.
31 Dec 2008: The speed of things
There is one feature of the too-numerous-to-remember businesses falling into administration which I keep noticing. All the businesses were doing more or less OK until recently, but a combination of poor Xmas sales and a retraction of credit lines means that their demise is astonishingly rapid. It only takes one bad season - one poor Xmas quarter's trading, one really bad batch of returns, one pulled overdraft - and that's it. Bullet to the head. You can't stockpile enough cash to see you all the way through a bad year, so really there's no security. This is the feeling I've always had with Snowbooks: we've done fine but every time we have a good season / title I think 'yes, but that's in the past' - it's next week's sales which matter, not last week's. Maybe there's something to be said for being paranoid like this - we're always in survival mode, not just in times of recession, so there's no complacency. I suspect more and more businesses are starting to think like me, now.
posted on December 31, 2008 10:07 AM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
31 Dec 2008: io9 mention
Ooh, *prestigious* io9 carries a piece about George Mann's forthcoming Ghosts of Manhatten (slated for publication in the US by Pyr and Snowbooks in the UK in 2010). Here's our cover, by the way.
(How organised are we: covers (well, one cover, anyway) for 2010 done and dusted. Cor.)
posted on December 31, 2008 09:47 AM | link | Comments (7) | Leave a comment
30 Dec 2008: Bloggin' Fidelity
I can't bear the lies any more. I have to tell you something. I've been two timing you. Yes, I've been writing another blog for a few months - since Ro was born. Can you forgive me? Can we ever feel the same way about each other again? I can only say sorry, so many times.
It's not a proper blog, though, really - it's just my journal of all things Ro (with the occasional comment of what it's like working from home with a baby as I currently do, which I thought might be interesting) before he suddenly hits 18 and I've forgotten how he grew up, so don't bother visiting unless you can stomach All Baby Photos, All The Time. But if you want to see some First Xmas photos, go here.
I'm sorry. It's me, not you. Can we still be friends?
posted on December 30, 2008 09:48 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
30 Dec 2008: Dicey
Not sure how fierce the B**tish B**adcasting C**poration's lawyers are, but I thought I'd take a chance and post a clip from the last episode of the recently bygone second season of the masterful radio comedy F*gs, M*gs and B*gs. Why? Because it's so good and I want you to know about it. Here, the shop's proprietor is explaining confectionery history to his eldest son. (The asterisks, and lack of names, are to stop said lawyers simply googling their way to this particular infraction.) mp3 link
posted on December 30, 2008 08:45 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
30 Dec 2008: Book o' the year
Affinity Bridge is going to be one of SFSignal's Books of the Year. Hot diggety!
posted on December 30, 2008 08:47 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
28 Dec 2008: Abusing the blog
If K Petersen is reading, can you email me again, and ideally provide a different email address or phone number? When I reply to yours, it's undeliverable "due to a configuration error on the server". Thanks!
posted on December 28, 2008 05:43 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
26 Dec 2008: The Christmas Who
(Know that if you click 'Continue reading...' there will be spoilers for yesterday's Who.) Em kindly bought me The Writer's Tale as one of my Christmas presents. It's a collection of very honest e-mails where RTD, chief Who writer, talks about what goes on in his head and behind the scenes to get a Doctor Who script ready to shoot. I've been very surprised so far at how wise, eloquent and capable RTD evidently is. I've grumbled such a lot about the declining quality of Who that I was sure the book would be full of glib and/or dippy statements which would prove that the muddle that ends up on screen comes from the muddle in his head. But no. RTD thinks many of the same things I do about writing which, while it doesn't make them correct, means that they do seem awfully sensible to me. And he discusses and manipulates the components of story very well in his e-mails. It's much like the way I work in the notes I use to plan out a story, but if anything his thoughts are more fluent and clear than mine. This, as you can imagine, is a bit of a blow. I've looked at the slightly shabby end-product of an RTD script and imagined that I could do better. But now I'm not quite so sure.
Continue reading "The Christmas Who" »
posted on December 26, 2008 11:34 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
24 Dec 2008: Christmas is here...
... and the previously extremely fat goose has got a bit thinner. Now I'm more than half way towards my goal I can reveal the awful truth about my pregnancy weight gain.
