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Owen Booth

@owenbooth.bsky.social

1.1K followers 1.1K following 1.2K posts

Moderately attractive sometime writer. You should go do something useful instead of posting here.

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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · Nov 13

Since we’re all politely reintroducing ourselves: I’m the idiot who accidentally wrote these two books and some other stuff

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 52m

(And obvs no writers are going to be actually able to *earn a living*…)

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 1h

The stuff about “track” rings horribly true! New writers should probably avoid going anywhere near mainstream publishers for *at least* their first couple of books - except that indies are really struggling at the moment & can’t afford to take the risks they used to either.

Reposted by Owen Booth

Luke Turner @luketurner.bsky.social · 1h

Writers! Here is an incredibly bleak read about the state of publishing. Pretty soon it seems all books will be written by AI or posh people who don't really need the money

thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus

Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it

Reposted by Owen Booth

MrPaulRobinson @mrpaulrobinson.bsky.social · 1d

"I want a neatly-constructed 1,500-word analysis of the relationship between Prospero and Antonio in The Tempest or you're back on that dinghy, son." www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in UK

Toughening up language requirements latest move in Labour’s immigration crackdown

www.independent.co.uk

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 1d

It’s the most important one!

Reposted by Owen Booth

hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 1d

Would Hooklanders in London exile like to hear me talk in an East End pub about the origins of the county and its folklore next year?

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 1d

Always!

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 1d

Let’s hope!

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 1d

There are very specific rules for what makes a good short story owen-booth.com/2017/10/24/2...

Reposted by Owen Booth

BOObara Byar 👻👻 @barbarabyar.bsky.social · 1d

Writing "what you know" is memoir, not fiction

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

Reposted by Owen Booth

Simon Spanton @simonguy.bsky.social · 1d

And there I was thinking Thomas Pynchon was an aburdist novelist. Turns out he was documentarian all along.

Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 1d

Time to tune in to some analysis from Antifa expert…Chef Andrew…Gruel?…founder of…American Gravy Concepts?

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 1d

Standup comedians, podcasters, tv presenters and broadsheet journalists do not make very good novelists. But then neither does anyone else.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

Reposted by Owen Booth

IndifferenceEngine @guyware.bsky.social · 1d

There are more than enough books already

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 1d

If you don’t appreciate how hot I am now, you don’t get to appreciate how hot I was then

Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 1d

"Post you from a different era" is middle-aged Bluesky code for "lemme see you when you were hot"

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 5d

Good old Mac’s Smoke Shop 🚬

The lovely neon sign on the front of Mac’s Smoke Shop in Palo Alto at dusk

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 10d

Tomato singularity

A very red tomato that appears to be folding in on itself as if under its own immense gravitational pull

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 11d

Ouch

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 12d

They are, they are. I’d have to choose The Long Goodbye as my fave (not least because it’s the longest)

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 12d

Prose is still great. Feels a bit slower than I remembered but I think that’s just because books have sped up in the intervening period.

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 12d

Books! They’re great, aren’t they? Except for the terrible ones!

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 12d

For no particular reason and in no particular order, here’s some things I’ve recently been reading/re-reading

Reposted by Owen Booth

Vikki Patis @vikkipatis.bsky.social · 13d

So-called 'bad track' is complete and utter bollocks.

Frankly, this is absolute gaslighting of the worst kind. It’s like publishers have all agreed on the myth that if an author’s first book didn’t sell well, it’s because of the author’s name. Not perhaps the cover not being eye catching enough … certainly not their marketing efforts (heavens forbid the publisher be responsible)… or how they positioned the book, which perhaps caused the ‘miss’… or the amount of publicity that book was lucky to get (or not)… it’s not the fact that traction is hard for anyone to lasso, even huge publishers raking in millions … not the factors of luck and chance which btw are extremely real … (r u getting me here???)

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 13d

Oh but now I’m reading a *beautifully written* book about incredibly boring people and to be honest I’m not sure how to proceed

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 15d

I don’t want to read your terrible books about boring people. Or your boring books about terrible people, for that matter.

Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 13d

Don’t make me mute you Ray. You’re better than this.

Reposted by Owen Booth

Anna Mazzola @annamazz.bsky.social · 14d

Didn’t do it again though, did he?