SnowBlog
31 Jul 2006: Hip, hip
Hey! It's our second birthday! Here's a cake:
See, the Mama Lama layer is raspberry jam, and Adept and Plotting is that stuff you get by mixing margarine and sugar, or something... and The Other Eden is chocolate sponge, and the Death Artist is the icing... and so forth.
Yep, on this day in 2004 we published our first books. Two years later and what have we achieved? Well we're only Small Publisher of the Year! Still plenty of mileage in that one, oh yes. And we've sold 125,000 books and made, oh, at least as twice as much profit than if we'd just left our start-up capital in a Post Office savings account. Our team has grown from me, Rob and the amazing Gilly, to include the brilliant Anna and the outstanding James. We've published some damn fine books and launched the writing careers of ten debut authors, and have got a really superb list lined up for the next 12 months.
I am very proud. I also have to get back to the ONIX data entry that I'm trying to get finished. Oh, the glamour of being a small (successful, 2 year old) publisher!
posted on July 31, 2006 01:28 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
27 Jul 2006: Uses for an award #159
Announcing the publication of the magnificent MamaLamaDingDong! Hooray!
This excellent memoir, described by the Utne reader as 'the best mothering memoir I've read' and by the Library Journal as 'Essential reading for all urban mothers' will be published next week and available in all stores, especially Waterstone's who are good enough to have popped it on their 3for2 promotion. Read below the cut for a couple of extracts.
Also announcing yet another use for an industry award: bookstand.
I hope they don't take it off us for misuse.
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posted on July 27, 2006 01:15 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
22 Jul 2006: Mine
I'm repeating a comment here that I made on the Culture Vulture blog, because it's what I've been thinking about this week and the hapless Peterv gave me an excuse to articulate it. The twonk writes:
"Why do people get so sentimental about small enterprises? Admittedly bigger chains are not always that savoury, but fundamentally these smaller shops are still out for our hard-earned: they're not charities...A nation of shop keepers ..."
Posted by Peterv
I reply:
"Fine, Peterv. We won't bother. Those of us who've taken zero salary for three years, or remortgaged our houses, or who work 16 hours a day for a venture that has no guarantee of working out, or who dare to try something new and brave and different, in order to bring something good into the world - we'll just stay in our pointless little jobs next time, contributing next to nothing to the world and whining away the time until we die.
Watching the news this week has left me more certain than ever that we should take every opportunity to show that humanity can be good, and clever and creative, rather than blow each other up when provoked. Small, independent companies matter because they are the ones whose objectives aren't directed by shareholders, but by dreams and basic human values like hope, happiness and pride. Shame on you for being the spokesperson of the bland."
Posted by Snowedup
posted on July 22, 2006 11:25 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
20 Jul 2006: Whoop!
Yip yippety yipee yip. Top ten! (click to enlarge) Because we can't afford Nielsen Bookdata (you would not believe how expensive it is which is a topic for another day) we have no idea whether our books are actually selling. Kind of ridiculous, especially when considering whether to reprint. To come to this: I used to manage a 120m pound supply chain, and now I don't even know what my volume sales are. ANYWAY, enough griping: when a book appears in the top ten it's a good thing. So hooray. Go out and buy more copies! I want it to beat Life of Pi!
posted on July 20, 2006 05:17 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
18 Jul 2006: Only connect
I wrote to the Bookseller last week, as I mentioned, announcing that Snowbooks were happy to extend very punchy terms to small retailers. No strings, no ties, no minimum order, no hurdles at all. How many responses have I had? ONE - and that from a retailer who's only just started up so presumeably is busier than most. Don't blame me if you all go bust.
posted on July 18, 2006 07:00 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
15 Jul 2006: Our Beloved Founder
I have been utterly taken with the wonders of Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights, the most beautiful, lingersome and welcoming bookshop I have ever seen, that recently opened in Bath - and I have been impressed not least by their Book Monkey. In his new blog on Guardian Online proprietor Nic explains:
"In my head [Mr B] is an anonymous cane-wielding philanthropic book collector who searches the world for great books for our customers while the shop is manned by his faithful assistant the Book Monkey (the character on our logo)."
