My post on the general uselessness of 5 star reviews generated a lot of interesting discussion, not least because of how passionately some people – both authors and reviewers – defended their 5 star reviews, and how violently other people – including me – dismissed them. But it does raise an extremely interesting point: what…
Month: October 2013
Why 5-Star Book Reviews are Utter Rubbish
I’m having a bad week in the non-fiction world, so I’ve decided to take it out on something inanimate. And that something would be the 5-star book review. Look. Book reviews have never been more important. If we want our books to become bestsellers, good reviews are essential. We live in an age when reviews themselves are…
How Do You Write For An International Market?
They say, ‘Write what you know’. Or the world will see through you. That’s all very fine and well, except when you turn out exceptionally beautiful prose in your unique and local dialect, which readers beyond the next mountain find difficult to understand. Or in more general terms, America. I know James Joyce, Roddy Doyle, Irvine Welsh and Dylan…
Mathematical Mondays: The Effect of Blockbusters on Book Sales
…Exploring dubious theories by using real numbers to prove intangible arguments Today’s suspicious sum is for anyone currently fretting about whether the publication of their book might get eaten up, run over and spat on by the unfortunately simultaneous release of the blockbuster of the century. How Does A Runaway Blockbuster Affect Other Book Sales? Where: Sn = Normal/Achieveable Sales…
An Open Letter to the Hair on Peaky Blinders
Gosh, open letters seem to be the weapon of choice these days, don’t they? And I have something to get off my chest. So today, we interrupt normal booky programming to bring you this message. Dear BBC Productions, Sometimes, when I’m watching your work, I have an irresistable urge to hunt down some of the crew,…
New! Mathematical Mondays
…Exploring dubious theories by using real numbers to prove intangible arguments. Today: Why You Should Be Writing A Book The Formula (Where y= number of books read by a regular reader in 1 year and P = population) How Many People Could Be Reading Your Book? I read between 20-40 books a year, depending on how long, literary,…
Self-Publishing in Ireland
So there I was, looking at lovely book production data, and… Merciful Hour! What happened in 2010? Did everyone in the country finally publish their book? All at the same time? According to Nielsen, the number of titles published in Ireland went from just over 2,000 in 2009 to almost 6,500 in 2010. That’s a 225%…
When is a book a Bestseller?
Gather round, kids. I have good news, and I have bad news. What constitutes a best seller? How does a book qualify for the moniker, and more to the point, for the modern author, what does it really mean to have written a bestseller? What is a bestseller? No points for stating the obvious, but a…
Tara Sparling writes 