Mike Shevdon

Mike Shevdon

@shevdon.bsky.social

Contemporary Fiction Writer, Archer, Cook, Ukulele Player, Collector of Curiosities, Spinner of Stories, Renewable Energy, DIY Refurbisher, Undiagnosed Neurodivergent

223 followers258 following1.6K posts

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

A shoutout to the very useful Quikflow App for all my writing friends. If you can't find a way to plot forwards, plot backwards. Ask the question, "What does it take to get here?" #writing #writers #writingcommunity #WritingTools

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

I have a friend who was telling me about these amazing books he’s reading but he could remember neither the author nor the title. “So it’s about terraforming that goes wrong and the spiders become a dominant species, but there are insects too. @aptshadow.bsky.social? I asked. That’s the guy! 👍🏻😊

Mike Shevdon reposted

Josh Russell → @MVTFWD
@joshfwd.bsky.social

🚨 Can we all agree to totally ignore and destroy the “PolitlcsUK”* account everyone gets their news from now? It’s run by a REFORM COUNCILLOR, and trickles bias and fabricated nonsense in under a neutral guise. Share this. Drop it under friends reposts. 👀 Evidence in next post…. /1

Mike Shevdon reposted

George Monbiot
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social

As former Labour minister Tom Watson joins Palantir, please read this devastating exposé by @petergeoghegan.bsky.social & @lucasamin.bsky.social of how the company, with Peter Mandelson's help, wormed its way into the UK government to sell its dire & dangerous products. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.ukPeter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin · ‘This looks absolutely rubbish’: Palantir and the NHSA decade ago Palantir was largely unknown in the UK. It now holds public contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds...
Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

A thread for writers and creators about contracts. This is basic, but many creatives are just pleased to get a deal, no matter what the deal says. They look at it as validation, not as a business arrangement. Your publisher has no obligation to protect your interests, so you have to do that. 1)

View full thread
Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

10) A good agent will negotiate and explain these things for you, but they are working in their interest, not necessarily yours. Their interests are ultimately their own. The best of them will have your interests at heart too, if they can, but it is a business relationship - remember that.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

11) Finally, I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. However, having a lawyer look over your contract before you sign it is a good idea. Organisations like The Society of Authors can help you with this. Getting contracts right can save a lot of heartache later.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

A thread for writers and creators about contracts. This is basic, but many creatives are just pleased to get a deal, no matter what the deal says. They look at it as validation, not as a business arrangement. Your publisher has no obligation to protect your interests, so you have to do that. 1)

View full thread
Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

8) Look at terms. When it says "domestic market", whose domestic market - theirs or yours? The term "reasonable endeavours" means that they will try their best, while "best endeavours" means they will do it if they can at any cost - that applies to you as well as them.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

9) Look at what, when and how you get paid. If you are paid by some metric (sales, for instance) then how is that metric quantified? Do freebies count? Can they give your work away for nothing and pay no royalties? Do royalties apply promotional copies, and if so are they limited in some way?

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

A thread for writers and creators about contracts. This is basic, but many creatives are just pleased to get a deal, no matter what the deal says. They look at it as validation, not as a business arrangement. Your publisher has no obligation to protect your interests, so you have to do that. 1)

View full thread
Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

6) Look at what the obligations of your publisher are under the contract. If they are only acquiring your rights and have no obligations to do anything with them, ask yourself why you are signing this contract. Understand what you want, and make specific provision for it under the contract.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

7) Ask yourself, "then what?". If your publisher fails to meet their obligations, then what? If the work gets cancelled or shelved, then what? If you can't deliver for some reason, then what? There needs to be an out. Terminations is an option, and so is mediation. Leave yourself options.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

A thread for writers and creators about contracts. This is basic, but many creatives are just pleased to get a deal, no matter what the deal says. They look at it as validation, not as a business arrangement. Your publisher has no obligation to protect your interests, so you have to do that. 1)

View full thread
Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

4) Its not unreasonable to include provision that the rights to the work will revert back to you if they are not actively marketed. You get no royalty from a work that people can't buy. It's also not unreasonable to include a provision that the rights cannot be transferred without express consent.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

5) Look at what your obligations are under the contract, and then consider how you would meet those obligations in a worse case scenario (e.g. during a pandemic, or if you were made redundant, or were deported). Make sure things outside your control are allowed for.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

A thread for writers and creators about contracts. This is basic, but many creatives are just pleased to get a deal, no matter what the deal says. They look at it as validation, not as a business arrangement. Your publisher has no obligation to protect your interests, so you have to do that. 1)

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

2) Look at the parties. Is it your publisher, or is it a subdivision, or a licensee? Who it is matters. Subdivisions can be sold off, and licenses can be transferred. How are you represented? Is it you personally (including your home/savings/etc), or is it a company with limited liability?