To celebrate the arrival of this fine shop (which I know will flourish from the start because its founders are so right-thinking) I feel moved to introduce a character who I like to think the impressive Mr. B. would have counted as a friend. Few people know that Snowbooks was not, as is widely reported, founded in March 2003 by me and Rob, but is in fact a publishing house established in 1876 by the estimable Artemus Snow, founder of Snowbooks, charitable gentleman, lover of fine books, progressive employer and philanthropist. It was Artemus Snow who engaged that young pup FW Taylor (father of Scientific Management, time and motion studies, and production line theory) in debate at the Royal Society in 1892, a debate that soon threatened to develop into a fistfight. Snow ultimately won the debate, his argument, delivered in his learned, quiet and measured style, that "production line management destroyed any sense of wonder, enjoyment, pride or ownership in employee's working lives" beating Taylor's braying, nasal complaints. Snow pointed to the success of his fledgling publishing business, where rather than being restricted to a single role, employees worked in all manner of functions to produce with pride their books.
Sadly the history books fail to recognise the true outcome of this pivotal debate, and Scientific Management was heralded as the management fad of the day, subjecting millions for decades to a fate working within functional silos, destined to remain unfulfilled and frustrated within their careers.
On the 6th day of every month we at Snowbooks pause to remember our beloved founder. We remember his legacy of kindness, and his driving desire to foster a sense of pride in his workers. We remember his love of books; his unswerving attention to detail; his charm and tact; his love of developing technologies (the telephone, invented the same year Snowbooks was founded and five of which Artemus Snow procured with the proceeds from his first publication, and that new-fangled device the china toilet, invented 1885. It'll never catch on) and his desire to always look to the future. Artemus Snow, our founder, we remember you and pledge to keep your flame alive today.
posted on July 15, 2006 08:06 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
14 Jul 2006: Friday | Death Artist | Terms | Litro | Dull bookkeeping thing
So many things to say! I've been putting off blogging as I wanted the Death Artist post to stay at the top. We've had some excellent reactions to it, not least from Amazon who have put it on their crime page. A trillion* hits a day! The funny thing is it's next to a James Patterson book, and I remember watching a (really quite crappy) TV ad for his last book and thinking 'surely we can do better than that'. And voila.
I have one quick boring thing to say, too, in case you're thinking about which accountancy package to go with. Quickbooks is utterly useless and Sage is the way of the future. I wish I'd figured that out two years ago.
Less boringly we met these people this week. We like them and you should too.
And finally, the thing I actually wanted to post about. Here's a letter I wrote to the Bookseller this week (full version at the bottom of this post). It was, sadly, edited in one crucial place - the original included an email address where small booksellers can email me to set up their new terms. So: it's emma@snowbooks.com - I can't wait to hear from you!
(* Estimate rounded to the nearest trillion.)
Continue reading "Friday | Death Artist | Terms | Litro | Dull bookkeeping thing" »
posted on July 14, 2006 08:41 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
04 Jul 2006: Be careful what you read...
In 2005, 487 people presented at British hospitals with reading-related injuries, including cuts, contusions and severe eye strain.
In 2006, it could be a whole lot worse...
[Journalists: Download our press release]
posted on July 4, 2006 01:15 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
01 Jul 2006: "Girodias and co. didn't just sit around bemoaning the darkness, they lit a candle."
A. Stevens, the editor of our recent 3:AM Magazine anthology, The Edgier Waters, has just given an excellent interview to Susan Tomaselli's Dogmatika. He talks about 3:AM's beliefs, intentions, and his hopes for the book, and it's all very worth a read...
posted on July 1, 2006 04:03 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment