Lovely Mostly Books picked up the Nibbie for best new indie bookshop this week, and have a very thorough and professional write up of the night on their blog, complete with pictures including one of my staring at my toes as I accepted our XSL award. Read it here and pass on your congrats whilst you're there as they, along with Mr B's who got best indie, are very worthy winners.

Here's an idea: buy up oil as soon as it becomes available and then sell it to other people at a profit. Sounds a bit farfetched, doesn't it. We're used to the idea of investment bubbles in most areas: bubbles being caused when buying and selling become more about profit than use. Which is to say, when people buy a house or a ton or copper not because they plan to use it, but because they plan to sell it again at an opportune moment. But somehow you don't expect people to do that with oil. You get the impression that it will be used up as quickly as it's available. But the ever excellent Jon Taplin, whose blog I find distinctly more-ish, sees just such a speculative environment. I'm glad to have stumbled upon his explanation, because the record profits of oil companies have had me baffled for a while. Usually, when the cost of your raw materials go up, your profits are squeezed. But not if the price rise is down to stockpiling and tactical selling. See here and here for more.

And if you're interested in such things, read his excellent thoughts (which coincidentally mirror my own) about a catastrophic Republican meltdown in the offing here.

There's a little piece in the latest Bookseller sort of written by me. I wrote the first draft, but it's changed a bit since then. Something like that always seems to happen and it's a weird thing being rewritten. I like to think that with a clear brief I'm not a bad writer. I wrote a book about retail strategy a while back and the global head of McKinsey was very complimentary about it. Stuart Rose (boss of M&S) liked it enough to give a quote for the cover. I've also had some success with fiction. I think you could find my novels without too much trouble in most European countries (including this one). So all in all, I don't tend to feel like I need someone to step in and fix my prose for me. A hint or two is all I need. So if you happen to see the article and you wonder why, instead of ridiculing phrases like 'Publishers often engage with questions of finance...' or 'The clarity this affords is paramount;' I seem to suddenly be embracing that sort of corporate silly-speak, the answer is that my words were given a smart new suit of clothes and a haircut after I finished with them.

OK. I don't speak German, so I don't really know what that means. I just thought it might mean 'little book'. Note to self: bilingual puns are tricky if you don't speak the language. Anyway, the little book in question is the paperback edition of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine which is now out in affordable and portable paperback. It's a love story set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, told through the eyes of one of Marie Antoinette's ladies-in-waiting. Well, not really. I just thought if I said that people would be more likely to read it. It's really about less romantic things like how the world works. People insist on democracy, so if you want to start wars or steal billions you have to do it subtly. This book is about exactly how that sort of thing happens right under our noses. And when I become Emperor, I'll put it on the school syllabus and give tests afterward to make sure everyone reads it. Here are links for the Book Depository and Amazon (just in case you're tempted).

I'm thinking of buying a ticket for the London launch of the paperback on Monday. Anyone want to come with me?

Emma Barnes in action

Much of last Sunday was spent musing about how I was going to make my new bullwhip, in honour of the new Indiana Jones film (said films being a primary reason for me doing an archaeology degree. Oh yeah, that and screwing up my history A level so I couldn't do history. Thanks, Dr Arthurson, wherever you are, for teaching us the wrong syllabus). But now I want to make one of these. Isn't it gorgeous?

Rob's comment: I will be lending Em my copy of Make Magazine issue 9 and pointing to p82 where they show you how to make a bullwhip.

Just read this in Publishing News which says we are developing the Bookbackers idea into something tangible and real, right now. There's no reason why they should know, I suppose, but we're not actively developing Bookbackers at the moment. We'd love to, of course, but the only way it will work is as an industry initative - hence the presentation at the BA conference in a session about industry wide initiatives. I got lots of good feedback at the conference, so do get in touch if you'd like to form a team to develop this idea. And bring your corporate credit card and diary, as it'll need money and time to work - another reason why we're not developing it immediately ourselves.

There was something I meant to add to my Otakunomics post. Having bought a new copy of Serenity, I now have a secondhand copy which I am willing to part with for free, gratis and no money down. If you want me to send it to you, valued blog habitué, then e-mail me at the gaudy address to the left and tell me why I should send it to you (and where in the world you want it to go).

If you're not sure what we won that Nibbie for last night, here's our entry form (pdf, 165kb) which should make it a bit clearer. We can do this stuff for your business too, comparatively cheaply, so drop us a line if you'd like to save several months' time a year.

At the BA conference I gave a pitch, as part of the Next Big Thing discussion, for a new innovation called BookBackers. As with most things at Snowbooks, BookBackers is Rob's idea which I pinched for the BA conference, and I'm sure he'll be adding in a more erudite way than me to this idea over the next few weeks. But in the meantime, here's the transcript of the presentation, dreadful lame jokes and all. If you'd like to see the slides that go along with it, here they are
(PDF,451kb). The dots in the text below indicate a new slide!

is the sound that two nibbies and an IPA award make when banged together, which is what I've just been doing. Huzzah, we won the Innovation Nibbie last night.

Sorry for the blog-dearth of late. I've been frolicking about in the States (and then chain-snoozing since I got back) and Em has been off prize-hunting at the BA conference - which is just embarrassing if you've ever seen it: Em takes her big carpet bag with her to Brighton and starts pestering people to give her prizes. "Can I have that prize?" "Well, this one is for literary agents. Are you a literary agent?" "Might be. What about that shiny one? Can I have that one?" "Well, this one is for innovation. Have you innovated much recently?" "Probly. So can I have it?" And this goes on until someone weakens and says "Oh, OK" and another prize goes into the carpet bag.

Anyway, now that I'm back and reasonably compos mentis I just wanted to tell you about a purchase I made while abroad which fits very well with one of Maestro Godin's views on Valued Customers. I bought a Collectors' Edition of the movie Serenity. This is not shocking news in itself, except that I already own an excellent DVD of that movie. I bought this one because it has Bonus Material. The cast and director got together three years after the movie was made to record a second commentary. Is that - plus a few other odds and ends - really worth $21, given that I already own a copy of the film itself? And the answer to that is obviously 'No'. Except if it's one of your favourite movies and you're a bit obsessive about the cast and crew and how the movie got made.

Our day in pictures. First, apple blossom

No posts for 3 days then two in one hour. Maybe I'm just angling for the prize for blog post 1000 (this is number 972).

This is a post for people who run companies that are office based. You might like to know how my days in the office break down compared to my working from home days. If you can't be bothered to click to read on, the summary is that I get approximately one million times more things done at home than in the office. It's genuinely worth thinking about whether your business would be more productive if you sent everyone home.

Letting off steam

And I haven't posted for a few days. I have been busy, and also it's been gorgeous out there so I've done more than my usual amount of being outside, and also Rob isn't here which for some reason has affected my blogging rate. I think we have chats about things and get each other fired up which leads to a blog post, and that hasn't happened so much. But he's back from his exciting holidays tomorrow which is nice for me, maybe less nice for him.

I did actually write three blog posts, but they are not to be published. Sometimes when something has annoyed me I blog about it, and then carefully make sure the post is set to 'unpublished'. It's excellently cathartic, stops me fuming and keeping such posts unpublished avoids me getting into trouble. I usually write a much more tempered version a few days later, so they are quite useful source material! I suppose in this respect a blog is less useful than a diary, which is secret and so there's no problem, but I can't be bothered to maintain a blog and a diary.

To make up for my (published) blog silence, here are some nice photos to illustrate my week.

Not content with bringing you the best damn werewolf novel EVER PUBLISHED, Thomas Emson is now delighted to bring you a new website plus blog! Have a read about his writing and writing tips, plans, inspiration, murderous forests and a comic called 'Action'.

to do all my boring year end tax stuff this morning - P35s and P14s - but it turns out my fabulous bookkeeper has done them, last week, online, without me even knowing. That's the kind of accounting I like. To celebrate, I've had a cheese sandwich and read this excellent article about freeconomics, and you should too.

This afternoon: P11ds. It's not all fun, fun, fun at SnowCentral.

What a sensible article. It uses words like 'insane' to describe the returns process. Hear hear to that.

