SnowBlog
31 Mar 2007: Phwwwoar
I know this is a publishing blog, but it's the weekend and I'm allowed to be off-topic. I know Marie bagsied him first, but blimey charlie, in't David Tennant just the bee's knees? Cor. [goes off into daydream where Dr Who goes into a bookshop, finds one of our books, loves it, finds our email, gets in touch, we go off on intergalactic adventure and I become the next companion...)
posted on March 31, 2007 09:05 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
29 Mar 2007: The Mythical Pentonvile Toad
The Pentonvile Toad is a mythical beast - pictured here for the first time - that preys on those who are weakened by cold and whose abilities to type are therefore hampered. From the Gallic "Pentonville Eoad", its preferred habitat is a small office on the Pentonville Road where, coincidentally, a small publisher called Snowbooks resides. It is usually spotted when Emma Barnes is typing her office address into yet another webform and she is either in too much of a rush or her fingers are cold.
Next week: put another lump of coal on the fire, won't you? Summer is over.
posted on March 29, 2007 01:19 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
29 Mar 2007: A new look for Snowbooks.com
If you haven't noticed anything different in the site yet, hit 'refresh' in your browser now.
Do you like our new look? The old one was getting a little tired, so we put it out to graze. This version is really a half-way house between Snowbooks.com 1.0 and Snowbooks.com 2.0, which will have lots of new and useful features, and which we plan to unveil later in the year when the machine elves have been beaten paid gently encouraged enough.
[geek bit] If you remember, some time last year, I rebuilt the website entirely in valid XHTML and CSS. This meant that this time round, all I had to do was tinker with the CSS and upload a few images to give us a makeover - I didn't have to touch any of the content. Small businesses everywhere: use standards to save time and money. [/geek bit]
posted on March 29, 2007 11:22 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
28 Mar 2007: Damp
Despite all my going on about how great Snowbooks is, my salary is still only miniscule. Really, really tiny. I still rely on my lovely husband Andy to pay the mortgage and bills and buy all the cat food and clothes. (Human clothes, I mean. Cats don't wear clothes. That would be ridiculous.)
posted on March 28, 2007 08:20 AM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
27 Mar 2007: Singing u-k-ippy-ippy-aye
Hooray, I've been shortlisted for the new UKYPY Nibbie - the Young Publisher of the Year 2007. Guess which is the best part of that? Clue: anything that makes me not feel old is a good thing.
I have to meet the judges at the London Book Fair, and say wise things about how wise I am. The winner gets to go to India on a placement for 6 weeks. We could do a competition to get someone in to cover for me at Snowbooks - do the bookkeeping, answer the phone, that manner of thing. What's the worst that could happen? In fact probably I wouldn't be missed in the slightest and everything would carry on as normal. In fact, everything would get *more* efficient because I wasn't around, poking my nose into things and interrupting the whole time. Sigh.
Anyway - hooray! Shortlisted! Young! Hooray!
posted on March 27, 2007 12:16 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
26 Mar 2007: What is an independent publisher?
Lordy, Getty is unimaginative. (Try fotolibra or istockphoto instead.) Searching for inspiration for a picture to go with this post, I put 'independent' into its search engine, and what does it come up with? A blinking great eagle and US flag. Pah. Still, the picture stays, just for the eagle. I half-heartedly tried to animate its eye so it follows you around the room, but gave up. Roll on PSCS3.
Not doing a good job of getting to the point on this post so far, am I? Stick with me (stick with me, stick with me, stick with me, as The Caterer would say).
Continue reading "What is an independent publisher?" »
posted on March 26, 2007 05:55 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
25 Mar 2007: Theft?
Do you know the tale of the 'thief' who, unbeknownst to the City company he worked for, traded his firm's money on the foreign markets at night? Before the day-shift started he would put his initial stake back where it came from and pocket any winnings. True story. Well, trueish. Kind of. Prob'ly not, actually.
But anyway... each Spring, the government borrows one hour of time from each citizen of the U.K. and then gives it back in the Autumn, having done who knows what with it. Even at minimum wage levels that's, £5.35 x U.K. Population = £324,258,968 and 55p. Plus, it's a Sunday, so that really should be double-time. Call it best part of £650 million. Invest that for six months at 5% and you're talking a little over £16 million. So whoever's behind the British Summertime Scam, by my reckoning, gets sixteen million quid a year for doing nothing. And if anyone complains, it all gets blamed on the farmers.
