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28 Nov 2008: Freeconomics

Here's an interesting article sent in by Snowauthor Thomas Emson.

posted on November 28, 2008 09:51 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment

28 Nov 2008: Broken?

Just want to check whether the comments system of the SnowBlog is broken. Occasionally people mention difficulty in submitting comments. Sometimes they get a message that starts: "In an effort to curb malicious comment posting by abusive users, I've enabled a feature that requires a weblog commenter to wait a short amount of time before being able to post again..." I'm going to track that message down and change it because it's not really telling the truth. Really it means you slipped up filling in your details and answering the super-secret anti-spam question. If you double-check that you've filled in all the things you're supposed to and still can't post a comment, could you let me know?

update: Well, thanks to everyone for all the detective work. It sounds like typing in the super-secret anti-spam word with a leading capital causes problems. I've changed the comments form to make it clear that capitals are bad. Sorry to anyone who'd tried to post their thoughts here and been unsuccessful. With any luck it will be a little easier now.

posted on November 28, 2008 08:59 AM | link | Comments (12) | Leave a comment

27 Nov 2008: Affinity Bridge on BBC WM

Well they certainly liked it!

'Like a goodie bag - something for everyone'

'The perfect Christmas present'

'Will appeal across generations'

'It's going to be a hit'

You heard it there first, folks.

posted on November 27, 2008 08:52 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment

27 Nov 2008: Eras passing

My dad passed away a couple of weeks ago. He worked for Woolworths for 45 years. He even ran the UK company twice, doubling its profits and giving it the most successful year it ever had. It seems very strange that the firm would fall apart so soon after he died. At his funeral I met stacks of old retailers who had put decades of hard graft into keeping that business going. I hope for those still at the company there is some sort of future and that it's not all about cuts and redundancies and selling things off.

Continue reading "Eras passing" »

posted on November 27, 2008 11:42 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment

27 Nov 2008: Rodent Rage

Long-time readers will know that I live in an old converted barn and some of the former residents, to wit mouses, still imagine that they are welcome to drop by. I've successfully deported three of them and instituted a crumb-less policy whereby nothing is left out for them to snack on, but the trouble is I get complacent. When there have been no mice around for a few months I might think nothing of leaving a plate on the counter to wash later or wipe down the surfaces in the morning rather than before going to bed. And somehow the mouses sense that and return.

Continue reading "Rodent Rage" »

posted on November 27, 2008 11:31 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment

26 Nov 2008: Anyone want to buy a really lovely house?

Lovely house for sale, with extra special historical note: Snowbooks was founded in the spare room. Roll up, roll up.

posted on November 26, 2008 11:02 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment

26 Nov 2008: Portrait

This interesting article suggests that the only portrait in existence of Lucrezia Borgia has been discovered. Why not celebrate this discovery by buying The Book of Love, Sarah Bower's marvellous work of historical fiction. Set against the glittering background of the court of Ferrara in the early sixteenth century, it is the heart-breaking story of what happens to an innocent abroad in the world of the Borgias.

These two posts of mine mean you can tell that I'm sitting here reading the papers. Must do some work!

Update: here's an image of Ceasre from Sarah to supplement her comment below.

posted on November 26, 2008 09:49 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment

26 Nov 2008: Obama, the new Cicero

I am ignorant about many things, and one of those things is rhetoric. So this article was fascinating to me. I didn't know those things had words to describe them. Poor ignorant me.

posted on November 26, 2008 09:39 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment

25 Nov 2008: How to sell books

I have received a number of emails of late from fellow small publishers asking for advice on how to sell books. Here are my thoughts.

Continue reading "How to sell books" »

posted on November 25, 2008 08:51 AM | link | Comments (7) | Leave a comment

24 Nov 2008: Telephonic ishoos

Oh dear. My phone is out of juice. That would be fine, though, if I hadn't just yanked the recharger cable out and the innards of the phone hadn't come with it. Hmm. I can't find any spare phones, either. Today may be quieter than usual.

Er, can you email me instead today, please?

posted on November 24, 2008 08:22 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment

24 Nov 2008: Quality pic of the day

brought to you by Snowblog reader and Old Pal John AW - Ta!

posted on November 24, 2008 08:21 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment

23 Nov 2008: Latest Ro photos

Here.

posted on November 23, 2008 03:27 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment

23 Nov 2008: Tra la la

Now that Rowan's grown out of his newborn clothes, I can safely say that it is perfectly possible to run a business *and* look after a newborn - I have done it and it was quite straightforward. Sure, I have a superior child (heh), but nevertheless it's possible.

The only thing is that if anything else happens, other than running the business and looking after the newborn, it all goes to pot. Last week we had visitors, which was lovely but completely threw my routine, plans and task list out. Still, all is back to normal now - emails under control, accounts done, cover designs underway and plans afoot for the next week. But sorry about the blog silence this week. Normal service hopefully resumed.

posted on November 23, 2008 11:45 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment

22 Nov 2008: Get up to speed

Perhaps you don't read PCPro magazine. It is, after all, full of articles about computers, rather than books - and as the name suggests, it's aimed more towards the IT professional than the home user. The latest edition (which, because of the strange way magazines work, is labelled January 2009) has seven pages on the subject of electronic books and book readers (which I tend to call e-readers, though that's probably very last century of me). They test the current crop of readers and look at the extraordinary new models in the pipeline. They discuss the different e-book formats and also look at the geography of the e-books market.

One particularly interesting section is their look at how DRM policy evolved in the music download market compared with how the e-book market is shaping up. In short, music downloads used to have tons of restrictions on them - you couldn't copy them or play them on too many computers or certain types of portable players. And gradually, with every major music company (except Apple's iTunes Store) the restrictions have been removed. Why? Because the restrictions gave the music companies more control but at the expense of frustrating, disappointing and frequently infuriating the customer. For instance, if your MP3 player or your computer broke and you got a replacement, you might find you no longer had access to the hundreds or even thousands of pounds worth of music you'd downloaded; your right to play those tracks was tied to the gadget and not its owner. The industry realised that whoever ditched the DRM first would have an advantage over competitors, so they all did it. And the PCPro article points out that while virtually the whole music industry has abandoned their attempts to sell music with built-in restrictions over when and how you can play it, the book industry seems to have ignored that painful, decade-long lesson and is all set to repeat the mistakes of the music market.

Then again, perhaps the book market is sufficiently different that customers will tolerate restrictions more readily. Or, on the third hand, perhaps it's a form of unintentional sabotage: perhaps publishers don't really want e-books to happen so they're half-hearted in making them appealing.

Anyway, if you want to get up to speed with the vagaries of the e-book market, the current PCPro is a handy way to start (look for the picture of the Sony e-reader on the cover).

posted on November 22, 2008 09:30 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment

17 Nov 2008: Fags, Mags and Bags: part 2

Hey, why did no one email me and Rob about this? It was just jolly lucky that Rob tuned in to Radio 4 the other day to catch a bit of pre-You & Yours listening*, and there it was!

So let the Snowblog do the work of the BBC's marketing department. Fags, Mags and Bags is back, on Radio 4, Fridays 11.30-12.00pm. Listen again here. And they have made two promotional videos which are extremely fine.

*Rob's comment: I hope it's clear from this that I was tuning in hoping that You And Yours wasn't on yet, rather than because I knew it would be along shortly. Surely broadcasting four** hours of You And Yours a day is too much, isn't it?

** Ahh, apparently it only seems like four hours.

posted on November 17, 2008 02:35 PM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment

17 Nov 2008: Best headline ever

I'm a bit tied up with non-Snowbooks things at the moment but I thought I'd share a headline that I spotted on the front cover of Yours Magazine. It's not one of my regular reads, but maybe I'll make an exception for this edition. The headline offers a 'Real Life' interview with someone who claims, "I Helped Britain's Tallest Horse Find Love."

posted on November 17, 2008 09:37 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment

17 Nov 2008: Breaking the rules

I mentioned a while back that Andy bought all the Peter F Hamilton books, and after casually glancing at the first paragraph of the first book in the Night's Dawn trilogy, I ended up hooked. Thing is, the first book of the trilogy has over 1200 pages. Fine for me as a reader - it didn't feel over-long and there was little redundancy - but as a publisher I would certainly have got out my 'reject' stamp. (I don't really have a reject stamp.)

I wonder what gems we've turned down over the years because they break the rules? One of my rules is 'if it mentioned orcs *and* elves in the first page, it's a no'. (I still think that's a good rule.) But we'll almost dismiss out of hand short story collections, anything under 70,000 words and anything over 130,000. Maybe we shouldn't. But as we say in our open rejection letter, publishers are like shoppers at a January sale - looking out for bargains, and quickly skimming over everything else. What's certain is that our opinion is formed as much by industry norms and conventions as anything - so a publisher's opinion of your book is only interesting if they decide to publish you. It's certainly no measure of the quality of your work.

By the way, Peter F himself writes about the writing of his trilogy here, which is interesting.

posted on November 17, 2008 09:07 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment

13 Nov 2008: Book of the Month

Ooh, lovely! The Affinity Bridge is BBC radio Birmingham's book of the month for November. They'll be discussing it at 2pm on BBC WM on Wednesday 26th November, so we'll be tuning in then!

posted on November 13, 2008 09:10 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment

12 Nov 2008: News from Aylett Towers

Filming has completed on LINT THE MOVIE, a documentary about cult author Jeff Lint, based on the book LINT by Steve Aylett. Now only several months of editing to go ... ;8/
The film includes interviews with Alan Moore, Josie Long, Steve Aylett, Leila Johnston, Stewart Lee, Jeff Vandermeer, Robin Ince, Mitzi Szereto, Andrew O'Neill, DH Wilson, Victoria F Gaitan, Bill Ectric and others, plus rare footage of Jeff Lint himself. See the myspace page here -
http://www.myspace.com/lintthemovie
(if you look at the 'pics' bit you can see pics of most of the contributors, and other screenshots)

Go! Enjoy!

posted on November 12, 2008 06:33 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment

12 Nov 2008: It's not just the small companies

Who need to keep an eye on their cash flow. It seems hardly possible, but General Motors is on the brink of running out of cash because, er, they aren't selling any cars. They need "immediate unrestricted access to cash just to meet their wage and supplier bills." Yeah, don't we all. My question: why on earth didn't they figure this out 18 months ago and adapt to changing demand for more fuel efficient cars? God, if I can forecast our fabulously erratic cash flow, General bloody Motors ought to be able to do theirs. And I'm pretty sure Snowbooks wouldn't get bailed out by the government if we hit a problem.

posted on November 12, 2008 03:33 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment

12 Nov 2008: Photos