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27 Jan 2007: What I did on my holidays
I think it's asking for trouble for a lady who is prone to sometimes feel suffocated by London to go somewhere like this for a week and sit listening to the waves and read, amongst other things, Daphne du Maurier's Frenchman's Creek, a tale of pirates and longing, obligations and love, set just up the road in Cornwall:
- a book which, incidentally, swept me along with its perfect combination of story, humour, romance and atmosphere - helped, no doubt, by the sound of waves crashing against the wall behind my head.
Continue reading "What I did on my holidays" »
posted on January 27, 2007 02:02 PM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
25 Jan 2007: 3:AM Magazine Reborn
The wonderful and truly innovative 3:AM Magazine, they of the Edgier Waters anthology that Snowbooks published last summer, has just relaunched with a brand new site, and lots of new content, after over a year on a technical hiatus.
3:AM is one of the few online literary magazines that really get it right: a wide range of contributors, from the obscure to the famous, insightful and rare interviews, critical reviews, poetry that isn't awful, and extending into music and politics without losing that edge. In Buzzwords, 3:AM also has one of the most read and most interesting literary blogs on the net. If you haven't before, go check it out.
posted on January 25, 2007 10:56 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
24 Jan 2007: Amazon Web Services and Snowbooks
Jeff Barr has written some very nice things about Snowbooks' Second Life store over at the Amazon Web Services blog.
Jeff is the head of Amazon Web Services, which makes some of the technologies Amazon created for its shop services available to other companies. It's a pretty massive business, but Jeff still retains an incredible personal passion for the possibilities of technology, as evidenced by his personal blog. He's also just been through surgery, so best Snowbooks wishes for a speedy recovery!
posted on January 24, 2007 01:13 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
21 Jan 2007: Observer review
Today Ed Vulliamy in the Observer has a nice long review of Mark Ames' Going Postal. Vulliamy has his own theories on rage massacres, which makes for an interesting comparison read.
Only a short post today: I have to finish spring cleaning the house which is likely to trigger its own rage incident shortly. Back to the scrubbing brush...
posted on January 21, 2007 04:20 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
18 Jan 2007: Pop!
So why all the popping of corks, I hear you ask? Well, chums of Snowbooks, we have been shortlisted for Trade Independent Publisher of the Year at the forthcoming inaugural Independent Publishing Awards, along with Faber (Faber!), Profile and Milo. The award ceremony is after the IPG conference in Brighton (which, by the way, if you're an indie publisher you would be a fool to miss) in March so it's all fingers and toes crossed until then!
The IPG website says:
'Snowbooks earned a place on the shortlist for quickly building itself into a substantial force in the trade. "Snowbooks has been focused and energetic in its publishing, and its marketing and publicity has been outstanding." '
At the risk of being a bit gushy, thanks to all of you who support us so beautifully and make it possible for us to have really wonderful days like today.
Wheee! (hic).
posted on January 18, 2007 05:24 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
16 Jan 2007: New camera! New camera!
I got a new camera! Eee! Ready for my HOLIDAY to Devon next week. Here are my first photos:
Portrait of James plus contracts file plus plant aka View from my Desk:
Lint!:
Bowl of Glass Bits With Needle (left over from when Gilly was tapestrying the cover to Needle in the Blood. Damn, but our editors are dedicated):
Baubles:
I am going to be such a pain in the neck over the next few weeks. Everybody must stand still and wait patiently whilst I try to get the light just right, and try to remember whether it's a small or large number that means the aperture is open or shut...
posted on January 16, 2007 01:57 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
15 Jan 2007: Lint is here!
Steve Aylett's comic masterpiece just arrived from the printers. Find out more here and here. First commenter gets a free advanced copy...
[UPDATE] Congratulations Alan - send your full name and address to james AT snowbooks.com and I'll stick it in the post today. Everyone else - Lint is in all good bookstores from March the 15th. Look back here for more Lint-related oddness before then...
[UPDATE] And yes, it is an advanced copy. It has colour plates and everything.
posted on January 15, 2007 01:17 PM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
13 Jan 2007: Bored
Oh lordy, this is BORING:
I know I love my job, and Snowbooks, and everything, but I'm really struggling on this one. I am on a mission to become the best martial arts publisher in the world which is why I'm publishing a book called Ground Fighting, amongst others, later this year. A sneak preview of some of the spreads is above. A lot of martial arts books have greyscale photos, which are quite hard to follow, and our difference is that we have nice, crisp, colour photos with their backgrounds clipped away, and clear design, and high quality editing - which is all great, but it TAKES SOOO LONG. Especially when you have 1200 (one thousand two hundred - I repeat so it will sink in, because that is a lot) photos. So here's what needs to be done on the images:
- Take 5000 photos
- Select the best 1200
- Clip out the backgrounds of those 1200 photos (takes between 10-15 minutes per photo. Yup - a month's solid work. Remember that I'm also sales and marketing director, FD, bibliographic data manager etc.)
- Place each photo in the right sequence into the layout
At stages 1-3 it was too depressing to blog about this because there was still so much to do - but now all the photos are selected and clipped out. I'm now half way through placing them into the layout.
I tell you, this book had better sell otherwise not only is that money down the drain, it is the best years of my life - or so it feels. Think of me on this blustery Saturday when you're out scuffing through leaves, playing in the park or whatever it is you do with your weekends. Think of me pressing ctrl-D, select, ctrl-shift-drag, click, move, deselect over and over and over and over and over again...
// Update, late at night: Finished placing the photos! Yey! I feel like I've climbed the Himalayas or one of those desert endurance races, although on the plus side there's considerably less sweating involved in typesetting. Good news all round. //
posted on January 13, 2007 11:39 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
12 Jan 2007: Bet Randall bloody Northam didn't get one of these in the post this morning
Ooh, look!
An accompanying letter says it is to "recognise the achievements of more than 200 women who have made a significant contribution to business and industry in the United Kingdom". Well. All I know is that this is about the best excuse ever for a new frock. To the shops!
ps I don't suppose you can quite see it, but that invite is on extremely thick card with a bevelled, golden edge! Poor the queen - her stationery bill must be through the roof.
posted on January 12, 2007 10:52 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
12 Jan 2007: Independent Misalliance
Oh dear. Someone got out of bed on the wrong side this morning. From today's Bookseller:
Bless him, poor love. Who said solidarity in the independent sector is dead? I wonder what he hoped he'd achieve... other than getting us mentioned *again* in the Bookseller. D'oh!
posted on January 12, 2007 10:21 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
11 Jan 2007: Another prize, phew
Oh we're *always* winning prizes. We have *so* many prizes that it's quite tiring keeping up with how many *hundreds* of prizes we have won. Phewfo.
Seriously, though, we've won a prize! Us and Alma books won 3:AM's Publisher of 2006 prize. Yey! It is neither here nor there that we published an excellent anthology of writing from 3:AM in 2006. Neither here nor neither there.
We didn't actually *get* a trophy though, or anything. Hint.
posted on January 11, 2007 03:07 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
10 Jan 2007: Blogging for Beginners
Oh, you may think your authors are clever, but how many of their main characters keep a blog? For the past month, Sally Howe, heroine of Plotting for Beginners has been blogging about her life post-novel. Read it here.
I can't get enough of it (though I was quite partial to the novel in the first place!), and it's sure to be a favourite of those who enjoyed the book. So check it out, fall in love, and buy the book. Or, better yet, read the book first, then devour the blog, and finish by passing on the joy -- by buying another copy of the book for your best pal, of course!
posted on January 10, 2007 12:13 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
07 Jan 2007: Is Being Small A Problem?
Or, Why Don't People Look At The P&L?
Or, It's Not The Size, It's The Editorial Strategy That Matters
I read a fascinating post over at Scott's blog about promotional compliance. General summary: promotions (3 for 2s and the like) in large retailers can sell a hell of a lot of books, and so publishers are happy to pay for inclusion in them - but it all goes a bit wrong, for both publishers and retailers, when the books don't appear where they're meant to. Well worth a read.
However, it was the comments to the post that were even more interesting as in a few short sentences they highlighted some of the misconceptions that have been bugging me of late - well, for the last three years - and made me ask the question - is being small the problem that everyone makes out?
Continue reading "Is Being Small A Problem?" »
posted on January 7, 2007 02:12 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
05 Jan 2007: Snowbooks 2.0
2007 has got off to a jolly wonderful start with the news that the Arts Council London has very kindly awarded us a £25,000 grant. Wow!
It is to support our "Snowbooks 2.0" plan, so-named with a nod to "Web 2.0", the catchall phrase for the increased interactivity and growing elegance and professionalism in web development. We will use it to upgrade our IT hardware and software, and to support the publication of our 2007 contemporary fiction titles. These include Lint by Steve Aylett ("the most original voice in the literary scene" - Michael Moorcock) (publication March 2007); Memphis Underground by Stewart Home (June 2007) and The Human War by Noah Cicero (April 2007) - but of course there will be a knock on effect on all our books.
