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.

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

The sudden rise of AI has brought with it many great benefits. However, with those benefits come dangers that writers should be aware of. Supprisingly perhaps, having your work used to train AI is not on this list of dangers as that is entirely another article in itself. It is […]

AI dangers for writers: Getting sued isn’t the worst that ...

30th August 2023 in Advice tagged AI / ChatGPT / copyright / technology by Matthew Brown

With what is going on over at Twitter I have revised our Twitter advice for authors. If you are still on Twitter, I strongly recommend that you jump ship to somewhere more reliable. Somewhere like Mastodon for example. What is Mastodon? Do you wonder about this Mastodon thing? Fear not. […]

Abandon Twitter for Mastodon if you have not already

17th July 2023 in Platform Building Prompts tagged Author Platform / Mastodon / social media by Matthew Brown

Pink News is reporting a new initiative in UK publishing to give trans people a voice. Trans author Harry Nicholas has launched a networking space to “bring together experiences and voices” of trans creatives and allies in book publishing. New initiative launches to give trans people a voice in the […]

New initiative launches to give trans people a voice in ...

14th July 2023 in Business tagged inclusion / initiative / Pink News / trans creatives by Matthew Brown

Sir Salman Rushdie says he is physically “more or less OK” nearly a year after he was stabbed as he prepared to give a lecture in New York. However the 76-year-old told the BBC he was still processing the incident, which left him blind in one eye. “I have a […]

12th July 2023 in Authors tagged BBC / news / Salman Rushdie by Matthew Brown | Open »

group of people reading book sitting on chair — Are you, like me, an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, and/or a book lover? Do you want to connect with others like us? Look no further. I invite you to embark on an exciting journey – come join me in the thriving community of writers and book lovers on Mastodon. […]

Discover the Thriving Book & Writer Communities: Join Us on ...

18th June 2023 in Love Books / Social Media tagged Author Platform / authors / books / Mastodon / readers / social media / writers by Matthew Brown