Heard someone talk about it being hard to get traction for their new book. I often pick up books after seeing a review on social media, so if you like a book and think other people would too, then, you know, tell us. In my own case, i just started 'High' by Adam Roberts, a 120 page ebook novella.

Been flattened by flu since the New Year, but seeing Europa Deep finally broke 1500 ratings/reviews on Amazon makes up for it while I'm hard at work on Echogenesis Books Two and Three. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

Can never think what the hell to say that remotely connects with my writing day job (zero probs posting about cycling), so maybe I'll talk about what I've been reading: Observer by Nancy Kress, in collab with Robert Lanza, a leading medical physicist. The glittering diamond-tipped blade of hard sf.

Came across this nearly half a decade late, but it's still worth it. Stellar work. youtu.be/2Qs1J612nZs?...

Scare your health CEO with this one, simple trick: send them some Monopoly money.

Well, there’s a story.

Very occasionally I’ll get a reviewer comment about one of my books (hard sf/space opera) having a touch of ‘woo’. I’m guessing none of them have read up on what quantum physics has to say about human consciousness, or about the nature of reality being a construct formed through consensus.

Funny thing is, he said my Scottish accent 'wasn't quite as strong' as his friends. Funny, because back in Scotland I was occasionally accused of sounding 'insufficiently Scottish' to the point I'd be asked if I was English. ENGLISH. "Yurr no' frae aroond here", etc.

Chatted with an American English teacher here in Taiwan and he mentioned a former work acquaintance from Scotland who had to receive special phonics lessons before he could even attempt to speak Chinese without a heavy accent that left everyone baffled. The struggle is real, people.

It's nearly Christmas, there are sales, so...the audiobook of Echogenesis is 70% off? Non-DRM, if that helps. www.audiobooks.com/promotions/p...

Should hit 50k on the first draft on the second of Echogenesis's two sequels later today. Now thinking I'll have complete first drafts of both books sometime late January. Hope I'm not overestimating my abilities by thinking I can edit an estimated likely total of 200,000 words by August.

Monday, I headed out on the bike a little after dawn, and got back home half an hour before sunset, making it not only the longest bike ride I've ever gone on, but also the hardest at 120km total distance. Add in 4,000ft/1,100 metres of climbing, and you've got a long, hard day in the saddle.

Cycled to the N/E coast of Taiwan today: 6am start, then east to Fulong and north to Longdon, before turning west to Keelung for the train home-then snapped my bike's front derailleur 5 minutes after disembarking and had to take it on the subway instead. 100km ride, 4,000 ft total ascent.

I remember seeing this bellend on the UK news and the thought of him being in charge of anything more serious than a puppet show is less than edifying.

There's cozy romance, cozy mystery, and more recently, cozy fantasy. ...does that mean there's such a thing as cozy weird fiction?

Forgot to mention my most recent book Europa Deep is a 99p Kindle Monthly Deal on Amazon UK until the end of this month. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

Oh, for the time to read them. www.openculture.com/2024/11/free...

When not writing, I go cycling in Taiwan. usually post about this on FB, but figured why not on Bluesky too? So here's a pic of the north-east coast of Taiwan on a very rainy, very blustery day. Meant to be a sixty mile ride, but cut it short at forty when the rain got too much.

Just added a shitload of sf-related starter packs. If I just followed you and you're wondering who the fuck I am: Scottish sf writer, some hard sf/space opera/whatever books out from Pan MacMillan, and a bunch of others through small presses and my own imprint, Brain in a Jar. Lives in Taiwan.

Publishing industry challenge: evolve past your absolutely bonkers privileged 1950s white author model and pay writers a living wage. Make every title a lead title, only acquire what you can market and support, remove barriers to BIPOC authors, and dismantle the top 1%.

Still think this man is an absolute legend.

Butterfly Box and Other Stories, my new collection of short fiction and novellas, is out now. Get it here in ebook, paperback and hardback: mybook.to/ButterflyBox More details can be found on my blog: whitescreenofdespair.blogspot.com/2024/11/new-... Please share this post if you like my stuff.

Got my proofs of the physical editions of Butterfly Box through - paperback and hardback - and they look great. I’ll have more details, plus buy links for all three formats, including ebook, sometime on Friday or Saturday.

And so I arise from my long social media slumber to tell my few remaining followers that I have forthcoming a new book, Butterfly Box and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, much of it previously published in various magazines. Ebook, paperback and hardback, pub. Nov 15, links to follow.