posted on March 25, 2007 12:55 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
25 Mar 2007: We are saline, we are saaaline...
Well Em and I had a very enjoyable and brain-energising lunch with Chris from Salt Publishing on Friday. Chris, like Em, is one of those people who has packed more than twelve months of experience into each calendar year of his career. He seems to have worked in - and run, for that matter - quite an array of publishing departments and business units, both conventional and futuristic. More impressive still, is that he plainly understood what he was doing in each case (which in my jaundiced view of the world I never take for granted). I hope I'm not putting words into his mouth, but he seems to share two of our many views on business. 1) technology can be freeing; make it do as much of your work as possible and insist it does a good job. 2) terrific processes are just as important for tiny, overstretched businesses as big, complex ones. Naturally we didn't number these talking points, but let's pretend we did and talk about principle number three: 3) It's much more effective to choose one area (e.g. poetry) and go to town on it, than to operate in multiple areas and risk spreading yourself too thin.
Continue reading "We are saline, we are saaaline..." »
posted on March 25, 2007 08:36 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
24 Mar 2007: Calling All Zombies! London Zombie March.
Ever wanted to dress up like a zombie and wonder around London groaning 'Braiiiins' and lunging for people's throats? Now's your chance!
We are planning to get up to 100 people to dress up as zombies and invade the Tube system. Not only is this an excellent idea on its own, it is also a tribute to our forthcoming Monster Island - the first in a trilogy of zombie thrillers including Monster Nation and Monster Planet. The date is yet to be finalised but if you are interested in coming along, please email me and I'll put you on the list.
Continue reading "Calling All Zombies! London Zombie March." »
posted on March 24, 2007 01:42 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
23 Mar 2007: Free Stuff
So we have new computers for the office as part of our upgrade programme, which means our old monitors need to find a new home. We will be sorry to see them go as they have served us well, but we'll just have to be brave and release them into the wild. And we're giving you, lucky Snowblog readers, first dibs.
Continue reading "Free Stuff" »
posted on March 23, 2007 12:05 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
22 Mar 2007: Snowbooks on Twitter
Challenging Rob for geekness here, but you can now get alerts from the Snowblog as well as announcements about new books and other news via instant messaging, SMS and other ways over Twitter. If you're already a Twitter user, just add Snowbooks at http://twitter.com/snowbooks. If you're not, you can sign up in seconds.
posted on March 22, 2007 06:04 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
22 Mar 2007: New! New stuff!
Ooohhh, this is sweet. We have our new computers and they are loooovely. Being wusses we have only plugged the monitors in so far - god knows what havoc it will wreak when we uninstall everything then reinstall it onto our new pcs - but we have taken the opportunity to have a rearrangement of the furniture. Behold!
Continue reading "New! New stuff!" »
posted on March 22, 2007 05:44 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
22 Mar 2007: Yup, had a feeling that was the case
From today's Guardian re: The Great Global Warming Swindle, by director Martin Durkin.
"Among those queueing up to attack the show was one of the scientists whose views the show purported to represent. Carl Wunsch, professor of physical oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claimed his remarks had been distorted and that the results were "as close to pure propaganda as anything since world war two". "This seems like a deliberate attempt to exploit someone who is on the other side of the issue," he said. Wunsch is reportedly considering a complaint to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom."
Knew it.
posted on March 22, 2007 01:47 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
21 Mar 2007: 'Wonderfully well' since 2003
Oh, now look at what nice Mark has said about us. Go there now and spend All Your Money.
Rob's Comment: And The Book Depository's Today's Top List is ten books by Chomsky. Hooray for Chomsky - his mighty brain and his grandfatherly concern for humanity (and also grammar). Roll on The Book Depository and its Flying Waffle logo.
posted on March 21, 2007 06:17 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
21 Mar 2007: More reasons to cross fingers and toes
I went to the osteopath this morning and she has removed all the much-needed tension that gets me through the day. So I am utterly wiped out this afternoon. All I can do is post pictures.
Lordy, wouldn't it be wonderful if...?
Continue reading "More reasons to cross fingers and toes" »
posted on March 21, 2007 06:04 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
21 Mar 2007: Lint at the Waterstone's book club
Lint is this fortnight's pick over at the Waterstone's Book Club.
For the next two weeks they'll be reading and discussing the novel - why don't you join them?
posted on March 21, 2007 02:51 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
21 Mar 2007: Mistakes, I've made a few...
I love this new take on the uber-cheesy motivational poster: more here.
So I've been reflecting on all the numerous mistakes I've made in the last four Snowbooks years (the ones before then are far, far too numerous to count and include selling my soul to the blue-chip devil and thinking that bin liner sales mattered - and getting over-heavy with the f5 key at Superdrug and ordering 24 pallets too many of Superdrug Own Label Disposable Razors. I imagine they're still rusting away in a warehouse in Pontefract even now. My lasting legacy.) It genuinely surprises me that we have got thus far given some of the mistakes I've made, but yey, we have survived. I present to you here a small selection, to act as a beacon, so that you may safely navigate the choppy waters of small businessdom yourself. Or summat.
Continue reading "Mistakes, I've made a few..." »
posted on March 21, 2007 08:34 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
21 Mar 2007: Non-Geeks Keep Out
Seriously, there's not much point in you reading this unless you have mastery over most things electronic. I want to ask the SnowBlog readership for help (assuming there really is a SnowBlog readership) but just reading the question will give you a nose bleed if you're at all prone to technophobia.
But if you believe your kung fu is strong enough, please read on...
Continue reading "Non-Geeks Keep Out" »
posted on March 21, 2007 08:32 AM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
20 Mar 2007: Hello, what's this?
So 6.45am this morning saw James and I huddled outside Waterstone's Oxford Street, meeting to assemble the window display that Waterstone's have very, very kindly allowed us to have. What a result!
Continue reading "Hello, what's this?" »
posted on March 20, 2007 11:23 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
19 Mar 2007: Strangely efficient
Blimes - I don't know what happened there but I have had a phenomenally efficient day. I planned out what I was going to do for the week, and had it all done by 6pm! Go me.
So as a treat to myself I ticked one of the things off the 'I'm never going to get around to doing this list'. Here, for your delectation, is a timeline of all the books we've published. It's like a little history of Snowbooks. I like to look at the wide open spaces which signify that we went for months without publishing a single book, and ponder: how the hell did we get this far? I remember [leans on stick, squints into the distance] when we went eight months (Sept 05 - May 06) without receiving a penny in from sales, because we got hit by returns and weren't selling enough to cover the credit notes. How did we get by - with no bank borrowings, overdraft, shareholders or anything?
I think I will indulge in a little bit of pride, looking back at this. Yey. We made it this far. Yey for us.
posted on March 19, 2007 07:57 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
18 Mar 2007: Socks, and their need to be pulled up
Today I feel ashamed. Forget the fact that large publishers are cumbersome and unwieldy; forget the fact that we're doing better work than them in many areas; we're in such a different world to them that it's often irrelevant to compare ourselves. We're a small publisher. Small publishers are known for their nimbleness, agility, lack of bureaucracy, bright thoughts and new thinking. So why do we take 12 months, if not longer, to get a book to market? How come it's not us who had the excellent idea of doing a book for Comic Relief, and getting it done in seven days?
Continue reading "Socks, and their need to be pulled up" »
posted on March 18, 2007 11:17 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
17 Mar 2007: Downer
Clare at TFP happened to mention she wasn't totally convinced that humans are responsible for knackering the climate. She spoke on the subject at a recent publishing conference. Publishing? Climate change? It made me realise that it's a question whose time has well and truly come. By the end of this year, I think this planet will have made up its mind on whether they share Clare's scepticism or not. And whichever side the majority comes down on, it's going to mean huge upheavals.
posted on March 17, 2007 12:45 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
16 Mar 2007: Taking the plunge
It's here! It's here! Unwrapping great big brown paper parcels sure beats doing your book-keeping, which is what I'm meant to be doing.
First five people to email get a still-warm copy of Taking the Plunge, fresh from the printer. It's an excellent story to read if you've survived planning a wedding, or if you're in the throes of planning one at the moment and wonder how much worse it could get...
posted on March 16, 2007 04:20 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
16 Mar 2007: Submission
So I've just called the courier to come and deliver our submission for the 2007 Small Publisher of the Year award. I am very chuffed with our effort for this years' award. We did it, appropriately enough, in the form of a book. Here is a little photo gallery.
Continue reading "Submission" »
posted on March 16, 2007 11:18 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
15 Mar 2007: Like the old days of Internet Bookselling
I remember Amazon from when the web was new and still glistening with dew. In those days you could get rich by deciding to do whatever you were already doing but over the Internet. Back then, when you ordered something from Amazon it turned up pretty much the next day. Sometimes much sooner. Or so it seemed. It was amazing. And sometimes there'd be presents thrown in too. I got a free game of Jenga once. And I think someone I know got a pen. It was incredible.
