The Authors For Autism Research auction has just finished, and I’m absolutely delighted (and, truth be told, a little bit amazed!!) to be able to report that the winning bid to have your name featured in one of my books was ... £1020!!! To break the thousand pound mark was incredible -- the only other author in the auction to do that was Lee Child, whose auction made about £150 more than mine. In fact the next highest bid for an author after mine was £424!! Which officially makes you guys some of the best fans in the world!! But then, that’s no news to me!!!!!! Thanks to everyone who participated -- you’ve helped raise some much-needed funds, which will go towards a very good cause. The organisers of the auction will be contacting the winning bidder and putting them in touch with me, so that they can confirm what name they want me to use, and in which novel. I’ll also be sending them a signed copy of the book when it comes out.

Advice to would-be writers -- keep it short and sweet!!! I’ve noticed with my blogs that when I post a really long entry, as I did yesterday, I usually get far few responses than if I post a shorter, snappier one! This is completely understandable -- people lose interest if they have to plough through a lot of long paragraphs, or lose track of what the point is, and just ... tune out!! It’s the same as when you’re in class and your teacher drones on and on and ON about the same old thing -- you just want to scream, "Enough already!!!!" With my books, I re-write and edit them several times, tightening up, to try and ensure readers don’t get bored or side-tracked in the middle of a chapter. But with my blog I’m more stream-of-consciousness -- my readership is tiny compared to those who read my books, and you’re getting these entries for free, and it’s meant to be a diary more than anything else, so, yes, from time to time I ramble -- and I make no apologies for it!!! As I often say, it’s important to write LOTS, to get in as much practise as you can, so that you get to learn more about words and how to express yourself. So in a way this blog is a kind of testing ground for me, a way to play around with my thoughts, to keep in the habit of writing something most days. I almost never know what I’m going to write when I sit down to compose an entry, whether it will be short or long -- I just go with the moment!!

I received the following email from Jack today:

I’m 15, and I love reading. I’ve read The Saga of Darren Shan and they’re my favourite books. However, as I’m getting older, I’m pondering taking my interest further and becoming a writer.

I know I’m creative enough, and my teachers tell me I’m bright. English has always been my strong subject. However, I have reservations about the idea. From what I can tell, writing is a very sink or swim business. You can spend months, years even, writing a book and either it does’nt get published or it isnt successful.

I’m not going to go into too much detail, as like I said, I doubt this will even get read. If however you do read this message, and if you have the spare time, could you give me your advice? Could you sum up in one message all of your writing experience and knowledge? This is something thats really bothering me, and hearing advice from my favourite author would really put things in perspective for me.

Sum up all of my writing experience and knowledge in one message ... Jack, you’ve made one of the fundamental errors of young writers worldwide -- you think there’s a secret formula. As I often state on this blog, there isn’t. It all boils down to hard work and lots of experimentation. My best advice is to stop looking for advice -- just crack on and write!! And I say that in a totally friendly, helpful way -- I too believed there was a secret to writing when I was your age. But it’s important to be told that there isn’t -- the sooner you realise that YOU have the power to decide whether or not you become a writer, by actually writing and not thinking about it and looking for shortcuts, the sooner you can make headway and take real steps towards realising your dream.

Jack’s right about it being a very sink or swim business - and the sad fact is that most writers sink, quickly and messily and horribly! Have no delusions if you want to be a writer -- from a financial point of view, life sucks for most of us!!! I read a statistic recently that the average annual income of writers in the UK under the age of 35 is ... £5000. You read right -- five thousand pounds. A year. And that’s the average -- which means it includes the high-rollers. So some of the those writers are earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year -- which means a lot of others are making far LESS than £5000. Can you imagine a teacher in the UK working for £5000 a year? A doctor? A butcher? A sales assistant in a discount store? A server in a fast food restaurant?

Most writers can’t afford to write full-time. They do it as a hobby, at night after work, at the weekends, in their holidays. Only a small percentage can afford to support themselves by writing. And only a tiny percentage make what would be considered a considerable sum -- there are VERY few rich writers!! You have to do it because you love it. You might get lucky and sell millions of copies and make bestseller lists all over the world -- but the odds against that are similar to having a very good win on the lottery. Some truly excellent writers never make much from their books -- quality, alas, doesn’t always guarantee a good income. But if you work hard, apply yourself, stay true to your dream and push yourself all the way, you WILL learn to tell the very best stories you can tell. And THAT is the secret of what being a writer is all about. To write a story and be able to look at it and say, "That’s the very best I can do, and it’s taken a hell of a lot of hard work to do it that good" -- that’s where real success lies. Creating something you can be proud of should be the goal of every writer. It’s great if others like it too, and lots of people buy it and you make lots of money. But that’s always a bonus. Write because you love writing. Go work in a bank if you love money.

Hmmm .. this has been another of my rather lengthy entries, hasn’t it? I guess I won’t have to spend too much time tomorrow sifting through replies ...