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31 Jan 2009: Deeply irritating
Google's just launched a new thing which alerts you to websites which might harm your computer - with scripts and so on. Thing is, 100% of the sites I've tried to visit in the last half hour may, apparently, harm my computer. There's no link on the blocker page to carry on regardless, so I am expending many keystrokes more than I would like. Bad google. Fail.
posted on January 31, 2009 02:50 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
31 Jan 2009: Brief hiatus
Sorry if you couldn't accss Snowbooks.com this morning. *Someone* put a very popular 59mb download on the homepage, downloads of which exceeded our bandwidth. Oops.
Anyway, the latest Snowsales post is up. If you are a student on a publishing course, you should ask me for the password. It is useful.
posted on January 31, 2009 02:13 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
30 Jan 2009: Fun, funniest fun time
I'll admit, I'm a Joss Whedon groupie. I'd watch anything he wrote and/or directed. But somehow I managed to miss the opportunity to download for free his internet musical, Dr Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog. However, I've just received the DVD and I'd like to make the heartiest of hearty recommendations that you get a copy too. Unfortunately I don't think there's a UK version available. I'm not even sure you can buy it on UK iTunes. What you really want is a DVD player that can play American discs and then you can get Amazon.com to mail you a copy for $17 including international shipping. [Update: it's been pointed out to me that this DVD will play in any DVD player, not just an American one.]
Continue reading "Fun, funniest fun time" »
posted on January 30, 2009 02:31 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
30 Jan 2009: Demons
That logo should say 'Shine'. Not sure why it's so difficult to make out that fourth letter. Perhaps it's my cruel satire on the quality of their work. Anyway, Shine is the TV production company who made 'Hex' and now they're making 'Demons' which is currently showing on ITV. And sadly Demons is complete Shine.
posted on January 30, 2009 11:02 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
30 Jan 2009: Beatless
I'm never quite sure what to blog about these days. The reason I like the idea of publishing is not so much that I like books (though goodness knows I own enough of them) but that I like what's inside books. I like escaping into a story and I love learning things. But that's storytelling and the whole wide world of knowledge; most of it has little or nothing to do with the art and act of publishing and so isn't necessarily of direct interest to anyone who comes to this page. Most of it has nothing to do with any of our titles; it's much more to do with what's going on in my head. And the feedback we get often focuses on what people don't like rather than what they do which puts tentative crosses against a few of my regular topics but doesn't add any.
posted on January 30, 2009 10:23 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
28 Jan 2009: I can't help it
Quick baby photo. Shhh. Normal publishing will be resumed shortly.
Continue reading "I can't help it" »
posted on January 28, 2009 01:55 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
27 Jan 2009: Smug
I have *so* maintained email zero for, like, weeks now. Tra la la. If you are waiting for anything from me, well, I've lost your email. You'd better resend it. Sorry.
{update} Ooh, Rob makes a good point. That doesn't include submissions, which all go to a separate email address. Don't resend submissions if we haven't replied!
posted on January 27, 2009 07:41 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
26 Jan 2009: Ghosts, werewolves, whatever
Werewolves aren't exactly ghosts, but hey - doesn't stop Maneater appearing high on the list of Amazon's bestselling ghost stories!
Rob's update: Amazon obviously update this a lot. When I looked, I came across Paris Immortal before I reached Maneater.
posted on January 26, 2009 03:59 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
25 Jan 2009: Tip
When you get a new piece of computerised technology, you should remember to change the default password to something else. This applies to laptops and wifi routers and especially to giant, illuminated motorway signs. You can see from the picture the results of someone not following that advice. Click on it for the whole picture. Story here (via BoingBoing).
posted on January 25, 2009 08:54 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
24 Jan 2009: Snowsales
This week's snowsales post up now.
posted on January 24, 2009 09:11 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
23 Jan 2009: Funniest. Product. Ever
posted on January 23, 2009 09:57 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
23 Jan 2009: I must be doing it wrong
Apparently, having a kid costs £9277 a year. At the moment, though, little Ro is a profit centre. I get child benefit of £80 a month. I've been spending £20 a month on clothes for him (hooray for Asda's £3.75 packs of 7 sleepsuits). That leaves quite a lot. I shall buy him a piggy bank, then get him to buy his own Wii, or future equivalent, when he wants one.
posted on January 23, 2009 08:43 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
23 Jan 2009: Speaking of Thomas Emson
You may have read in The Bookseller recently that Snowbooks has signed up the next eight novels from Thomas Emson. Doesn't sound like cautious old Snowbooks, you are thinking - and you'd be right. But you just read the blurby enticers for these and see if you aren't hopping up and down in your seat desperate to read them.
Continue reading "Speaking of Thomas Emson" »
posted on January 23, 2009 08:25 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
23 Jan 2009: Skarlet extract
Go here to read an exciting extract from Thomas Emson's forthcoming vampire novel, Skarlet.
posted on January 23, 2009 08:24 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
23 Jan 2009: Snowsales bonus post
There's an extra bonus post up tonight. It's worth asking me for a password for this post alone. I'm not going to turn anyone down, unless we're sworn enemies, so ask away - it's password protected so I can see who's reading, because I'm nosey.
posted on January 23, 2009 08:18 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
23 Jan 2009: Interloper alert!
Seems that Jon Snow has a new blog. Yep, he's called it the SnowBlog. As the original and still the best, we shall be magnaminous and allow him to nick our name - just so long as we keep our #1 google ranking!
Thanks to Sarah for the tip-off.
posted on January 23, 2009 10:51 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
23 Jan 2009: My pal, Obama
It is funny. I keep going to the news sites to see how my pal Obama is getting on. I genuinely feel like he and I know each other, and I'm rooting for him, as a friend, to do well. This is probably some psychological problem on my behalf: you know, delusions of grandeur, that sort of thing. Or perhaps it's to do with the fact that I'd like to know such a clever, rounded, personable, brilliant chap. It makes the world seem sunnier, knowing he's in charge.
In other news: Ro, meet London.
Continue reading "My pal, Obama" »
posted on January 23, 2009 10:28 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
21 Jan 2009: Maclet
I don't seem to have much time to write for this here blog at the moment. I seem to be leaving it all up to Em. Who has a business to run and a small baby to amuse. It's not fair really. I'm very busy, but not with anything anyone would want to read about. But I did make something the other day that some of you might like. I've been having trouble with the little netbook I bought a while back. It keeps crashing. So I thought I'd get a replacement. But I wanted a Mac. Only they don't (yet) make a Mac netbook. So I made my own (with lots of help from the internets). Continue reading to see a couple of pictures.
posted on January 21, 2009 07:45 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
20 Jan 2009: I'm so proud to be an American!
Oh. Oops. I'm not an American. But I wouldn't mind being, today. The tv doesn't come on in our house very often, so Ro's first introduction to the concept was to watch President Obama take the oath and deliver his speech. Both of us shed a tear (although I think Ro was just a bit peckish, rather than being overcome with the enormity of the event). We salute you, President Obama. Good luck to you, sir.
posted on January 20, 2009 06:10 PM | link | Comments (8) | Leave a comment
19 Jan 2009: Reviews
Read a review of The Clamour King here. Also, there's a review of The J-Word in the Canada Post (scroll to the bottom and click on books)
posted on January 19, 2009 10:15 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
18 Jan 2009: Straw poll
If I attended a conference with Ro in a sling, would that be shocking and annoying for other conference-goers or within the bounds of acceptability? Before having him, I would have thought it was very weird, but now I think it would be OK. He doesn't make a noise in his sling. Honest thoughts very welcome.
posted on January 18, 2009 10:18 AM | link | Comments (10) | Leave a comment
17 Jan 2009: Children's music
After your wonderful recommendations for baby books, does anyone have any good recommendations for baby music? I have got a nursery rhymes CD (god, aren't the lyrics violent? 'When the bough breaks the cradle will fall / Down will come baby, cradle and all" What are they trying to do, traumatise the kid?) but wondered if anyone had any good ideas for proper music. Thanks!
posted on January 17, 2009 09:03 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
17 Jan 2009: Snowsales
Latest post up here.
posted on January 17, 2009 10:22 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
16 Jan 2009: Jebus
You know me. I'm quite handy with the ol' computer. Well, the last twenty minutes make me look like a person who's never come across one in their life before. See, I've been trying to format a report in Sage.
posted on January 16, 2009 03:49 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
16 Jan 2009: e4books
Yey, we've got our e4books accreditation for 2009!
posted on January 16, 2009 11:59 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
16 Jan 2009: Children's books
So for the first time in my adult life I have an interest in children's books. Indeed, I already know a few of them off by heart. Here are my reviews of some of the ones we've read so far.
Continue reading "Children's books" »
posted on January 16, 2009 08:18 AM | link | Comments (10) | Leave a comment
13 Jan 2009: Mini spruce
It is true. Sometimes I choose titles for my blog posts because I know which picture Rob will come up with (for newcomers, Rob's main job at Snowbooks - as well as being chairman - is to put pictures on the blog posts.) Today I've given a dust to the Snowbooks homepage. It is now, as befits our recessionary era, full of free stuff. Go! Enjoy! (You might have to refresh the page.)
posted on January 13, 2009 09:48 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
11 Jan 2009: Twittertastic
Did you know that this blog feeds our Twitter account, so every time there's a new post the first 140 characters plus a link to the rest appears. Amazingly we have 165 followers. It's interesting because unlike this blog I have no idea who's reading as so few of you comment. With Twitter I can view the profiles of people. You're a varied bunch, and I note a number of authors among you. Make sure you submit your work to us, especially horror and fantasy, as we're actively looking.
Twittering also means that I must endeavour to make the first 140 characters more interesting. Hmm. That's like someone pointing at you and shouting 'Be funny!' Too late for this post, anyway.
In summary: hello Twitterers!
posted on January 11, 2009 11:02 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
10 Jan 2009: Land of 10,000 (frozen) Lakes
My window in the morning. (click the image for a bigger picture).
posted on January 10, 2009 01:08 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
10 Jan 2009: Snowsales
The second SnowSales post is up now where you can see our sales by title by retailer for the last week. Read my original blog post to find out what I'm talking about, visit SnowSales and email me if you want a password.
posted on January 10, 2009 09:53 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
09 Jan 2009: Paperback preview
Six years ago I phoned the editor of the Bookseller's paperback preview. I asked, rather boldly, if she'd like to include my titles. She was very nice but patted me on the head (as much as one can do over the phone) and gently let me down, saying "my dear, the paperback preview is only for the books which are going to sell tens of thousands of copies'.
I'm delighted to say, then, that we make our debut in this year's edition - with pictures! Another huge milestone reached - very satisying.
posted on January 9, 2009 03:55 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
09 Jan 2009: Returns
Galleycat reports that a publisher in the US is suing Borders for $1m for 'excessive orders' which were then returned. Fascinating. I hate returns as you well know, but suing your customers is never going to end well. Goes to highlight both the strength of feeling and the crippling effect of returns, though.
posted on January 9, 2009 09:21 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
07 Jan 2009: Post Xmas musings
The Barnes household had the best Christmas ever this year. It was a truly wonderful Christmas day and we've had a brilliant two weeks. But boy, am I glad to be back at work.
Continue reading "Post Xmas musings" »
posted on January 7, 2009 04:55 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
07 Jan 2009: Red Men accolades
Here's what the Professor of English at Detroit Uni says about The Red Men.
posted on January 7, 2009 01:24 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
07 Jan 2009: Snowflakes
I can't not point this out, especially as it's snowing outside my window at the moment.
posted on January 7, 2009 08:57 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
05 Jan 2009: Where in the world?
Click on the thumbnail if you want to see the view from my window this morning. And no, despite the snow, it's not the UK. I left my camera in the car, so it's just a phonecam picture and you don't really get the sharpness of the sunrise orange/pink on glittering snow or the vibrant and solid CGI quality of warm steam rising from a factory chimney into frigid, moistureless air. In a few minutes I'm going to walk over the local Denny's and have myself a veggie-cheese omelette and most likely be called darlin' by the waitress. Then, later today, I may go to one of my favouritest stores in the world (link). Hope whatever you're all doing, it's as much fun.
posted on January 5, 2009 01:42 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
05 Jan 2009: Round up of 2008's posts
I thought I'd do a round up of my favourite Snowblog posts in 2008.
Continue reading "Round up of 2008's posts" »
posted on January 5, 2009 09:27 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
02 Jan 2009: First innovation of the year
Wanting to start the year on an innovative foot, here's a new thing.
I have created a new blog, www.snowsales.co.uk, which contains password-protected Snowbooks sales data. As I mention in its first post:
We’re providing data on this blog because it’s a cheap, easy to maintain and quick way to improve our authors’ experience with Snowbooks. We also would like to make our data available to others for benchmarking or study purposes. Whilst some company data is indeed commercially sensitive, we don’t think that you can do much harm to our company by knowing our sales data. Indeed, we think that by being open and sharing data we can all benefit:
Authors - you can keep an eye on whether your local stores are ordering, or let us know if you think there are additional opportunities we’re not getting. Plus you can get a feel for how your book is selling rather than waiting for the 6 monthly royalty statements, or trying to figure out the Amazon rankings algorithm. You can also benchmark your book’s performance against other Snowbooks titles.
Fellow publishers - you can benchmark your sales against ours, to see if there are any stores we sell to who might like your books, and vice versa. If you see any gaps in our customer base, reciprocate and let us know!
Students - we’ve been asked a number of times for actual data to help students understand the realities of publishing, so we hope this helps you to become better publishers when you graduate. Do acknowledge us in your essays and projects if you find these data useful.
Email me now to request your password.
posted on January 2, 2009 12:22 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
01 Jan 2009: Happy new year
Alas, I was in bed by half nine, as is my way nowadays what with the bairn and all, but a barrage of cannon-like shots around midnight proved that it was indeed New Year's Eve. So happy new year, one and all. May your 2009 be filled with fine books, fine times and fine amounts of money. Thanks for supporting Snowbooks in 2008 and thanks in advance for keeping us going in 2009 and beyond!
posted on January 1, 2009 10:27 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment