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31 Aug 2009: Familiarity
When I get a minute, I'll have to figure out what exactly Facebook rifles through in order to make its suggestions for new friends. But it seems to presuppose that anyone you're in contact with is someone you're getting on wonderfully with. A little while ago someone I hired someone I didn't know to help out with a few bits and pieces and they got into financial trouble. They kept the cash I sent them for paying bills with and I had to hire someone else to take over. I haven't yet seen any of that money back yet. Fortunately the loss of that cash isn't causing me problems, but it wasn't a great situation. Nevertheless, once a week Facebook suggests that I befriend that person. Slow down, Facebook. They did sort of, kind of, a little bit rob me. Couldn't you find me someone else instead?
posted on August 31, 2009 10:53 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
30 Aug 2009: Scheme
I will now share with you a sure-fire moneymaking scheme. It is unrelated to publishing. But, if you've lost your job in publishing and now you're destitute, for a small up-front investment, you can now earn good money.
In the olden days, peddlers would go door-to-door sharpening knives. These days that's less useful. Curiously men, especially bachelors, would rather sharpen their own knives. But men, especially bachelors, require help in another area: pocket change. What to do with it? Do you carry round a bulging pocketful of small coins and then, when asked for a medium-sized sum announce, 'I think I've got the right change!' and start counting out coppers? Or do you hand over a crisp note and just dump any coins you accumulate at home. The answer is the latter.
So here's the moneymaking scheme:
posted on August 30, 2009 08:46 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
26 Aug 2009: Speculative Architecture
"No one knows how many underground cities lie beneath Capadocia. Eight have been discovered, and many smaller villages, but there are doubtless more. The biggest, Derinkuyu, wasn't discovered until 1965, when a resident cleaning the back wall of his cave house broke through a wall and discovered behind it a room that he'd never seen, which led to still another, and another. Eventually spelunking archeologists found a maze of connecting chambers that descended at least 18 stories and 290 feet beneath the surface, ample enough to hold 30,000 people - and much remains to be excavated."
That's not fiction. It's real. It's one of the bits I like best from Alan Weisman's book, The World Without Us, which I've mentioned before. But I'm mentioning it again because that passage gets quoted in Geoff Manaugh's The BLDGBLOG Book (from the website of the same name). And Geoff can keep up that level of spellbinding revelation for chapters at a time. In this book his departure points for architectural flights of fancy include Redesigning the Sky and what Geoff calls Landscape Futures. And all of it is wonderfully stimulating for the imaginative juices. In fact if I have a complaint about the BLDGBLOG book, it's that every ten minutes I totally tune out because it's given me a great idea for a novel. And then another one. And another. If you read it for no other reason, it's a great way of devising the plots for seventy or so Hollywood blockbusters and a couple of hundred eery novels. Or you could just read it because it's the most tangential, daydream-inducing treasure chest of ideas. Recommended.
posted on August 26, 2009 09:24 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
24 Aug 2009: FREE 10 minute catalogue creation kit, just in time for Frankfurt
I had a thought at the start of the weekend, and, as tends to happen, had a URL at the end of the weekend to show for it: http://www.onixcentral.com/xml And look, I even did a fancy press release to go with it.
Onix Central Release Free Xml Starter Kit
Posted at 9:34AM Monday 24 Aug 2009
Onix Central is delighted to announce the release of a free downloadable XML Starter Kit. The kit allows publishers to create easily a full catalogue using an Excel spreadsheet and InDesign. No other software is required.
Emma Barnes [that's me], a director at Onix Central, said "More than anything we want members of the book trade to get the benefits of XML that we know will transform their business. And to that end we've decided to provide these completely free files to let them hit the ground running. No cost, no obligation, but the potential to save you hours, even weeks of time. We wanted to provide a really useful tool, so here it is: a way to create a catalogue in under ten minutes using software you already own."
To download the Starter Kit at no cost, and to view instructional videos, visit www.onixcentral.com/xml.
So you should do that then. Just in time for Frankfurt!posted on August 24, 2009 10:33 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
22 Aug 2009: Notes on Katherine
Katherine May has been busy. She's done an interview with Pitch Parlour and has appeared on youtube reading the first chapter of Burning Out. Enjoy.
posted on August 22, 2009 11:09 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
22 Aug 2009: Smug
This is an Onix Central thing, really, but I am so tickled by it I have to put it here. In the video below the cut I create a 1000 page catalogue in under five minutes. (Whilst nursing a sleepy baby.) Sometimes, I rock.
posted on August 22, 2009 10:20 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
22 Aug 2009: Enemy of Chaos
As I emerge blinking into the sunlight after Sexton Blake I am thrilled to report that Leila Johston has released the iPhone app version of her fabulous new book Enemy of Chaos. I heartily recommend it!
posted on August 22, 2009 01:41 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
22 Aug 2009: Now, where was I?
Oh yes, here is the sun and here is the outside and oh my, here is another room other than my study where I can spend some time now that last week is over. I have been typesetting Sexton Blake, all 768 pages of it.
Continue reading "Now, where was I?" »
posted on August 22, 2009 01:11 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
17 Aug 2009: Nice review
Nice review here of Skarlet. Go, feast your eyes.
posted on August 17, 2009 07:53 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
17 Aug 2009: Submissions Update
Hello, it's Seldom Heard From Anna here. I wanted to make a public announcement that all submissions from before August 2009 have been replied to. If you submitted a manuscript to us before August and haven't had a reply, either it never made it to my inbox, or the rejection letter (sorry) didn't get to you.
If this is the case A) double check your junk mail folder, in case my reply got directed there and B) please don't send a questioning e-mail (I delete all manuscripts that are rejected, so I'll have no record); just resubmit.
I do want to congratulate you all on some great writing -- it might be just in my head, but it seems like the quality of the submissions on the whole just gets better and better every year. So do believe me when I say that a rejection from Snowbooks shouldn't stop anybody from pushing on, trying to find a different home for his or her work. There's a place for every written word; traditional publishing might not be the answer for everybody, and Snowbooks certainly isn't right for most books, but keep looking for your perfect audience.
My apologies to anybody who received multiple replies (due to sending multiple submissions). Although I take my time in considering each manuscript, I send out the replies very quickly once the reading is done, so I occasionally fail to notice I've already replied to an author in a previous e-mail. And while I'm apologizing, I should say that I know everybody is hungry for feedback on their work, but I genuinely do not have the time. More often than not, however, rejections are a case of a particular genre not being of interest to us at the moment or a failure to 'click' -- so my feedback wouldn't be particularly useful, anyway. Thanks for your understanding!
posted on August 17, 2009 03:55 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
12 Aug 2009: On the subject of fringes
I now have what I'll describe as purple hair, and it's about six inches shorter. It looks rather fabulous, in my opinion. Who knows, maybe I'll put a photo up one day. Maybe once my new ghd straighteners have arrived.
posted on August 12, 2009 09:43 PM | link | Comments (8) | Leave a comment
12 Aug 2009: Fringey
Alastair Sim will be reading at in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - the Word Dogs performance night on 21 August as part of the Under Word festival of performed readings; 7.50pm–8.40pm in Fingers Piano Bar, Frederick Street, Edinburgh. FREE! He'll be reading his published short comic story 'Disney Exist' - a meditation on the possibility of a Disney theme park in one of the blacker parts of the west of Scotland. See http://underword.co.uk/programme/
posted on August 12, 2009 09:40 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
05 Aug 2009: Well there's a thing
Just doing my monthly reporting and, what do you know, we've tipped over the top of £1m sales! I feel we should have a flashing icon to celebrate. Maybe Rob will add one later.
Yes, sales of £1,002,106 since we began in 2004. And contribution to profit of £361k. (And then a bunch of overheads.) So we're not talking annual turnover or anything, I'm afraid. Good though!
posted on August 5, 2009 02:13 PM | link | Comments (11) | Leave a comment
04 Aug 2009: Clever and interesting
Katherine May, author of the spellbinding Burning Out, is up to interesting things with her next book. She's tweeting the first and last line she writes of her new novel each day at http://twitter.com/mustardpepper. Follow her and follow a very new sort of serialisation!
posted on August 4, 2009 09:53 PM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
03 Aug 2009: Things from Fiona
A little treasure trove of stuff from Fiona Robyn today as her latest book The Blue Handbag is published this week. Go here to get a lovely widget of small stones. Also she's offering 10 free books to anyone who writes a review of The Blue Handbag online anywhere by the end of Sep – you just need to email Fiona the link (fiona@fionarobyn.com). And anyone who’s read the book and wants to be interviewed by her should email too.
posted on August 3, 2009 08:59 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
03 Aug 2009: Nice page
posted on August 3, 2009 08:58 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
01 Aug 2009: That's publishing screwed, then
There's going to be an enquiry into unpaid internships, says the Guardian. It would be interesting to see what would happen if internships were banned in publishing. I bet you anything companies would suddenly pay a lot more attention to ways to automate processes and organise their data, for a start, if there wasn't a free labourer to do all the mindlessly repetitive tasks.
Mind you, it's a bit catch 22. So many people are willing to work for free that it immediately reduces the chances of people who can't or won't when they go head to head for a job.
My personal view, after having a lot of intern types in the early days of Snowbooks, is that they tend to require more time and energy than they put back into the business. And they all want to be editors. And when quizzed, they're not sure why. 'Er, because I love reading?' Get a library card, then, I have been known to mutter in my more snarly moments. The truth of the matter, of course, is that there's a lot more to being an editor than reading but it's very hard to understand that until you've experienced office working for a while. But being an intern won't really expose you to office politics, power struggles and inter-company bitching - not unless you pay very close attention and lurk behind close doors. My advice: work in another field for a few years, a lucrative one, then start your own company. It's the only way you can get to do what you want all day without someone else telling you to do something else.
posted on August 1, 2009 09:50 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment