:12:27','2011-04-05 07:12:27','In a word, comments. I wrote about this in more detail in January -- you can see the link at the foot of this article. But it\'s turning out to be one of the most used new features there is of Scrivener 2.\r\n\r\nI\'ve always wanted to be able to make comments easily throughout a manuscript and never found a great way to do. General word processors usually offer to do them in the margin, and then expand the page size to include them.\r\n\r\nNot Scrivener 2.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7959 aligncenter\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-05 at 08.00.24\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08.00.24.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"353\" height=\"59\" /></p>\r\nPut your cursor in the text somewhere and hit the comment icon (or Command-Shift-*). You can then put a comment directly into that position. But you see it in the hideable Inspector sidebar, where version data, notes, snapshots, keywords and references also reside.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7961\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-05 at 08.00.00\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08.00.00.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"86\" />\r\n\r\nSo it\'s there when you need it and somehow a lot less distracting than a comment placed in the margin of the actual document.\r\n\r\nWant to see all the notes for a section of different scenes? Select the enclosing folder. Want to see all the notes for the manuscript? Er... haven’t worked that one out yet. But I\'m sure it\'s there somewhere, though since I tend to work section-by-section I probably don\'t need it.','One small but lovely thing about Scrivener 2','','publish','open','open','','one-small-but-lovely-thing-about-scrivener-2','','','2011-04-05 08:13:52','2011-04-05 07:13:52','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7958',0,'post','',6),(7959,1,'2011-04-05 08:02:00','2011-04-05 07:02:00','','Screen shot 2011-04-05 at 08.00.24','','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08-00-24','','','2011-04-05 08:02:00','2011-04-05 07:02:00','',7958,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08.00.24.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(7961,1,'2011-04-05 08:05:49','2011-04-05 07:05:49','','Screen shot 2011-04-05 at 08.00.00','','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08-00-00','','','2011-04-05 08:05:49','2011-04-05 07:05:49','',7958,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08.00.00.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8010,1,'2011-04-12 16:40:42','2011-04-12 15:40:42','One of the very odd things about the writing business is how complete strangers, with no knowledge of it except that they once bought a book, will tell you how you should be running your professional career, usually with a starting declaration that you somehow got everything wrong in the first place.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a bit like someone buying a copy of \'The Dummies Guide to Excel\' and thinking it qualifies them to be chairman of the Federal Reserve. But hey... I may have sixteen or so books out there in twenty plus languages, a movie, a TV series in development and a career that\'s kept me happy for a good few years.\r\n\r\nIt still doesn\'t stop someone responding to an anti-piracy piece with the familiar retort, \'It\'s advertising, dude. Haven\'t you read Cory Doctorow? Don\'t you know what the future is?\'\r\n\r\nActually I don\'t know what the future is, and nor do many people in publishing right now. Though I do know a future in which books are stolen, not paid for, isn\'t one that\'s headed for happy times.\r\n\r\nAll the same the \'listen to Doctorow\' stuff does crop up all the time. Cory Doctorow is entitled to his opinions. He works in a very different field to mine, science fiction, one that appeals to the geek crowd who seem to think they know everything there is to know about where publishing is headed. Good luck to him.\r\n\r\nBut before anyone else comes onto this site and advises me to learn at the feet of Cory Doctorow will you <strong>please</strong> take a look at these two pages.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https://kent.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/CHGENQ/OPAC/BIBENQ/10255392?ISGLB=1\" target=\"_blank\">This is a list of Cory Doctorow\'s books available through the busy libraries of South East England.</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https://kent.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/CHGENQ/OPAC/BIBENQ/10253540?ISGLB=1\" target=\"_blank\">This is a list of mine</a>.\r\n\r\nDoctorow has eight entries, all of them standard books. I have one hundred and eleven which cover hardback, paperback, audio and large print. I\'m sure in his own field he outsells me greatly. But in mine it\'s no contest, as one would expect.\r\n\r\nThis doesn\'t mean I\'m a \'bigger\' writer than him, except in the libraries of south east England maybe.  His fans have doubtless never heard of me, any more, I expect, than my followers of Italian crime go in much for SF.\r\n\r\nThe book world is colossal and complex and, thank goodness, full of enormous variety. A publishing model that works for Cory Doctorow will never work for me, because I have a different readership, notably a very strong one in libraries for loaned print copies, which is a market self publishing and free electronic versions simply cannot reach.\r\n\r\nThis is not a one-size-fits-all business, thank goodness. And anyone who thinks it is simply displays their basic ignorance of how it works.\r\n\r\n<strong>Update</strong>\r\n\r\nCory Doctorow was on Twitter after this post appeared, very quickly indeed. A bit of our polite and interesting interchange is below. Let me make this clear. What I\'m saying here is that I believe people who tell me, and writers like me, \'Use Cory Doctorow as your career template\' are deeply misguided. But I don\'t think Cory Doctorow\'s career template for himself is wrong in any way. It\'s clearly very successful.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8018\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 17.40.08\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-17.40.08.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"721\" />','Why I don\'t take career advice from Cory Doctorow','','publish','open','open','','why-i-dont-take-career-advice-from-cory-doctorow','','','2011-04-14 13:06:31','2011-04-14 12:06:31','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=8010',0,'post','',9),(7963,1,'2011-04-05 08:11:46','2011-04-05 07:11:46','In a word, comments. I\'ve always wanted to be able to make comments easily throughout a manuscript and never found a great way to do. General word processors usually offer to do them in the margin, and then expand the page size to include them.\n\nNot Scrivener 2.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7959 aligncenter\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-05 at 08.00.24\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08.00.24.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"353\" height=\"59\" /></p>\nPut your cursor in the text somewhere and hit the comment icon (or Command-Shift-*). You can then put a comment directly into that position. But you see it in the hideable Inspector sidebar, where version data, notes, snapshots, keywords and references also reside.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7961\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-05 at 08.00.00\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08.00.00.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"86\" />\n\nSo it\'s there when you need it and somehow a lot less distracting than a comment placed in the margin of the actual document.\n\nWant to see all the notes for a section of different scenes? Select the enclosing folder. Want to see all the notes for the manuscript','One small but lovely thing about Scrivener 2','','inherit','open','open','','7958-revision','','','2011-04-05 08:11:46','2011-04-05 07:11:46','',7958,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7958-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7964,1,'2011-04-05 08:12:27','2011-04-05 07:12:27','In a word, comments. I\'ve always wanted to be able to make comments easily throughout a manuscript and never found a great way to do. General word processors usually offer to do them in the margin, and then expand the page size to include them.\r\n\r\nNot Scrivener 2.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7959 aligncenter\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-05 at 08.00.24\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08.00.24.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"353\" height=\"59\" /></p>\r\nPut your cursor in the text somewhere and hit the comment icon (or Command-Shift-*). You can then put a comment directly into that position. But you see it in the hideable Inspector sidebar, where version data, notes, snapshots, keywords and references also reside.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7961\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-05 at 08.00.00\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-05-at-08.00.00.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"86\" />\r\n\r\nSo it\'s there when you need it and somehow a lot less distracting than a comment placed in the margin of the actual document.\r\n\r\nWant to see all the notes for a section of different scenes? Select the enclosing folder. Want to see all the notes for the manuscript? Er... haven’t worked that one out yet. But I\'m sure it\'s there somewhere, though since I tend to work section-by-section I probably don\'t need it.','One small but lovely thing about Scrivener 2','','inherit','open','open','','7958-revision-2','','','2011-04-05 08:12:27','2011-04-05 07:12:27','',7958,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7958-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7967,1,'2011-04-06 18:32:55','2011-04-06 17:32:55','','002','','inherit','open','open','','002','','','2011-04-06 18:32:55','2011-04-06 17:32:55','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(7968,1,'2011-04-06 18:38:02','2011-04-06 17:38:02','Years ago backing up was easy. I gave my mother-in-law a floppy with the latest draft and she kept it in a safe place. Never needed to ask where that safe place was, of course. Because that\'s the truth about backup. You only need it when you don\'t have it. Backup well and regularly and nothing much is likely to go wrong. Let down your guard and...\n\nA few years back a Word file went bad. I didn\'t mind too much. I was paying for Apple\'s MobileMe service at the time, which included twice daily backups to the web. So I went to recover the last version and... it wasn\'t there. The backup service had given up the ghost and never mentioned it. I actually lost something.\n\nAnd to make it worse when I moaned about this to warn people on the Apple forums some 15-year-old geek came along and scolded me. Didn\'t I read the small print? The bit where Apple said their MobileMe backup service \'wasn\'t meant for business\'?\n\nI never did work out how Apple divided the bits and bytes it was supposed to be storing into business ones and personal ones. I did, however, pull my money out of MobileMe and look for other solutions. Multiple solutions because the truth is that, if you\'re paranoid about backup, just one simply will not do.\n\nTo begin with though I didn\'t learn that either. I plugged in one of those 1TB USB hard drives and relied on Time Machine. A few months later I thought I\'d just check how this was going. No, I didn\'t have the Time Machine icon running in the window. Enough clutter up there already. I thought it might beep if it had a problem. It didn\'t. It just stopped working.\n\nSo I restarted that and discovered, after a while, that my Western Digital My Book backup drive would simply go offline from time to time, killing Time Machine too. Worked again if I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But that\'s not the point, is it? I needed to keep on checking the whole thing was working. And sooner or later it wasn\'t.\n\nHere, then, comes the latest solution. Let\'s call it Backup 13 because I\'ve probably been through that many combinations over the years.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7967\" title=\"002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>First... local. I still have the WD My Book. Time Machine still writes to it. But I now have a new bit of kit too, a network drive, the Synology DiskStation DS111 on the right. This is what\'s called a Network-attached storage device (NAS). Essentially it\'s a little computer in its own right which hooks onto your network through the Ethernet port on your router. It then runs happily and quietly using very little power (and switching itself off at night if I want) doing a number of different jobs.\n\nThe DS111 is just a box with no storage. It costs around £220 though you can get similar things with fewer features for less. It can take two hard drives (I had a couple of 1tb spares that fitted) and use them. It also does something called RAID which combines those two 1tb drives into a single one of the same size with redundant storage. What that means is... if one drive goes down you don\'t lose anything. The data will always be recoverable from the other working drive.\n\nIf all you want is local storage this thing is very easy to set up. You can flick an option and use it directly for Time Machine backups. Or you can just see it as a storage drive attached to your network. I don\'t want to mimic what I do with Time Machine though. What I really want on this thing is a working copy of my current Documents folder on my desktop.\n\nThe DS111 comes with software to achieve this on Windows. For the Mac I use an excellent and inexpensive app called <a href=\"http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chronosync</a> ($40). This syncs my Documents folder to a storage directory on the DS111 to schedules I want, archiving old copies so I don\'t lose a thing.\n\nOK - so now I have two forms of local backup, one through USB, one slightly different to the network drive. Now for the clever stuff. The DS111 is a clever, working computer in its own right and will go about its business night and day whether I\'m working, have my desktop on, even when I\'m away. Backing up to home drives is fine but what if the house burns down? I need offsite backup too.\n\nEnter Amazon S3, a storage service from, yes, that company.','The new (final?) backup system is in place','','inherit','open','open','','7965-revision-2','','','2011-04-06 18:38:02','2011-04-06 17:38:02','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7965-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7969,1,'2011-04-06 18:48:22','2011-04-06 17:48:22','Years ago backing up was easy. I gave my mother-in-law a floppy with the latest draft and she kept it in a safe place. Never needed to ask where that safe place was, of course. Because that\'s the truth about backup. You only need it when you don\'t have it. Backup well and regularly and nothing much is likely to go wrong. Let down your guard and...\n\nA few years back a Word file went bad. I didn\'t mind too much. I was paying for Apple\'s MobileMe service at the time, which included twice daily backups to the web. So I went to recover the last version and... it wasn\'t there. The backup service had given up the ghost and never mentioned it. I actually lost something.\n\nAnd to make it worse when I moaned about this to warn people on the Apple forums some 15-year-old geek came along and scolded me. Didn\'t I read the small print? The bit where Apple said their MobileMe backup service \'wasn\'t meant for business\'?\n\nI never did work out how Apple divided the bits and bytes it was supposed to be storing into business ones and personal ones. I did, however, pull my money out of MobileMe and look for other solutions. Multiple solutions because the truth is that, if you\'re paranoid about backup, just one simply will not do.\n\nTo begin with though I didn\'t learn that either. I plugged in one of those 1TB USB hard drives and relied on Time Machine. A few months later I thought I\'d just check how this was going. No, I didn\'t have the Time Machine icon running in the window. Enough clutter up there already. I thought it might beep if it had a problem. It didn\'t. It just stopped working.\n\nSo I restarted that and discovered, after a while, that my Western Digital My Book backup drive would simply go offline from time to time, killing Time Machine too. Worked again if I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But that\'s not the point, is it? I needed to keep on checking the whole thing was working. And sooner or later it wasn\'t.\n\nHere, then, comes the latest solution. Let\'s call it Backup 13 because I\'ve probably been through that many combinations over the years.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7967\" title=\"002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>First... local. I still have the WD My Book. Time Machine still writes to it. But I now have a new bit of kit too, a network drive, the Synology DiskStation DS111 on the right. This is what\'s called a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Network-attached storage\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage\">Network-attached storage</a> device (NAS). Essentially it\'s a little computer in its own right which hooks onto your network through the Ethernet port on your router. It then runs happily and quietly using very little power (and switching itself off at night if I want) doing a number of different jobs.\n\nThe DS111 is just a box with no storage. It costs around £220 though you can get similar things with fewer features for less. It can take two hard drives (I had a couple of 1tb spares that fitted) and use them. It also does something called RAID which combines those two 1tb drives into a single one of the same size with redundant storage. What that means is... if one drive goes down you don\'t lose anything. The data will always be recoverable from the other working drive.\n\nIf all you want is local storage this thing is very easy to set up. You can flick an option and use it directly for Time Machine backups. Or you can just see it as a storage drive attached to your network. I don\'t want to mimic what I do with Time Machine though. What I really want on this thing is a working copy of my current Documents folder on my desktop.\n\nThe DS111 comes with software to achieve this on Windows. For the Mac I use an excellent and inexpensive app called <a href=\"http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chronosync</a> ($40). This syncs my Documents folder to a storage directory on the DS111 to schedules I want, archiving old copies so I don\'t lose a thing.\n\nOK - so now I have two forms of local backup, one through USB, one slightly different to the network drive. Now for the clever stuff. The DS111 is a clever, working computer in its own right and will go about its business night and day whether I\'m working, have my desktop on, even when I\'m away. Backing up to home drives is fine but what if the house burns down? I need offsite backup too.\n\nEnter <a href=\"http://aws.amazon.com/s3/\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon S3</a>, a storage service from, yes, that company. S3 is used by a lot of serious companies for software development and the rest. But anyone can sign up for a free account and new users currently get 5gb of storage and lot of access per month for free. More than enough, I suspect, for my needs, and even if I go over them a little bit it won\'t cost much at all.\n\nThe DS111 backs up any of the directories I create on it to my free Amazon S3 account. It will even do this in the middle of the night, when my ISP doesn\'t count broadband use at all. So Chronosync backs up my documents in the middle of the day and early evening. And overnight they go up to network backup on S3.\n\nCan I sleep at night with this? I think so. My data is in two local locations and one remote one. This is about as neurotic as it can get.\n\nBut there is more. My DiskStation isn\'t just a computer. It\'s also a web server. So I can set it up to be accessible to me and me alone, through username and password, anywhere in the world where I have a web connection. I can tunnel back into my documents, access photos, even play my home music (and on an iPad, iPhone or Android phone with a free app too).\n\nDo I need this? Not sure -- but the idea of being able to access my own personal dropbox that easily does sound attractive. Not that I bought the thing for this, or the other toys, such as photo hosting, that it also offers.\n\nOne word of caution. Local setup for this thing was very easy. Getting it to be visible outside the local network, through a web connection, is more tricky. Some common routers have automatic setup. Mine didn\'t so I had to go into my router and set up \'port forwarding\'. In other words I had to tell the router to allow certain connections through the firewall to get to the DiskStation. This turned out to be a lot easier than trying to use the wizard on the DiskStation itself. Read up on port forwarding and do it on the router is my advice. And if your ISP doesn’t provide you with a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"IP address\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address\">static IP address</a> -- needed so that you can find your DiskStation over the web -- use the built-in workaround within the DiskStation box. This will allow you to sign up for a service that routes you to the right place even if, like most users, your IP address changes from time to time.\n\nAnyway -- it all seems to be working. If I lose anything after <em>this</em> then I will be ma\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2404cc68-f0c8-443e-99fb-d37b98e9f512\" alt=\"\" /></div>','The new (final?) backup system is in place','','inherit','open','open','','7965-revision-3','','','2011-04-06 18:48:22','2011-04-06 17:48:22','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7965-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7970,1,'2011-04-06 18:48:26','2011-04-06 17:48:26','Years ago backing up was easy. I gave my mother-in-law a floppy with the latest draft and she kept it in a safe place. Never needed to ask where that safe place was, of course. Because that\'s the truth about backup. You only need it when you don\'t have it. Backup well and regularly and nothing much is likely to go wrong. Let down your guard and...\r\n\r\nA few years back a Word file went bad. I didn\'t mind too much. I was paying for Apple\'s MobileMe service at the time, which included twice daily backups to the web. So I went to recover the last version and... it wasn\'t there. The backup service had given up the ghost and never mentioned it. I actually lost something.\r\n\r\nAnd to make it worse when I moaned about this to warn people on the Apple forums some 15-year-old geek came along and scolded me. Didn\'t I read the small print? The bit where Apple said their MobileMe backup service \'wasn\'t meant for business\'?\r\n\r\nI never did work out how Apple divided the bits and bytes it was supposed to be storing into business ones and personal ones. I did, however, pull my money out of MobileMe and look for other solutions. Multiple solutions because the truth is that, if you\'re paranoid about backup, just one simply will not do.\r\n\r\nTo begin with though I didn\'t learn that either. I plugged in one of those 1TB USB hard drives and relied on Time Machine. A few months later I thought I\'d just check how this was going. No, I didn\'t have the Time Machine icon running in the window. Enough clutter up there already. I thought it might beep if it had a problem. It didn\'t. It just stopped working.\r\n\r\nSo I restarted that and discovered, after a while, that my Western Digital My Book backup drive would simply go offline from time to time, killing Time Machine too. Worked again if I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But that\'s not the point, is it? I needed to keep on checking the whole thing was working. And sooner or later it wasn\'t.\r\n\r\nHere, then, comes the latest solution. Let\'s call it Backup 13 because I\'ve probably been through that many combinations over the years.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7967\" title=\"002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>First... local. I still have the WD My Book. Time Machine still writes to it. But I now have a new bit of kit too, a network drive, the Synology DiskStation DS111 on the right. This is what\'s called a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Network-attached storage\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage\">Network-attached storage</a> device (NAS). Essentially it\'s a little computer in its own right which hooks onto your network through the Ethernet port on your router. It then runs happily and quietly using very little power (and switching itself off at night if I want) doing a number of different jobs.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 is just a box with no storage. It costs around £220 though you can get similar things with fewer features for less. It can take two hard drives (I had a couple of 1tb spares that fitted) and use them. It also does something called RAID which combines those two 1tb drives into a single one of the same size with redundant storage. What that means is... if one drive goes down you don\'t lose anything. The data will always be recoverable from the other working drive.\r\n\r\nIf all you want is local storage this thing is very easy to set up. You can flick an option and use it directly for Time Machine backups. Or you can just see it as a storage drive attached to your network. I don\'t want to mimic what I do with Time Machine though. What I really want on this thing is a working copy of my current Documents folder on my desktop.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 comes with software to achieve this on Windows. For the Mac I use an excellent and inexpensive app called <a href=\"http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chronosync</a> ($40). This syncs my Documents folder to a storage directory on the DS111 to schedules I want, archiving old copies so I don\'t lose a thing.\r\n\r\nOK - so now I have two forms of local backup, one through USB, one slightly different to the network drive. Now for the clever stuff. The DS111 is a clever, working computer in its own right and will go about its business night and day whether I\'m working, have my desktop on, even when I\'m away. Backing up to home drives is fine but what if the house burns down? I need offsite backup too.\r\n\r\nEnter <a href=\"http://aws.amazon.com/s3/\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon S3</a>, a storage service from, yes, that company. S3 is used by a lot of serious companies for software development and the rest. But anyone can sign up for a free account and new users currently get 5gb of storage and lot of access per month for free. More than enough, I suspect, for my needs, and even if I go over them a little bit it won\'t cost much at all.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 backs up any of the directories I create on it to my free Amazon S3 account. It will even do this in the middle of the night, when my ISP doesn\'t count broadband use at all. So Chronosync backs up my documents in the middle of the day and early evening. And overnight they go up to network backup on S3.\r\n\r\nCan I sleep at night with this? I think so. My data is in two local locations and one remote one. This is about as neurotic as it can get.\r\n\r\nBut there is more. My DiskStation isn\'t just a computer. It\'s also a web server. So I can set it up to be accessible to me and me alone, through username and password, anywhere in the world where I have a web connection. I can tunnel back into my documents, access photos, even play my home music (and on an iPad, iPhone or Android phone with a free app too).\r\n\r\nDo I need this? Not sure -- but the idea of being able to access my own personal dropbox that easily does sound attractive. Not that I bought the thing for this, or the other toys, such as photo hosting, that it also offers.\r\n\r\nOne word of caution. Local setup for this thing was very easy. Getting it to be visible outside the local network, through a web connection, is more tricky. Some common routers have automatic setup. Mine didn\'t so I had to go into my router and set up \'port forwarding\'. In other words I had to tell the router to allow certain connections through the firewall to get to the DiskStation. This turned out to be a lot easier than trying to use the wizard on the DiskStation itself. Read up on port forwarding and do it on the router is my advice. And if your ISP doesn’t provide you with a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"IP address\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address\">static IP address</a> -- needed so that you can find your DiskStation over the web -- use the built-in workaround within the DiskStation box. This will allow you to sign up for a service that routes you to the right place even if, like most users, your IP address changes from time to time.