Graham Storrs

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 [...]

A friend of mine whom I’ve never met, Emma Newman, has been worrying lately that her blog ain’t what it used to be, and that maybe it won’t ever be the same again. She is concerned that, as her circumstances have changed, as she herself has changed (from being a struggling, unknown, unpublished writer, with [...]

If the Australian Government and the big-chain booksellers have their way, the Australian publishing industry will be all but dead in a few years’ time. There are very few Australian literary agents now, but they too will have gone. For Australian writers – especially new ones – the only chance of being published will be [...]

I’ve been trying to decide lately at what point being published for no fee counts as vanity publishing. A few of my recent publications have been in non-fee-paying magazines. I sent my work to them because I thought it would be an appropriate first step on the ladder to being paid for my work. (You [...]

Everyone who writes books these days agonises about self-publishing. There are many arguments for and against but, in the end it probably comes down to two things for most people; validation and sales. The validation thing makes my skin crawl but it amounts to this, most writers do not feel as if they really are [...]

I read a piece by Galley Cat this morning about self-publishing which featured the famously petite model Isobella Jade. Aparently, Jade wrote her memoir in an Apple Store. Then she got an agent. Then she fired her agent because things weren’t going fast enough. Then she self-published the book. Then she promoted herself so effectively [...]