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.

newspaper — Your blog headlines are the part of the blog post that draw people in and make them want to keep reading. The more places your headlines pop up, the better the chances of people reading the post. This is why most blog writers share their posts on social media. Sharing […]

How to get your blog headlines on our front page

26th March 2020 in Publicity tagged blogging / headlines / self-promotion by Matthew Brown

heart on a business card — This is something I genuinely wonder about – if author business cards are a worthwhile investment. I assume you have all seen these tiny rectangles of card that people in suits hand to each other. You might even have thought that it might be a good idea to have your […]

Do business cards matter for authors?

10th March 2020 in Business tagged business cards / self-promotion / sell more books by Matthew Brown

Could human run book subscriptions be better than the online retailers’ automatic algorithm? Yesterday, I spotted an article by Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian about a whole new approach to selling books. Handcrafted bespoke book subscriptions. Rebecca Nicholson’s first example is Heywood Hill. From the tone of the article, I […]

Booksellers fighting back against the algorithm

14th February 2020 in Love Books tagged bookshops / Heywood Hill / Rebecca Nicholson by Matthew Brown

Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was a satirical author best known for The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The story of the guide is mostly available in largely contradictory formats on Amazon. Douglas Adams began his writing life as a script editor for Doctor […]

Douglas Adams

12th February 2020 in Authors tagged Doctor Who writers / Douglas Adams / influential authors by Matthew Brown

According to the theguardian.com, independent bookshops are thriving despite an overall downturn in book sales. After decades of decline, the sector has recorded three years of expansion. Alison Flood, ‘People are so happy we exist’: indie bookshops grow despite retail slump While this growth is good news, the article does […]

Indie bookshops are thriving

13th January 2020 in Business tagged bookshops / good news by Matthew Brown

I am fairly confident that most of us writers want to know if there is a secret on how to write and sell a book. Or many books. As the secret is to keep going and don’t give up, wouldn’t it be great if there was some sort of learning […]

Learn how to write and sell a book

5th December 2019 in Advice tagged courses / learning / moodle by Matthew Brown

Today we took a giant leap forward towards becoming a true social network for writers and readers. You may notice some substantial changes on the Author Buzz front page. Now the front page features your content, blog posts and status updates alike. We’ve talked about doing this for some time […]

Author Buzz: Now more about you

6th October 2019 in Author Buzz / Site News tagged changes / Social Network / updates by Matthew Brown

In order to make it easier for members to find great book reviews, we have added several new groups which carry external book review headlines. You can get these book reviews in your activity feed simply by joining one or more of the groups. By default, each group’s email setting […]

New book review feeds

4th October 2019 in Site News tagged book reviews / feeds / groups / updates by Matthew Brown

Two blogs have been started on this network that are both about as different as it is possible for two sites to be. Yet, despite this, they both use the same theme, the same network (obviously), and share similar contributors. What sets these two blogs apart is the intention and […]

Two blogs that could not be more different

1st October 2019 in Blogs and blogging / Site News tagged blogs / content / standing out by Matthew Brown

Comments: Author Buzz UK — The often-repeated fear is that comment control – the removing comments that you don’t want on your blog – is somehow the same as censorship. This is not only untrue but potentially damaging to your platform. What is freedom of speech anyway? If your blog has ever been visited by […]

Comment control is not the same as censorship

11th September 2019 in Blogs and blogging tagged censorship / comments / community / freedom of speech by Matthew Brown

idol-of-pomos — I have a theory that smart authors do not need to do marketing because they start cults to do that for them. Not just one cult, many of them. As many as possible. I recently made the case that authors should start movements. Because screw lists – build relationships. This […]

My #AuthorTheory is that smart writers start cults while the ...

31st July 2019 in Author Theory tagged authors / theory by Matthew Brown

imagination — The received wisdom is that an author needs a platform. That platform should have a website, a blog, a list, two social media, and a regular newsletter. What if all that is total bunk? In 3BC a male was born who went on to change the entire world with the […]

An alternative approach to Author Platforms

26th July 2019 in Publicity tagged Author Platforms / start a movement by Matthew Brown