'It all happened very fast. It began with a very sore arm which my doctor diagnosed as tennis elbow. I took some anti-inflammatory drugs and by the time I returned from a scheduled holiday, it all felt fine. Read more
In the past writer's cramp and eye problems plagued writers. A writer these days is going to spend a lot of time at their computer. These pages are designed to help.
These pages assemble the available advice and will include: Read more
Be realistic about the desk, file and shelf space you will need when designing your desk
Is there enough room for your research material and the notes you need? Use shelving and magazine racks to stop paperwork encroaching on the space in front of your computer monitor. Read more
Your keyboard should be just above the level of your lap, which is probably lower than you might expect. It leaves your elbows at a comfortable angle and minimises the pressure on wrists and fingers. Your forearms should be roughly parallel to the floor. Read more
A position away from a window is normally best, although there will still be some problems with reflections. You also need to be able to relax your eyes and stare into the distance so a nearby window is handy. Read more
Your chair is probably the single most important component of your working environment. You should select and adjust your chair first as it will affect how you position your keyboard and monitor. Read more
Humans were not designed to sit and stare at computer screens. The good news is that there is no evidence that prolonged computer use causes any eye damage. The bad news is that if you do not accept the limits imposed by physics and physiology you could induce numerous painful problems. Read more
This is the most widely recognized medical diagnosis of repetitive strain injury. Sufferers often experience swelling of membrane linings and the surrounding tendons in the base of the palm of the hand. This inflammation compresses the nerve that supplies most of the feeling to the hand, causing numbness and aching in the inflamed area. Read more
'I was trained by poetry where you can just write ambience and atmosphere. But in a novel, if there's not a story that people are interested in, with characters that they care about, they'll close the book.'
In the third in a series on the implications of AI for publishing, Nadim Sadek argues that effective advertising is now feasible for everyone, and for all kinds of titles
A publishing friend of mine recently told me about a sales report they'd received from a major retailer in which some of their books had zero sales. It turned out that there had been plenty of sales, however-they just all went to counterfeiters. In case you think this is an outlier, it's not. Counterfeiting is a serious, nontrivial problem facing the industry.
If you read the recently unsealed materials from the federal antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, you'll see why the company wanted to keep them under wraps. According to the unredacted notes from one meeting, Jeff Bezos directed his team to stuff more ads into search results, even if it meant accepting more ads internally categorized as irrelevant to what users were looking for. Read more
The U.K. Publishers Association (PA) was established in 1896 and is a cornerstone of the British publishing industry, working with a diverse array of companies to promote innovation, collaboration, and commercial success. Read more
With English as a shared language, there is a natural relationship between the American and British publishing industries. Most of the world's top publishing companies, be they conglomerates or independent publishers, have operations in each country, typically in New York City and London. Literary traffic travels both ways across the Atlantic.
The UK is experiencing a boom in book clubs, according to new data from event listing companies.
Book club listings on the ticketing site Eventbrite increased by 350% between 2019 and 2023 - a "much stronger" growth than the overall increase in UK-based listings over the same period. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, book club listings on the site rose by 41%. Read more
"We don't understand the consequences of AI with regards to copyright," Brazil's Karine Gonçalves Pansa, president of the International Publishers Association (IPA), said, when asked to name the most important issues facing publishing right now. "We can say, very easily, that our content is being used, without permission, and without license, by AI."
'The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety not Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.'