\r\n\r\nAnyway -- it all seems to be working. If I lose anything after <em>this</em> then I will be mad.\r\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2404cc68-f0c8-443e-99fb-d37b98e9f512\" alt=\"\" /></div>','The new (final?) backup system is in place','','inherit','open','open','','7965-revision-4','','','2011-04-06 18:48:26','2011-04-06 17:48:26','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7965-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7971,1,'2011-04-06 18:48:36','2011-04-06 17:48:36','Years ago backing up was easy. I gave my mother-in-law a floppy with the latest draft and she kept it in a safe place. Never needed to ask where that safe place was, of course. Because that\'s the truth about backup. You only need it when you don\'t have it. Backup well and regularly and nothing much is likely to go wrong. Let down your guard and...\r\n\r\nA few years back a Word file went bad. I didn\'t mind too much. I was paying for Apple\'s MobileMe service at the time, which included twice daily backups to the web. So I went to recover the last version and... it wasn\'t there. The backup service had given up the ghost and never mentioned it. I actually lost something.\r\n\r\nAnd to make it worse when I moaned about this to warn people on the Apple forums some 15-year-old geek came along and scolded me. Didn\'t I read the small print? The bit where Apple said their MobileMe backup service \'wasn\'t meant for business\'?\r\n\r\nI never did work out how Apple divided the bits and bytes it was supposed to be storing into business ones and personal ones. I did, however, pull my money out of MobileMe and look for other solutions. Multiple solutions because the truth is that, if you\'re paranoid about backup, just one simply will not do.\r\n\r\nTo begin with though I didn\'t learn that either. I plugged in one of those 1TB USB hard drives and relied on Time Machine. A few months later I thought I\'d just check how this was going. No, I didn\'t have the Time Machine icon running in the window. Enough clutter up there already. I thought it might beep if it had a problem. It didn\'t. It just stopped working.\r\n\r\nSo I restarted that and discovered, after a while, that my Western Digital My Book backup drive would simply go offline from time to time, killing Time Machine too. Worked again if I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But that\'s not the point, is it? I needed to keep on checking the whole thing was working. And sooner or later it wasn\'t.\r\n\r\nHere, then, comes the latest solution. Let\'s call it Backup 13 because I\'ve probably been through that many combinations over the years.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7967\" title=\"002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>First... local. I still have the WD My Book. Time Machine still writes to it. But I now have a new bit of kit too, a network drive, the Synology DiskStation DS111 on the right. This is what\'s called a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Network-attached storage\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage\">Network-attached storage</a> device (NAS). Essentially it\'s a little computer in its own right which hooks onto your network through the Ethernet port on your router. It then runs happily and quietly using very little power (and switching itself off at night if I want) doing a number of different jobs.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 is just a box with no storage. It costs around £220 though you can get similar things with fewer features for less. It can take two hard drives (I had a couple of 1tb spares that fitted) and use them. It also does something called RAID which combines those two 1tb drives into a single one of the same size with redundant storage. What that means is... if one drive goes down you don\'t lose anything. The data will always be recoverable from the other working drive.\r\n\r\nIf all you want is local storage this thing is very easy to set up. You can flick an option and use it directly for Time Machine backups. Or you can just see it as a storage drive attached to your network. I don\'t want to mimic what I do with Time Machine though. What I really want on this thing is a working copy of my current Documents folder on my desktop.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 comes with software to achieve this on Windows. For the Mac I use an excellent and inexpensive app called <a href=\"http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chronosync</a> ($40). This syncs my Documents folder to a storage directory on the DS111 to schedules I want, archiving old copies so I don\'t lose a thing.\r\n\r\nOK - so now I have two forms of local backup, one through USB, one slightly different to the network drive. Now for the clever stuff. The DS111 is a clever, working computer in its own right and will go about its business night and day whether I\'m working, have my desktop on, even when I\'m away. Backing up to home drives is fine but what if the house burns down? I need offsite backup too.\r\n\r\nEnter <a href=\"http://aws.amazon.com/s3/\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon S3</a>, a storage service from, yes, that company. S3 is used by a lot of serious companies for software development and the rest. But anyone can sign up for a free account and new users currently get 5gb of storage and lot of access per month for free. More than enough, I suspect, for my needs, and even if I go over them a little bit it won\'t cost much at all.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 backs up any of the directories I create on it to my free Amazon S3 account. It will even do this in the middle of the night, when my ISP doesn\'t count broadband use at all. So Chronosync backs up my documents in the middle of the day and early evening. And overnight they go up to network backup on S3.\r\n\r\nCan I sleep at night with this? I think so. My data is in two local locations and one remote one. This is about as neurotic as it can get.\r\n\r\nBut there is more. My DiskStation isn\'t just a computer. It\'s also a web server. So I can set it up to be accessible to me and me alone, through username and password, anywhere in the world where I have a web connection. I can tunnel back into my documents, access photos, even play my home music (and on an iPad, iPhone or Android phone with a free app too).\r\n\r\nDo I need this? Not sure -- but the idea of being able to access my own personal dropbox that easily does sound attractive. Not that I bought the thing for this, or the other toys, such as photo hosting, that it also offers.\r\n\r\nOne word of caution. Local setup for this thing was very easy. Getting it to be visible outside the local network, through a web connection, is more tricky. Some common routers have automatic setup. Mine didn\'t so I had to go into my router and set up \'port forwarding\'. In other words I had to tell the router to allow certain connections through the firewall to get to the DiskStation. This turned out to be a lot easier than trying to use the wizard on the DiskStation itself. Read up on port forwarding and do it on the router is my advice. And if your ISP doesn’t provide you with a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"IP address\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address\">static IP address</a> -- needed so that you can find your DiskStation over the web -- use the built-in workaround within the DiskStation box. This will allow you to sign up for a service that routes you to the right place even if, like most users, your IP address changes from time to time.\r\n\r\nAnyway -- it all seems to be working. If I lose anything after <em>this</em> then I will be mad.\r\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2404cc68-f0c8-443e-99fb-d37b98e9f512\" alt=\"\" /></div>','The new (final?) backup system is in place','','inherit','open','open','','7965-revision-5','','','2011-04-06 18:48:36','2011-04-06 17:48:36','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7965-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(7972,1,'2011-04-06 18:50:31','2011-04-06 17:50:31','Years ago backing up was easy. I gave my mother-in-law a floppy with the latest draft and she kept it in a safe place. Never needed to ask where that safe place was, of course. Because that\'s the truth about backup. You only need it when you don\'t have it. Backup well and regularly and nothing much is likely to go wrong. Let down your guard and...\n\nA few years back a Word file went bad. I didn\'t mind too much. I was paying for Apple\'s MobileMe service at the time, which included twice daily backups to the web. So I went to recover the last version and... it wasn\'t there. The backup service had given up the ghost and never mentioned it. I actually lost something.\n\nAnd to make it worse when I moaned about this to warn people on the Apple forums some 15-year-old geek came along and scolded me. Didn\'t I read the small print? The bit where Apple said their MobileMe backup service \'wasn\'t meant for business\'?\n\nI never did work out how Apple divided the bits and bytes it was supposed to be storing into business ones and personal ones. I did, however, pull my money out of MobileMe and look for other solutions. Multiple solutions in the end because the truth is that, if you\'re paranoid about backup, just one simply will not do.\n\nTo begin with though I didn\'t learn that either. I plugged in one of those 1TB USB hard drives and relied on Time Machine. A few months later I thought I\'d just check how this was going. No, I didn\'t have the Time Machine icon running in the window. Enough clutter up there already. I thought it might beep if it had a problem. It didn\'t. It just stopped working.\n\nSo I restarted that and discovered, after a while, that my Western Digital My Book backup drive would simply go offline from time to time, killing Time Machine too. Worked again if I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But that\'s not the point, is it? I needed to keep on checking the whole thing was working. And sooner or later it wasn\'t.\n\nHere, then, comes the latest solution. Let\'s call it Backup 13 because I\'ve probably been through that many combinations over the years.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7967\" title=\"002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>First... local. I still have the WD My Book. Time Machine still writes to it. But I now have a new bit of kit too, a network drive, the Synology DiskStation DS111 on the right. This is what\'s called a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Network-attached storage\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage\">Network-attached storage</a> device (NAS). Essentially it\'s a little computer in its own right which hooks onto your network through the Ethernet port on your router. It then runs happily and quietly using very little power (and switching itself off at night if I want) doing a number of different jobs.\n\nThe DS111 is just a box with no storage. It costs around £220 though you can get similar things with fewer features for less. It can take two hard drives (I had a couple of 1tb spares that fitted) and use them. It also does something called RAID which combines those two 1tb drives into a single one of the same size with redundant storage. What that means is... if one drive goes down you don\'t lose anything. The data will always be recoverable from the other working drive.\n\nIf all you want is local storage this thing is very easy to set up. You can flick an option and use it directly for Time Machine backups. Or you can just see it as a storage drive attached to your network. I don\'t want to mimic what I do with Time Machine though. What I really want on this thing is a working copy of my current Documents folder on my desktop.\n\nThe DS111 comes with software to achieve this on Windows. For the Mac I use an excellent and inexpensive app called <a href=\"http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chronosync</a> ($40). This syncs my Documents folder to a storage directory on the DS111 to schedules I want, archiving old copies so I don\'t lose a thing.\n\nOK - so now I have two forms of local backup, one through USB, one slightly different to the network drive. Now for the clever stuff. The DS111 is a clever, working computer in its own right and will go about its business night and day whether I\'m working, have my desktop on, even when I\'m away. Backing up to home drives is fine but what if the house burns down? I need offsite backup too.\n\nEnter <a href=\"http://aws.amazon.com/s3/\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon S3</a>, a storage service from, yes, that company. S3 is used by a lot of serious companies for software development and the rest. But anyone can sign up for a free account and new users currently get 5gb of storage and lot of access per month for free. More than enough, I suspect, for my needs, and even if I go over them a little bit it won\'t cost much at all.\n\nThe DS111 backs up any of the directories I create on it to my free Amazon S3 account. It will even do this in the middle of the night, when my ISP doesn\'t count broadband use at all. So Chronosync backs up my documents in the middle of the day and early evening. And overnight they go up to network backup on S3.\n\nCan I sleep at night with this? I think so. My data is in two local locations and one remote one. This is about as neurotic as it can get.\n\nBut there is more. My DiskStation isn\'t just a computer. It\'s also a web server. So I can set it up to be accessible to me and me alone, through username and password, anywhere in the world where I have a web connection. I can tunnel back into my documents, access photos, even play my home music (and on an iPad, iPhone or Android phone with a free app too).\n\nDo I need this? Not sure -- but the idea of being able to access my own personal dropbox that easily does sound attractive. Not that I bought the thing for this, or the other toys, such as photo hosting, that it also offers.\n\nOne word of caution. Local setup for this thing was very easy. Getting it to be visible outside the local network, through a web connection, is more tricky. Some common routers have automatic setup. Mine didn\'t so I had to go into my router and set up \'port forwarding\'. In other words I had to tell the router to allow certain connections through the firewall to get to the DiskStation. This turned out to be a lot easier than trying to use the wizard on the DiskStation itself. Read up on port forwarding and do it on the router is my advice. And if your ISP doesn’t provide you with a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"IP address\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address\">static IP address</a> -- needed so that you can find your DiskStation over the web -- use the built-in workaround within the DiskStation box. This will allow you to sign up for a service that routes you to the right place even if, like most users, your IP address changes from time to time.\n\nAnyway -- it all seems to be working. If I lose anything after <em>this</em> then I will be mad.\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2404cc68-f0c8-443e-99fb-d37b98e9f512\" alt=\"\" /></div>','The new (final?) backup system is in place','','inherit','open','open','','7965-revision-6','','','2011-04-06 18:50:31','2011-04-06 17:50:31','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7965-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(7973,1,'2011-04-06 18:52:08','2011-04-06 17:52:08','Years ago backing up was easy. I gave my mother-in-law a floppy with the latest draft and she kept it in a safe place. Never needed to ask where that safe place was, of course. Because that\'s the truth about backup. You only need it when you don\'t have it. Backup well and regularly and nothing much is likely to go wrong. Let down your guard and...\n\nA few years back a Word file went bad. I didn\'t mind too much. I was paying for Apple\'s MobileMe service at the time, which included twice daily backups to the web. So I went to recover the last version and... it wasn\'t there. The backup service had given up the ghost and never mentioned it. I actually lost something.\n\nAnd to make it worse when I moaned about this to warn people on the Apple forums some 15-year-old geek came along and scolded me. Didn\'t I read the small print? The bit where Apple said their MobileMe backup service \'wasn\'t meant for business\'?\n\nI never did work out how Apple divided the bits and bytes it was supposed to be storing into business ones and personal ones. I did, however, pull my money out of MobileMe and look for other solutions. Multiple solutions in the end because the truth is that, if you\'re paranoid about backup, just one simply will not do.\n\nTo begin with though I didn\'t learn that either. I plugged in one of those 1TB USB hard drives and relied on Time Machine. A few months later I thought I\'d just check how this was going. No, I didn\'t have the Time Machine icon running in the window. Enough clutter up there already. I thought it might beep if it had a problem. It didn\'t. It just stopped working.\n\nSo I restarted that and discovered, after a while, that my Western Digital My Book backup drive would simply go offline from time to time, killing Time Machine too. Worked again if I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But that\'s not the point, is it? I needed to keep on checking the whole thing was working. And sooner or later it wasn\'t.\n\nHere, then, comes the latest solution. Let\'s call it Backup 13 because I\'ve probably been through that many combinations over the years.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7967\" title=\"002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>First... local. I still have the WD My Book. Time Machine still writes to it. But I now have a new bit of kit too, a network drive, the Synology DiskStation DS111 on the right. This is what\'s called a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Network-attached storage\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage\">Network-attached storage</a> device (NAS). Essentially it\'s a little computer in its own right which hooks onto your network through the Ethernet port on your router. It then runs happily and quietly using very little power (and switching itself off at night if I want) doing a number of different jobs.\n\nThe DS111 is just a box with no storage. It costs around £220 though you can get similar things with fewer features for less. It can take two hard drives (I had a couple of 1tb spares that fitted) and use them. It also does something called RAID which combines those two 1tb drives into a single one of the same size with redundant storage. What that means is... if one drive goes down you don\'t lose anything. The data will always be recoverable from the other working drive.\n\nIf all you want is local storage this thing is very easy to set up. You can flick an option and use it directly for Time Machine backups. Or you can just see it as a storage drive attached to your network. I don\'t want to mimic what I do with Time Machine though. What I really want on this thing is a working copy of my current Documents folder on my desktop, for reasons which will soon become apparent.\n\nThe DS111 comes with software to achieve this on Windows. For the Mac I use an excellent and inexpensive app called <a href=\"http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chronosync</a> ($40). This syncs my Documents folder to a storage directory on the DS111 to schedules I want, archiving old copies so I don\'t lose a thing.\n\nOK - so now I have two forms of local backup, one through USB, one slightly different to the network drive. Now for the clever stuff. The DS111 is a clever, working computer in its own right and will go about its business night and day whether I\'m working, have my desktop on, even when I\'m away. Backing up to home drives is fine but what if the house burns down? I need offsite backup too.\n\nEnter <a href=\"http://aws.amazon.com/s3/\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon S3</a>, a storage service from, yes, that company. S3 is used by a lot of serious companies for software development and the rest. But anyone can sign up for a free account and new users currently get 5gb of storage and lot of access per month for free. More than enough, I suspect, for my needs, and even if I go over them a little bit it won\'t cost much at all.\n\nThe DS111 backs up any of the directories I create on it to my free Amazon S3 account. It will even do this in the middle of the night, when my ISP doesn\'t count broadband use at all. So Chronosync backs up my documents in the middle of the day and early evening. And overnight a copy of my documents folders to network backup on S3.\n\nCan I sleep at night with this? I think so. My data is in two local locations and one remote one. This is about as neurotic as it can get.\n\nBut there is more. My DiskStation isn\'t just a computer. It\'s also a web server. So I can set it up to be accessible to me and me alone, through username and password, anywhere in the world where I have a web connection. I can tunnel back into my documents, access photos, even play my home music (and on an iPad, iPhone or Android phone with a free app too).\n\nDo I need this? Not sure -- but the idea of being able to access my own personal dropbox that easily does sound attractive. Not that I bought the thing for this, or the other toys, such as photo hosting, that it also offers.\n\nOne word of caution. Local setup for this thing was very easy. Getting it to be visible outside the local network, through a web connection, is more tricky. Some common routers have automatic setup. Mine didn\'t so I had to go into my router and set up \'port forwarding\'. In other words I had to tell the router to allow certain connections through the firewall to get to the DiskStation. This turned out to be a lot easier than trying to use the wizard on the DiskStation itself. Read up on port forwarding and do it on the router is my advice. And if your ISP doesn’t provide you with a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"IP address\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address\">static IP address</a> -- needed so that you can find your DiskStation over the web -- use the built-in workaround within the DiskStation box. This will allow you to sign up for a service that routes you to the right place even if, like most users, your IP address changes from time to time.\n\nAnyway -- it all seems to be working. If I lose anything after <em>this</em> then I will be mad.\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2404cc68-f0c8-443e-99fb-d37b98e9f512\" alt=\"\" /></div>','The new (final?) backup system is in place','','inherit','open','open','','7965-revision-7','','','2011-04-06 18:52:08','2011-04-06 17:52:08','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7965-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(7975,1,'2011-04-06 18:54:25','2011-04-06 17:54:25','Years ago backing up was easy. I gave my mother-in-law a floppy with the latest draft and she kept it in a safe place. Never needed to ask where that safe place was, of course. Because that\'s the truth about backup. You only need it when you don\'t have it. Backup well and regularly and nothing much is likely to go wrong. Let down your guard and...\n\nA few years back a Word file went bad. I didn\'t mind too much. I was paying for Apple\'s MobileMe service at the time, which included twice daily backups to the web. So I went to recover the last version and... it wasn\'t there. The backup service had given up the ghost and never mentioned it. I actually lost something.\n\nAnd to make it worse when I moaned about this to warn people on the Apple forums some 15-year-old geek came along and scolded me. Didn\'t I read the small print? The bit where Apple said their MobileMe backup service \'wasn\'t meant for business\'?\n\nI never did work out how Apple divided the bits and bytes it was supposed to be storing into business ones and personal ones. I did, however, pull my money out of MobileMe and look for other solutions. Multiple solutions in the end because the truth is that, if you\'re paranoid about backup, just one simply will not do.\n\nTo begin with though I didn\'t learn that either. I plugged in one of those 1TB USB hard drives and relied on Time Machine. A few months later I thought I\'d just check how this was going. No, I didn\'t have the Time Machine icon running in the window. Enough clutter up there already. I thought it might beep if it had a problem. It didn\'t. It just stopped working.\n\nSo I restarted that and discovered, after a while, that my Western Digital My Book backup drive would simply go offline from time to time, killing Time Machine too. Worked again if I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But that\'s not the point, is it? I needed to keep on checking the whole thing was working. And sooner or later it wasn\'t.\n\nHere, then, comes the latest solution. Let\'s call it Backup 13 because I\'ve probably been through that many combinations over the years.\n\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7967\" title=\"002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>First... local. I still have the WD My Book. Time Machine still writes to it. But I now have a new bit of kit too, a network drive, the Synology DiskStation DS111 on the right. This is what\'s called a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Network-attached storage\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage\">Network-attached storage</a> device (NAS). Essentially it\'s a little computer in its own right which hooks onto your network through the Ethernet port on your router. It then runs happily and quietly using very little power (and switching itself off at night if I want) doing a number of different jobs.\n\nThe DS111 is just a box with no storage. It costs around £220 though you can get similar things with fewer features for less. It can take two hard drives (I had a couple of 1tb spares that fitted) and use them. It also does something called RAID which combines those two 1tb drives into a single one of the same size with redundant storage. What that means is... if one drive goes down you don\'t lose anything. The data will always be recoverable from the other working drive.\n\nIf all you want is local storage this thing is very easy to set up. You can flick an option and use it directly for Time Machine backups. Or you can just see it as a storage drive attached to your network. I don\'t want to mimic what I do with Time Machine though. What I really want on this thing is a working copy of my current Documents folder on my desktop, for reasons which will soon become apparent.\n\nThe DS111 comes with software to achieve this on Windows. For the Mac I use an excellent and inexpensive app called <a href=\"http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chronosync</a> ($40). This syncs my Documents folder to a storage directory on the DS111 to schedules I want, archiving old copies so I don\'t lose a thing.\n\nOK - so now I have two forms of local backup, one through USB, one slightly different to the network drive. Now for the clever stuff. The DS111 is a clever, working computer in its own right and will go about its business night and day whether I\'m working, have my desktop on, even when I\'m away. Backing up to home drives is fine but what if the house burns down? I need offsite backup too.\n\nEnter <a href=\"http://aws.amazon.com/s3/\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon S3</a>, a storage service from, yes, that company. S3 is used by a lot of serious companies for software development and the rest. But anyone can sign up for a free account and new users currently get 5gb of storage and lot of access per month for free. More than enough, I suspect, for my needs, and even if I go over them a little bit it won\'t cost much at all.\n\nThe DS111 backs up any of the directories I create on it to my free Amazon S3 account. It will even do this in the middle of the night, when my ISP doesn\'t count broadband use at all. So Chronosync backs up my documents in the middle of the day and early evening. And overnight a copy of my documents folders goes to S3.\n\nCan I sleep at night with this? I think so. My data is in two local locations and one remote one. This is about as neurotic as it can get.