Author Buzz

Where Authors & Readers find each other

Matthew Brown

About Matthew Brown

Matthew is a writer, web dev, and geek from Kent (UK). He is the founder and current chair of Thanet Creative as well as head geek for Author Buzz. His ambitions include seeing a film or TV series based on something he wrote. Matt is also responsible for fixing stuff on AuthorBuzz.co.uk when it breaks.

I’d like to challenge you to write about the authors who inspired you. I’ll pick my top favourite answers at the end of the challenge, but I will honourable mention every reply. How this works Anyone can take part. There’s no charge at all (much like a dead battery). You […]

Authors who inspired you – a writing and reply challenge/competition Recently updated!

13th August 2025 in Authors tagged Author / Author Platform / blogging / blogs / challenge / reading / WebMention by Matthew Brown

books — Earlier this year, I turned to Featured.com for quotes from experts about getting into traditional publishing. I asked what new authors need to know. Four experts replied. This is what they said. Getting Traditionally Published: An overview New authors in the UK must navigate the complexities of publishing, distinguishing between […]

Things New Authors Should Know About Traditional Publishing in the ...

1st February 2025 in Agents tagged experts / new authors / quotes / traditional publishing by Matthew Brown

white and blue robot figure — I’ve been talking to people about the UK book publishing market. I’ve been asking various people in what ways the market has been innovating or failing to innovate. I hoped to hear that it was innovating in all sorts of exciting ways but I fear the exact opposite. Simon Brisk, […]

In what ways is the UK book publishing market innovating ...

31st January 2025 in Business tagged Innovations in book publishing / self-publishing / UK publishing by Matthew Brown

Did you know that the UK creative sector is a net exporter? I learned this today from reading a report from The Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC) led by Newcastle University. What is a trade deficit? The UK trade deficit is the amount of money the country […]

The UK creative sector reduces the trade deficit

27th January 2025 in Business tagged creative industry / reports / trade / UK by Matthew Brown

A graphic illustrative of Brexit where the UK is yeeting itself from the continent. — Brexit has been a bit of a disaster for the publishing industry. Last year, industry leaders in the book and publishing space called on the new Labour government to turn the page on Brexit chaos. Charlie Redmayne, c.e.o. of HarperCollins, and other leading figures in the industry, have taken the […]

The Impacts of Brexit On the Publishing Industry

24th January 2025 in Business tagged Brexit / experts by Matthew Brown

How many words should a novel have? That’s a question I’ve seen many times. Just recently, user Burty Burtman asked in the forums, “How long is a novel?“ The answer is that for novel word counts it depends. Any numbers you can get are, at best, rule-of-thumb with many exceptions. […]

How many words should a novel have?

25th April 2024 in Advice tagged novel / questions / research / word count by Matthew Brown

Most of you will probably know that Sanderson refused to use Audible for some reason projects because he felt they were taking advantage of indie authors. In a recent blog post, Sanderson announced the big news that Audible had listened and was taking action. I felt that the industry was […]

Brandon Sanderson changes audiobooks for the better

17th April 2024 in Writer News tagged Audible / audiobooks / Author Platform / Brandon Sanderson by Matthew Brown

grayscale photography of person holding pen — Hey there fellow writers. What are you working on right now? I want to hear about your Work In Progress (WIP).

Tell us about your WIP

14th April 2024 in Becoming an author tagged WIP / writing life by Matthew Brown

pages on an opened book — Hodder & Stoughton (a publisher that is part of Hachette UK) are offering a free workbook with pre-orders of The Third Perspective by Africa Brooke. I could find exactly nothing at all to say what would be in that workbook. While you can preorder here (T&Cs apply) Hodder’s news feed […]

Hodder offers bonus workbook for some other book where some ...

7th March 2024 in Writer News tagged Africa Brooke / Author Platform / Hachette UK / Hodder / Hodder & Stoughton / influencer by Matthew Brown

Previously, I recommended authors shift from Twitter to Mastodon. In this post, I am going to give some hints and tips for how to get the most out of Mastodon as a writer. First, some notes Here is a poll of what Mastodon users love most about Mastodon. Here is […]

A Writers’ Guide to Mastodon (with Dark Side tricks)

9th February 2024 in Social Media tagged Author Platform / authors / CammelCaseYourTags / dark side / instances / introduction / LikeThis / Mastodon / SuperbOwl / writers by Matthew Brown

As you might guess from the name, Author Buzz is a project that started in the UK and the focus will always have a UK slant to it. However, our community is open to book enthusiasts from all over the world. We do not discriminate. Whoever you are, you are […]

A Fediverse #Introduction to Author Buzz UK

25th January 2024 in Site News tagged Author Platform / authors / books / introduction / writers by Matthew Brown

If you are a writer looking to grow a lively community around your writing, Author Buzz UK might have exactly what you need. You can create a free forum and enable email updates to subscribers to keep them informed on the discussion going on. In this article, I’m going to […]

A free forum for every author

22nd September 2023 in Using Author Buzz tagged Author Platform / forum / groups / guide by Matthew Brown