Not remotely surprised to see Handmaid's Tale is currently at No 2 on the US Amazon store. No 3 is On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. And No 1? 'Melania', by Melania Trump.

I kept waiting for my publisher to post about it or, I don't know, arrange for any interviews or podcasts or guest posts or anything, and haha NOPE. No marketing! No publicity! I had to go out and beg for my own blurbs! It is a secret book! ... At least the Womble reviewed it!

Europa Deep's now got 900 reviews & ratings. Most sales are in UK rather than US, whereas Echogenesis' sales were much more evenly split. Not sure why, but why one country goes for a thing and another doesn't is one of the great mysteries of marketing. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

New on my blog: things I've learned about building a sustainable writing career - advice for formerly traditionally-published authors. whitescreenofdespair.blogspot.com/2024/03/surv...

Up to 700 ratings and reviews now for Europa Deep, and it's still on sale in the UK until the end of the month (and Echogenesis will also be on sale in a couple of days). Onwards and upwards, as they say. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

Interestingly - to me, anyway - now that Poor Things is a film, it means that at least one of Alasdair Gray's books is now available as an audiobook.

Nice to see that Europa Deep is a Kindle Monthly Deal on Amazon UK: just 99p until April. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

Europa Deep by @garygibsonsf.bsky.social is a thrilling sci-fi novel full of subterfuge, action, and mystery. The exploration of Europa and its lifeforms were definitely selling points, too, and Gary's books never fail to deliver. Highly recommend!

Europa Deep's still on sale in the UK, and is also now on sale on Amazon US with, so far, 450 reviews and ratings. Nice! It's going out in another promotional newsletter later today, and the sale will continue for the next several days. Get it while it's cheap. www.amazon.com/Europa-Deep-...

Heads-up that Europa Deep is in a Kindle promotion in the UK for 99p. It's also going out in a Bookbub newsletter tomorrow, and from Sunday it'll be 99 cents in the US store (and going out in another newsletter). If you're thinking of getting it, now is the time. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

More from the 'well, that's nice' department: Europa Deep now has over 400 reviews and ratings on Amazon. Mostly from the UK, but with very few from the US. Echogenesis is still the only book of mine that ever really took off on both sides of the Atlantic. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

Fun with magnets. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rn5...

Petition to honor Michael Shannon every Jan. 6

(checks calendar) Oh shit, I suppose that means I have to sit down and write a book now, don't I

350 reviews and ratings now for Europa Deep. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

Must have been an easy choice for the BBC to film Conan Doyle's Lot 249 for television since, presumably, no other horror stories better deserving of adaptation have been written in the intervening hundred and thirty years.

As Xmas presents go, a very positive review for my 2022 novel Proxy in Publisher’s Weekly is pretty nice: “…a relentless cyberpunk adventure…(an) ambitious thrill ride.” www.publishersweekly.com/978986067703o

Well, that's nice: Europa Deep got selected for something called the Kindle 2023 Top Releases Deal, meaning it'll be on sale sometime in January.

Europa Deep now has over 300 reviews and ratings on Amazon, still with an average rating of 4.3. And here's a gem of a review. I mean, really. www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Deep-...

One of those days when no matter how carefully you clean them, or how often, your glasses end up with mysterious annoying smudges half an hour later.

Well, given the cost of Glasgow Worldcon in 2024 & plane tickets at height of summer season-not to mention that my dog is getting very old and needs a lot of care my partner can't take time off work to give him while I jet into the sunset-it's looking less likely I'll be attending.

Downloaded the Alexa app onto my iPhone after I learned you can apparently use it to listen to kindle books not otherwise available in audio. Well, it can't. And the play button disappears. Either I'm doing it wrong, or the app is deeply broken.

Nobody told me people cycle up mountains primarily so they can gorge themselves on snickers bars with zero guilt. In other news, today, while cycling thirty miles with a total ascent of six hundred metres, I ate a snickers bar.

The UK Echogenesis Kindle Daily deal did pretty well: it's currently at 300 on Amazon's Kindle charts & number 1 in multiple categories. Not bad for a book that got rejected by multiple publishers, then went on to sell better than most of my traditionally-published titles.

Echogenesis is a Kindle Daily Deal in the UK today: www.amazon.co.uk/Echogenesis-...