The Poster Test

I'm still digesting all the information from Chris Jones's amazing film making masterclass. When I wrote about it a few days ago, I promised to write more regarding lessons that novelists could take from the class.

One of the things in Chris's course that struck me most forcefully was a test he used in deciding whether/how to proceed with a film making project based on the title, strapline and poster image.

Does the title alone tell the potential audience what sort of story to expect? Or does it mislead? Does it imply a story or not? What about the strapline - does that help? And the same question goes for the poster image. Unless you have a HUGE advertising budget, your potential audience will make their decision to part with money or not based on this information alone: title, strapline and poster image.

How about these for movie titles that imply a story:

Home Alone
Snakes on a Plane
Star Wars

And for a perfect strapline:

Alien - in space no one can hear you scream

And a poster that tells the audience all they need to know about the kind of film to expect:

Chris described how he had designed three posters for one film project but couldn't get any of them quite right. Thus the film remains unmade. The poster test was revealing a flaw that would have come back to bite him at the point of trying to sell the movie - an ambiguity in genre and audience.

Perhaps novelists think they are above such base commercialism. But it seems to me that we have a lot to learn from filmakers. Even if money doesn't matter to you as a writer, surely having readers matters hugely. And in this game, one equates to the other.

So how about it? Before getting stuck into a long writing project, choose a title, a strapline and a cover image. Who is going to buy that book? Where will it be sold? And if you are really happy with your answers to those questions - why not write the back-blurb? Fifty words of hard sell. Do a mock-up of the book cover. Ask twenty friends what they think of it. Better still, ask twenty strangers.

Even if we don't like to think of our work in these terms, be sure that editors and agents have to.

Zombie Undead

A couple of years ago I was showing my film 'Pixacillus' at a bar screening alongside a number of other shorts. In the intermission a very tall man with a goatee beard pushed through the crowd to introduce himself. This was my first meeting with Rhys Davis.

A few months later, I bumped into him again at a zombie makeup workshop at the old Phoenix in Leicester. I learned that he and writer Kris Tearse were working on a full-length zombie movie. Would I like to be a zombie in the movie? he asked. Yes, I said. Of course.

But when the call came, it wasn't to be a zombie. They were looking for someone to play a doctor. A speaking rather than a groaning part.

A word here about timescales. Movies are usually shot in a month or two. You get everyone together, plan your schedule carefully and you work day after day until it is done. Rhys and Kris had devised a different approach.

By writing the movie so the bulk of it takes place inside an evacuation centre, and by securing weekend use of some large buildings at De Montfort University, they made it possible to shoot on odd days through the year - without worrying about the massive continuity problems that would have arisen through trees losing their leaves etc had they been shooting outside.

Thus Zombie Undead was shot on occasional weekend days over a 2 year period. On that basis, cast and crew volunteered their time. I don't know what the eventual budget was, but we must be talking less than Avatar spent on paperclips.

Tonight it premiers at Phoenix Square.

Huge congratulations to Kris and Rhys. It is a massive achievement.

Giving it away - a business model

Making money by giving things away free seems, on the face of it, to be a contradiction. But I have recently noticed several people who have done just this - and done it with great success.

But first an example of the traditional business model. This morning I found a podcast about a subject I was interested in. Naturally, I started listening to it. I hoped to get some free advice from a person who knows what he is talking about. What I actually heard was a sales pitch for a workshop from person who apparently knows what he is talking about. He hinted at the content of his workshop without actually giving any details. The method was named but not described.

And who could blame him? If I could get the content for free, why would I sign up for the course? This is the traditional business model.

But here are three examples of people who have become successful through giving things away for free.

1) David Blaine the street magician. Think back before the endurance stunts. He made his name by approaching people on the street and giving free magic shows. And not just the casual coin disappearing stuff that your uncle does to amuse the kids. These were sophisticated illusions which must have taken much time and effort to perfect and set up.

Of course, he had someone with a camera there to film it all. And he would later sell the show to TV stations. But at the point of origin, he was apparently giving something away.