Continue reading "Christmas is here..." »
posted on December 24, 2008 06:30 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
23 Dec 2008: Don't forget your Xmas present
Which is waiting, nicely wrapped for you, on Snowbooks.com's homepage courtesy of that kind gent George Mann. An ebook AND audio book version of his Christmassy steampunk short story, The Shattered Teacup, is for you to enjoy over the holidays. Let us know if you liked it!
posted on December 23, 2008 10:38 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
22 Dec 2008: I might have known
For years I've thought of plastic as a dangerous luxury. Paper, on the other hand, seems natural, renewable and safe. Because it is simply wood in another form, it replenishes itself and if you discard it, its components rejoin the various cycles of earth and decay. I had fondly imagined, therefore, that paper was produced in a sustainable cycle. But like so many things, it's only sustainable if it's used with restraint. And the world has very little restraint when it comes to paper.
Mandy Haggith's very nicely written book, Paper Trails, confirms many of my worst fears. And then goes far beyond them. I had no idea how many old trees are cut down to make things that are immediately thrown away. Or that lots of recycled paper isn't really recycled, that lots of sustainable sources aren't sustainable, and that in far off lands, where there's money to be made, the clear-cutting of huge swathes of primeval, ancient forest is too lucrative to resist. It's bad enough to hack down pristine Amazonian rain forest, but at least that would grow back if we allowed it to. In the massive and ancient boreal forests of Northern Europe, where trees take hundreds of years to mature in the freezing conditions, new saplings often require the shelter of established trees to protect them. Hack down millenium-old virgin forest in that part of the world and it might never return.
Continue reading "I might have known" »
posted on December 22, 2008 09:07 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
22 Dec 2008: Can British people ever get their heads round this?
In Minnesota today, where SnowPerson Anna lives, it's minus 31 degrees C. I cannot conceive of that temperature. 'Brrrr' doesn't seem to cover it.
posted on December 22, 2008 08:51 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
22 Dec 2008: Book of Shadows notes
There's a reader's guide up on the paperback page of Paula Brackston's Book of Shadows. But I thought you might like to read it here, since it's interesting.
Continue reading "Book of Shadows notes" »
posted on December 22, 2008 08:49 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
21 Dec 2008: Christmas wishes
The other day I mentioned finding a receipt for a new Ford Cortina among my late dad's papers. Another document of interest that I came across were the Woolworths Group Accounts for September of this year. My dad was on the board as a non-exec and he went into hospital so suddenly he certainly didn't have a chance to start locking away all his business paperwork. It's amazing to me to look at the corporate picture as recently as September. I probably shouldn't even make reference to what the accounts showed, but then on the other hand, it all seems a little bit academic now. But the picture painted is one of a stable but lacklustre business with a bit more debt than was ideal given how suddenly no one wants to lend money any more. It certainly wasn't a snapshot of a business three months from total oblivion. I can only assume that what I've read in the press is true: some key lenders wanted their money back at short notice and when no one else stepped forward to take over the debt, the company was hurriedly wound up. 28,000 people out of work just before Christmas, many of them going home to their families unpaid. And not because Woolworths went bust; simply because its bankers withdrew funds unexpectedly. I'll admit I'm biased, but personally I wouldn't have seen the harm in the government extending a six month loan of £250m. Perhaps one of the banks we all own shares in could have helped out with some of that cash. It wouldn't have needed to be a gift. There's every chance the business could have been transformed into something a little more in keeping with the current economic climate given a bit of breathing space. In fact I half expect that as the recession took hold, many new customers would have looked to Woolies for bargain bits and pieces. But it wasn't to be. So I just hope not all of those 28,000 people are having a miserable Christmas.
posted on December 21, 2008 08:21 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
19 Dec 2008: 4.30am musings
Today's musing: why, if computers can perform complicated calculations in the blink of an eye, do they take ten minutes to start up? Ten minutes must be an eternity - what are they doing?
Also, for some reason I couldn't stop thinking about an appraisal I had a B&Q.
Continue reading "4.30am musings" »
posted on December 19, 2008 09:36 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
18 Dec 2008: Results part 2
The lovely Bookseller has done a piece on our results. As I mentioned yesterday, the only reason our profits were so comically low in the previous year (-£84k) was because we put through a large reserve against returns of £138k. Take one from the other and you're left with a better idea of what our actual performance was that year.
posted on December 18, 2008 09:15 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
17 Dec 2008: Returns
Not ours for once, though. I'm guessing that in January and February 2009, returns are going to be at a record high in the larger publishing houses. I wonder if this will be the catalyst for doing something about them once and for all?
posted on December 17, 2008 02:04 PM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
17 Dec 2008: Results
Just finished doing the year end accounts with our (awesome) accountants Vantis. We made £17k profit year ending March 2008. Buggered if I know where it is though. (Actually, it's on the balance sheet as retained earnings, but you know what I mean.) Our profit the year before was minus £84,000 so that's, you know, an improvement. Heh. Seriously, the minus £84000 came about because we had to put through a whacking great provision against returns of about £140,000. It also means that we have no tax to pay as the losses from last year carry over = good.
I know these results are quite old now (end of March seems a long time ago) but it's good to know that we're holding up against the storms. And I'm quietly hoping that next year (this year, I suppose) will be even better.
(Also, isn't it nice that I don't have to report these figures to a set of shareholders or City types. I doubt that saying 'buggered if I know where the profit is' to them would go down very well.)
posted on December 17, 2008 09:39 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
16 Dec 2008: Rubbishing non-science
Scott Pack's been writing about Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science. Here are his thoughts. I'm reading it too and, just like Scott, heartily enjoying it. Here, taken quite out of context, is my favourite sentence so far: "I mean, I don't sign my dead cat up to bogus professional medical qualifications for the good of my health, you know." In case you don't know, he's referring to how he demonstrated the worthlessness of non-doctor Gillian McKeith's nutritional qualifications by procuring an identical set for his expired feline companion animal. Who knew science could be so sarcastic and funny?
posted on December 16, 2008 11:04 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
16 Dec 2008: My one Ro post for this week.
Ten weeks old today and very good at kicking in his bath.
Continue reading "My one Ro post for this week. " »
posted on December 16, 2008 04:23 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
16 Dec 2008: *Glow*
This was a nice way to begin the day. Actually, that's not quite true - I'd already been at my desk for 40 mins. Ro, being smashing, is now pretty predictable with his sleeping so I get up an hour earlier than him and do the tasks that require two-hands-plus-bending-down - namely the filing and the paperwork. I think of it as an invigorating way to greet the day.
posted on December 16, 2008 09:21 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
15 Dec 2008: Call for submissions.
2010. It seems so futuristic. Will we all finally get our jet packs? I for one will be saving scraps of tin foil from now on, with which to fashion a suitable cardigan or such like garment. And don’t forget the colander hat to set it all off, with a coat hanger aerial jauntily poking out the top.
But it’s not so far away, you know. In the dynamic world of Snowbooks (where we plan more than a year ahead. Hmm. A brand new definition of dynamic), 2010 is really quite close, and we are starting to think about our list.
So this is a call out to writers to submit your work for our 2010 slate – one which we hope will be better than ever.
Here is what we’re interested in:
• Fantasy. Alternate realities, strange universes. Think The Affinity Bridge, Book of Shadows
• Horror. Zombies, werewolves, vampires, witches, apocalypse, supernatural frighteners. Think Maneater, Paris Immortal, The Fall
• Sci fi – from space opera to near future dystopias.
• Historical fiction. Think Needle in the Blood.
• We’re also looking to scale up our non-fiction publishing programme. We are interested in all topics – even quite specialist or technical subjects if they are interesting enough and written well - we’d like to publish books that are the best in their field, from super-clear introductory texts to, for example, popular science, current affairs, technology, cookery or gardening. Or, I don’t know, bee-keeping. The important thing is the quality of the writing, not the subject. All our non-fiction will be published in full colour with lots of illustrations and photos.
(I wish ‘non-fiction’ had a less negative name. ‘Informative books’, let’s call them. Oh, no, that’s no good either.)
What we’re not interested in: Children’s, poetry, biography, experimental, edgy literary fiction, derivative fantasy featuring lots of orcs and elves.
What we might also be interested in: Other genre writing including chick lit & crime.
Please follow the instructions at www.snowbooks.com/submissions.html. You'll need to send full, not partial or proposed, fiction manuscripts. (Non-fiction proposals are OK, but a full non-fiction manuscript is ideal.) Remember to follow the file naming conventions and the guidelines for the email subject line, otherwise it'll be deleted. And please do consider getting in touch, even if you’re not sure your work is right for Snowbooks. We are actively and keenly looking for books to publish so you have nothing to lose and a lovely shiny Snowbooks contract to gain.
posted on December 15, 2008 03:53 PM | link | Comments (16) | Leave a comment
15 Dec 2008: Busy busy
I was feeling restless this weekend, and whenever I stopped to have a sit down got all fidgety and fretty. So I built some websites. Here is one - hope you like it although it's not finished yet (lots of broken links and the domain hasn't transferred yet). God bless Wordpress.
