Recent content by Mad Swede

Then you have set up the transaction wrong. Either you didn't ask for the right things or you didn't choose the right editor. As an example, how you can you get a good developmental edit if you aren't discussing your intent as author, story themes, story arcs etc with the editor? You need to ask...

These are signs that you've got the wrong editor, or that your relationship with your editor is not where it should be. I've said it before, working with an editor is a partnership. You work together to make the book the best it can be. That means you have to be able to discuss the book and any...

Let me put it this way. Your concept for an alcoholic drink made from Mana cows is too similar to the way Chateau Romani is produced. Even I recognise the likeness, and I don't play the Zelda games. Calling your drink chateau just makes things even more obvious. You need to take a step back and...

Rule number 1: Money flows from the publisher to the author. Any "publisher" who asks you to pay for anything (editing, printing, review copies etc) is not serious and should be discarded from your list. Rule number 2: You sell the right to publish your book in one or more formats (hard copy...

I'll write it again. No serious publisher is ever going to make a statement like that to you. So don't spend any time thinking about how you might react, because it won't happen.

Yes, I think I'd use the word "driven" to describe that sense of compulsion I now have. I'm not sure I could have expressed it that way when I started to write, but I'm that much older and more experienced now.

Nothing inspired me to write. I write because I have to, it's a deeply personal thing. What I write about is based on things I've seen and done, but that has nothing to do with inspiration. Maybe your question is a little limited?

No serious publisher would ever make a statement like that. Quite apart from anything else, no publisher can predict how many copies a book will sell. I have a publishing contract, and my editor doesn't ever say things like that. The changes she suggests are usually about characterisation or...

And it doesn't occur to you that there may be a reason for a Malaysian to live in the UK and write a book with a lesbian character like that? Miles Lacey is quite right, being seen to express a positive view of LGBT+ people (in any form, be that a book, in an e-mail or in a chat group) in a...

A writing plan for 2026? Well, more like an authors plan. The fourth novel is almost through the editing process, so I'll be having the first meeting with my cover designer in the third week in January. The galleys will be ready at the end of March, so I get to proof read the final copy in...

Hmm. I think I'd want to develop the political aspects of your setting as part of making this work. Perhaps the reason the good guy wants to save (or at least not kill) his brother is to smoke out those who backed his brother. Maybe there's something else going on, like the two brothers working...

Sure, that writing discipline I learnt in the army ensures that I write when I set out to do so. And yes, everything that I've been through ends up in my writing somewhere. It seems to make for something the readers like and appreciate. Yet it's that personal pain, that intense sense of loss...

OK, for Denmark in general and Köpenhamn in particular you should go to the official Danish statistics website: Danmarks Statistik A rough set of population numbers for Köpenhamn is as follows: 1450: approximately 4500 people 1500: approximately 10 000 people 1650: approximately 30 000...

It was when I'd got my publishing contract thgat I splashed out on a good height-adjustable desk, a good desk lamp and a very good desk chair. Sure, when I was in the army I wrote in some very strange places. Crouched behind a pile of rocks whilst under fire, sitting in a bunker with artillery...

I learnt to write at any time and in any place no matter what was going on around me when I was a Swedish Army officer. I had to, orders must go out on time and reports must go back on time. There was no option. I just took that discipline with me when I started writing fiction. I've been...