Here's a nice little piece in the FT about how to resign, which I contributed to in my own small way. Don't worry, Rob, I'm not planning on doing it again.

click2zoom

I'm in Minneapolis right now. Today was a day of powerful sunshine out of cloudless blue skies. I am scorched a slight pinkish colour. Anna and her friends invited me to watch the Mayday Parade with them and I beheld all kinds of eyeball-boggling things. The bear in that thumbnail (click for a larger version) was amazing. And why wouldn't there be a little kid riding along on top? There were dozens of bands, and giant papier maché trucks and heads and something-I-couldn't-identify that was was either a bug or maybe the planet. It was really something. More pictures below.

I've tried to keep baby stuff to a minimum on here, but I think I'll do sporadic updates just so you're in the know! People uninterested in anything to do with pregnancy (which was me until 19 weeks ago) look away now.

is something that I just can't let myself think about too much, in my delicate condition. Must think about those cortisol levels.

Suffice to say: How? Why? How? I don't understand.

Here's a lovely photo of Sarah Bower and pals celebrating the publication of The Book Of Love. That's the shy author there, behind the hardback of her new historical novel.

Tell you what, selling hardbacks is good if you can do it. We sold over 200 copies of BOL's hardback on the week it was published, primarily to libraries - it's a £19.99 book at a 55% discount. Very nice.

I have a contentious thing to say. Feel free to fight with me. It concerns the role of agents.

I've just been told by Mike Fell of Litro that a short story by one Robert Finn will be appearing in next week's edition. Litro, for anyone not familiar with it, is a sort of literary alternative to the Metro (one of the free London papers). It's available to commuters, and others, who might fancy reading a bit of fiction on their journey. It pops up at the places listed here, so look out for it. The Robert Finn story is in a very different vein to his usual work (we did sneak a link to it into a former blog post - but perhaps we'll do so a bit more overtly after the Litro edition has been distributed). If you look around, you'll see that the Litro site also has an archive which holds all their former editions. Lots there to dig into for anyone interested.

A couple of people have said they can't post comments on the snowblog. I have hit the server with an IT spanner and can't see an obvious problem, but if you do get stuck, feel free to use my email address where it says to provide your email. That should work. It's emma [@] snowbooks.com.

And do let me know if you keep having a problem. Thanks!

Everywhere you look at the moment, there are problems.

The Friday Project goes bust, owing £1.8m (and see here for the latest.) The Works goes bust, owing £20m. Blackwells reports a loss for this and most likely next year (and worryingly announces an overseas expansion plan at the same time.) Words like 'beleaguered', 'collapsed' and 'failed' are on overtime at The Bookseller. I heard a story last week that a well known publisher is having a cash crisis. Powerfresh has gone bust, owing nearly half a million. S&S US's profits are down. Butler and Tanner has gone bust. McGraw Hill sales are down.

Times are not good. This industry may - just may - be in decline. We need new, brave, different approaches or this rot will truly set in.

Coming soon: one such new approach which I'll be presenting at the BA conference in a couple of weeks. Watch this space.

If Sarah doesn't mind too much, I think we at Snowbooks will adopt her new pony as our own. Isn't she utterly gorgeous? Her name is Meg, she's nine years old and 14.1 hands. And she has cloppy feet and the softest nose, I can tell.

I want to write this post because over the last couple of weeks I've had a few emails and comments that include, in passing, thanks and kind wishes to me about how hard I work. Hmm. I'm not so sure that I do and I don't want to be a big old martyr type of person, smiling weakly as people fan me with leaves as I bravely struggle on - because it's not like that at all. So I thought I'd spill the beans on exactly what it is that I do with my days.

Warning: stupidly long post.

Before Em and I watch a movie on our afternoon off, we go for a walk. There are Shetland ponies just having foals in the fields around at the moment. Click on that thumbnail to see the funny-looking week-old baby horse cub we spied on our wander. It would probably come up to your knee if you were standing next to it.

Sorry to see that Butler and Tanner has gone under, and with such animosity between union and management. Makes me slightly less keen on entering awards, funnily enough. They seem to have won a lot. I'd rather be in business than win prizes (much as I love them).

for chasing off big foxes

I hardly did any work this weekend. It was nice.