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

3) How does the contract end? Does it have a time-limited life? Does it end at some event? Can you end it by giving notice? When do you get the rights back to your work, bearing in mind that publishers have been known to stick things on the "later" shelf and then forget or ignore them.

Mike Shevdon reposted

Sir Michael Take CBE
@sirmichaeltake.bsky.social

With serious flood alerts all across the UK today Richard Tice says we should embrace the flooding. ‘Let’s enjoy all this lovely wet weather & excess water’ he has commented, ‘it helps us to improve our swimming skills & has given a real boost to our sandbag and bikini industry.’

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

Mum! He’s making stuff up again.

Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social

Nigel Farage suggests the police advised him against attending the result of the Clacton by-election. Essex Police completely deny this, telling the BBC "we have a proportionate and robust policing operation to ensure the safety and security of all participants in the count"

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

It is 2035. After they killed most of the bees, Silicon Valley developed robot Nanobees to pollinate crops and allow us to grow food. Nanobees only pollinate crops within licensed areas. Everyone has to pay a monthly subscription to Pollinators.com in order to eat. Keeping bees is illegal.

Mike Shevdon reposted

Adam Bienkov
@adambienkov.bsky.social

Reform UK donor and Farage ally George Cottrell carried a fake Swiss passport under the name ‘Oscar Drewitt’. Cottrell was hired under the name by the future Reform treasurer Mehrtash A’zami. A’zami later vetted Cottrell’s mother's donations to Reform, now the subject of a police investigation

bylinetimes.com‘Posh George’, Two Passports, and a Fraudulent Identity: Convicted Fraudster and Nigel Farage Funder's Connections to Reform UK’s Murky Financial StructuresWhy did Reform UK change from being a privately-owned company to a non-profit company limited by guarantee in 2025? Nafeez Ahmed investigates a fraudulent identity used by George Cottrell – and how hi...
Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

So Trump’s solution to Iran wanting nuclear weapons is to provide them to other countries in the region, specifically the country that gave us Osama Bin Laden. What could possibly go wrong?

Mike Shevdon reposted

Juliet E McKenna
@julietemckenna.bsky.social

Good news for UK booklovers! The Riven Kingdom is included in this week's Waterstones preorder offer - ending on Friday 24th July. Enter the offer code SUMMER26 at the checkout and get 25% off the RRP. Do check out the whole selection of great reads. www.waterstones.com/book/the-riv...

waterstones.comThe Riven Kingdom by Juliet E. McKenna | WaterstonesBuy The Riven Kingdom by Juliet E. McKenna from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

Dear PM. Don’t believe the hype. AI takes people’s jobs so that they don’t pay tax. The AI doesn’t pay tax either. It will bankrupt our country and ruin the economy and the environment. All to further enrich a tiny minority

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

Watching the football while the world burns…

Luke LeBrun@lukelebrun.ca

These images of First Nations community members evacuating Collins, Ontario on motorboats are absolutely surreal www.facebook.com/reel/1548244...

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

In an attempt to get ahead of events, and to avoid being forced to fight a bi-election after a Parliamentary Standards Enquiry awards sanctions, Nigel Farage forces a bi-election and calls it a referendum on his behaviour and a fight against the establishment. It isn't either of those things.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

We need a cigarettes moment with the oil industry. If you are knowingly sowing disinformation that is harmful to the public in order to sell your product then the company directors should be criminally prosecuted and jailed.

Mike Shevdon reposted

Schera Wyss 💀 SLUG HUMAN
@scherawyss.bsky.social

This might be one of the most insane scandals in game history When Pokemon Go players scan PokeStops, theyve been unknowingly building a detailed visual model of the world which is being sold to a military contractor to build a no-GPS positioning for the new generation of unmanned killing machines

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

Put on a BBC program you like, and then every six minutes, pause the programme and go and watch a short video of dancing rabbits talking Scott toilet paper. Now you know what defunding the BBC looks like.

Mike Shevdon
@shevdon.bsky.social

Yes, I know this gets a bit technical, but if that's not your thing then just skim over those bits. The rest of it is a roadmap of how to control who can vote and what they vote in an election within the world's largest democracy. This is Project 2028 thedreydossier.substack.com/p/i-found-a-...

thedreydossier.substack.comI found a second vote.gov — and it's registered to the White HouseThere is a moment in every investigation where the thing you have been looking for finds you instead.

Mike Shevdon reposted

Laura Phillips
@lauraphillips.bsky.social

VE Day in Whitehall (via Neil O’Brien in response to Reform’s James Orr who said: “government buildings didn’t fly Belgian flags in WWI or French flags in WW2 or flags for Kosovo in 1999. You can support another country at war without signalling that you think it’s as important as your own.”)

Mike Shevdon reposted

Anti-Reform
@antireform.bsky.social

"He lives in Thailand, goes by a different name, holds 12% of one of the world's most profitable companies, appeared in the Panama Papers and has given £22 million to Nigel Farage's parties. Who is Christopher Harborne - and what does he want in return?"