(There are sort-of-spoilers about Peter F Hamilton's book The Neutronium Alchemist below the cut.)
Continue reading "Busy busy" »
posted on December 15, 2008 08:52 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
15 Dec 2008: Aylett news
A revised re-issue of Jeff Lint's comic THE CATERER (with posters and other bonus material) is now available to buy here. The perfect Christmas gift!
posted on December 15, 2008 07:07 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
13 Dec 2008: The biggest Christmas Goat in the world
The mind boggles (courtesy of Robin).
posted on December 13, 2008 11:06 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
12 Dec 2008: A nice thing for a change
Just look at this gorgeous thing produced for 4th Estate by Snowbooks alumna James (and a lot of others). Cheering on an otherwise gloomy day.
This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.
posted on December 12, 2008 02:36 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
12 Dec 2008: EUK
So, EUK has gone out of business. 700 people made redundant today. My heart goes out to everyone there especially at this time of year. It's heartbreaking. I used to work for Kingfisher, the company that owned Woolies and EUK amongst others, so it's been especially astonishing and upsetting to see these businesses crumble - businesses, as Rob said a number of posts back, that many people close to us have worked tirelessly for many years to make successful.
As far as the impact on Snowbooks goes, as luck would have it we have no payments outstanding from EUK at the moment. They hold about £4000 of our stock which I don't expect to see again (which is fine - just so long as the adminstrators Deloitte - who I also used to work for, small world, eh - don't try to return it for credit, which I would refuse. I hope I'm not forced into accepting.) So we're getting off lightly. Since EUK is said to hold £15m of publishers' stocks, I think we will be in the minority.
Crazy, upsetting times. As I say, my thoughts are with the 700 whose Christmas is well and truly ruined.
posted on December 12, 2008 01:27 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
12 Dec 2008: The more you read the word 'brain'
In other news - I had seven and a half hours' sleep last night, courtesy of my superior baby. I feel like Rip van Winkel.
In even more other news, there is a light dusting of snow on the ground and trees outside. Very pleasant to look at.
posted on December 12, 2008 09:03 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
11 Dec 2008: White on black
Gah, my eyes are swimming. I've just been trying to read this page. I now have a major headache brewing and there are swimmy white blotches in front of my eyes. Yet I'm sure I read somewhere that white on black was meant to be better for the eyes than black on white, on a screen. Do you find black on white, or white on black, or some other concoction, easiest to read?
posted on December 11, 2008 05:53 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
10 Dec 2008: History
As part of sorting out my late dad's affairs, I'm having to go through lots of paperwork. It's nearly all from the last few years, as he was good at clearing out anything that was no longer needed. So the odd document from long ago really stands out. One such is, I suspect, his first pay slip. I also came across this invoice from 1968 (click here to see a picture of part of it). It's for a brand new Ford Cortina in Alpina Green at a basic cost of £656 and ten shillings (including safety belts). Given in part exchange was a Vauxhall Victor. I assume this is the first car he bought from new. I particularly like the invoice produced on a typewriter with 'I's instead of '1's for some reason. Pure history.
posted on December 10, 2008 07:56 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
10 Dec 2008: Lazyweb
some lazy bears
Anyone know of a good fast workaround to the fact that, if you apply object styles to grouped objects in Indesign, the style is applied to each of the objects? I want it to apply to the group as a whole (e.g. a stroke round the group rather than each object). I've tried nesting and creating a compound path to no avail. Thanks!
posted on December 10, 2008 03:20 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
10 Dec 2008: Maneater
An excellent review of it here. Makes me happy that our books make people happy. Hooray.
posted on December 10, 2008 10:10 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
08 Dec 2008: I can only think of swear words.
And no, it's not recoverable. I've been trying to get back the quarter-hour of work I lost for about half an hour (I know). I am greatly peeved.
Update:
Here is a useful page for fixing InDesign docs. I used the 'move pages' resolution which seems to have worked - but of course had to go back to a version of my file that was missing my latest work. What an infuriating waste of an afternoon - not that I've lost too much work but that I've had to stabilise this important document. Bah. Minus one point to Adobe.
posted on December 8, 2008 03:36 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
08 Dec 2008: I'm trying
I really am, to keep baby-related things to a minimum here. But just look at this face.
Continue reading "I'm trying" »
posted on December 8, 2008 03:18 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
08 Dec 2008: Credit crunch
I wonder if someone launched a piece of confectionary called Credit Crunch whether it would be successful? Delicious golden honeycomb representing the gold that you no longer have, wrapped in a silky jacket of dark chocolate to reflect your mood? No, maybe not. Perhaps I shouldn't be thinking of new products to see us through the recession. Actually, the point of this post is to let you know how Snowbooks has been affected so far.
Continue reading "Credit crunch" »
posted on December 8, 2008 10:17 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
05 Dec 2008: Our Christmas present to you
Visit the Snowbooks home page to unwrap our lovely Christmas present just for *you*.
posted on December 5, 2008 01:22 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
04 Dec 2008: Quantum Cello
Blogs and podcasts. It's semi-familiar content but it arrives in new ways. For instance, I've mentioned Radio Lab before. It's a sciencey radio show, only a lot cooler than that sounds, and it's on National Public Radio (which is like America's Radio 4) from WNYC in New York. But of course I don't listen to it on the radio; I download it. The website is here. Or you could just click on the subscribe button for Radio Lab in the iTunes store and it would turn up on your computer thereafter. It would probably automagically ooze its way onto your iPod or iPhone too, but I wouldn't know as I don't have those gizmos. (The iTunes subscribe link is here.)
So I was listening to one of Radio Lab's podcasts and I heard some very cool spacey cello music by someone called Zoe Keating. Her website is here. The full podcast is available from WNYC here. It's quite clear to me that the presenter, Jad, totally fancies her. Then I did something I probably shouldn't and snipped out one whole track from the podcast and put it here (link) for you to listen to. If you click on that, what you're listening to is one woman playing one cello, but recording loops as she goes and setting them to repeat so that she can play over them. It sounds good.
So I'm hoping that the copyright police will let me off for putting that file up as I'm only passing on the music as a way to entice you to either buy Zoe Keating's albums (which you can download from here) or to listen to Radio Lab. Plus even without my help you're free to download the podcast that track came from (link).
I like the music anyway, but I particularly like the fact that I can listen to it while writing. I'm always looking for music like that. Maybe you are too.
posted on December 4, 2008 05:25 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2008: Wigging the hell out
You spend your days with books. Books are static, visually uniform and very few people have phobias about them. Maybe that means you're mentally well-balanced, and it will take more than a mere image to ruffle your feathers. Or maybe being around books has failed to prepare you for the 'real' world. It's made you bookish: delicate, sensitive, easily alarmed. Whichever it is, consider whether or not you have any crab-related hangups before clicking on the picture that accompanies this post. Doing so will take you to a picture of that critter as you might encounter it in real life - if you lived in Guam. (Original link nicked from BoingBoing.)
posted on December 3, 2008 03:54 PM | link | Comments (7) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2008: Regrets
I was pondering this morning whether there's been anything at Snowbooks that I regret. I can think of two things - a time when I paid £650 for a three week promotion but the printer delivered the title a week late, which meant we only got half the exposure we should have done (as it happens it did really well and rolled over into the next month, but I was so annoyed) and also a time when I was conned into buying Sage Intelligent Reporting for £600 which has been of precisely zero use, because it doesn't work and their helpdesk is too useless to fix it. But those are the only two instances I can think of. That's rather good. I like living a life free of regret.
Of course, I regret plenty from previous jobs. But that's why I don't do them any more.
posted on December 3, 2008 11:41 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
02 Dec 2008: Keeping J.K. safe
So, can anyone tell me why copyright on a book lasts for 70 years after an author's death? I don't mean 'why' in the sense of 'because that's the law'; I mean 'why' in the sense of 'what useful purpose does that serve?'. I thought copyright allowed creators to profit from their works, which was nice for them. And by doing so it provided an incentive to other creators to get stuck in, which is nice for all of us. And balanced against that is the problem that, thanks to copyright, the creator of an idea has a monopoly on it and can either gouge us for the use of it or keep it from us. Society benefits when creators are incentivised AND their creations get out into the world and are allowed to circulate. So why do an author's great-grand-children need to profit? Isn't that bad for society without doing anything very useful for authors?
Continue reading "Keeping J.K. safe" »
posted on December 2, 2008 08:39 AM | link | Comments (8) | Leave a comment
01 Dec 2008: Don't think about it too much
It'll make your head hurt. This month's All The Rage, Snowauthor Leila's excellent rag, features an interview with Jeff Lint.
posted on December 1, 2008 01:21 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
01 Dec 2008: What is the web?
Here are some brill factsheets on The Web - everything from the uber basic 'what is the web' to a good, clear discussion on XML. Just in case you need to know.
posted on December 1, 2008 01:03 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment