Litopia After Dark

Sex toys, free iPods, key rings... apparently, some authors will stoop to any depths in an attempt to boost sales for their books - but do tacky sales gimmicks like these actually work? Writers' conferences - great networking opportunities, or a serious fleecing for naive would-be authors? What's...

Why are authors so angry with publishers? Why is Asda - the UK's arm of Walmart - killing bookselling? Why don't we learn from the newspaper business? And... why don't we shoot armadillos? Lots of questions, and not a few good answers from tonight's high-octane panel - Martyn Daniels, Nic Alderto...

Seriously - why do writers need publishers? Is Amy Chua, the Joan Crawford of modern parenting, for real? ;How to rig Amazon's Kindle bestseller list... And is Freud correct in implying that art is primarily an escapist method - and in an ideal world there would be no need for creative expression...