• No prize for second place … or first, for that matter

  Posted on February 26, 2013 by Alan Skinner

  It is quite possible that you may have read the best self-published book of 2012. If you say you have, I’ll take your word for it. I hope that I haven’t because while there have been one or two good …
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• Guest spotlight: Pam Funke’s The World At War

  Posted on February 19, 2013 by Alan Skinner

  In a departure from my usual type of blog, I’m featuring another author today. Pam was kind enough to feature an interview with me on her site, so I thought the least I could do was to reciprocate and offer …
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• Beautifully layered: Bring Up the Bodies

  Posted on February 5, 2013 by Alan Skinner

  A nation’s character is the reflection of the soul of its people. Henry Tudor could only have been English; no other nation could have spawned a man with his particular set of contradictions. King Henry could only have been an …
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• Are great novels always groundbreaking?

  Posted on January 31, 2013 by Alan Skinner

  The other day Hilary Mantel’s book, Bring Up the Bodies, won the Costa Book Award. In the Guardian Books section, her win prompted many congratulatory comments together with a smattering from those who either didn’t like the book or were dismissive because …
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• St George and his dragons: Orwell’s crusade

  Posted on January 21, 2013 by Alan Skinner

  A month or so ago, I posted a review of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eight-Four in the Guardian readers’ review section. The reason for writing it had as much to do with myself as with thinking that it was particularly important to offer a fresh …
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• Self-publishing awards: A new frock for Cinderella

  Posted on January 7, 2013 by Alan Skinner

    If you are a self-published author, you might dream of it being your smiling face alongside the other shortlisted authors of the Man Booker prize. Well, dream on. As a self-published author, you’re not even eligible for entry. Even …
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• The Vanity Book Award

  Posted on November 27, 2012 by Alan Skinner

  To my knowledge, there isn’t a Vanity Book Award. I just made it up. It’s not a very good name for a book award but it’s the first thing that popped into my head. Unless I think of something better …
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• The sense and sensibility of book lovers

  Posted on October 17, 2012 by Alan Skinner

                    There are few creatures who deserve to be viewed with as much suspicion as the self-professed book lover. Those whose sensibilities are so universal, or fickle, that they include both the …
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• Books of their time

  Posted on September 11, 2012 by Alan Skinner

  Lists are fun. People like them, especially when they disagree with them. There’s a delightful feeling of smugness reading a list and discovering that the whoever compiled the list didn’t have sense enough to include an entry that you know …
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  Publishing’s gatekeepers: still life in the old dogs

  Posted on August 31, 2012 by Alan Skinner

  Whenever there arises any discussion about publishing there are two predictable responses from the self-publishing camp (with whom I have pitched my own tent). The first is that self-publishing allows authors to thumb their noses at those evil gatekeepers to …
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