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Fopp
I really hope that after 25 years (it will be 2028 and I'll be 54) Snowbooks doesn't end like this. What a terrible shame.
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Can't stop the edit
You know when you're chatting to a group of people and you confess to some problem you thought was pretty common and then everyone looks at you blankly and you realise it's just you? You all know that feeling, right? No? Just me then.
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The Sound of DRMs
It's a fraught and vexéd business: DRMs, IP and copyright. I find the idea of protecting creative work for a preposterous 75 years after the author's death to be, um, preposterous. As sharp-minded cynics have pointed out, every time Disney's earliest works are about go out of copyright, the term of protection is extended - which is why the U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act is also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Does anyone really think that work done in 1923 should still be copyrighted until 2023? I thought this sort of thing was about incentives for investment, making sure people had a chance to profit from their work; but will people really stop creating fine new things if they can't be sure that their great-grandchildren will be able to live off the royalties? I doubt it. I think the opposite situation is more likely: if you really thought that three generations down the line your family would still be sponging off what you do now, you'd be too depressed to invent anything. I mean, isn't there something quite sad about the idea that singing Happy Birthday in public requires that a fee be paid, and even though the copyright is of a 1935 arrangement of a 1893 song, it will be 2030 before it can be sung for free. That, as they say in legal circles, is utter pants.
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Amendment
OK, so the mysterious 'Sebastian' bent my blog-ear over the fact that our revised submission guidelines said that we would rather like to see full manuscripts for non-fiction as well as fiction. Never say I don't listen to my...er, suppliers. Presto, our requirements are changed as you'll see if you visit the authors page!
Thanks for taking the time, Sebastian.
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So proud
"Now that I've finished it I'm speechless and bereft".
Needle in the Blood has a five star review from Dovegreyreader herself! Read it here. Super duper.
(Will someone please buy a copy from my new Google checkout thing? It took ages to set up and I don't have a single order yet!)
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The trick to liking ex-P.M. Blair
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New things
a trumpet
I don't like to blow my own trumpet (such a lie - of course I do) but not only have I found the time to be up to date with Every Single Last Thing, I have also revamped the website. ('Up to date', by the way, does not mean 'finished': it means 'under control', which is good enough for me.) Let me show you around.
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Recommendation
I can heartily recommend these chaps as being very worthwhile. An author who submitted her work to us, which was oh-so-nearly there, has commissioned a report from them and was kind enough to share it with me. It contains exactly what I would have said if I was more eloquent and had the time to think it through.
Well worth the modest fee.
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Strategical underpinnings and wotnot
The Future
I thought I'd just say a little more about our strategery week. I'm covering some of the same ground as Em's earlier post, but also expanding on a few points. Personally, I always like hearing about why other companies do the things they do. It's a good way of clarifying one's own thinking. And often it's an excellent source of cheap laughs too.
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Lazy
Em, hard at work
I am a *very* lazy person. So lazy, in fact, that I tend to just whack blog posts up there without bothering to find a picture to go with them. Rob tends to drop by and add an image he likes, because he knows that blog posts are more interesting if they have a picture to go with them, and also because he is not lazy. No. He is Good.
I wonder what image he'll choose to go with this post?
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New! The Norman invasion with music
The Bayeux Sampler
Sarah sent me this today. Love it!
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My Lovely Computer
Not Em's
actual computer
Tell you what: I don't half love my computer. I am just about to send City Cycling to print - it's finished, at last. But the InDesign file is over a gig large! 1,198,320 KB to be exact. And my lovely, darling, precious computer handles it without a sniff. 'One gig?' it says. 'Pah! I laugh in the face of enormous files! I scoff at your feeble attempts to overload me! I am all-powerful!'
Yes you are, computer. Yes you are.
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The 44th U.S. President. F'only.
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How we choose what to publish
One thing and another this week has made me think about writing a post that explains how Snowbooks chooses what it pubishes. I imagine, from a number of points of view, it is quite mystifying how publishers make the choice. Here we go, then.
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Marvellous
As far as I'm concerned, the BBC can double their license fee and I'll happily pay up (or, more accurately, I'll ask Andy to happily pay up.) Last night's Doctor Who was marvellous...
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Sorry about the weather. My fault.
"Since the dawn of time, man has yearned to destroy the sun."
- The Simpsons
You don't hear the question, "What do you mean by 'good' weather?" very often. 'Good' is sunny and warm and dry. Except that I live in London and sunny and warm and dry usually means sweltering and humid with the sense that there's a big immobile stack of pollution pressing down on the city. When the weather gets hot I find I can't concentrate, I'm tired and I feel a bit sick a lot of the time. My least favourite is when the sky is grey but somewhere up above the sun is hammering down, cooking the exhaust fumes and making the air feel like a sick dog is panting on you. For a similar effect at other times of the year, just wrap a layer of cling-film around yourself before getting dressed in the morning.
But then it starts to rain and I feel better, my brain feels sharper and I'm ready to get on with things. And since most of what I do doesn't involve standing outside - though it may involve looking out the window occasionally - the rain isn't a problem. Actually, even when I do go out, I don't mind the rain. It might be unpleasant in the winter, when it's icy cold, but the occasional spritzing of luke warm water in the Summer seems quite agreeable. And in my mind, I can picture it scrubbing the pollen and carbon monoxide and exhaust particulates out of the air, making it safe to breathe again.
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Strategy
A couple of weeks ago Rob, Anna and I sat down for almost a week straight and talked about what we were going to do for the next five or so years. Here is our strategy.
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Watch this
"Oh, it'll never happen. No matter how good Apple are, they will never be able to replace the innate beauty and accessibility of boo...waaaah?"
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Waterstone's Christmas charges
I have an opinion. It is different. Interested?
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Freaky
If you sort the emails in my inbox chronologically, and alphabetically - THEY ARE IN THE SAME ORDER! Weird.
That is all.
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More politics? Yes. But in a vaguely upbeat way.
Nice to see that the Treasury is unimpressed by the idea of lowering tax on Private Equity (PE) investments. I was one of those who initially liked the concept of Private Equity turnarounds. You combine a crack management team with a big equity fund and buy a business with the intention of renovating it - usually with a plan to go public again in a year or two.
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Sundry items
In the bag this morning: apocalypse, me nearly losing my rag and why, and the greatness of small businesses.
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Google vs. PayPal
No, it's not some huge industry news or speculation on one buying t'other. I just want your opinion on which is easier to use.
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Random Jottings
Elaine has taken a very nice set of photos of a bunch of books I posted to her, so thought I'd share.
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Much industry
Blimes, I have done a lot today, which I have only achieved through being fortified by a steady flow of Mini Battenburgs. Now I feel like a podge. I should have sent them to my lovely dad as a nice Father's Day treat.
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The power of smug
smug
On the Global Warming front, I'm pleased to say, I think we've got past the following view: '10,000 scientists say it's real; three who work for Exxon say it's not. It's too soon to say who's right'. Now a good number of us are agreed it's real and humans are largely to blame. So thank goodness we've been able to put scepticism behind us and move on to despair.
One of the most common expressions of despair that I hear is this one: 'what can one lone person like me do that's going to matter?' Now, since the people expressing that view are usually doing so in a newspaper or on TV, I think the answer is obvious: set an example. But even if you leave that aside, I have to say that sentiment doesn't really coincide with my own feelings - and not because I'm a saint - in fact the opposite.
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Funny day...it's all down to you now, Doctor.
A day of highs and lows, today. Highs: the City Cycling layout is going a lot quicker than expected. Should be able to get it off to print by Wednesday as planned, which means it will be out in time to tie in with the Tour de France. Phewfo.
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I love it when...
... you're flat-out frantic, no time to even get a coffee or go to the loo, up against all sorts of deadlines, then you glance at a submission and look up three hours later having realised you've read the lot in one sitting. A very pleasant sunny Friday afternoon treat!
Interestingly, although I was captivated, there's still no guarantee that we'll offer to publish it. We are That Picky. But as I mentioned the other day, what, really, gives me the right to censor the readers' options like that? Sure, it's my company's money on the line, but it's likely that people would enjoy the book.
We do think that people will find better ways of figuring out what they should and shouldn't read. It's been one of the things we've discussed on our great strategy week (a week this time! Not just a day!) thinking about this sort of stuff. When it's all percolated through I'll give you an update. This weekend, however, I have to do an essay and finish laying out City Cycling. I hope it rains - makes me feel less bad about staying in.
In other news: Rob has figured out a way to send documents to the printer from home over our network. The printer seemingly fired up on its own this afternoon and spat out a piece of paper warning me to 'watch out for the ghost'. Snowbooks: behaving like adults since 2003.
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London Lit +
News from Snowbooks' Alumni Club! Blimey, James didn't hang around. Whatever happened to taking a week off, enjoying the summer, and breaking oneself in gently to one's new occupation? Instead, he and a group of likemindeds have come up with an excellent fringe festival to complement the London Literary Festival. In the spirit of the sorts of things we've been talking about on the blog of late - letting the people decide what books they want to read - this is an open, inclusive and wide-ranging festival.
It runs 29th June to 13th July. Snowbooks will be running a couple of events, although they're not yet properly planned so you'll have to wait to see what they are! More as it comes. If you're an indie publisher or bookseller in particular, it's a perfect opportunity to celebrate London's books. Go to the (frankly wonderful) website now!
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"Only the professional critics ... know what they are talking about; bloggers are merely expressing an opinion." Discuss.
Oh dear. Someone's forgotten that in polite society one is meant to keep one's right-wing tendencies under wraps.
The story that's circulating about Persephone Books' latest Letter , in which they assert that book review blogs offer 'mere yammering' compared to the 'logically reasoned discourse that sits still on a page, inviting serious engagement', is an interesting one.
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"The book is the most pitch perfect representation of what it is like to live in America in 2007 I have yet come across."
"The UK is lucky to have a chance to finally read Noah Cicero's The Human War" says 3:AM. Great review by Tony O'Neill over there now. Go an' take a look, then buy it. And if you're not convinced yet, read the review at Ready Steady Book by Lee Rourke, *then* buy it.
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Important Publishing-Related* Petition
I should like to start a petition for the following things:
- For Carey Mulligan to immediately be installed as the new Companion.
- For Steven Moffat to write all future Doctor Who episodes.
And it didn't even contain that much David Tennant. Who'd (heh) have thought such a thing would be even barely passable? Genius!
Please sign your assent in the comments and I shall send to the BBC on the morrow.
*Er, not really.
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Nice things
There is an excellent blog interview on the Historical Romance blog by our very own Sarah Bryant.
And now, some news about our friends the trees.
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Trying...to...be...upbeat
After the dullness of double taxation treaties and the horrors of certain environmental doom, I am determined to be upbeat and, er bubbly. Just don't say G8 to me. Don't say it... don't...
Quick, think positive! OK. Firstly I have had a very enjoyable evening at the Savile Club, where women are still a thing to be - feared? rejected? avoided? something or other, because women are still not allowed to be members. Whatever: the Savile Club was just the venue for a really lovely evening. Hmm, that went from positive to not-so-positive very quickly. Try again...
Ah! I have very positive things to say about a very specific set of books. Those books are my open university course books. Oh, how I love them.
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Doom [updated]
Back away; it's the return of the green P of politics.
Thought I'd contribute some perspective to the Olympic logo debate. You haven't seen overspending until you've seen this.
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Wil Wheaton Approved
Oh, look, it's Seldom Heard-From Anna! I live in America and look the other way, distractedly, when people tell me I should blog about things!
But not today -- no -- because today I discovered that Wil Wheaton likes Monster Nation. Here at Team Snowbooks, we're all fans of ST:TNG (to the point that we use acronyms), but beyond that, I've come to appreciate Mr Wheaton as a well-spoken (written), intelligent individual with uncommonly good tastes. He enjoys the zombies, so you will too!
And if you don't, well. . . we'll just have to send the zombies after you, won't we?
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GAH
If they insist on using this god-awful logo, the rest of the world will think that London is full of throw-back loons. If they don't respond positively to the abject horror that every single person who's commented on it has displayed and come up with a better one, I'm not going to support the Olympics. In fact, I will actively protest against it. Who's with me? Meet outside the Houses of Parliament, week on Tuesday, to lobby for aesthetics?
We are capable of so much more. Today I am ashamed to be a Londoner. Shocking (pink).
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Useful yet SO DULL
As this blog has noted over the past few days, there are interesting things about publishing that publishers should spend time on, and there are UTTERLY DULL AND AWFUL things that no-one should be forced to spend time on. The trick, I have noted, is to automate the dull stuff as much as possible. And seeing as I've gone to the bother of automating, or at least documenting, the stuff I find the least enjoyable, I thought I'd share a selection of them with you, lucky readers, so you don't have to go through the UNUTTERABLE AWFULNESS of phoning six different tax offices and foreign consulates to find out how to avoid being taxed twice on foreign royalties. Yaw-n.
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txt spk
What would you say if I told you about a satirical story in which even academic essays were written in a phonetic language rather similar to the one the youth of today use when texting each other. Hardly biting satire, I suppose. I mean you hear about kids using 'txt spk' in schoolwork, so it's not the most inspired satirical leap to have teachers and academics using it too. Mind you, if I say that the story was published in 1912, that might make it a little more impressive.
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How I work
It's been interesting talking to people about our new team structure. Often they've looked horrified and said 'but Emma, how on earth will you cope with all the work?' Interesting question, and worth a post, I reckon.
I'm no better than any other small publisher at the actual publishing side of things. I am just as bad (because, face it, no-one gets it right 100% of the time) at picking sure-fire winners as the next woman. But I don't think I'm being too egotistical when I say I am a lot more efficient than most people.
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Wheely good (groan)
Click for larger version
Nothing like a good night's sleep and a picture-perfect sunny day to raise the spirits! We're going to go for a nice walk in Abney Park cemetery this morning (it's a nature reserve really, so is much more pleasant than it sounds) but then it's down to bizniz. Today I'll make a good crack at finishing off the layout of City Cycling. I may even come up with a suitable strapline to replace the not-really-very-professional one that you see in the picture.
I'm very excited about this book, and I think a lot of other city cyclists will be, too. The Tour de France is coming to London next month; more people are taking to the roads on their bikes as traffic and congestion reach new heights; there is a critical mass of cyclists and with critical mass comes safety. Richard Ballantine (whose parents founded Ballantine publishers - good stock, no?) was the first, back in the 70s, to suggest that cyclists are traffic. This went against the received wisdom of the time that cyclists should stay out of the way of motorists. Richard suggested that cyclists should behave on the roads in a way which ensured their safety and asserted their right to be there, rather than hide in the gutter where it is actually rather dangerous.
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Leaving day
Must...be...strong...mustn't...cry...like...a...girl... Gilly and James have just left the office for ever. Their little coffee cups are sitting here, empty and cold.
I think I'll tidy the office.