I feel very touched, because it's a lot of public money that they're entrusting us with. I promise to make good use of it and to make sure it benefits you directly by publishing wonderful books that you'll enjoy. Which, you know, we'd do anyway but this should result in our books reaching a wider audience. As it was reported in The Bookseller this morning, I've already had emails from various software consultants hoping to relieve me of the burden of all that money - thanks, boys, but I think we'll just about struggle through...
Lovely Arts Council - demonstrating once again that they underpin so much in the independent publishing arena. Gawd bless 'em.
posted on January 5, 2007 01:36 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
04 Jan 2007: Snowbooks Work Experience
This is our office. Students, here is your first interview question: approximately how many people can you fit in it? Answer: three, which is how many sit in it at the moment. We used to run a work experience programme, and it was good for us and good for the students - the only downside being they stole our oxygen. But we've come up with a plan!
If you would like to be considered for Snowbooks Remote Experience Programme, email me with your CV and a covering letter. We get the help without having to play sardines; you get the experience on your CV, some handy skills and no travel expenses. Needless to say the work experience is unpaid and there are no delicious expenses to be had - but you'll be helping out with things like proofreading, marketing, sales, and editorial. We'll only take on one person at a time and will communicate via email and Skype. You'll need your own computer and broadband.
Interested? Email me today!
posted on January 4, 2007 09:21 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
03 Jan 2007: The Bendicks Competition photos
I promised you photos of all our lucky, lucky winners before Christmas, and here they are now - cats and people alike. Thanks for entering and I hope you enjoyed the prize! Click below to see all the photos.
Continue reading "The Bendicks Competition photos" »
posted on January 3, 2007 06:27 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
03 Jan 2007: My new year gift to you...
...is a SnowCalendar! Yey!
Sick of those calendars that tell you all that pointless information like phases of the moon, public holidays and saint's days? Tired of all that excess detail like 'days' and 'weeks'? Bored of space to write things down? Rather have a calendar with no extraneous information on it other than the publication dates of Snowbooks' 2007 titles? Your wish has come true!
posted on January 3, 2007 05:05 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
03 Jan 2007: Blog Taboos
This is larking about with dynamite I suspect, but I'm going to quickly try to touch on both religion and politics in this post before running for cover and trying never to mention them again.
Continue reading "Blog Taboos" »
posted on January 3, 2007 05:00 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
01 Jan 2007: I want one
From this week's Observer:
2.5m digital books on one £25,000 machine
"A machine that electronically stores 2.5 million books that can then be printed and bound in less than seven minutes is to be launched early next year. It prints in any language and has an upper limit of 550 pages. The 'Espresso' will be launched first in several US libraries. The company behind the project - On Demand Books - predicts that, within five years, it will be able to reproduce every book ever published."
I know it is a lot, but £25,000 isn't that much if you are a biggish business. I wonder what will happen with this?
posted on January 1, 2007 03:19 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
01 Jan 2007: Hello 2007
And so we smash into the new year with a bang and a crash and an ooohahhhthat'saprettyonewow. With the exception of the stupid ones that just go up and go bang, which are the only ones our neighbours ever buy, I like fireworks because they're exciting and you don't get to watch people play with explosives very often, especially not that close to the Houses of Parliament where they generally frown upon that manner of thing. They are also a good symbolic way of blowing up the last year leaving it all fresh for the future. I've got to say, though, that there wasn't much in 2006 that I wanted to blow up. We won a prize, we published some excellent, award winning books like The Romanian (which you should buy on principle to celebrate same country's accesssion to the EU today) and we published books that people tell us they reallly loved, like Plotting for Beginners, The Other Eden and the Crafter's Companion. I tell you, it's really wonderful when - without being prompted - people just email you to say how great your books are. In 2006 we also planned all of our 2007 books, which you don't know much about yet but ooh, I can't wait to share them with you because YOU WILL LOVE THEM. At least some of them, anyway - Ground Fighting might not be everyone's cup of tea, I admit.
But even though 2006 was pretty darned super, it's still hard-coded into my DNA to make new year resolutions. So here they are. I'm going to summarise the personal ones into one because they're boring.
Continue reading "Hello 2007" »
posted on January 1, 2007 09:59 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment