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This industry is in trouble.
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.
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SnowPony
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.
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Working hours and productivity
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.
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Movie Night Walk
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.
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Sad news
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).
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Weekend Off
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.
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Some Photos (and yet again, I electrocute myself)
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.
Continue reading "Some Photos (and yet again, I electrocute myself)" »
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Essential for Life?
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.
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Oh by the way
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.
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Snowbooks shortlisted for Independent Publisher Nibbie!
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.
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Mothernight reviews
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.
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I hereby register this idea as mine.
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.
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More people should write emails like this
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.
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Another tagging thing
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:
Continue reading "Another tagging thing" »
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Meme paralysis
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.)
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I iz in your blog, taggin ur posts
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):
Continue reading "I iz in your blog, taggin ur posts" »
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I'll be watching you, Snowbooks
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?
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Mothernight review
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.)
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Not waste, investment
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.
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Sarah Bower is Wise
Hey, read this. It's excellent. Sarah Bower on The Prince.
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The cutting edge of data management
Click below for a pretty dull Emma rant.
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Start up advice
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.
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Solutions
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?
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Parp
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?
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Agility
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.
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A nice thing
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!
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Novel way to keep tabs on people
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!
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Weekend Reviews
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]
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Control
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.
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Oh great.
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.
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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.
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Epic
Check this out: Quercus have bought a 19-book epic. For their sakes I hope the first one doesn't tank. Imagine having to publish 18 books knowing they're not going to work.
They have more balls than me. But then, I'm a pregnant lady, so we shouldn't be too surprised about that.
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The Great Organiso
I have done all my LBF follow up. I am very pleased. That is all.
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Lovely review...
...of Maneater here which does a good job of describing the flavour of the book (as well as saying it's bloody good, which is as it should be). Enjoy!
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Eek! Authors
Now, when I talk about authors, remember I is one. Actually, before I say any more, that kind of talk makes me want to digress for a moment. Joss Whedon is getting ready to film his new show and said of his script and his excellent cast: All in all, pound for pound, soup to nuts, man vs beast, it's a pretty amazing ensemble. I'm not sure how I landed this troupe, but rest assured I'm gonna write bestest good word for talkacting to them yes! They're in good hands. But that's besides the point. I was just going to say two things about authors.
Continue reading "Eek! Authors" »
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Small thing
There's a new button on the Catalogue page (click 'Catalogue' on the horizontal menu above). You can download all this year's AIs all at once, which should make life easier for selected Snowblog readers! Tomorrow I'll add buttons to download by category, too, but now it's bedtime.
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Update: now all the categories are up, too - so you can download all the historical fiction AIs in one go, all the thrillers, etc. Hurray!
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LBF Report
Doesn't it feel like Monday? Even though LBF was tiring enough, I feel like I've had a bit of a break. Effectively, therefore, this is going to be a two day week. Hooray!
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Mousewatch: Hard Times
(continuing on from here) I've got an ultrasonic thing in my kitchen now to annoy any visiting mouse creatures. It also claims to do something to the electricity running in the wires all through the house that is either a) made up, because it sounds like no science I've ever heard of or b) true, in which case I don't see how they can possibly know it's safe. But I'll worry about that another day. I've also been keeping even sealed-up packets of things out of the way of potential rodent marauders. All they've got is empty cupboards smelling slightly of disinfectant if they follow their usual routes. Which I suppose is why they've ventured downstairs and into the bathroom.
Click on that thumbnail to see what they were up to last night. Surely that can't be good for them, can it? I mean at least it's that Simple soap without additives and stuff. But still. You're not supposed to eat it I think. Plus, if I spy a mouse and it's foaming at the mouth, how worried should I be?
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Our day(s) out
Sorry we've been a bit quiet. It's surprisingly difficult to string a sentence together after a long day of meeting people, added to a hefty commute. As you may know, Em and I have a long-running argument where I claim that only about six people read this blog and she claims that people are always, ALWAYS, coming up to her and saying they're fans. Or at least regular visitors. I have to say, the evidence is mounting for Em's claims. I've had at least half a dozen people come up and say something along those lines. It's been excellent. And of course strangely unsettling at the same time, because when you meet someone for the first time you don't necessarily expect that they'll know your political views, domestic rodent problems, relationship status and TV viewing habits before you've even learned their name.
Tomorrow Em is having slightly fewer meetings (only about a million, I believe) so we might spend more time looking around and seeing things and gossiping. And then, once we've caught our breaths, we can get back to our main job. Which is of course writing blog posts.
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Data Tricks II
Yes, more fun facts about XSL and why you might want to learn more about it, if you're a publisher. Last time, I said XSL was weird. It's weird in a few ways. Firstly, if you've done your homework and read this document you'll know what I mean when I say that an XSL program, or 'transform' as they're called, is also a valid XML document. That means it's got lots of open and close tags and attributes, so at first glance it looks more like the code behind a web page than a program.
Continue reading "Data Tricks II" »
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Is currently out of the office.
So it's the London book fair tomorrow, through to Wednesday. The thought of talking non-stop for three days is a bit exhausting, but I always get into the swing of things when I get there. Every year I resolve to keep my diary entirely open so I can benefit from catching people's eye as they walk past the stand, or have a stroll around the other stalls to pinch ideas gain inspiration. Again I've failed, since almost every half hour meeting slot is full. When, I wonder, will I powder my nose on Monday? Questions, questions.
I wish I could remember whether Earl's Court is really, really hot or really, really cold. I remember it's one of those two things, but not which one. Not very useful.
Anyway, please don't phone or email me this week, if you can help it. I won't read my emails until Friday (I have to go for one of these ante-natal things on Thursday) and at the last glance I only have three hours of time when I'm not in pre-booked meetings for the whole of Mon-Weds, so I won't be returning any calls. Just send me positive, warm vibes for lots of lovely serendipitous conversations, massive book deals and general Snowbooks success!
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Charlie
Just a reminder that you should spend some of your time over at dailycoyote.blogspot.com looking at the pretty coyote and thinking about what it would be like to live in a cabin in the middle of Wyoming. (To raise a bit of cash to pay for coyote food, Shreve puts old pictures on the site, but sends up-to-date pictures to subscribers. So at the moment there are pictures on the site from earlier in the Winter. Lots of snow and happy coyote shots.)
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Microfinance
I don't want to bore everyone with a lot of theory, so let me put the conclusion bit first. Sometimes people just need a loan to get their lives off the ground. I'm not really talking about Westerners. I'm talking about people who, if they could afford to buy a few tools could set up a mechanics garage or if they could afford a sewing machine could make and repair clothes. I just came across Kiva.com which makes small loans for just that sort of thing. It seems like a pretty cool way to put some cash to work. Plus you can look through all the projects and decide whether you want to help someone grow flowers in Senegal or open a general store in Ghana. Take a look.
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Data tricks
While it's very kind of Em to do some pimping on my behalf, it's clear to me that what chicks really dig is someone who has a good grasp of how abstruse programming languages can be combined with core business data to devise novel time-saving workflows. With that in mind, ladies, let's talk about XSL.
Continue reading "Data tricks" »
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Top quality
I mentioned last week that I had found an amazing printer for brochures. They've arrived, now, on time as promised and are superb quality. I say again: I definitely recommend getting in touch with Zac at www.247printhouse.com/ Cheap, excellent quality and on time - what more can you ask for?
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Romance imprint
The fine folk at Writewords have come up with a genius anagram of Snowbooks: "Woos; bonks."
We have to publish romance now - how can we not with such a superb anagram?
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Snowbooks shortlisted for a Nibbie!
Wheee! I'm so thrilled to report that we've been shortlisted for the Nielsen Book Award for Innovation in the Book Industry for our XSL work. I think we might be in with a chance, too: here's the full shortlist:
Blog a Penguin Classic
CollinsLanguage.com
Lovereading4schools
Snowbooks XSL Project
Very exciting! We'll find out at the awards at the BA conference in May. And huge congrats too to Arcardia, and our friends at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights who are both shortlisted for TWO awards: Mr B's for independent bookshop of the year and new bookshop of the year, Arcadia for the diversity award and Imprint of the Year. They must win!
Awards! Prizes! Love 'em.
**update** Rob's written a handy little primer on XSL here and here.
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While the cat's away...
Rob's in Big London this afternoon learning to kill a man in a tranquil fashion at his Qi Gong lesson, so I can post a sneaky post whilst he's not looking. I am turning the SnowBlog into a dating website for the afternoon! What's the point in having a blog if you can't use it to find your best friend a partner?
Available: one very clever, funny, thoughtful, nice, friendly, entertaining, funny, super, articulate, handsome, educated, well-read, kind, lovely man. Solvent, with own publishing company and countryside home near Oxfordshire.
Would like to meet: A nice, clever, sparkly, funny girl. Should be interested in the world and be a non-religious left-winger. Should say charmingly unpredictable things. Should be entertaining and thoughtful and kind. Should like cats, not dogs (except the nice kind of dogs). Should have youthful outlook. Should not be jaded, cynical old bag. Should not drink like a fish, ideally. Should like the countryside. Location and age not important: brain important.
Why: Because Rob is about the superest person I know (except for my Andy, but you can't have him, he's mine) and it's ridiculous that he's single.
So get in touch! Leave your comments below or email Rob at snowbooks dot com to introduce yourself in a witty, charming manner. Tell all your (nice, single) friends too. He is a proper catch so be quick!
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Movie Night pics
There's one photo to see and one photo we wish we'd taken but didn't. Never ever leave the house without a camera plus assortment of lenses, that's the lesson here. As Em and I went for our pre-Movie Night wander we saw a stoat. Or maybe it was a weasel. It was dragging a dead mouse behind it into its burrow. Then, after it disappeared inside we waited. And it popped its head out and stared at us for about five seconds before dipping back down. So we waited. And it did it again. We got it to pop up and stare at us four times before it had had enough of waiting for us to push off. And each time it popped up we said 'hello' to it. Which I think annoyed it even more as it had a dead mouse to be getting on with and clearly didn't have time for our nonsense. The photo I managed to capture was of the humongous rainbow a little later on, once we were safe indoors. See all the birds sitting there, right by it, enjoying the colours?
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Mouse saga
Exhibit A: nibbled
(following on from here) I'm sorry, mouse fans, that I don't have a picture of my latest mouseploits. At about midnight last night there were one or or two crashes from my kitchen. I was asleep but they woke me up and I thought 'stupid mice' and was tempted to go back to sleep, but on the other hand, they were quite loud crashes which made me wonder if it was really a tiny, silent mouse instead of perhaps an angry badger in my kitchen instead. Or perhaps the mice had toppled the fridge over in order to get at its tasty contents. So I trudged upstairs (my kitchen is upstairs) and turned on the light. No sign of meece. But then I heard a rustle, pulled open a kitchen drawer and there, THERE, was a mouse sitting up holding a pecan nut in its paws paused in mid-bite looking guilty. Suffice it to say some fairly humane Keystone-cops-style chasing ensued with me cornering the mouse on a couple of occasions and then it outsmarting me. Eventually, once I got too tired to properly enjoy this sort of thing, I gave up and went back to bed, but first I had another go at positioning the humane trap I bought. But in the morning it had been moved out of the way and was empty. I am going to have to marshal my ingenuity and find a way to show these mice who's boss (assuming they don't already know). (Also, I never found out what the crashes were. That's a fun surprise for another day.)
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A cover wot i did
And the customer seems pleased!
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How marketing could have saved the world
I said it a while back: I'm passionately ambivalent about marketing. When it's good, it's brilliant. But when it's too good, it's manipulative and creepy. But I can't help thinking that a little magic marketing dust in the right place and the world would be thinking very differently about its upcoming climate catastrophe. 'Global Warming' was an awful, awful term to use. Unless you already lived somewhere too hot, you just thought, "Great! No more chilly mornings. My SUV will be easier to start." I've always used the phrase 'climate change' instead, but then I feel I need to tack on a qualifier and call it 'manmade climate change' because otherwise the term is equally useful to skeptics who think natural climate cycles are responsible for any changes. Now even ignoring the problems I have with the term 'manmade' (which never sounds very feminist to me) it's still a clunky phrase. What I would have preferred is that back in the late Seventies when I first saw a TV program about some crrraaazzzy Californian hippy scientists who thought that spraycan propellants could mess with the atmosphere, is if the term 'climate damage' had been coined.
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Cross
Hmm. The world had better start to prove to me that it isn't full of baddies soon, or I am going to have to accept that it is - and that's not healthy. I have been diddled, and have yet more evidence to suggest that if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself.
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Movie Colour
Case of the blues?
Publishers need to be designers as well as readers, don't they? Or maybe that's just me trying to relate this post to the world of books. Anyway, as you know, I've been thinking about movies a lot lately. I've been trying not to just watch them but actually to analyse them. You might also remember I was playing around with the look of an old TV series that I got off DVD. One of the most useful (and funny) people to read on the subject of moviemaking is Stu Maschwitz and I've recently guzzled down his blog and all its archives. One of his posts is about the way all big blockbusters have their colours very heavily worked over and tweaked in 'post-production' (meaning after the movie has been shot). And he discusses one of the current favourite looks: highlights warmed into the orange, shadows pushed into the blue and skintones miraculously preserved despite everything else being a weird colour. Look at these shots from Die Hard 4.0 for instance:
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Weekend Reviews
A couple of belated reviews of weekend events. First the weather. There was thick snow. It was superb. My reaction to it was so joyous and wide-eyed it really does make me think that I need to go and live in Canada. Plus who wouldn't want to live in Canada?
Secondly, Doctor Who. This Guardian reviewer says it all. Running, shouting, sonic screwdrivers, rowing relatives. Unless the only criteria for success was 'must sound exciting when heard from the next room' I would have to rate it as a clanging gong, an empty vessel. (Psst. RTD, read my script. See how it's better than yours? Commission me. (Hmmm, that's probably not the way to get a job)).
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Tips
Might I recommend to you all some instructions I read today in an old issue of MAKE magazine about how to cut down a tree. I'm not planning to cut one down, but if I ever did, now that I've read these instructions I think the chances of me dying will have been roughly halved. That's down from starting odds of about 100% (though it's probably best to ignore the article's first bit of advice).
Click on the picture above for the whole thing, but here's the jolly way in which it starts::
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Sarah Bower Extras
Mmm, extras. Go to Sarah's author page (either click on that link or click on authors on the menu above, then Sarah Bower on the left hand list) to see new photos to whet your appetite for her forthcoming The Book of Love, to read its bibliography and to enjoy an exclusive extra short story called Silence, which deals with some of Cesare’s adventures from a slightly different angle than those you'll read in the book. Bet you can't wait! If you'd like to preorder the hardback, click the button below and you'll be among the first to get a copy. It's normally £19.99 but I'm doing a special pre-order price of £13.50 including postage and packing. Sorry: it's UK only - if you're overseas and would like to preorder, please email me and I'll discuss postage options for you.
If you'd like to post this button on your own website or blog, that would be lovely! Cut and paste the code below into a blog post.
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My Free Who for You
For various reasons, I wrote myself a Doctor Who script a while back. Not knowing where the TV series was going, I wasn't sure which companion to use, so I set it at some interval where the current Doctor is off on his own. I imagined it being this year's Christmas Special. Having watched last night's Torchwood season finale, and having noted one important similarity with my script, I think there's a major plot point that would now look as though I'd just lifted it from off the telly. If anyone's going to read my script, they might as well do so while it's obvious that I didn't copy an idea from Torchwood.
Em enjoyed it and said that because she had to picture it as she read, afterwards she felt like she'd actually seen it on TV rather than read it on paper. With that in mind, I thought I'd post it here in case anyone fancies 'watching' a free Doctor Who Christmas Special. It's a Word document (let me know if you want a PDF instead). Click to download and enjoy. (And don't forget to tune into the real thing tonight.) If you're not familiar with standard script abbreviations, click 'Continue reading' for a v. quick list.
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By the book
As you probably know, hardline Christians have been developing their own brand of science. In America, there are now theme parks and museums where you can see tableaus depicting the days when all dinosaurs were vegetarians and lived happily alongside humanity, even pulling ploughs for early farmers. A creationist preacher is currently bringing this message to Britain. To say that it's difficult for me to understand how anyone can swallow this is to put it midly.
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On my plate
Just in case it's of passing interest, here are the big jobs on my plate at the moment.
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New bits
I've spruced up the website this morning, so thought I'd share some of the highlights.
There's a new, interactive* (ooooh) catalogue on the Catalogue page. On the same page you'll find our rights guide. All the new author pages have been updated, so now you can read about George Mann and The Affinity Bridge in glorious technicolor. We're always adding new stuff to author pages: don't forget about Thomas Emson's two free short stories on his page and Sarah Bower's handwitten manuscript, audio reading, photos and edits that were cut from Needle in the Blood.
I also fixed some bugs, and smartened up the catalogue pages with some amazing new XSL that Rob wrote. It makes my brain itch to think about how clever he is.
Do let me know if you find any bugs on your travels! Oh yes, and sorry to keep going on about this, but all the updates, including manually fixing bugs, took me 20 minutes because it's all automated using XSL. Do get in touch to ask how you can make the most of your ONIX data.
* meaning that if you click on the images, you go straight to the title's page. It was funny - there was an IT man at the IPG conference this year making out that his catalogue solution - which cost £1000 on special offer - was cutting edge, because it had links (and a fancy page-turny bit of javascript which is hardly worth a grand). We've done it using a hyperlinked PDF which is, er, free.
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Liquidised
My confusion over the fate of the Friday Project is finally abating. An article in Publishing News gives some illuminating details. Up until this week, I've been a bit frustrated that despite all of the available information pointing towards a liquidation, there were also occasional references to the 'sale of the company'. A phrase like that carries connotations of continuity and survival, and I felt it ran the risk of raising false hopes among creditors (though I understand that those at TFP weren't free to set the record straight). In my mind I was sure the Friday Project was about to disappear for good taking its debts with it. But it seems I was half right and half wrong.
The PN article explains that Harper Collins has acquired enough of the old company to be able to create an imprint of the same name. This clone of the old Friday Project will operate out of the same offices, with most of the same staff, and will retain some of its former list, but from the point of view of paying its bills, it's a different firm. It will start with a clean slate. Which is to say, unless I've misunderstood, we won't be able to ask the new Friday Project to pay the old Friday Project's bills. A line will be drawn under those liabilities. No wonder it took Harper Collins a while to put a deal like that together. I'm pleased for the TFP staff who'll have secure jobs and will once again know where next month's rent is coming from. On the other hand, it will take a bit of getting used to: the idea that the firm's spirit lives on, but not its former obligations.
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Recommendation
Boy oh boy, can I recommend these chaps. We're using them this season to print our catalogues and posters for LBF. They're cheap (around £369 for 1000 8 page A5 catalogues, which is very reasonable indeed), and you know how tight fisted I am, so big first tick. They do free delivery. Their website works, beautifully, and has all the info you need to know on it. When I emailed with a query about delivery times, they got back to me straight away. All in all, they appear to be a business who have clearly thought through what they're trying to do, for whom, and are working flat out to make it a success. I intend to help them along with that. You should consider using them, too! I'll post photos of the catalogues and poster once it's delivered (next Thursday, just in time for the London Book Fair! There's my final reason for thinking they're smashing: they've dug me out of a hole as many printers require 10 day lead times.)
On their website, under the 'Other' section, is a tantalising array of stuff that can be printed on, including T shirts, baseball caps and lollipops. I can tell things might get out of hand here...
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Free short story
The wonderful Thomas Emson has written ANOTHER short story that he's making available to you lucky readers. Go to his author page to read Kings and Paupers. I'm sure he'd love to know whether you like it, so do feel free to leave comments on it here.
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Nice
As a nice follow on to my last post, a very popular blogger likes our cover for The Affinity Bridge! Read his post, and the comments of a type geek, here.
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I don't get out much
Would you believe it - a whole literary festival on our doorstep, in Oxford, and I completely missed it. I only heard about it as a result of the coverage of an Oxford Literary Festival event - a panel talk debating the validity of lit bloggers vs critics. Either I'm not paying attention properly, or they need to up their marketing next year.
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Snowbooks Rights Guide 2008
Here is our Rights Guide (pdf, 959kb)
for the London Book Fair, should you be interested in buying any of our rights. Click below for a technical note - and video! - on how the Guide was produced.
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Note to self
It's highly unlikely that anyone except me will find this useful. But I have to admit that sometimes I use this blog to make a note just for myself to refer back to later. Evil, I know. Anyway, if you want to know some arcane function in Excel, click on.
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Happy Birthday to us
It's Snowbooks' fifth birthday today. We'd have posted about it earlier, but Em and I have been out and about all day. The thumbnail shows a picture of one of the many things we saw on our travels. Click on it to get a better look. Note the jaunty gait. Both hind paws are off the ground as it trots. Think of it as an ovine simile for how we feel. Snowbooks still seems new and full of bounce to us. And quite smiley. But to see an illustration of that you'll have to click 'Continue...' and go on to the next picture.