Author: Robin

Economy in Style is a subject that not many novice writers think about, yet the older I get, and the more I write, the more important I think it is.

A number of authors have asked how to deal with writer’s block, or the sheer anxiety they feel when facing the blank page, so this is a new blog to examine the problem.

There’s a lot of nonsense talked about this. In the old days of Victorian and Edwardian correctness, writers were taught that the rules of language syntax were sacrosanct.

I feel compelled to write a new blog, out of some frustration. I have seen a number of films recently, watched a number of TV series, and read a number of books - which have all ultimately disappointed. Why?

For all those self-publishing (or even publisher publishing) authors out there - you may have already discovered that writing your genius book is only half the business. The other half is SELLING it.

This is a big one. How Do You Make Money From Your Writing? It is a sobering fact that authors in the UK, whose primary occupation is writing, earn on average only around £10,000 p.a. from their royalties (and this includes the blockbusters' earnings). American authors earn a bit more, but still not a living wage. And self-published authors earn a good deal less.

Disclosure - I am a 'prize winning' author but not a huge best seller. I am best known as a playwright, but not as a novelist, although I have written half a dozen books with various nominations and laudatory reviews. Writing them is one thing, selling is quite another!