2) How about the graffiti artist Banksy? Sneaking out in the night and spray painting works of art onto people's walls. Giving it away. Take a close look at his work and it becomes clear that a huge amount of thought, preparation and skill goes into what he does. People who find a Banksy on something that belongs to them can go and sell it if they want. It could easily be worth tens of thousands of pounds.




The public interest he has generated through this is so huge that money must be pouring in. I bought a copy of his book so I could enjoy the pictures. The very wealthy might buy an original canvas.

3) And if that doesn't convince you, how about the film maker Chris Jones? His blog is like a masterclass in the film industry. There is no sense that he is holding things back so we will be more inclined to buy one of his books or go to one of his workshops. He is open and frank about the projects he is involved with.

I have no idea if this was his idea from the start, but when he needed money to make a short film, he simply asked for £50 from everyone. And such was the respect his readers and other contacts held him in that they gave freely. The money came in and the film Gone Fishing was made. (I'm sure you already know, it reached the final shortlist of 10 films for the Oscars).

The outstanding feature of each of the above examples is that the artists didn't give away their leftovers. They gave away the very best.

How to publicise your novel

How to publicize your novel is a question most writers don’t start to worry about until the event is upon them. Let’s face it – there have been too many other things on our minds till then. Like writing the darned thing, finding an agent and getting an editor to be your new best friend. Important stuff. Publicity can wait.

But your publisher has been thinking about the selling of your book from the moment they read the drop-dead-brilliant opening lines: Where will this sit in the bookshop? What commercially successful titles is it similar to? Can I sell the book? Can I sell the author?

The hard truth of being a writer today is this: more books are being written than ever before, more titles are being published than at any time in history, but sales are not increasing. You do the maths.

Perhaps we should be thinking about publicity after all.

So here are some of the best known shortcuts to getting column inches and getting people talking about (and hopefully deciding to buy) your novel.

1) Have had a career as a journalist and therefore have lots of favours you can call in.

2) Be good friends with the author in-crowd so they will give you quotes to put on the back of your book and perhaps even write a review for the newspaper.

3) Be a celebrity. Or date a celebrity. Or get a celebrity to take out a restraining order against you. Or any combination of the above. (Or almost any other sentence that contains the word ‘celebrity’)

And if none of the above apply, how about these:

1) Put in time working with the local media. Keep knocking on their doors. Always say yes to their requests, even if they want you in the radio station to review the papers at 7am and won’t pay your bus fare. (Or be writer in residence in the local bus station for the morning).

2) Put time in working with the libraries and librarians in your region. Readers group after readers group. Year after year. These are your friends.

3) Over-prepare for every presentation. Even if you are giving away your time for free. If the local radio station has invited you in for 5 minutes of comment on the recent spate of fly-tipping, spend hours preparing, researching, rehearsing. Always shine.

4) If your novel wins something in a competition – even if it some small, local affair - start referring to it as an award winning novel. Keep honing and updating your biography.

5) Network with other writers, performers and artists. Go to their launch events. Be generous with your friendship. Support them and they will hopefully support you. And even if they don’t, it should be a pleasure.

6) Make each thing you write better than the last.

7) Have a website so people can find you when they need to.

8) And, yes, keep a blog.

Sebastian Faulks, Dan Brown and Publicists

What do Dan Brown and Sebastian Faulks have in common? Perhaps a better question would be what do their publicists have in common? Happiness, I suggest. More column inches than you can shake a stick at. And all for free.

Dan Brown managed to inflame large portions of the worldwide Christian community through suggestions in his book The Da Vinci Code. The story is gripping enough but the prose is ropey and large parts of it seem unedited. If its ideological opponents had just kept their mouths closed it would have been forgotten within a couple of years. But the call of publicity proved too tempting. How many column inches were devoted to the argument? I would hazard a guess that it was many times that which was devoted to, for example, malaria. But then, no one is arguing about malaria. It kills between one and three million people a year. What’s to say?

Sebastian Faulks an experienced journalist himself, knows a thing or two about the workings of the newspaper industry. He must have had a fairly shrewd idea of what would happen when he just happened to mention to a journalist that he’d read the Quran and found it: “a depressing book” and “the rantings of a schizophrenic” and “very one-dimensional”.

Coincidentally, he has a new book out.

Of course, after that the papers were hungry for more coverage and he had a chance to say that he was quoted out of context and that he blamed himself really. “I am not the first and probably won’t be the last to have ruffled some feathers, though I feel sad about this, because my new novel, A week in December, is carefully researched, and, among its main characters, presents a hugely sympathetic and loving Muslim family”.

I can just imagine the publicist’s smile, that dreamy, far-away look.

So - if you are seeing signs of depression or stress in your publicist, the answer is simple. You need to stop messing around honing your prose and get down to work. Burn a flag or break an icon. Perjure yourself and go to prison. Sleep with someone famous and accidentally publish the video on Youtube.

You know it makes sense.

Writer in Residence podcast

As promised, here is the link to the BBC Radio Leicester podcast from yesterday's 'Writer in Residence' extraviganza at St Margaret's Bust Station, Leicester.

The podcast covers the whole several hours of the program. But if you want to cut to the chase, the three sections in which I was involved can be found at:

0.41.08

1.34.21

2.37.55

Just shift the time bar along to find these bits of the show. The final section, at 2 hours thirty-seven minutes, is the bit we did from the studio, in which I read out my composition.

Writer in a bus station

Sorry for the long absence. I have been having lots of problems connecting to the Internet this week. Thankfully with the purchase of a new wireless router and the helpful intervention of my son, we now seem to be up and running again.

And just in time to report about an interesting morning that awaits me tomorrow. I am to spend several hours at St Margaret's Bust Station in Leicester in the company of a reporter from BBC Radio Leicester. We will be interviewing people via the radio car. And after that we return to the station where I will have to read out some piece of new writing that I am expected to have composed - inspired by the place.

Nothing too long, I have been told. Not on radio. Something descriptive.

Sounds like a recipe for writers' block to me! If you are within the catchment of BBC Radio Leicester, do listen in. (I believe it can be accessed through the Internet.) But if you can't listen in live, I'll be sure to let you know how I get on.

Book Launch photos

As promised, here are some photographs from the launch of the Ghosts of Eden by Andrew Sharp, which took place last night in Leicester.

All the ingredients of a good book launch were there. Food and drinks aplenty...

...a hall full of enthusiastic people...

...a clear-sighted publisher and an inspired author...

...and lots and lots of books to sign. Over a hundred were sold. Now, let me have a look, is that writers' cramp?

Book Launches - what are they for?

A week of book launches lies ahead. Tomorrow I'll be going to the launch of Firebridge to Skyshore, Siobhan Logan's exquisite collection of poetry and prose, built around the aurora borealis - the Northern Lights. Then on Thursday I'll be going to the launch of Andrew Sharp's beautifully observed East African novel The Ghosts of Eden.

I know why a boat is launched. It is built on land and needs to get into the water. But a book?

Here, then, are a few reasons why you might want to go to the trouble and expense of organising a launch for a book:

1) The publishers have a budget for it and it seems like a waste of an opportunity to have friends round for a sumptuous buffet. Unfortunately, if you are mid-list or lower, there is unlikely to be much of a budget for this - if any. Jaffa cake anyone?

2) A chance to generate publicity. The local paper may not bother to send anyone round, but if you put in a press release afterwards they may just pick it up. Especially if you have done most of the writing for them. Be sure to invite someone who knows their way around a camera. A picture tells a thousand words. Of course, if you are a major name in literature , the papers would cover it anyway. But if you're mid-list or lower any publicity is to be grabbed with both hands.

3) A chance to make connections in the local literary world. Invite anyone and everyone. They may just start inviting you to give talks, appear in panel discussions etc. Public speaking is a helpful top-up to your (mid-list or below) earnings.

4) A chance to sell, sell, sell. This is particularly important if you are with a small publisher or are self published. With a big enough crowd you could sell 50 or 100 copies in one go. If the print run was only 1000, that is a great start.