I valeted the car (ok, hoovered and jetwashed it); we went to a garden centre; I folded all the clothes nicely; I sorted out the sock drawer; I did lots of internet research on babies (who knew there was so much to learn?); I gazed at the sunset; we went for a walk; I read two books; I bravely stopped a fox from chasing our rabbits.

And today it's practically like a holiday because the weather's so utterly gorgeous. I drive And to the station in the mornings, early, and with the mists rolling in off the fields, the early birdsong and the long morning shadows it was a real treat.

All in all, a very pleasant weekend and a very pleasant start to the week. Hope you had the same.

This morning I've been trying to fix a broken camera. It's totally obsolete now, having so few of those modern megapixels everyone loves so much. But it does, in layman's parlance, have the virtue of being 'dinky'. It will slip into a pocket, and unlike a phone camera it's easy to use. You slide the lens cover open to turn it on; it starts up instantly (or used to); then you press the button. Easy. It's not very good quality, especially compared with my amazing Nikon D40 which knows far more about photography than I ever will. But then it's not fair to compare them, because the little Sony thing is for taking pictures when you wouldn't have room or the inclination to bring a 'proper' camera. Oh, and it's a very pretty blue.

I don't know if you've noticed, but Em is always boasting about how great she is*. On and on and on, like a runaway steam-trumpet. But I wonder, do we hear enough how about how great I am? Actually, forget that question. A better one is: what's that thumbnail there a picture of? Well, if you promise to be quiet and polite, you could go over to my pal Jenn's place here and see for yourself. It is a bribe I personally fancified and froo-froo-ed for her. Behold my talents and their debatable extent.

If any of you nice, rich industry types would like the pleasure of my company at the Nibbies award evening, I would be very grateful if you had a spare seat going at your table. Will Be Charming In Exchange For Ticket.

Wheeeee! We're on the shortlist for the Independent Publisher Nibbie this year!

Also on the shortlist are:

- Atlantic Books
- Michael O'Mara
- Quercus
- Summersdale

Wow, tough list. So good luck to us all. Especially us and Summersdale!

That means that I can definitely buy a new frock, because we're up for two Nibbies now - this and the Innovation one for our XSL work. I think I will buy this one plus accessories. Do you think it's too plain? It's a lot of money but I figure I can wear it in the daytime too, and possibly when I'm not pregnant too, even though I might stretch the fabric a bit!

Very very happy. Prizes are nice.

They're coming thick and fast today. The first is from the Star: do click through if only to see the layout. The image is next to a sticker book of dinosaurs and it made me laugh. (Sarah, can your next book for us be a dinosaur sticker book, please?) In fact, that page is a bit of a Writewords members' fest as there are two other books by members reviewed. Congrats to all.

And here's a great interview with Sarah in Gaydarnation.

I am going to buy 2000 ziplock plastic bags, buy a stamp and some waterproof ink and stamp 'SnowBubble' on the outside, then sell them at a pound a pop to people whose only argument about ebooks seems to be 'ah, but what if you drop it in the bath?'

I am still working on a money-spinning solution to the only slightly more retarded 'ah, but what if you sit on it in the car' argument. Some sort of pneumatic or spring-based device, perhaps.

I just got an email. The Subject read:

"Hi Good Morning Dear Emma Few of our Clients (Sathiya from India)"

Never met the lady, nor heard of their company, but isn't that delightful?! I demand that all emails should be as charming in future.

Ok, no more. If I get another I'm not doing it. I have work to do!

Vanessa, the little minx, sent me this meme.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

I'm going to cheat like Rob and not tag anyone else, because Dooce, Seth, Cory, the Guardian CIF and The Bookseller probably won't bite. But here we go:

Yes, it's a six. I mutated it.

Six random things about me. As taggéd by Em. As soon as my mind stops going blank. (Which is normally a difficult state to achieve. Perhaps I have discovered something useful here.)

So the delicious SJP has blog tagged me. In four years of blogging, this is my first one! This is what I, and the six people I tag next, have to do:

- Link to the person that tagged you - i.e. me.
- Post the rules on your blog. (check)
- Write six random things about you in a blog post.
- Tag six people in your post.
- Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
- Let the tagger know your entry is up.

It's like having a second job. OK, here are the six random things, then (and I hope my #4 won't be as rude as Scott Pack's was):

Here's an interesting article (to me, at least, the newly aware) about how pregnant women and mothers are still subject to discrimination. I hope Snowbooks isn't going to be horrible to me. You can imagine the conversation:

Me (as pregnant lady): So, can I have some time off to have a baby? I promise I'll be back at work in six weeks or so, and I'll check my email and everything. And can I have my proper job back afterwards?
Me (as Snowbooks boss): No.
Me (PL): Oh. But what about my rights?
Me (SB): Well you can take me to tribunal but you'll look a bit stupid, talking to yourself.
Me (PL): Sigh.

Makes me appreciate being my own boss even more. God, who'd ever work for someone if they could help it?

Check out Liz's website for a from the heart review of Mothernight. She writes:

"I am worried about gushing about Mothernight but I can't remember the last time I read a book that was so - hard to explain - so, I don't know...immaculately written. So I penned the review below. I'm taking a break for a day or two from reading fiction, purely because I will get annoyed by other books not written to this standard. I went through exactly the same thing when I read Stephanie Meyer's YA novels. Everything afterwards seemed inconsequential."

How smashing. I mean, not that I want our books to destroy people's ability to read other fiction, no. (But secretly, yes.)

Ever been into Maplins? Ever heard its siren call? I can't help myself. They sell these very specific, very cheap bits of equipment like the one pictured to the left. It's a security bit set. That's to say it's a screwdriver with a whole range of different tips for it, all aimed at opening cases, covers and enclosures. I couldn't resist buying one. It was on special offer (£12 I think). I have shelves of these sorts of things. I know: such a waste of money.

But earlier in the week Em accidentally gave her phone rather a mild tap and the screen stopped working. Holding the phone closed were teeny-tiny screws that needed a screwdriver with a star-shaped tip to undo them. And I had one. Result: ten minutes after breaking out the security bit set, the phone was working again. It more than paid for itself. Time for me to see what else they might be selling I reckon.

Hey, read this. It's excellent. Sarah Bower on The Prince.

Click below for a pretty dull Emma rant.

I really liked this video (thanks Robin). The speech was to the web / tech industry but there's lots of wise advice which I agree with, like:

- don't try to build a billion dollar company
- don't build with the aiming of selling out for a gazillion dollars to Google
- selling to consumers is a lot harder than selling to businesses
- focus on the Fortune 5,000,000 - the medium sized companies who are looking for solutions to their problems every day
- don't work with the aim of having a nice life *after* you sell out - build a business that gives you a decent lifestyle *now*
- try working 5 hours a day, not 14 hours a day. Your productivity will shoot up.

And so on. Really good.

Hey you! Yes, you! Have a problem with your cat at weekends? Does it insist on sitting on your wrists when *all you want to do is code*?

(excuse the fuzziness in this hi speed action shot.)

Look familiar? Now, do you want a solution to this ongoing inconvenience?

megatrumpet

On the online Bookseller there's a story about some nominees for this year's Women in Publishing award:

"Agent Clare Alexander, Viking's Eleo Gordon, Egmont's Alison Kennedy and Jessica Kingsley are this year's selection for Booktrust's Kim Scott Walwyn Prize."

And some comments:

By down by the beach
"Be nice to see Emma Barnes on the list - apart from her obvious achivements, it would also be quite funny if it was won by an 'Emma'."

By Freya Gordon
"Jessica Kingsley has worked tirelessly publishing books to increase everyone's knowledge on autism and mental health. Emma Barnes believes in herself more than anyone else does. She's quite new and I am already tired of hearing her blow her own large trumpet."

Poor Freya. I shall try to keep my parps to a minimum. Have we ever met, by the way?

Following on from a post about Control, the desire for which seemed to be a fatal weakness of the Avid company, I want to continue the story. Recap: when Anthony Minghella made the movie Cold Mountain, his legendary editor, Walter Murch, decided to use a thousand-dollar copy of Apple's Final Cut Pro software instead of a hundred-thousand dollar editing console. It was unheard of. This was a major release for a major studio. The film starred Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renée Zellweger. It was Oscar material from the first, eventually winning one and attracting six nominations. If you were Apple, how would you feel about that? You'd rather cheekily called your semi-pro software 'Pro' and now some of the ultimate pros wanted to use it.

Pauline notes that a very nice library - Scott Pack's local, no less - has voted Lint top of the pops in a poll they did. ""This is like nothing I have ever read before!" they say. Yes, good, isn't it?

Thanks for the heads up, Pauline!

As you know, Rob's main job as Chairman of Snowbooks is to put the pictures up on all the blog posts - including mine, because I'm too lazy busy to do it myself.

So this post is purely here as a way for me to tell when Rob's back at his desk so I can phone him, cos I want to talk to him about a presentation I have to do in a couple of weeks. When the picture pops up next to this blog post, I know he's there.

Smart thinking from Barnes, I think you'll agree.

____________________

update: Aha!

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the uppermost thought in your mind these days is this: what does Rob think about the most recent couple of episodes of Doctor Who? And you wouldn't be the only one. I've been wondering too. And the tentative good news for the Who production team is that I don't think I'm displeased. Though I'm not delighted either. [spoilers ahead - though no words of great wisdom]

I'm sure Seth Godin blogs about this the whole time, but there's a sort of Uncertainty Principle at work in certain industries. The more completely you try to control customers the greater the possibility that instead of tightening your grip on them you'll actually cause them to ping off out of your reach for good. (Actually, forget the Uncertainty Principle metaphor. Since when was describing something familiar in terms of quantum mechanics ever a good idea.)

I'm just reading a book about Walter Murch, Oscar-winning film editor, and his decision to edit to edit Cold Mountain, not on a top-end professional Avid editing deck, but on a Mac using software you can buy in PC World. Why would he do such a thing? Well, the background is that Avid, the company, charged a lot for their products, were in no rush to bring out refinements or new technology, they didn't provide very good technical support and they were very inflexible in how they let you use their equipment, often blaming any faults on non-Avid gear if you were foolish enough to use any (one anecdote from the book mentions them blaming problems on the use of an NEC monitor). Famous names in the film industry would try to talk to them about innovations they'd like to see, but Avid weren't really interested.

A certain retailer whose shops are on station concourses has just returned £5000 worth of stock - that they bought last June. And guess what - that's perfectly allowed. Under the terms of the Industry Returns Initiative, retailers are allowed to return anything they buy, for full credit, between three months and 18 months after purchase.

My view is the the Industry Returns Initiative was more a way of making it easier for retailers to return stock, rather than the much more useful approach of trying to reduce returns. It's typical of an initiative in this industry: name me any industry level project in the last ten years that we can be proud of. Go on, try.

Aside from the brutal commercial implications, think of the trees and the print factory emissions and the diesel and the congestion and the packaging and the labour. One day the Daily Mail or the Independent will do an expose on the shocking waste in the book trade and there will be a public outcry. Maybe then the most culpable retailers might just have a bash at actually forecasting their stock requirements like all other multiple retail sectors have been doing properly since the 80s.

---------------------

Update, after a morning's fuming: Oh yeah, and the other thing about returning stock after so long is that I've already paid royalties on those sales. Obviously we have a reserve against returns, but these particular returns account for more than the reserve allows for. And with paperback fiction, the sales profile is usually top heavy - the majority of sales occur in the first three months of the book, and it's quite common for sales to be virtually zero (maybe 5-20 units a week) a year after publication. So I'm never going to recoup that money. Sorry, authors, it sounds mean of me, but it is a serious consideration. Technically, at the moment, our authors are more than £10,000 in the red because of this phenomenon - money it's very unlikely will be earned back by future sales. And all this in a publisher that doesn't pay advances - imagine what it's like for publishers who do.

Also, I dropped my phone and I think it's broken. And Rob gave it to me, and he will be sad that I can't look after my nice gifts properly.

At least it's raining, which I like, so I can snuggle with the laptop on the sofa without Nice Weather Guilt.