Entries by Matt Wright

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Careers Advice: How to do you go about building a skilled workforce for the future?

OK, I’ll admit it – I had no idea (until a few days ago) how Careers Advice was being dispensed to today’s youngsters. In my time (as an, erm, 40-something-year-old), it was more or less presumed that you would go on to either college, polytechnic (remember those?) or university.

Hence, any careers advice was skewed to what you might want to do post-further education; in other words, what you should study first to get a job after? And don’t even mention apprenticeships….

So, it was interesting to sit next to or Marina Jackson from Bucks Skills Hub at last week’s BLT networking meeting, and find out more about how it all works in schools now.

Let me set all this in context first though; here’s my understanding of the ‘journey’ so far and the main ‘players’ in the Bucks region…. read more read more

June 27, 2017 /0 Comments/by

Self-publishing online: 2 choices and the set-up process explained

Self-publishing online has never been easier – you can now set-up an publishing account on Amazon in about an hour or so, upload your manuscript directly from a Word document, and theoretically be good to go in an evening….theoretically that is, having a publication-ready manuscript is another matter entirely!

Online publishing – the story to date

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon.com’s book publishing unit which was launched in 2007 at the same time as Amazon’s Kindle device. This single-handedly kickstarted the e-book market, whose exponential growth led to predictions of the demise of the traditional printed book market.

In 2016, Amazon released four million e-books, 40% of which were self-published under KDP, making Amazon the largest player in this market.

However, around 2015, e-book sales began to fall for the first time to 20% of overall book revenue (2014: 23%) with volumes also declining to 32% of overall book units (2014: 36%) Source: Publishers’ Weekly. Limitations of e-reading devices and ‘digital fatigue’ were cited as the chief causes of decline. read more read more

June 24, 2017 /0 Comments/by

Self-publishing a paperback – 3 big questions: What is work is involved? How much will it cost? What could I earn?

Self-publishing your masterpiece has never been easier….there again, the print on demand (POD) process still remains one not for the faint of heart, as there is a lot of work involved behind the scenes. At least it might make you realise what publishing houses do in the first place!

1. Print on demand ‘POD’ – what work is involved?

Print on demand (POD) has grown massively to become a credible alternative to traditional publishing houses, facilitated by low barriers to entry which encourage the self-published author.

The main alternatives are:

  • Createspace (self-publishing for amateurs): Amazon dominates the POD market, having purchased and consolidated a number of companies in this field since 2005 – Createspace is the name of the Amazon POD subsidiary.
  • Lightning Source (self-publishing for professionals): Ingram is the largest book distributor in the United States, which distributes globally to retailers and libraries.
  • Book printing UK (printing only): there are a number of companies who will print your manuscript in whatever format you require – it is best to go for a company based in your country to keep shipping costs down

Note that Lightning Source is geared towards the expert end of the market, in that you have to have your own company first, complete with ISBN numbers, and the costs associated are higher than with Createspace. However, Lightning Source does offer a variety of different formats (such as hardcopy), distributes directly to the major bookstores, and has dedicated customer support….which Createspace does not. read more read more

June 24, 2017 /0 Comments/by

Mind Maps – Why are they so effective?

So just how do memories work…and why should we use Mind Maps to improve them?

“We like to think that memory is similar to taking a photograph and placing that photograph into a filing cabinet drawer to be withdrawn later (recalled) as the “memory” exactly the way it was placed there originally (stored).  But memory is more like taking a picture and tearing it up into small pieces and putting the pieces in different drawers.”

-Neuroscience Online, The University of Texas

Memories are not located in one particular place in the brain, but in many locations, a process referred to as distributed processing….apologies for sounding a bit ‘technical’ ,the point being that the brain works like a web, not a filing cabinet. read more read more

June 23, 2017 /0 Comments/by
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Mind Maps – practical uses in book-writing

Blog Overview

  • Mind Maps are great for summarising the key elements of a book onto 1 page
  • They provides an invaluable guide when organising content, especially in ‘live’ scenarios
  • XMind is one such software tool available

Mind Maps in Practise

The skilled negotiator thinks in terms of options; the less skilled negotiator thinks in terms of limitations. One of the kisses of death in negotiation is to be predictable. If you can use Mind Mapping you can think in terms of multiple paths…

– Kathleen Reardon ‘ The Skilled Negotiator’

OK, so the act of ghostwriting a book [see Alan Chambers blog posting] isn’t quite that combatitive, but there were a few occasions when it was necessary for me to think in ‘real time’, notably when dealing face-to-face with:

  • The ‘author’: to keep the interview on track, an overall Mind Map of the structure of the book acted as a great guide for directing and managing the conversation
  • Case study interviewees: you can’t pre-plan these, so it was helpful to have keywords under which you could ‘file’ the recollections as and when they emerged, meaning that each interviewee generated a number of different Case Studies which could be used throughout the book

Alan Chambers book mind map

X Mind

There are a number of online mind-mapping programmes on the market – I use XMind because I find it intuitive (and  I’m used to it), but I’m sure that others have unique features which would work just as well. read more read more

June 23, 2017 /0 Comments/by

Paradise Lost…..Words Found

The Greatest English Author?

John Milton, rather than William Shakespeare, was actually the greatest neologist (*) of the English language, according to Gavin Alexander, lecturer in English at Cambridge university.

(*) neologism. n. ‘practice of innovation in language,’ 1776, from French néologisme, from neo- (see neo-) + Greek logos ‘word’ (see lecture (n.)). Meaning ‘new word or expression’ from 1803 onwards.

Words introduced into the English language (by order of magnitude, per the OED):

  • John Milton 630
  • Ben Jonson 558
  • John Donne 342
  • Shakespeare 229

Being fluent in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Spanish, French, and Italian, Milton had an excellent grounding in languages and was exceptionally well-placed to create new words to suit his literary needs. read more read more

April 24, 2017 /0 Comments/by

Grammarian: UK v US punctuation…worlds apart! Full stop (or period)

British English (BrE) is used in the UK, whereas American English (AmE) is used in the United States, and that goes for punctuation as well as grammar and vocabulary. 

BrE v AmE Punctuation differences

We’ll concentrate solely upon punctuation for this blog.

That means putting aside a myriad of different (potentially embarrassing!) word meanings; e.g. if we make a mistake in the UK, we would correct is with a ‘rubber’, whereas Americans would use an ‘eraser’ and be shocked at our forwardness!

1. Putting full stops after abbreviations

i. Yes – both BrE and AmE

  • Abbreviated titles (*) – Prof.,Rev., Hon. (note ‘The Reverend’ = written out in full)
  • Latin abbreviations: exampli gratia = e.g.

(*) Abbreviation v Contraction

  • Contraction – where the middle of the word is dropped; e.g. Doctor = D…..r
  • Abbreviation – where the ending is dropped; e.g. Professor = Prof.

ii. Yes AmE / No BrE

AmE tends to put periods (full stops in English!) after EVERY abbreviation….not so BrE. read more

April 14, 2017 /1 Comment/by

Lucy Kellaway: “A cool and noble thing to do”

Why I am Leaving a top job at the FT for teaching?

After over 30 years as a columnist at the FT, Lucy Kellaway (**) is quitting her job (well, almost quit…she’s still keeping a couple of irons in the fire!) to begin again as a maths teacher…..in a ‘challenging’ London school….oh, and at the complete bottom, as an unsalaried trainee teacher.

Not that, but she has also set up Now Teach in order to….

….encourage experienced leaders from the private and public sectors to teach mainly maths, science and languages (French and Spanish) in challenging secondary schools in London.i read more read more

April 11, 2017 /0 Comments/by
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The Sensitivity Police

A new industry is springing up in the US, in which authors can hire ‘experts’ to scan their manuscripts for content that might offend on the grounds of race, sex, or religion; i.e. Sensitivity Police.

WSensitivity Readersriting in the Margins is one such agency which offers a ‘Sensitivity Reader’ service:

“A sensitivity reader reviews a manuscript for internalized bias and negatively charged language.  A sensitivity reader is there to help make sure you do not make a mistake, but they are also NOT a guarantee against making a mistake.”

Cultural insensitivity is a big issue

Apparently, high-profile authors such as Jodi Picoult have employed sensitivity readers, such as for her latest novel ‘Small Great Things’, regarding a black nurse and a white supremacist couple. read more read more

April 10, 2017 /0 Comments/by
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I suppose you can’t always have your cake and eat it….

Hmmm….well it does take the occasional ‘bad’ literary festival session to make you appreciate the ‘good’ ones, doesn’t it?

The Oxford Literary Festival ‘OLF’ (*)

On the face of it, this was a unique chance to share the experiences of Nicholas Lander (**), a food critic with impeccable credentials, who would obviously use the evolution of the restaurant menu (‘On the Menu’ ) as a backdrop to a series of hilarious anecdotes and fascinating insights into the beguiling world of high-end cuisine. read more read more

April 5, 2017 /0 Comments/by