Graham Storrs

The other day, someone in my online writers group wondered if a particular publisher was still in business. They had submitted a manuscript to them four months ago and had heard nothing. So they’d checked the website and found it hadn’t been updated since some time in 2008. Of course, old hands at the submissions [...]

A survey of book promotion tactics was conducted by The Savvy Book Marketer in December, 2009, and is reported today. It asked a number of authors what their book promotion strategy would involve in 2010. You can check the method and the outcome there. I just want to look at the list of tactics they [...]

I ran the complete set of posts from this blog through the Wordle program. Wordle calculates word frequencies, translates them to physical sizes, and uses this information to lay out the most frequent words in interesting ways. The image below, therefore, shows you just what I talk about most in this blog. If you haven’t [...]

I suppose the title sums up my overall reaction to my new Kindle ebook reader but there are all kinds of details of the experience that I should probably add.
I was reluctant to get a Kindle. It’s not the best e-book reader in the world and e-ink is not my favourite screen technology. The ‘international’ [...]

When I was asked by QWC to take part in the Queensland Writers Centre Blog Tour, I leapt at the chance. Anything I can do to help QWC, I will, since QWC changed my life. I also think the Australian Writers Marketplace Online is a fantastic tool that writers the world over should subscribe to. [...]

I’ve just spent half a day working on the schedule for the TimeSplash Blog Tour in March and April, contacting everybody involved and trying to firm up all 16 dates. Just another facet of the writerly life that no-one ever bothers to mention. I’d rope Wifie in to do all my admin (she’s great at [...]

A bit of Australian internal politics, guys. You might want to just retweet this and move on if that’s not especially interesting to you. However, if you ever read an Australian book, read on.
Those who have campainged hard to ensure that parallel importation restrictions on books are not removed or amended, should be congratulated. They [...]

Like many ‘emerging’ Australian writers, I’ve been concerned that the government is thinking of lifting parallel importation restrictions (PIRs). This is legislation that helps Australian publishers compete by giving them the opportunity to publish works over here and keep out overseas editions of the same work. Virtually all countries, including the US and UK have [...]

No, not a post about the Battle of Thermopylae just a few comments on building up a following on Twitter. Yesterday, you see, I had 300 ‘followers’ for the first time. Unlike King Leonidas, I won’t ask my gallant band to give their lives in a hopeless rearguard action against the armies of the Persian [...]

I suppose I was as shocked as anyone to hear that Quartet Press has closed down even before it was launched. (Publishers Weekly has the full story.) It’s sad for Don Linn, Kat Meyer and the others who set up the venture that they couldn’t see a way to make it work. What I found [...]