V S Naipaul, who has died aged 85, exemplified a very current preoccupation: whether an author's personality can be separated from his or her reputation as an artist.

‘The share of income from rights has steadily increased from 72 percent in 2013 to 80 percent in 2016,' says the UK's Publishers Association, in a report released this summer.

JK Rowling notoriously received numerous rejections before meeting her literary agent, and later, publisher. Having stacked up at least 60 rejections in my writing career, I know exactly how that feels.

And while being a novelist recently came out on top in a survey as one of the most...

My first published book, May Day, was released in March 2006. In the intervening twelve years, I've released ten more books in that series, watched glowing reviews come in, made an average of $6,000 a year off them (less than minimum wage), and grumbled to myself that if I had only self-pubbed...

Experienced authors tend to chastise vanity press victims for not doing sufficient research, but the murky web of vanity partnerships - and the uncritical coverage which invariably accompanies same - makes it difficult for newer writers to chart a safe path.