5) You've worked hard to craft a beautiful book and would like to mark the occasion of its birth. Ultimately, I think this is the best reason to have a launch. It is a celebration. A moment to thank the people who have helped and loved ones who have put up with you during the darkest moments of the writing process.

Ironically, if you are a major name in literature and your book is going to attract publicity anyway, the publishers will spend money on promotion. There will be posters in the train station and a lavish book launch in London. As for the rest of us - we may as well enjoy a party.

So, three cheers to Andrew and Siobhan. It is a week to celebrate.

Self publishing and Vanity publishing

Yesterday's prize-giving event at the Society of Authors in London celebrated several categories of book (in addition to the club anthology section). Prizes were awarded for the best self-published children's book, best self-published novel, best self-published non-fiction book and the best self-published poetry collection.

These awards, given by the David St John Thomas Charitable Trust, are apparently the only awards of their kind, celebrating achievement in the field of self-publishing.

What is self publishing, why does it merit celebration and how does it differ from the dreaded vanity publishing business?

If you write a book and instead of getting it published through an existing company, edit, typeset, have printed and market it yourself - this is self publishing. I have seen enough excellent writing being turned down by mainstream publishers to believe that self-publishing at its best is an honorable route between pen and audience, and well deserving of celebration.

It has also been a route into mainstream publication for a few authors. These are the ones who did it so well that the sales proved the book had merit. After which even the most sceptical publishers were prepared to take them on.

(Why do the mainstream publishers turn down excellent writing? That is a topic in itself. But the central reason is usually economic. In short, they do not know how they would market it to sell enough copies to make a profit. This can be because of sound financial acumen. Or it could be a lack of vision. I have seen 5 or 6 manuscripts that were SO good, I couldn't believe they were turned down by mainstream publishers. In those cases I wished the authors had self-published rather than giving up after the Nth rejection. I would have bought a copy. I would have told my friends about it. Perhaps they would have told theirs.)

What of vanity publishing? Vanity publishers usually describe their role as helping authors to self-publish. The vanity part comes from the fact that they accept any manuscript, however bad, saying it is wonderful. A work of art. A discovery of great importance. A book that deserves an audience.

The author hands over a few thousand pounds and they say they will do the rest. They will edit it, typeset it, print it, send a copy to the British Library etc, and send out press releases to inform a grateful public of the arrival of the best thing since Hamlet. Money is sure to flood in to the author as sales mount. They can reprint as necessary.

In reality, the manuscript will printed with little or no editing, and the author will receive hundreds of copies which eventually be stored in the loft because no one will buy them. There they will be forgotten until the house is sold, whereon the owner will have to hire a skip to put them in pending the inevitable landfill.

Am I being too harsh? Perhaps. But the vanity press is an industry that grows fat by manipulating people's the unrealistic expectations. Anyway - three cheers for the best in self-publishing. You're an inspiration to us all.

Below are two of the the editorial team from Leicester Writers Club standing outside the headquarters of the Society of Authors.

Blog traffic, SEO and Twitter

"How I increased my blog traffic and made lots of money" seems to be one of the leading topics for discussion on the world's most visited blogs. Am I the only person to see an irony in this? Are the most popular blogs only being visited by swarms of bloggers, each desperate for the elixir that will give them financial freedom through blogging?

Other favourite topics at the moment are SEO (Search Engine Optimisation - or, how to get lots of people to find your website through Google) and Twitter - another method to generate blog traffic. It all seems rather incestuous.

In writing Author Intrusion, I have always been committed to the idea that there is an inherent value in communicating to the best of my ability about the things I feel passionately about. I have no idea where that will eventually lead or who will read it. But I believe that nothing we write is ever wasted.

With that in mind, you may be interested to see this graph, which shows the number of unique readers of this blog a day - calculated to the best of my ability. The number comes from a combination of those visiting the blog directly and those who read through subscription to a feed service. The other line in the graph shows the number of blog posts per week.

(Sorry about the unhelpful x-axis. The scale is the number of days since September last year - when I started offering the blog as an RSS feed. For the technically minded - the RSS statistics are automatically exported to a Microsoft Excel document, from which I produce the graph. Were I better at driving Excel, I would doubtless be able to make the x-axis labelling more helpful!)

You will notice that from day 1 to day 120 there was little change as the number of readers hovered around 15 a day. You will notice that since that time there has been a fairly steep growth to a present readership of around 80 a day. This is still a very small number compared to many blogs.

When a person begins to write - whether it is poetry, short story, a novel or a blog - there is the idea in their minds of an audience. It is almost as if the ghost of a potential reader is sitting in the room with them, patiently waiting. We may not ever get that five-figure publishing deal, but we like to think that someone - at least one person - will eventually witness what we have created. And if our work is witnessed, then it will have served a purpose.

So - I'd like to thank you for reading this. Particular thanks to regular readers and those who are kind enough to leave comments. You are all much appreciated.

And having said that, I must get back to writing the White Angel screenplay.

Five Leaves Young Adult book launch

Here are a few photographs from the Five Leaves launch of three new young adult titles. (Please see this article for the full write-up.)

The audience gathering in the hall at the Adult Education College, Welington Street, Leicester.

Dan Tunstall talks about his young adult novel BIG AND CLEVER.

Claire Tulloch reads from her debut novel DROWNED.

David Belbin talks about the process of getting LOVE LESSONS published and the way in which young adult fiction has always pushed the boundaries of what the publishing industry considders acceptable for that age.

The pannel discuss gender point of view in fiction. Does the reader have a problem with the author writing from the point of view of a different gender? Does the author have a problem with it? Not acording to the pannel.

Private and Library Supported Book Groups

The number of library supported book groups has grown rapidly over the last few years. I was told by Leicestershire Libraries that five years ago they looked after 30 groups but that it is now close to 100. My observation is that the same pattern is mirrored in other areas around the English Midlands.

What is the trend in private book groups? Being privately organised and held in people's homes, there is no way of knowing how many there are. But, as a librarian in Grantham told me, 'There is a bit of a Richard and Judy effect going on'. I feel sure private groups are multiplying.

As an author I often visit book groups in libraries. But I only get to step into the world of the private book group when a friend invites me.

Last night was one such occasion. I had the great pleasure of going to the home of Jon and Anne, two great friends from university days.

The group meeting in their house had just read BACKLASH so, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was interested to know how they'd got on with it. I feel sure it can't have been everyone's cup of tea. But if anyone had strong misgivings they kept them quiet.

We had an animated discussion, including the question of men writing from a female point of view - as I do in that Backlash. (You will see from the snap above, I was somewhat outnumbered in this respect.) I'll explore the gender POV question in another post, as I think many writers brush against the issue.

So - what is the difference between private and library supported book groups? The discussions are just as animated. The motivation to engage in narrative is equally strong. The willingness to read beyond areas of comfort is the same.

Perhaps the typical demographic is slightly different - though I haven't been to enough privately run groups to say for sure. The food and drink (common to both kinds of groups) might be a little more up-market when it isn't coming out of the library's budget. And, I have to say, I have never been presented with a gift at the end of a library visit. Not one like this:


As the ladies said - 'A beautiful and lasting memento of your visit'. Each time I look at it, I will remember how much I enjoyed the evening. Many thanks to all.

Book Groups and target audiences

In a couple of hours I'll be heading into Derbyshire to meet a book group. I'm going at the invitation of two good friends of mine from university days (please don't ask how long ago that was.)

During 2007 and 2008, when I was making the documentary 'Yarn', I visited book groups all over the East Midlands, trying to find out what motivated people to take part. I discovered how much people like to talk about books. Even if the book was a complete dud (from their point of view) the discussion gave them great pleasure. I suspect for some people the discussion gave them greater pleasure if they hated the book because they could tear it to pieces (metaphorically speaking).

Happily for me, the groups weren't talking about anything I had written. But tonight I face a group who have just read my first novel, Backlash. Will they hate it? Some will, I'm sure. But others will probably enjoy it. Hopefully one or two may love it. We will see.

Belonging to a book group forces people to read outside their comfort zone. Inevitably they come across books they dislike, but also they make surprising discoveries. Unexpected gems.

As a novelist, my aim is not to write a book that 100% of people quite like. Such a book would never be published and would never be loved. My aim is to write a book that 20% of people adore with a passion. The rest may hate it or feel indifferent - it doesn't matter which. They are not the audience.

Internet Broadcasting Update

I was planning on posting a couple of videos today and tomorrow, but technical problems have got in the way. Hopefully I will overcome them soon. First on the list will be the short comedy, Pixacillus, which picked up a couple of awards at the Leicester International Short Film Festival. After that I hope to podcast some episodes from my documentary film, YARN.

An update on the Chris d'Lacey mini-doc I uploaded last week: It has been viewed 68 times so far, more or less the same on YouTube and Vimeo. Not exactly a cinema full. But I will be interested to see how many people tune in after Chris puts up word of it on his website.

RSS Feeds and Blog Indexing

Yesterday I was under-the-weather and didn't have the mental energy to do much writing. I did , however, have enough energy to feel bored. I therefore set about indexing my blog posts with labels. This means that you should now be able to see one or more key words below each posting. Clicking on one that says 'dyslexia', for example, should bring up a list of articles on that subject. Similarly for 'writing', 'film', 'creativity', 'publicity', 'review', 'Internet' and 'politics'.

To do this, I had to edit and re-save each article. A laborious process, as I have over the years written quite a number of articles on this blog. I got half way through before running out of patience. The rest, I thought, will have to wait until another day.

Then, in the middle of the night, I work with a worrying thought. Do the people who subscribe to this blog feed through RSS and the like, now receive ALL the articles I re-saved yesterday? Have I inadvertently spammed them with some 50,000 words of blog article?

If you are one of my feed subscribers, please let me know what happened. If you have all been flooded, please forgive me. I'll try not to do it again!

Six People from History to invite to a Party

I had a call yesterday evening from the BBC asking me if I'd do a radio interview. The subject? The six people from history (or the present day) I would invite to a dinner party.

One approach would be to use the opportunity to have time with a loved one who has died. I could ask for my dear father to be at the table, and choose five Trappist monks to be the other guests. I wouldn’t want them interrupting the conversation. However, that didn't seem to be the sort of thing they were looking for.

Another approach would be to invite their Holinesses, Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna and Baha'u'llah. I have no doubt that they would have the most wonderful time together and be in complete agreement - whatever arguments people of different religions may have had over the millennia! But again, that might not be what the BBC were looking for.

So, playing the game, looking for a balanced dinner party and (assuming we have translation) hoping for some interesting conversations, my guest list is as follows:

Cicero. The Roman orator. Although he was a politician and a lawyer, I think we are far enough away in time from his politics to cause any real friction in the room. And he could surely tell us some stories. He seems to me to have been a man who enjoyed diverse company, was a good observer of people and had a ready wit.

Jane Austen. Another great observer of people and the human condition. Though she saw people's limitations, I think her eye rested kindly on them. She and Cicero would surely laugh together as they talked about people they had known.

Professor Richard Feynman. One of the greatest minds of the last century, Nobel laureate, much loved teacher and Renaissance man. Not only could he turn his mind to science, art and music, he also had an eye for a joke. Very often a practical joke. As with all my guests, he loved people.

Rosa Parks. American civil rights activist. Her decision to break the law by not relinquishing her bus seat to a white person was the act of bravery that began a process that would change the law. She seems to me to have been a person of great dignity. I think her presence would elevate the conversation at the party. Cicero would be fascinated by her story.

Haji Mirza Hayder Ali. A nineteenth century Persian. An early member of the Baha'i Faith. From his autobiography you get a clear feeling of his radiant personality. He suffered ferocious persecution because of his religious beliefs. But through it all he maintained the same gentle good humour. He'd be sad to learn that the Baha'is in Iran are still suffering persecution, but happy that so many governments and individuals are now speaking out in their defence.

For my final guest, I wanted another woman – to balance the table. Marylyn Monroe, I thought. Or perhaps Scarlet Johansen. I couldn't decide, so I asked my wife for advice. She said: "Take me, of course." So there we have it. How could I refuse? Sorry about that Scarlet.

