Author Buzz

Where Authors & Readers find each other

Yearly archives: 2017

Authors, before you had a following, do you remember how that first comment felt? What about your first subscriber? Or realising you had your first true fan? The chances are those first felt pretty good. If you have your head screwed on right, what you did was pay attention to […]

A secret for building a following

21st December 2017 in Blogs and blogging tagged Author Platform / blogging / fans / followers / readers by Matthew Brown

Blog — As authors, we are inclined to think that we know how to write – the truth is most author blogs fail. The fact is most people will not see the end of your article and a lot of people will never scroll at all. That means that you must get […]

Why author blogs fail

18th December 2017 in Blogs and blogging tagged Author Platform / blogging / blogs / guide by Matthew Brown

British Pounds — There is an alternative funding model for authors. We are all familiar with the standard author funding model. Write a book, promote the book, sell books… But that is not the only game in town. The alternative funding model takes a little outside of the box thinking and is not […]

An alternative funding model for authors

15th December 2017 in Business / Self-Publishing tagged fans / income / money / self-publishing by Matthew Brown

newspaper — There is a powerful tool for book promotion that, as far as I can tell, most authors (and publishers) seem to have missed entirely. This tool can get more people to book signings. It can sell more books. It can even help improve your blog’s position in Google. And it […]

An underappreciated author promotion tool

14th December 2017 in Sell more books tagged press releases / self-promotion / sell more books by Matthew Brown

By ActuaLitté (Neil Gaiman en France) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons — Neil Gaiman is legitimately an amazing author. Even if you are one of the few people that don’t enjoy his work, you have to respect the sheer breadth of the man’s success. So this post is a tribute to the amazing advice that Neil Gaiman has freely offered to others […]

Neil Gaiman on how to be an author

4th December 2017 in Becoming an author tagged advice / Author / Neil Gaiman / trailer by Matthew Brown

At what point can you say that you are not just a writer but an author – in other words, makes you an author? The cut-off point for a writer is easy. If you write then you are a writer. Yet we could hardly say if you “auth” then you […]

What makes you an author?

12th November 2017 in Advice tagged Author / questions / words / writers by Matthew Brown

author typing — In one of the many online groups that I am in someone started a discussion about blogs. Before you could say “I blog too” there was a huge list of blogs being shared. If ever there was a hint from above and beyond that now was a good time to […]

10 Author Blogs you’ve probably never seen

22nd October 2017 in Blogs and blogging tagged blogs / list / writers by Matthew Brown

Authors vs Universal Credit — At Author Buzz UK, we tend to stay away from matters of politics but Universal Credit is one of those topics that cuts to the heart of what it means to be an author. Being a full-time writer is hard already This is something we have covered before. Earning a […]

The Danger of Universal Credit

28th September 2017 in Business by Matthew Brown

H. G. Wells. c.1890 — The 2017 H. G. Wells Short Story Competition shortlist has been announced. The Short Story Competition shortlists were posted Thursday 21 September, H. G. Wells’ Birthday. There are two prizes on offer. The Junior Competition with the Margaret and Reg Turnill Prize of £1000 The Senior Competition with The Grand […]

2017 H. G. Wells shortlist announced

22nd September 2017 in Competitions tagged Competitions / Folkestone / H. G. Wells / Shortlist by Matthew Brown

bug — If you are having difficulty creating an account, please let us know. Some users have reported that while they can sign-up via a WordPress.com account, they cannot always complete the sign-up process directly. This is why we desperately need more beta testers. Rest assured that we are keeping an eye […]

If you have trouble signing up

21st September 2017 in Site News by Matthew Brown

Monkey at a typewriter — Do chaos and good writing go together? This is a question we are about to avoid but not entirely. Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best posts on the Author Buzz UK network. In case you are wondering, a certain amount of chaos is normal for the creative mind […]

Chaos and Good Writing

16th September 2017 in Site News tagged blog / blogging / buzz by Matthew Brown

Contract — Getting published is not easy. Getting a literary agent helps but getting an agent is no easy task. This article is an update to one I published on the now retired Thanet Creative Writers website which has now moved into the Author Buzz UK blogging network. The advice in “How to […]

Getting a good literary agent

9th September 2017 in Agents tagged agents / Jane Friedman / literary agent / Piers Blofeld / Science Fiction Writers of America by Matthew Brown