Reading time: 0.59 231 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Something that I believe about MicroBooks that most people donāt is they can be more valuable than a bigger book. Weāre conditioned to believe that bigger always = better and this is categorically not true. For example, I had a spot on my cheek last week that was enormous and it was in no way good. Plus weāve got short little attention spans and thanks to the modern phenomenon of doomscrolling thatās not getting any...
3 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Read this email in your browser. Reading time: 4.36 Word count: 1,096 Hey Reader, Of all the wonderful sights and experiences we had in Albania at the weekend, a couple stand out ā and theyāre the littlest things. Like the head waiter at the Fresh Garden Restaurant scurrying over with complimentary ice cream for me at the end of our (delicious) meal. Iād been drinking zero-alcohol beer because I donāt drink alcohol, and Joe was drinking beery beer, and while we were waiting for the bill one...
6 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 5 min read
Reading time: 3.22 801 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, What most people get wrong about writing a book is the idea that every book has to be a massive book, and it doesnāt. It can be a MicroBook. The traditional publishing industry has decreed that there are conventions for how long a book needs to be, depending on genre and topic and blah blah blah but actually a book can be however long you want it to be. It doesnāt have to be any particular length. I love the idea of a...
13 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 4 min read
Reading time: 2.41 635 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, My Cupboard of Doom (not a euphemism) has been an absolute disgrace for more than two years now. Iāve been avoiding it like a champion because I knew itād be a much bigger task than it seemed on the surface and I was RIGHT because this weekend I finally tackled it and there were horrors. I pulled out everything and was baffled because there was far more stuff than could physically fit into the little room, so in good...
15 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 3 min read
Reading time: 5.43 1,360 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Iāve had a couple of weeks off social media and lordy LORD has it felt good. For one thing, I feel more like a proper writer againā¦ which is weird considering Iāve done very little actual writing, other than idly planning out a MicroBook called A Short History of Googly Eyes. Whenever Iām on LinkedIn or wherever, something always pops up to make me feel like shite. Like Iām not doing it properly. Like who the FCK am I...
20 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 6 min read
Reading time: 2.03 407 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Have you seen Kris Jennerās new face? I have, and my heart sank. Not because of her, specifically. I donāt generally care what the Kardashian Klan are up to, and my grip on celebrity culture is tenuous at best, by design. My heart sank because itās yet another denial of ageing women. The latest sacrifice at the altar of obsession with youth and this homogenised ābeautyā thatās currently trendy. One more erasure of the...
about 1 month agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
Reading time: 0.51 202 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Opinions and instructions, as far as the eye can see! Google āhow to write a bookā and youāll find all manner of exhausting advice about what you should (and should not) do. And itās all contradictory, because all most people can do is tell you what THEY did and then insist that will work for you, too. (It might; it might not.) The others have something expensive to sell you that you donāt need. So hereās a bunch of...
about 1 month agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Reading time: 3.26 814 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, āIt was the day my grandmother exploded.ā ^^Helluva first line, right? Not mine, obvs ā itās the first line of The Crow Road by Iain Banks, a story about āa perfect murderā and a mystery to solve. A first line like that is whatās known as a āhookā ā the thing that grabs you by the eyeballs and reels you in, much as you would catch a fish. There are many factors that go into making something readable and clickable, but...
about 1 month agoĀ ā¢Ā 4 min read
Reading time: 2.56 696 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Itās Shout Out Thursday so here are 5 brilliant people you should know and follow and read. And one cool thing from me. Sophie Blackmore, the Happy Marketer, who ā totally bizarrely ā lives in the town I grew up in! But thatās not why you should know her. Sheās a sparkly comet of kindness and delight and her deep, deep knowledge of marketing combined with her sense of fun is kinda rare in an industry that takes itself...
about 1 month agoĀ ā¢Ā 3 min read