\n\nBut there is more. My DiskStation isn\'t just a computer. It\'s also a web server. So I can set it up to be accessible to me and me alone, through username and password, anywhere in the world where I have a web connection. I can tunnel back into my documents, access photos, even play my home music (and on an iPad, iPhone or Android phone with a free app too).\n\nDo I need this? Not the music stuff perhaps -- but the idea of being able to access my own personal dropbox of current documents that easily does sound attractive.\n\nOne word of caution. Local setup for this thing was very easy. Getting it to be visible outside the local network, through a web connection, is more tricky. Some common routers have automatic setup. Mine didn\'t so I had to go into my router and set up \'port forwarding\'. In other words I had to tell the router to allow certain connections through the firewall to get to the DiskStation. This turned out to be a lot easier than trying to use the wizard on the DiskStation itself.\n\nRead up on port forwarding and do it on the router is my advice. And if your ISP doesn’t provide you with a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"IP address\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address\">static IP address</a> -- needed so that you can find your DiskStation over the web -- use the built-in workaround within the DiskStation box. This will allow you to sign up for a service that routes you to the right place even if, like most users, your IP address changes from time to time.\n\nAnyway -- it all seems to be working. If I lose anything after <em>this</em> then I will be mad.\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2404cc68-f0c8-443e-99fb-d37b98e9f512\" alt=\"\" /></div>','The new (final?) backup system is in place','','inherit','open','open','','7965-autosave','','','2011-04-06 18:54:25','2011-04-06 17:54:25','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7965-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(7974,1,'2011-04-06 18:52:16','2011-04-06 17:52:16','Years ago backing up was easy. I gave my mother-in-law a floppy with the latest draft and she kept it in a safe place. Never needed to ask where that safe place was, of course. Because that\'s the truth about backup. You only need it when you don\'t have it. Backup well and regularly and nothing much is likely to go wrong. Let down your guard and...\r\n\r\nA few years back a Word file went bad. I didn\'t mind too much. I was paying for Apple\'s MobileMe service at the time, which included twice daily backups to the web. So I went to recover the last version and... it wasn\'t there. The backup service had given up the ghost and never mentioned it. I actually lost something.\r\n\r\nAnd to make it worse when I moaned about this to warn people on the Apple forums some 15-year-old geek came along and scolded me. Didn\'t I read the small print? The bit where Apple said their MobileMe backup service \'wasn\'t meant for business\'?\r\n\r\nI never did work out how Apple divided the bits and bytes it was supposed to be storing into business ones and personal ones. I did, however, pull my money out of MobileMe and look for other solutions. Multiple solutions in the end because the truth is that, if you\'re paranoid about backup, just one simply will not do.\r\n\r\nTo begin with though I didn\'t learn that either. I plugged in one of those 1TB USB hard drives and relied on Time Machine. A few months later I thought I\'d just check how this was going. No, I didn\'t have the Time Machine icon running in the window. Enough clutter up there already. I thought it might beep if it had a problem. It didn\'t. It just stopped working.\r\n\r\nSo I restarted that and discovered, after a while, that my Western Digital My Book backup drive would simply go offline from time to time, killing Time Machine too. Worked again if I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But that\'s not the point, is it? I needed to keep on checking the whole thing was working. And sooner or later it wasn\'t.\r\n\r\nHere, then, comes the latest solution. Let\'s call it Backup 13 because I\'ve probably been through that many combinations over the years.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7967\" title=\"002\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/002-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>First... local. I still have the WD My Book. Time Machine still writes to it. But I now have a new bit of kit too, a network drive, the Synology DiskStation DS111 on the right. This is what\'s called a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Network-attached storage\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage\">Network-attached storage</a> device (NAS). Essentially it\'s a little computer in its own right which hooks onto your network through the Ethernet port on your router. It then runs happily and quietly using very little power (and switching itself off at night if I want) doing a number of different jobs.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 is just a box with no storage. It costs around £220 though you can get similar things with fewer features for less. It can take two hard drives (I had a couple of 1tb spares that fitted) and use them. It also does something called RAID which combines those two 1tb drives into a single one of the same size with redundant storage. What that means is... if one drive goes down you don\'t lose anything. The data will always be recoverable from the other working drive.\r\n\r\nIf all you want is local storage this thing is very easy to set up. You can flick an option and use it directly for Time Machine backups. Or you can just see it as a storage drive attached to your network. I don\'t want to mimic what I do with Time Machine though. What I really want on this thing is a working copy of my current Documents folder on my desktop, for reasons which will soon become apparent.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 comes with software to achieve this on Windows. For the Mac I use an excellent and inexpensive app called <a href=\"http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">Chronosync</a> ($40). This syncs my Documents folder to a storage directory on the DS111 to schedules I want, archiving old copies so I don\'t lose a thing.\r\n\r\nOK - so now I have two forms of local backup, one through USB, one slightly different to the network drive. Now for the clever stuff. The DS111 is a clever, working computer in its own right and will go about its business night and day whether I\'m working, have my desktop on, even when I\'m away. Backing up to home drives is fine but what if the house burns down? I need offsite backup too.\r\n\r\nEnter <a href=\"http://aws.amazon.com/s3/\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon S3</a>, a storage service from, yes, that company. S3 is used by a lot of serious companies for software development and the rest. But anyone can sign up for a free account and new users currently get 5gb of storage and lot of access per month for free. More than enough, I suspect, for my needs, and even if I go over them a little bit it won\'t cost much at all.\r\n\r\nThe DS111 backs up any of the directories I create on it to my free Amazon S3 account. It will even do this in the middle of the night, when my ISP doesn\'t count broadband use at all. So Chronosync backs up my documents in the middle of the day and early evening. And overnight a copy of my documents folders goes to S3.\r\n\r\nCan I sleep at night with this? I think so. My data is in two local locations and one remote one. This is about as neurotic as it can get.\r\n\r\nBut there is more. My DiskStation isn\'t just a computer. It\'s also a web server. So I can set it up to be accessible to me and me alone, through username and password, anywhere in the world where I have a web connection. I can tunnel back into my documents, access photos, even play my home music (and on an iPad, iPhone or Android phone with a free app too).\r\n\r\nDo I need this? Not sure -- but the idea of being able to access my own personal dropbox that easily does sound attractive. Not that I bought the thing for this, or the other toys, such as photo hosting, that it also offers.\r\n\r\nOne word of caution. Local setup for this thing was very easy. Getting it to be visible outside the local network, through a web connection, is more tricky. Some common routers have automatic setup. Mine didn\'t so I had to go into my router and set up \'port forwarding\'. In other words I had to tell the router to allow certain connections through the firewall to get to the DiskStation. This turned out to be a lot easier than trying to use the wizard on the DiskStation itself. Read up on port forwarding and do it on the router is my advice. And if your ISP doesn’t provide you with a <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"IP address\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address\">static IP address</a> -- needed so that you can find your DiskStation over the web -- use the built-in workaround within the DiskStation box. This will allow you to sign up for a service that routes you to the right place even if, like most users, your IP address changes from time to time.\r\n\r\nAnyway -- it all seems to be working. If I lose anything after <em>this</em> then I will be mad.\r\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2404cc68-f0c8-443e-99fb-d37b98e9f512\" alt=\"\" /></div>','The new (final?) backup system is in place','','inherit','open','open','','7965-revision-8','','','2011-04-06 18:52:16','2011-04-06 17:52:16','',7965,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7965-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(7976,1,'2011-04-07 14:39:08','2011-04-07 13:39:08','The last two weeks have seen me travelling to New York, on a venture yet-to-be-revealed, and finishing the revise of next year\'s book. The latter was a task I could do along the way, in spare moments in my hotel and at the airport. But something had to go to one side and it was writing the current book, which sat at 64K words (out of a probable 115K finished total) when I set off on my travels.\r\n\r\nOne follower on Twitter commented when I returned to the manuscript after two weeks: how do you get back into the story after a break like that?\r\n\r\n<!--more-->Good question. When I was starting out in this craft I was doing two jobs: writing books and working as a correspondent for the <em>Sunday Times</em>. Sometimes I\'d have to travel on assignments, for a week or more frequently, then spend a week writing them up on my return.\r\n\r\nI still remember being terrified by this prospect. Would the book I was writing still be in my head when I found the time to get back to it?\r\n\r\nThe answer, I think, is definitely yes, provided it\'s a solid idea that\'s taken root already. Stories aren\'t flimsy mayflies, ready to disappear on the faintest breeze. If they\'re to have substance they must <em>possess</em> substance from the start. Weight and form and some kind of presence in your head. I can work on them without writing, of course, reading drafts, making notes, going through research and my book diary.\r\n\r\nBut even if I don\'t do a thing they will still be there when I return to the manuscript. In fact there\'s a strong argument for saying that works in progress improve from being abandoned from time to time. You come back to them with fresh ideas and perspective. Once-thorny problems seem simple to solve. Florid passages that escaped you when you wrote them stand out a mile and demand excision.\r\n\r\nWriting\'s a marathon not a sprint. It doesn\'t worry me in the slightest if other pressures mean I have to set a project to one side for a while. And when this present book\'s done I hope to put it in a digital drawer for a month or so before taking it out for a final revise before delivery.\r\n\r\nSo if you can\'t find the time you\'d like to work on something don\'t worry. If it\'s good enough it won\'t run away in the middle of the night.','Stuck on a book? Walk away for a while','','publish','open','open','','stuck-on-a-book-walk-away-for-a-while','','','2011-04-07 14:39:08','2011-04-07 13:39:08','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7976',0,'post','',3),(7977,1,'2011-04-07 14:36:42','2011-04-07 13:36:42','The last two weeks have seen me travelling to New York, on a venture yet-to-be-revealed, and finishing the revise of next year\'s book. The latter was something I could do along the way, in spare moments in my hotel and at the airport. But something had to go to one side and it was writing the current book, which sat at 64K words (out of a probable 115K finished total) when I set off on my travels.\n\nOne follower on Twitter commented when I returned to the manuscript after two weeks: how do you get back into the story after a break like that?\n\n<!--more-->Good question. When I was starting out in this craft I was doing two jobs: writing books and working as a correspondent for the <em>Sunday Times</em>. Sometimes I\'d have to travel on assignments, for a week or more frequently, then spend a week writing them up on my return.\n\nI still remember being terrified by this prospect. Would the book I was writing still be in my head when I found the time to get back to it?\n\nThe answer, I think, is definitely yes, provided it\'s a solid idea that\'s taken root in your head already. Stories aren\'t flimsy ghosts, ready to disappear on the faintest breeze. If they\'re to have substance they must <em>possess</em> substance. Weight and form and some kind of presence in your head. I can work on them without writing, of course, reading drafts, making notes, going through research and my book diary.\n\nBut even if I don\'t do a thing they will still be there when I return to the manuscript. In fact there\'s a strong argument for saying that works in progress improve from being abandoned from time to time. You come back to them with fresh ideas and perspective. Once-thorny problems seem simple to solve. Florid passages that escaped you when you wrote them stand out a mile and demand excision.\n\nWriting\'s a marathon not a sprint. It doesn\'t worry me in the slightest if other pressures mean I have to set a project to one side for a while. And when this present book\'s done I hope to have time to put it in a digital drawer for a month or so before taking it out for a final revise before delivery.\n\nSo if you can\'t find the time you\'d like to work on something don\'t worry. If it\'s good enough','Stuck on a book? Walk away for a while','','inherit','open','open','','7976-revision','','','2011-04-07 14:36:42','2011-04-07 13:36:42','',7976,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7976-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7978,1,'2011-04-07 14:36:52','2011-04-07 13:36:52','The last two weeks have seen me travelling to New York, on a venture yet-to-be-revealed, and finishing the revise of next year\'s book. The latter was something I could do along the way, in spare moments in my hotel and at the airport. But something had to go to one side and it was writing the current book, which sat at 64K words (out of a probable 115K finished total) when I set off on my travels.\r\n\r\nOne follower on Twitter commented when I returned to the manuscript after two weeks: how do you get back into the story after a break like that?\r\n\r\n<!--more-->Good question. When I was starting out in this craft I was doing two jobs: writing books and working as a correspondent for the <em>Sunday Times</em>. Sometimes I\'d have to travel on assignments, for a week or more frequently, then spend a week writing them up on my return.\r\n\r\nI still remember being terrified by this prospect. Would the book I was writing still be in my head when I found the time to get back to it?\r\n\r\nThe answer, I think, is definitely yes, provided it\'s a solid idea that\'s taken root in your head already. Stories aren\'t flimsy ghosts, ready to disappear on the faintest breeze. If they\'re to have substance they must <em>possess</em> substance. Weight and form and some kind of presence in your head. I can work on them without writing, of course, reading drafts, making notes, going through research and my book diary.\r\n\r\nBut even if I don\'t do a thing they will still be there when I return to the manuscript. In fact there\'s a strong argument for saying that works in progress improve from being abandoned from time to time. You come back to them with fresh ideas and perspective. Once-thorny problems seem simple to solve. Florid passages that escaped you when you wrote them stand out a mile and demand excision.\r\n\r\nWriting\'s a marathon not a sprint. It doesn\'t worry me in the slightest if other pressures mean I have to set a project to one side for a while. And when this present book\'s done I hope to have time to put it in a digital drawer for a month or so before taking it out for a final revise before delivery.\r\n\r\nSo if you can\'t find the time you\'d like to work on something don\'t worry. If it\'s good enough it won\'t run away in the middle of the night.','Stuck on a book? Walk away for a while','','inherit','open','open','','7976-revision-2','','','2011-04-07 14:36:52','2011-04-07 13:36:52','',7976,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7976-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7979,1,'2011-04-07 14:37:02','2011-04-07 13:37:02','The last two weeks have seen me travelling to New York, on a venture yet-to-be-revealed, and finishing the revise of next year\'s book. The latter was something I could do along the way, in spare moments in my hotel and at the airport. But something had to go to one side and it was writing the current book, which sat at 64K words (out of a probable 115K finished total) when I set off on my travels.\r\n\r\nOne follower on Twitter commented when I returned to the manuscript after two weeks: how do you get back into the story after a break like that?\r\n\r\n<!--more-->Good question. When I was starting out in this craft I was doing two jobs: writing books and working as a correspondent for the <em>Sunday Times</em>. Sometimes I\'d have to travel on assignments, for a week or more frequently, then spend a week writing them up on my return.\r\n\r\nI still remember being terrified by this prospect. Would the book I was writing still be in my head when I found the time to get back to it?\r\n\r\nThe answer, I think, is definitely yes, provided it\'s a solid idea that\'s taken root in your head already. Stories aren\'t flimsy ghosts, ready to disappear on the faintest breeze. If they\'re to have substance they must <em>possess</em> substance. Weight and form and some kind of presence in your head. I can work on them without writing, of course, reading drafts, making notes, going through research and my book diary.\r\n\r\nBut even if I don\'t do a thing they will still be there when I return to the manuscript. In fact there\'s a strong argument for saying that works in progress improve from being abandoned from time to time. You come back to them with fresh ideas and perspective. Once-thorny problems seem simple to solve. Florid passages that escaped you when you wrote them stand out a mile and demand excision.\r\n\r\nWriting\'s a marathon not a sprint. It doesn\'t worry me in the slightest if other pressures mean I have to set a project to one side for a while. And when this present book\'s done I hope to have time to put it in a digital drawer for a month or so before taking it out for a final revise before delivery.\r\n\r\nSo if you can\'t find the time you\'d like to work on something don\'t worry. If it\'s good enough it won\'t run away in the middle of the night.','Stuck on a book? Walk away for a while','','inherit','open','open','','7976-revision-3','','','2011-04-07 14:37:02','2011-04-07 13:37:02','',7976,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7976-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7980,1,'2011-04-07 14:37:22','2011-04-07 13:37:22','The last two weeks have seen me travelling to New York, on a venture yet-to-be-revealed, and finishing the revise of next year\'s book. The latter was a task I could do along the way, in spare moments in my hotel and at the airport. But something had to go to one side and it was writing the current book, which sat at 64K words (out of a probable 115K finished total) when I set off on my travels.\r\n\r\nOne follower on Twitter commented when I returned to the manuscript after two weeks: how do you get back into the story after a break like that?\r\n\r\n<!--more-->Good question. When I was starting out in this craft I was doing two jobs: writing books and working as a correspondent for the <em>Sunday Times</em>. Sometimes I\'d have to travel on assignments, for a week or more frequently, then spend a week writing them up on my return.\r\n\r\nI still remember being terrified by this prospect. Would the book I was writing still be in my head when I found the time to get back to it?\r\n\r\nThe answer, I think, is definitely yes, provided it\'s a solid idea that\'s taken root in your head already. Stories aren\'t flimsy ghosts, ready to disappear on the faintest breeze. If they\'re to have substance they must <em>possess</em> substance. Weight and form and some kind of presence in your head. I can work on them without writing, of course, reading drafts, making notes, going through research and my book diary.\r\n\r\nBut even if I don\'t do a thing they will still be there when I return to the manuscript. In fact there\'s a strong argument for saying that works in progress improve from being abandoned from time to time. You come back to them with fresh ideas and perspective. Once-thorny problems seem simple to solve. Florid passages that escaped you when you wrote them stand out a mile and demand excision.\r\n\r\nWriting\'s a marathon not a sprint. It doesn\'t worry me in the slightest if other pressures mean I have to set a project to one side for a while. And when this present book\'s done I hope to have time to put it in a digital drawer for a month or so before taking it out for a final revise before delivery.\r\n\r\nSo if you can\'t find the time you\'d like to work on something don\'t worry. If it\'s good enough it won\'t run away in the middle of the night.','Stuck on a book? Walk away for a while','','inherit','open','open','','7976-revision-4','','','2011-04-07 14:37:22','2011-04-07 13:37:22','',7976,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7976-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7981,1,'2011-04-07 14:39:00','2011-04-07 13:39:00','The last two weeks have seen me travelling to New York, on a venture yet-to-be-revealed, and finishing the revise of next year\'s book. The latter was a task I could do along the way, in spare moments in my hotel and at the airport. But something had to go to one side and it was writing the current book, which sat at 64K words (out of a probable 115K finished total) when I set off on my travels.\n\nOne follower on Twitter commented when I returned to the manuscript after two weeks: how do you get back into the story after a break like that?\n\n<!--more-->Good question. When I was starting out in this craft I was doing two jobs: writing books and working as a correspondent for the <em>Sunday Times</em>. Sometimes I\'d have to travel on assignments, for a week or more frequently, then spend a week writing them up on my return.\n\nI still remember being terrified by this prospect. Would the book I was writing still be in my head when I found the time to get back to it?\n\nThe answer, I think, is definitely yes, provided it\'s a solid idea that\'s taken root already. Stories aren\'t flimsy mayflies, ready to disappear on the faintest breeze. If they\'re to have substance they must <em>possess</em> substance from the start. Weight and form and some kind of presence in your head. I can work on them without writing, of course, reading drafts, making notes, going through research and my book diary.\n\nBut even if I don\'t do a thing they will still be there when I return to the manuscript. In fact there\'s a strong argument for saying that works in progress improve from being abandoned from time to time. You come back to them with fresh ideas and perspective. Once-thorny problems seem simple to solve. Florid passages that escaped you when you wrote them stand out a mile and demand excision.\n\nWriting\'s a marathon not a sprint. It doesn\'t worry me in the slightest if other pressures mean I have to set a project to one side for a while. And when this present book\'s done I hope to have time to put it in a digital drawer for a month or so before taking it out for a final revise before delivery.\n\nSo if you can\'t find the time you\'d like to work on something don\'t worry. If it\'s good enough it won\'t run away in the middle of the night.','Stuck on a book? Walk away for a while','','inherit','open','open','','7976-revision-5','','','2011-04-07 14:39:00','2011-04-07 13:39:00','',7976,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7976-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(7982,1,'2011-04-11 09:38:56','2011-04-11 08:38:56','The News of the World \'phone-hacking\' scandal continues to run and run. What next? A wider admission within the media that many -- if not most -- other newspapers have been up to the same tricks themselves, and not just the reporters inside News International?\r\n\r\nThat wouldn\'t surprise me one bit frankly. Because, you see, that term \'hacking\' is incredibly misleading. It suggests what the NoW did was somehow a technically difficult exercise, dependent upon knowing experts like those bespectacled geeks who used to advise Scully and Mulder on the X-Files.\r\n\r\nNothing could be further from the truth. In fact what happened here isn\'t difficult at all. Try hacking your own phone and see for yourself (since it\'s your phone this won\'t be illegal, of course).\r\n\r\nYou do it like this.\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Turn off the phone or set it manually to voicemail.</li>\r\n	<li>Call the number.</li>\r\n	<li>When the voicemail message kicks in press * to access the menu.</li>\r\n	<li>Type in your pin code. Don\'t know your voicemail pin code? Join the club. Most people don\'t, which is why they are usually left with the default pin code set by the operator. These are routinely published on network web sites (it\'s 1111 for Orange, for example, and 8705 for O2 and Tesco).</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nOnce you hit the correct pin code you\'re getting any voicemail messages there, whoever you are. This, as far as I understand it, is how the NoW \'hacked\' all those phones. It\'s because people never, ever changed the default pin code on their mobile. Even Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister and great keeper of the nation\'s secrets, didn\'t bother to do that, if today\'s papers are to be believed, since it seems Gordon Brown warned him his phone had been \'hacked\'.\r\n\r\nBut does this really count as hacking? If you leave your front door open and your house is burgled, then you\'re still burgled, I guess. And no one would suggest that what went on here is anything less than illegal. But for pity\'s sake... if you\'re a public figure with voicemail messages that are confidential, how hard is it to change a four number code? And if you don\'t... aren\'t you just asking for trouble? Especially if you\'re a politician entrusted with the government of the nation?\r\n\r\nHacking, for me, should be defined as \'illicit entry by subterfuge into systems that are supposed to be secure\'. Not walking into an empty house with a front door open to the street then taking a note of the contents.','Call this hacking? Leave it out...','','publish','open','open','','call-this-hacking-leave-it-out','','','2011-04-11 09:38:56','2011-04-11 08:38:56','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7982',0,'post','',0),(7983,1,'2011-04-11 09:35:04','2011-04-11 08:35:04','The News of the World \'phone-hacking\' scandal continues to run and run. What next? A wider admission within the media that many -- if not most -- other newspapers have been up to the same tricks themselves, and not just the reporters inside News International?\n\nThat wouldn\'t surprise me one bit frankly. Because, you see, that term \'hacking\' is incredibly misleading. It suggests what the NoW did was somehow a technically difficult exercise, dependent upon knowing techies, like those bespectacled geeks who used to advise Scully and Mulder on the X-Files.\n\nNothing could be further from the truth. In fact really this isn\'t hacking at all. Try hacking your own phone and see for yourself (since it\'s your phone this won\'t be illegal, of course).\n\nYou do it like this.\n<ol>\n	<li>Turn off the phone or so it manually to voicemail.</li>\n	<li>Call the number.</li>\n	<li>When the voicemail message kicks in press * to access the menu.</li>\n	<li>Type your pin code. Don\'t know your voicemail pin code? Join the club. Most people don\'t, which is why they are usually left with the default pin code set by the operator. These are usually published on network web sites (it\'s 1111 for Orange, for example, and 8705 for O2 and Tesco).</li>\n</ol>\nOnce you hit the correct pin code you\'re getting any voicemail messages there, whoever you are. This, as far as I understand it, is how the NoW \'hacked\' all those phones. It\'s because people never, ever changed the default pin code on their mobile. Even Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister and great keeper of the nation\'s secrets, didn\'t bother to do that, if today\'s papers are to be believed, since it seems Gordon Brown warned him his phone had been \'hacked\'.\n\nBut does this really count as hacking? If you leave your front door open and your house is burgled, then you\'re still burgled, I guess. And no one would suggest that what went on here is anything less than illegal. But for pity\'s sake... if you\'re a public figure with voicemail messages that are confidential, how hard is it to change a four number code? And if you don\'t... aren\'t you just asking for trouble?\n\nHacking, for me, should be defined as \'illicit entry by subterfuge into systems that are supposed to be secure\'. Not pushing open','Call this hacking? Leave it out...','','inherit','open','open','','7982-revision','','','2011-04-11 09:35:04','2011-04-11 08:35:04','',7982,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7982-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7984,1,'2011-04-11 09:35:32','2011-04-11 08:35:32','The News of the World \'phone-hacking\' scandal continues to run and run. What next? A wider admission within the media that many -- if not most -- other newspapers have been up to the same tricks themselves, and not just the reporters inside News International?\r\n\r\nThat wouldn\'t surprise me one bit frankly. Because, you see, that term \'hacking\' is incredibly misleading. It suggests what the NoW did was somehow a technically difficult exercise, dependent upon knowing techies, like those bespectacled geeks who used to advise Scully and Mulder on the X-Files.\r\n\r\nNothing could be further from the truth. In fact really this isn\'t hacking at all. Try hacking your own phone and see for yourself (since it\'s your phone this won\'t be illegal, of course).\r\n\r\nYou do it like this.\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Turn off the phone or so it manually to voicemail.</li>\r\n	<li>Call the number.</li>\r\n	<li>When the voicemail message kicks in press * to access the menu.</li>\r\n	<li>Type your pin code. Don\'t know your voicemail pin code? Join the club. Most people don\'t, which is why they are usually left with the default pin code set by the operator. These are usually published on network web sites (it\'s 1111 for Orange, for example, and 8705 for O2 and Tesco).</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nOnce you hit the correct pin code you\'re getting any voicemail messages there, whoever you are. This, as far as I understand it, is how the NoW \'hacked\' all those phones. It\'s because people never, ever changed the default pin code on their mobile. Even Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister and great keeper of the nation\'s secrets, didn\'t bother to do that, if today\'s papers are to be believed, since it seems Gordon Brown warned him his phone had been \'hacked\'.\r\n\r\nBut does this really count as hacking? If you leave your front door open and your house is burgled, then you\'re still burgled, I guess. And no one would suggest that what went on here is anything less than illegal. But for pity\'s sake... if you\'re a public figure with voicemail messages that are confidential, how hard is it to change a four number code? And if you don\'t... aren\'t you just asking for trouble?\r\n\r\nHacking, for me, should be defined as \'illicit entry by subterfuge into systems that are supposed to be secure\'. Not walking into an empty house with a front door open to the street then taking a note of the contents.','Call this hacking? Leave it out...','','inherit','open','open','','7982-revision-2','','','2011-04-11 09:35:32','2011-04-11 08:35:32','',7982,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7982-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7985,1,'2011-04-11 09:35:54','2011-04-11 08:35:54','The News of the World \'phone-hacking\' scandal continues to run and run. What next? A wider admission within the media that many -- if not most -- other newspapers have been up to the same tricks themselves, and not just the reporters inside News International?\r\n\r\nThat wouldn\'t surprise me one bit frankly. Because, you see, that term \'hacking\' is incredibly misleading. It suggests what the NoW did was somehow a technically difficult exercise, dependent upon knowing techies, like those bespectacled geeks who used to advise Scully and Mulder on the X-Files.\r\n\r\nNothing could be further from the truth. In fact really this isn\'t hacking at all. Try hacking your own phone and see for yourself (since it\'s your phone this won\'t be illegal, of course).\r\n\r\nYou do it like this.\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Turn off the phone or so it manually to voicemail.</li>\r\n	<li>Call the number.</li>\r\n	<li>When the voicemail message kicks in press * to access the menu.</li>\r\n	<li>Type your pin code. Don\'t know your voicemail pin code? Join the club. Most people don\'t, which is why they are usually left with the default pin code set by the operator. These are usually published on network web sites (it\'s 1111 for Orange, for example, and 8705 for O2 and Tesco).</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nOnce you hit the correct pin code you\'re getting any voicemail messages there, whoever you are. This, as far as I understand it, is how the NoW \'hacked\' all those phones. It\'s because people never, ever changed the default pin code on their mobile. Even Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister and great keeper of the nation\'s secrets, didn\'t bother to do that, if today\'s papers are to be believed, since it seems Gordon Brown warned him his phone had been \'hacked\'.\r\n\r\nBut does this really count as hacking? If you leave your front door open and your house is burgled, then you\'re still burgled, I guess. And no one would suggest that what went on here is anything less than illegal. But for pity\'s sake... if you\'re a public figure with voicemail messages that are confidential, how hard is it to change a four number code? And if you don\'t... aren\'t you just asking for trouble?\r\n\r\nHacking, for me, should be defined as \'illicit entry by subterfuge into systems that are supposed to be secure\'. Not walking into an empty house with a front door open to the street then taking a note of the contents.','Call this hacking? Leave it out...','','inherit','open','open','','7982-revision-3','','','2011-04-11 09:35:54','2011-04-11 08:35:54','',7982,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7982-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7986,1,'2011-04-11 09:36:01','2011-04-11 08:36:01','The News of the World \'phone-hacking\' scandal continues to run and run. What next? A wider admission within the media that many -- if not most -- other newspapers have been up to the same tricks themselves, and not just the reporters inside News International?\r\n\r\nThat wouldn\'t surprise me one bit frankly. Because, you see, that term \'hacking\' is incredibly misleading. It suggests what the NoW did was somehow a technically difficult exercise, dependent upon knowing techies, like those bespectacled geeks who used to advise Scully and Mulder on the X-Files.\r\n\r\nNothing could be further from the truth. In fact really this isn\'t hacking at all. Try hacking your own phone and see for yourself (since it\'s your phone this won\'t be illegal, of course).\r\n\r\nYou do it like this.\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Turn off the phone or so it manually to voicemail.</li>\r\n	<li>Call the number.</li>\r\n	<li>When the voicemail message kicks in press * to access the menu.</li>\r\n	<li>Type your pin code. Don\'t know your voicemail pin code? Join the club. Most people don\'t, which is why they are usually left with the default pin code set by the operator. These are usually published on network web sites (it\'s 1111 for Orange, for example, and 8705 for O2 and Tesco).</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nOnce you hit the correct pin code you\'re getting any voicemail messages there, whoever you are. This, as far as I understand it, is how the NoW \'hacked\' all those phones. It\'s because people never, ever changed the default pin code on their mobile. Even Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister and great keeper of the nation\'s secrets, didn\'t bother to do that, if today\'s papers are to be believed, since it seems Gordon Brown warned him his phone had been \'hacked\'.\r\n\r\nBut does this really count as hacking? If you leave your front door open and your house is burgled, then you\'re still burgled, I guess. And no one would suggest that what went on here is anything less than illegal. But for pity\'s sake... if you\'re a public figure with voicemail messages that are confidential, how hard is it to change a four number code? And if you don\'t... aren\'t you just asking for trouble?\r\n\r\nHacking, for me, should be defined as \'illicit entry by subterfuge into systems that are supposed to be secure\'. Not walking into an empty house with a front door open to the street then taking a note of the contents.','Call this hacking? Leave it out...','','inherit','open','open','','7982-revision-4','','','2011-04-11 09:36:01','2011-04-11 08:36:01','',7982,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7982-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7987,1,'2011-04-11 09:36:31','2011-04-11 08:36:31','The News of the World \'phone-hacking\' scandal continues to run and run. What next? A wider admission within the media that many -- if not most -- other newspapers have been up to the same tricks themselves, and not just the reporters inside News International?\r\n\r\nThat wouldn\'t surprise me one bit frankly. Because, you see, that term \'hacking\' is incredibly misleading. It suggests what the NoW did was somehow a technically difficult exercise, dependent upon knowing experts like those bespectacled geeks who used to advise Scully and Mulder on the X-Files.\r\n\r\nNothing could be further from the truth. In fact really this isn\'t hacking at all. Try hacking your own phone and see for yourself (since it\'s your phone this won\'t be illegal, of course).\r\n\r\nYou do it like this.\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Turn off the phone or so it manually to voicemail.</li>\r\n	<li>Call the number.</li>\r\n	<li>When the voicemail message kicks in press * to access the menu.</li>\r\n	<li>Type your pin code. Don\'t know your voicemail pin code? Join the club. Most people don\'t, which is why they are usually left with the default pin code set by the operator. These are usually published on network web sites (it\'s 1111 for Orange, for example, and 8705 for O2 and Tesco).</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nOnce you hit the correct pin code you\'re getting any voicemail messages there, whoever you are. This, as far as I understand it, is how the NoW \'hacked\' all those phones. It\'s because people never, ever changed the default pin code on their mobile. Even Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister and great keeper of the nation\'s secrets, didn\'t bother to do that, if today\'s papers are to be believed, since it seems Gordon Brown warned him his phone had been \'hacked\'.\r\n\r\nBut does this really count as hacking? If you leave your front door open and your house is burgled, then you\'re still burgled, I guess. And no one would suggest that what went on here is anything less than illegal. But for pity\'s sake... if you\'re a public figure with voicemail messages that are confidential, how hard is it to change a four number code? And if you don\'t... aren\'t you just asking for trouble?\r\n\r\nHacking, for me, should be defined as \'illicit entry by subterfuge into systems that are supposed to be secure\'. Not walking into an empty house with a front door open to the street then taking a note of the contents.','Call this hacking? Leave it out...','','inherit','open','open','','7982-revision-5','','','2011-04-11 09:36:31','2011-04-11 08:36:31','',7982,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7982-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(7988,1,'2011-04-11 09:38:08','2011-04-11 08:38:08','The News of the World \'phone-hacking\' scandal continues to run and run. What next? A wider admission within the media that many -- if not most -- other newspapers have been up to the same tricks themselves, and not just the reporters inside News International?\n\nThat wouldn\'t surprise me one bit frankly. Because, you see, that term \'hacking\' is incredibly misleading. It suggests what the NoW did was somehow a technically difficult exercise, dependent upon knowing experts like those bespectacled geeks who used to advise Scully and Mulder on the X-Files.\n\nNothing could be further from the truth. In fact what happened here isn\'t difficult at all. Try hacking your own phone and see for yourself (since it\'s your phone this won\'t be illegal, of course).\n\nYou do it like this.\n<ol>\n	<li>Turn off the phone or set it manually to voicemail.</li>\n	<li>Call the number.</li>\n	<li>When the voicemail message kicks in press * to access the menu.</li>\n	<li>Type in your pin code. Don\'t know your voicemail pin code? Join the club. Most people don\'t, which is why they are usually left with the default pin code set by the operator. These are routinely published on network web sites (it\'s 1111 for Orange, for example, and 8705 for O2 and Tesco).</li>\n</ol>\nOnce you hit the correct pin code you\'re getting any voicemail messages there, whoever you are. This, as far as I understand it, is how the NoW \'hacked\' all those phones. It\'s because people never, ever changed the default pin code on their mobile. Even Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister and great keeper of the nation\'s secrets, didn\'t bother to do that, if today\'s papers are to be believed, since it seems Gordon Brown warned him his phone had been \'hacked\'.\n\nBut does this really count as hacking? If you leave your front door open and your house is burgled, then you\'re still burgled, I guess. And no one would suggest that what went on here is anything less than illegal. But for pity\'s sake... if you\'re a public figure with voicemail messages that are confidential, how hard is it to change a four number code? And if you don\'t... aren\'t you just asking for trouble?\n\nHacking, for me, should be defined as \'illicit entry by subterfuge into systems that are supposed to be secure\'. Not walking into an empty house with a front door open to the street then taking a note of the contents.','Call this hacking? Leave it out...','','inherit','open','open','','7982-revision-6','','','2011-04-11 09:38:08','2011-04-11 08:38:08','',7982,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7982-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(7989,1,'2011-04-11 21:47:59','2011-04-11 20:47:59','A brief insight into the working habits around here. I regard writing as a job. I may think about it every waking hour seven days a week but generally speaking I only <em>do</em> it Monday to Friday, around eight in the morning to six in the evening.\r\n\r\nThis means that, just like everyone else, I get Mondayitis. That feeling when you drag yourself to the coalface first thing in the working week and think.... God I\'d rather be doing anything else than this.\r\n\r\nDid it today at 7.45 am. Faffed around for five hours doing anything but write -- dealing with mail, promotional stuff, accounts (!), other trivia.\r\n\r\nAt 2pm I looked at the manuscript again thinking... nah, let\'s do this tomorrow, shall we? Then a couple of notions caught fire. I have a very rough and meaningless daily word target when working. If I get down 1,200 words on the current project I\'m happy.\r\n\r\nBy 6 pm I\'d written nearly 2,800 and mapped out two extra scenes. None of which would have happened if I\'d knuckled down to the task at eight in the morning.\r\n\r\nI love writing. But please don\'t ask me to explain it. I\'m not sure that\'s possible.','I will never understand Mondays','','publish','open','open','','i-will-never-understand-mondays','','','2011-04-11 21:49:37','2011-04-11 20:49:37','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7989',0,'post','',2),(7990,1,'2011-04-11 21:47:22','2011-04-11 20:47:22','A brief insight to the working habits around here. I regard writing as a job. I may think about it every waking hour seven days a week but generally speaking I only <em>do</em> it Monday to Friday, around eight in the morning to six in the evening.\n\nThis means that, just like everyone else, I get Mondayitis. That feeling when you drag yourself to the coalface first thing in the working week and think.... God I\'d rather be doing anything else than this.\n\nDid it today at 7.45 am. Faffed around for five hours doing anything but write -- dealing mail, promotional stuff, other trivia.\n\nAt 2pm I looked at the manuscript again thinking... nah, let\'s do this tomorrow, shall we? Then a couple of notions caught fire. I have a very rough and meaningless daily word target when working. If I get down 1,200 words on the current project I\'m happy.\n\nBy 6 pm I\'d written nearly 2,800 and mapped out two extra scenes. None of which would have happened if I\'d knuckled down to the task at eight in the morning.\n\nI love writing. But please don\'t ask me to explain it. I\'m not sure that\'s possible.','I will never understand Mondays','','inherit','open','open','','7989-revision','','','2011-04-11 21:47:22','2011-04-11 20:47:22','',7989,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7989-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7991,1,'2011-04-11 21:47:59','2011-04-11 20:47:59','A brief insight to the working habits around here. I regard writing as a job. I may think about it every waking hour seven days a week but generally speaking I only <em>do</em> it Monday to Friday, around eight in the morning to six in the evening.\r\n\r\nThis means that, just like everyone else, I get Mondayitis. That feeling when you drag yourself to the coalface first thing in the working week and think.... God I\'d rather be doing anything else than this.\r\n\r\nDid it today at 7.45 am. Faffed around for five hours doing anything but write -- dealing mail, promotional stuff, other trivia.\r\n\r\nAt 2pm I looked at the manuscript again thinking... nah, let\'s do this tomorrow, shall we? Then a couple of notions caught fire. I have a very rough and meaningless daily word target when working. If I get down 1,200 words on the current project I\'m happy.\r\n\r\nBy 6 pm I\'d written nearly 2,800 and mapped out two extra scenes. None of which would have happened if I\'d knuckled down to the task at eight in the morning.\r\n\r\nI love writing. But please don\'t ask me to explain it. I\'m not sure that\'s possible.','I will never understand Mondays','','inherit','open','open','','7989-revision-2','','','2011-04-11 21:47:59','2011-04-11 20:47:59','',7989,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7989-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7992,1,'2011-04-11 21:48:49','2011-04-11 20:48:49','A brief insight into the working habits around here. I regard writing as a job. I may think about it every waking hour seven days a week but generally speaking I only <em>do</em> it Monday to Friday, around eight in the morning to six in the evening.\r\n\r\nThis means that, just like everyone else, I get Mondayitis. That feeling when you drag yourself to the coalface first thing in the working week and think.... God I\'d rather be doing anything else than this.\r\n\r\nDid it today at 7.45 am. Faffed around for five hours doing anything but write -- dealing mail, promotional stuff, other trivia.\r\n\r\nAt 2pm I looked at the manuscript again thinking... nah, let\'s do this tomorrow, shall we? Then a couple of notions caught fire. I have a very rough and meaningless daily word target when working. If I get down 1,200 words on the current project I\'m happy.\r\n\r\nBy 6 pm I\'d written nearly 2,800 and mapped out two extra scenes. None of which would have happened if I\'d knuckled down to the task at eight in the morning.\r\n\r\nI love writing. But please don\'t ask me to explain it. I\'m not sure that\'s possible.','I will never understand Mondays','','inherit','open','open','','7989-revision-3','','','2011-04-11 21:48:49','2011-04-11 20:48:49','',7989,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7989-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7993,1,'2011-04-12 07:28:49','2011-04-12 06:28:49','That very talented America writer Deborah Crombie interviews me on the Jungle Red blog today about <em>The Fallen Angel </em>which is about to be released in the US. Deborah and I share one important factor: we both write about places which aren\'t home, England in her case.\r\n\r\nSo we had <a href=\"http://www.jungleredwriters.com/2011/04/david-hewson-and-romes-fallen-angel.html\" target=\"_blank\">a lot to talk about</a>.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.jungleredwriters.com/2011/04/david-hewson-and-romes-fallen-angel.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-7994\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 07.27.31\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-07.27.31-640x466.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"462\" /></a>','Deborah Crombie and the Fallen Angel','','publish','open','open','','deborah-crombie-and-the-fallen-angel','','','2011-04-12 07:28:49','2011-04-12 06:28:49','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7993',0,'post','',0),(7994,1,'2011-04-12 07:28:13','2011-04-12 06:28:13','','Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 07.27.31','','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-07-27-31','','','2011-04-12 07:28:13','2011-04-12 06:28:13','',7993,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-07.27.31.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(7995,1,'2011-04-12 07:27:06','2011-04-12 06:27:06','That very talented America writer Deborah Crombie interviews me on the Jungle Red blog today about <em>The Fallen Angel </em>which is about to be released in the US. Deborah and I share one important factor: we both write about places which aren\'t home, England in her cas','Deborah Crombie and the Fallen Angel','','inherit','open','open','','7993-revision','','','2011-04-12 07:27:06','2011-04-12 06:27:06','',7993,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7993-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7996,1,'2011-04-12 07:29:57','2011-04-12 06:29:57','That very talented America writer Deborah Crombie interviews me on the Jungle Red blog today about <em>The Fallen Angel </em>which is about to be released in the US. Deborah and I share one important factor: we both write about places which aren\'t home, England in her case.\n\nSo we had <a href=\"http://www.jungleredwriters.com/2011/04/david-hewson-and-romes-fallen-angel.html\" target=\"_blank\">a lot to talk about</a>.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.jungleredwriters.com/2011/04/david-hewson-and-romes-fallen-angel.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-7994\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 07.27.31\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-07.27.31-640x466.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"462\" /></a>','Deborah Crombie and the Fallen Angel','','inherit','open','open','','7993-autosave','','','2011-04-12 07:29:57','2011-04-12 06:29:57','',7993,'http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/7993-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(7997,1,'2011-04-12 08:25:08','2011-04-12 07:25:08','<a title=\"Another insight into how book thieves work\" href=\"http://davidhewson.com/2011/02/another-insight-into-how-book-thieves-work/\">I\'m used to the idea</a> that book thieves -- who like to think of themselves as \'pirates\' or even \'file sharers\' -- use web groups to disseminate their stolen wares. Now it seems they are spreading their efforts to grab money for their theft through Twitter. Here\'s an astonishing example that hit me in the face this morning.\r\n\r\nLike many people in the media I keep track of mentions of my work through a fixed Twitter search pane, in my case through Hootsuite. For the last couple of years this has usually brought up a list of reviews, reader comments and other useful material. When I turn on the Mac this morning I find this instead...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7998\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.06.35\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.06.35.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"357\" height=\"964\" />\r\n\r\nAll top seventeen search results on my name (more actually but my screen couldn\'t accommodate them) are links to ripped off ebooks of my work. And naturally each one of those links will try to push the people who follow them into taking out paid-for subscriptions so they can thieve away to their hearts\' content...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-7999\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.14.52\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.14.52-640x551.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"546\" />\r\n\r\nThe scale of media theft is frankly astonishing these days. I spoke to one colleague in the book business who was just back from a trip to Asia, trying to build book sales there. He said that he spoke to people <em>in the book business</em> who habitually set up their computers each night to download ripped-off music, videos, software... anything they like. A culture in which all digital material is regarded as \'free\' -- or at least available by paying for bandwidth through digital fences such as the one above -- seems to be prevalent.\r\n\r\nHow many of the people ripping off books this way would have bought them if pirate copies weren\'t available? That\'s anyone\'s guess. But I know of two middle-aged, middle-class seemingly respectable Brits who see nothing wrong in getting their books, music and video this way. Not that they\'d ever nick something from a supermarket, mind. That would be dishonest, wouldn\'t it?\r\n\r\nAs to the piracy boom on Twitter... is there anything you can do? Will Twitter bar these people for trying to sell stolen goods through their channels? This is how my Twitter search feed used to look before the thieves parked on the lawn...\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8002\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.21.22\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.21.22.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"346\" height=\"817\" />\r\n\r\nPS. I can\'t leave this out. Details of these stolen files will be passed to my publishers who will attempt to issue takedown notices. The thieving bastards who run these services are well aware of this process, of course, and will always find some way round it. If you want to understand their cheek take a look at the hoops genuine copyright holders are supposed to go through in order to get stolen material taken off the servers of one of the crooks above, namely letitbit.net.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-8007\" title=\"Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.25.45\" src=\"http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.25.45-640x259.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"256\" />\r\n\r\nLetitbit.net is currently being hosted in that hotbed of technology activity, Gibraltar. They will be hearing something soon.','The book thieves hit Twitter - big time','','publish','open','open','','the-book-thieves-hit-twitter-big-time','','','2011-04-12 08:30:38','2011-04-12 07:30:38','',0,'http://davidhewson.com/?p=7997',0,'post','',21),(7998,1,'2011-04-12 08:11:13','2011-04-12 07:11:13','','Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.06.35','','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08-06-35','','','2011-04-12 08:11:13','2011-04-12 07:11:13','',7997,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.06.35.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(7999,1,'2011-04-12 08:15:54','2011-04-12 07:15:54','','Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.14.52','','inherit','open','open','','screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08-14-52','','','2011-04-12 08:15:54','2011-04-12 07:15:54','',7997,'http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.14.52.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),