World Book Day

Wheew! It was a busy day yesterday. I started out by talking to a group of teenage dyslexic kids. Very enjoyable - for me, at least. Good to have a chance to ask them what things they are really good at. The usual question to dyslexics is what they are bad at.

Then on to a group of GCSE English students who are presently achieving results at grade C but are aiming for grade B or A. It was a small group - particularly because several of them had bunked off. When I was faced with them, I had a sinking feeling that it was going to be really hard work, because most of them didn't look enthusiastic. World book day it might have been, but did they really want to be talking to a novelist about story structure?

The first thing I had to admit was that I only achieved grade C at GCSE English language. And that my school didn't even bother putting me in for English Literature, as I was not good enough. After that we spent most of the time chatting about movies - which they seemed to know a lot about. I gave out some photos of people - pictures cut from newspapers and magazines. From that the students created characters and stories.

Really good stories. Several in that class were natural story tellers.

Later in the day I went to another class of GCSE English students. This time they were kids working at grade A or A*. It was very interesting to me that the kind of stories they were coming out with were quite different from the 'lower achievers' earlier in the day. The narratives tended to be more introspective. To characterise them simplistically, the 'higher achievers' were writing the kind of plot line one might expect to find in literary fiction and the 'lower achievers' were writing what one might expect to find in genre fiction.

But here is the thing - I don't see literary fiction as inherently superior or more worthy than genre fiction. It is possible to tell a simple, accessible story and make it many layered. That was the quality I was looking for and I found some of it in both groups.

Why do I put quotation marks around 'higher achievers' and 'lower achievers'? It is a mark of my own scepticism in the belief that the GCSE is measuring the most important things in our English ability. If I had to pick out the best natural story tellers from the two groups, there would have been three from the 'lower achievers' and five from the 'higher achievers'. But the latter group was more than twice as big.

Then in the evening I headed off to Leicester Writers' Club for one of the best evening's entertainment available in the city on a Thursday night - sitting back and listening to people reading and performing some stunning stories and poems.

I'm glad there is a World Book Day. But glad also that it isn't every day. I'd burn out.

Househusband and Writer or Writer and Househusband?

I had a call from BBC Radio Leicester this morning and ended up doing a short phone interview. They were looking for someone to comment on what it is like to be a househusband - following on from some recent comment by a politician.

Well, I was a househusband a few years ago. And I wrote an article about it that was published in the Times. Back then, I called myself a "househusband and a writer". But since then my children have both gone to school and I spent less and less time looking after the house and more and more time being a writer. I came to the point of calling myself a "writer and a househusband." And now, just a "writer".

Perhaps that Times article (which I believe is reprinted somewhere on the web by a group of people arguing that men should not be househusbands!) is the reason I get contacted from time to time to speak about the subject.

So here is what I remember:

I got lots of time with my children. Precious and irreplaceable time.

I found many of the services aimed at helping mothers of young children were hard for me to access. Not that I was barred from taking part in 'parent and toddler' events. But I was always the only man there and things would clearly have been easier for everyone if I hadn't been present.

I found myself somewhat isolated as a result.

But it was a hugely creative and formative time for me and was the period in which I emerged as a novelist.

The day my youngest child started school - beyond which I had no excuse for not seeking a real job - was the day my first novel was accepted for publication.

Writers on the road

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself on a freezing cold street in the middle of Leicester, getting three wonderful writers to lie down in the middle of the road. Sometimes creativity leads and you just have to follow, even though you find yourself in strange places.

The original creative idea came from writer Terri Bradshaw, who suggested a name and image for the upcoming Leicester Writers' Club show. She said if we called it "Writers on the road", we could promote the event with a picture of some writers ON a road. Simple. Brilliant.

So we did it and I got to take the photograph - which was perhaps less dangerous than having to lie in the road. But my fingers near froze handling the camera!

Note: This wonderfully narrow, and thoroughly road-like road is Short Street, just behind the bus station in Leicester.