Continue reading "Like the old days of Internet Bookselling" »
posted on March 15, 2007 11:48 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
15 Mar 2007: Mark Ames on Resonance
Mark Ames, author of Going Postal, was on Resonance FM yesterday talking about the book. It was a special edition of the Unknown Country show, in which Mark talks about many of the themes of the book, and it makes for fascinating listening. Here's a recording:
If you'd like to host this interview on your own website or blog, just include the following snippet of code (click and select Edit / Copy to copy it to your clipboard):
In other news, 3:AM Magazine has just published an exclusive extract of Stewart Home's fothcoming Memphis Underground. Watch this space...
posted on March 15, 2007 01:15 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
14 Mar 2007: "Lint is like manna from Mars, a jaw-to-the-floor comic masterpiece"
"Lint is like manna from Mars, a jaw-to-the-floor comic masterpiece that will leave you giddy with excitement that it even exists... everyone holding this magazine should own two copies of Lint: one for themselves, one to fling in the face of their nearest foe."
No, we're not sure what that last bit is about either, but we're certainly chuffed with this 5-star review in the latest issue of SFX Magazine. It's about as good as it gets. Full text after the jump...
Continue reading ""Lint is like manna from Mars, a jaw-to-the-floor comic masterpiece"" »
posted on March 14, 2007 03:25 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
14 Mar 2007: Proof
I thought you might be interested to see one of the stages of getting a book printed.
posted on March 14, 2007 08:51 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
13 Mar 2007: The Bookseller's Story, Ending Much Too Soon
Not Snowbooks related, although, perhaps, related to all of us:
"It was a summer day in 2003, when Iraq was still filled with the half-truths of occupation and liberation, before its nihilistic descent into carnage. Mohammed Hayawi, a bald bear of a man, stood in his shop, the Renaissance Bookstore, along Baghdad's storied Mutanabi Street.
"A car bomb detonated last week on Mutanabi Street, leaving a scene that has grown familiar in Baghdad, a collage of chaotic images, disturbing in their brutality, grotesque in their repetition. At least 26 people were killed. Hayawi the bookseller was one of them."
→ Read the article in the Washington Post
posted on March 13, 2007 02:44 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
13 Mar 2007: The Shop That Sells Everything
This is a post dedicated to our next door neighbour but one: The Shop That Sells Everything, or The Shop for short.
Continue reading "The Shop That Sells Everything" »
posted on March 13, 2007 09:38 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
12 Mar 2007: How big do you have to be before you're not small any more?
There's a piece in the Bookseller today about Quercus. It says that
"Quercus, publisher of Costa winner Steph Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves ... said its revenue in the quarter to end-December 2006 was £1.6 million, up from £200,000 for the same period a year ago. Profits for the quarter jumped to £200,000 from £10,000 a year ago."
Hmm. That's good an'all, but when read in conjunction with this it makes my eyebrows go up:
"Quercus has become a poster child for the rising fortunes of small British publishers. Small publishers such as Quercus, said Anthony Cheetham, chairman, have benefited from the new publishing landscape."
Blimey. If they are small, with £200k profit and £1.6m turnover, what are we?
posted on March 12, 2007 05:31 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
12 Mar 2007: Linty goodness
A quick round-up of some of the excellent reviews that Lint has been getting, if you haven't been following the myspace blog:
- "More fun than any other mock author biography on the face of this or any other planet... " - Bookmunch
- "Lightning quips, memories and references to people, times and places are scantily elucidated and scarcely explained" - the wrong end of the stick at 3:AM Magazine (check the comments)
- "Jeff Lint was a slippery character. He was sort of like a slippery eel in soap slippers." - Fractalmatter
- "9/10: Hilarious!" - Dreamwatch
More soon from the latest issue of SFX Magazine - available now, we think - and do let us know if you see any others...
Lint is officially available on Thursday, although you can order your copy now from Amazon, and there are still a few free copies to give away...
posted on March 12, 2007 12:47 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
10 Mar 2007: Salt Publishing: bunch of geniuseses
Salt Publishing are an extraordinary company. Every time I visit their site I marvel at everything about them - their design prowess, their genius IT (better than snowbooks', even, and I'm reet proud of ours), their approach, their list. Visit them now - their site says more, and better, things about them than I ever could. A truly wonderful company.
posted on March 10, 2007 09:35 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
09 Mar 2007: Something for the weekend
So Rob's comment in the last post about me practising my choke-holds might have confused some readers who don't know that I train in the deadly art of... er, martial arts. Which is why you can see me in the picture above delivering a rather fine left jab to a girl. Serves her right for wearing pink gloves.
Continue reading "Something for the weekend" »
posted on March 9, 2007 06:17 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
09 Mar 2007: Guest post: Jo Skailes, Remote Work Experiencer Extraordinaire
Here's a guest post from Jo, one of our remote Snowbookers who has so kindly slaved away for us for nowt. I feel a bit bad because she can't very well say anything bad about us, because she had to show it to me first. Still, here's what she had to say. (We have a picture of tulips, by the way, because it's all springy today, courtesy of the flowers in Kogan Page's reception today. Isn't my camera great?)
"From the moment I first read about Snowbooks in a magazine feature, I followed its progress with passionate interest and admiration so, as a freelance journalist hoping to move into publishing, I was thrilled to be given the chance to join them for remote work experience.
Continue reading "Guest post: Jo Skailes, Remote Work Experiencer Extraordinaire" »
posted on March 9, 2007 01:02 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
07 Mar 2007: On your marks...
We have 99 comments on this blog in its current iteration. The next person to comment with be the 100th! To celebrate this auspicious occasion, that person will receive a copy of Lint. It better be a good, interesting comment, though, otherwise it doesn't count. Ready, steady.... Go!
posted on March 7, 2007 03:11 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
07 Mar 2007: Peter Cook looks like Buffy? And Thatcher?
Blame Clare Christian for this one. She found this site which matches your facial features to celebrities. Rather than using my own visog I thought I'd roll out Mr Cook... the results speak for themselves.
posted on March 7, 2007 01:27 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
06 Mar 2007: Oh new camera, how do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
And a one...
Continue reading "Oh new camera, how do I love thee?" »
posted on March 6, 2007 09:46 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
05 Mar 2007: Hanging out, deeply
Hooray for the Guardian! Hooray for Richard Gwyn! Hooray for springtime Monday mornings! I am suddenly in a very chipper mood because a) I have just finished my 8th coffee of the day - it's like a kind of daytime drunkenness - and b) Richard Gwyn's Top Ten Books in which Things End Badly is up and running on the Guardian website. It's high quality.
Continue reading "Hanging out, deeply" »
posted on March 5, 2007 12:51 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
05 Mar 2007: Onix
So the tiredness situation hasn't improved as it was the IPG conference in Brighton at the weekend. I have lost the cabley thing that connects my camera to my pc so the glorious photos I took will have to wait until I can get to TCR* - but in the meantime I thought I'd share this. One of the most interesting sessions at the conference was the inimitable Chris Hamilton-Emery's presentation on ONIX and how it can make a publishing company great. Judging by some of the questions from the audience afterwards, there is still a lack of knowledge about what ONIX actually is - so this pdf wot Rob wrote, a beginners' guide to XML and ONIX, might prove useful.
The other most brilliant bit was by the smashing Mark Thwaite of ReadySteadyBook and The Book Depository fame. Mark, we love and salute you.
More about the conference when I've cleared the inbox. 1048 emails! Please, The Internet, I have more than sufficient V1ag~a for my needs, I promise.
Oh, by the way, we didn't win the independent trade publisher of the year award, which was presented on Saturday night. Faber won it, and if you're going to be beaten by anyone, the publisher of TS Eliot, Seamus Heaney and winner of the overall publisher of the year at the Nibbies is a pretty good company to lose to! Jessica Kingsley won the overall prize which was a true win for all indie publishers everywhere. Her company is a great example of independent publishing done well, and a source of real inspiration to us. The awards did us, as an industry, proud.
*Tottenham Court Road, for all you non-geeks out there, home to everything wire-based and gadgety.
posted on March 5, 2007 12:03 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
04 Mar 2007: Snippet
posted on March 4, 2007 11:26 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
03 Mar 2007: Filling a much needed void
We have a troubled relationship with middlemen. Estate agents, literary agents, newsagents. Wait, no, not newsagents. In fact look for a future post about how Snowbooks' secret weapon is one particular newsagent. But those others... We don't have a problem with all middlemen, but if you sit between the producer of something and the consumer of something and you don't retail it or distribute or warehouse it - well you'd better make sure you do something for your share of the proceeds. And you also better make sure that your share is in proportion to what you add not what you can get away with.
Continue reading "Filling a much needed void" »
posted on March 3, 2007 07:45 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
02 Mar 2007: Part I in the 'Not that anyone will read this...' series
I don't want to seem ungrateful, since Em is so marvellous at getting positive press coverage for Snowbooks, but I did ask to be referred to as "Rob Jones, Snowbooks' shadowy Chairman" and as yet, no one has picked up on the 'shadowy' part. I suppose I should be grateful if they get the 'Jones' or the 'Snowbooks' bit right.
Now, in a rather hamfisted segue, that leads me on to mentioning something else about the whole business of passing on accurate information. Since it concerns what you might call 'strategy' and uses words like 'supply chain', I'll hide it behind the 'Continue reading' link to avoid upsetting anyone just here for the cat photos. So read on... if you dare.
Continue reading "Part I in the 'Not that anyone will read this...' series" »
posted on March 2, 2007 10:09 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment