PD Smith

Twitter is great fun. Yes, it can be distracting, as many writers have complained. But hey, so is life!

Twitter is also very useful. I've made contact with many people who share my fascination with the subject I'm researching for my next book - the history and future of cities. I've listed nearly a hundred of these people here. I recommend them - they're well worth following.

It looks like some people have found my tweets useful too: the other day the cultural news website Flavorwire included me on a list of the "10 Book Types You Should Follow on Twitter". Quite an honour when you think it includes people like Sarah Weinman (@sarahw), Ron Charles(@roncharles), the Washington Post’s fiction editor, as well as book website The Millions (@The_Millions).

Oh, and by the way - I have my own list of book people to follow on Twitter here. So what are you waiting for?

An interesting discussion developed the other day on Twitter about the idea of "crowdfunding" books - asking people for donations to fund the author while writing a book. Simon Sellars (@ballardian) started the ball rolling, sending me a link to Deanna Zandt's blog in which she asks for donations.

I have to say I was initially sceptical, not to say cynical, about the whole idea. As Will Wiles (@WillWiles) said, it seemed a bit too much like "panhandling". Science fiction author Tim Maughan (@timmaughan) was similarly negative about the idea. 

But having thought about this and listened to Deanna's side of things I see that it certainly can work. Although, as she says, it clearly works best if you are talking to a community that is open to this approach. I'm not sure it would work for the kind of cultural history books I write, for example.

Tim Maly (@doingitwrong), co-founder of Capybara Games, pointed out the advantages of this way of funding books and other artistic projects. As he said, if it works for Robin Sloan (@robinsloan) at Kickstarter, why shouldn't it work for other authors?

Anyway, it's an interesting debate and Tim Maly has collated the various comments from people and written a fascinating blog on the issues it raises which is well worth reading.

Michelle Pauli (@michellepauli) at the Guardian has also written a rather more sceptical piece highlighting the ethical problems involved. For example, she points out that "as [Deanna Zandt] is writing about social networking it might be relevant to the reader to know if, for example, the MD of Facebook has contributed a large sum to the writing of her book".

One nagging fear I have about crowdfunding is that if it catches on then publishers may stop paying advances altogether. Authors are already having to make do with much lower advances. And today I see in The Bookseller that an agent has struck a deal where there is no advance and the profits are split between author and publisher.

Perhaps the new age of the eBook will change things, allowing authors to reach untapped audiences and making writing more rewarding. I hope so. If not then crowdfunding books may well be the only option for some authors.

My review of Seeing Further: The Story of Science & the Royal Society, edited by Bill Bryson, is in today's Independent. It's a wonderfully eclectic collection of specially commissioned essays celebrating the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Society. Among the authors are scientists (Dawkins, Steve Jones etc), historians (Simon Schaffer) and novelists (Margaret Atwood, Neal Stephenson). It's also beautifully illustrated with images from the Royal Society's collection. I was particularly struck by a reproduction of the title page of Einstein's 1917 popularization of relativity, On the Special and General Theory of Relativity. It is signed by Einstein who had sent it to his friend, the Berlin physician Hans Mühsam. On it, Mühsam has written (in German):

"This copy is the first one which left the printer. It was sent to me by Prof Einstein the moment he had received it, and shortly before I went to France with the army. Hans Mühsam, Berlin, at present at the French Front, April 1917."

The idea of Mühsam taking this copy of Einstein's book with him to the hell of the trenches in the First World War is deeply moving. It speaks volumes about the power of scientific ideas.

You can see the title page of Einstein's book here and read my review here.

The latest issue of Wired UK, "Rebooting Britain", has a piece by me on how cities can help us to save the planet.

It's based on research I'm doing for my next book which explores the past, present and future of cities. Here's a taster:

"For the first time in history, more than half the world's population live in cities: by 2030, three out of five people will be city dwellers. But the British are bucking this trend. The 2001 census revealed an "exodus from the cities". Since 1981, Greater London and the six former metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire have lost some 2.25 million people in net migration exchanges with the rest of the UK; in recent years this trend has accelerated. This is not sustainable. British people need to be cured of the insidious fantasy of leaving the city and owning a house in the country: their romantic dream will become a nightmare for people elsewhere on the planet."

There's also a great piece by science fiction author Paul McAuley on the technological changes that could make cities carbon neutral:

"From the air, the ideal green city should resemble Mayan ruins poking out of a lush forest. Under the canopy, there'll be densely populated but diverse and vibrant streets humming with every kind of human life. Utopian? You bet."

Read my article here and Paul's here.

In a fascinating article for the Sunday Times, Jonathan Leake asks could the Large Hadron Collider be sabotaging itself from the future?

"Some physicists suggest that when billions of pounds have been spent on the kit to probe such ideas, there is little need to invent new ones about time travel and self-sabotage. History shows, however, it is unwise to dismiss too quickly ideas that are initially seen as science fiction. Peter Smith, a science historian and author of Doomsday Men, which looks at the links between science and popular culture, points out that what started as science fiction has often become the inspiration for big discoveries."

Read the rest here.