Long time, no blog

It's been quite a while since I last posted here. Things have been busy at work and home and blogging just ends up at the bottom of the pile along with lots of other things that shouldn't be at the bottom.

Part of the busy-ness is that I've been working on some very interesting projects with authors who want to self-publish - or even those who have self-published already. 

Caitlin's Wish is a storybook written for children with a disabled or unwell parent, family member or friend. It aims to help children in this situation see that they are not alone, and that their lives do not have to be overshadowed by the illness but that even though a relationship might have changed, it can still be a happy one. An extremely worthy book and one that people should be aware of. The first edition has done well but the cover price was high and there were other areas that could be improved too in order to bring the book to as wide an audience as possible. 

By looking at a different way to self-publish, the second edition of the book will be cheaper with a better distribution set up and a lovely new cover (above). The lower cost of publishing means that the author can set a lower cover price and donate a significant chunk to the charities she supports while being happy that the new price will make the book more accessible to all. 

It's a book that certainly needs to be out there and the author, Victoria Taylor is a human dynamo. She drives the project with such determination and enthusiasm (the book was inspired by her family's story) that I am sure the second edition will achieve all that she hopes for it. 

For more information on the book please click here. 

Self-Publishing Contracts: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Mainly the Ugly.

I often advise on self-publishing contracts and was recently contacted by someone who had won a competition to be self-published. He was worried about the contract he was being asked to sign - primarily because of the low royalty rate being offered. Quite apart from the fact that the rate was desperately low at 10% of net receipts, this represented a figure that was a third of what was on offer for non-competition winners - i.e. those who were paying the full rate to be self-published by this company. The whole deal didn't smell good and the author asked if I would take a look.

The contract was really a collection of all the areas of concern in a typical self-publishing contract and I thought I would post about some here and ask you to please, please check your contract carefully - before signing it!

My main worry with many of these contracts (and therefore the businesses behind them) is the overall lack of transparency. Many of the contracts I have seen are extremely vague when referring to what the author should expect to receive. Worse, they are deliberately misleading. For example, in this particular contract (and on the company website) there is continual reference to printing the book. What is not made clear is that it is a print-on-demand set-up. While POD can be a useful way to get copies of book at a lower cost than bulk printing them, it does have certain disadvantages, including being more difficult to get them in to high street shops as they are non-returnable and the higher cover price which makes them more difficult to sell.

What was also not made clear but was implicit in the wording is that the author would have to pay full price for copies of their book - and with only one copy being given to the author at publication, this could end up quite costly for them - which is where the self-publisher can top up his profit.

Talking of which, the royalty rate that flagged up the initial concern with the author is, indeed, way too low. You can expect to see rates around this mark in a traditional publishing deal (although this is likely to be on cover price rather than net receipts) where the publisher bears all costs and (in theory at least) has a solid sales and marketing plan along with significant scale of distribution. In a self-publishing set-up where the self-publisher is providing the minimum of service and you are providing everything else, the royalty should be significantly higher.

And finally, for now at least, my favourite bugbear: self-publishing companies proudly stating that they will make your book available on every Internet retail site and make it easily accessible to '3500 wholesalers, booksellers and libraries worldwide'. One, 'make available' is very different from 'sell ' and two, the simple act of allocating an ISBN is all it takes to do the above. That's it. It is a fully automated process but one that, with a bit of creative wording, can look like a specialist task that can only be offered by a publisher. It's simply not the case.

So please, please, please read your contract. And if you don't like what you see, don't sign it. And if you are in any doubt, send it to me. For more details go to The Self-Publishing Advice Service.

Brighton Book Festival

The first ever Brighton Book Festival ran between 9-12 June and we were pretty pleased with how it went. There was a nice piece in the local paper the week before and a good review of one of the events I had helped to put in place to round off the festival.

It was a small scale festival, with events ranging from a few people in a pub discussing Molesworth to a crowded ghost story evening in the Grand Hotel. The events I ran went well, with a lively talk on conspiracies by Ian Shircore, author of the forthcoming Conspiracy! book, an atmospheric poetry reading from Nicola Wood and finally a wonderful tribute to Brian Barritt from John Higgs, friend of Brian and author of I Have America Surrounded. The latter was held in the packed out Iambic Arts Theatre and went down really well. It was funny, revealing and occasionally a little rude. As John said afterwards 'Who knew I could get away with doing stuff like that?' 

That should become the Bookstock mantra.

Missing Dogs

My friends have lost their dogs and are desperate to get them home. Please help us find them.

Lost at Stoke Down, the south western end of Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve Near Chichester on 25^TH May at 11am

Please phone Tim on 07740795708

Soundart Stories

An author friend is having his short story broadcast on Soundart Radio tonight. I hadn't heard of them so looked into it and it is an interesting idea. You submit your short story (250 to 3000 words) and, if selected, that story will be read out. It's broadcast in the Totnes and Dartington area (102.5) so a small immediate audience, but the broadcast is available anywhere in the world via MixCloud.

I will be listening in to James Stevenson's story to see exactly how it works. It seems a good way to get your words out there as presumably you will be able to link to a permanent audio clip in order to help promote your work. Would be very interested to hear from anyone who has already submitted successfully.

Listen to Soundart short stories here
Read the Soundart blog here

Mysteries of the Spine

In the talks I give on self-publishing, I cover a list of common and not-so-common errors made when publishing your own book. One that I always mention is to make sure that the title on your spine reads correctly. In the UK we print the spine so that it reads top to bottom. Elsewhere in Europe it is printed so that it reads bottom to top. This means that we tilt our head to the right when we are browsing a bookshelf while the French (for example) tilt to the left.

I hadn't thought much about this really, assuming that it was just one of those things that we English like to do differently - like driving on the left and apologising when someone runs us over intentionally with a lawn-mower.

But then I was looking at a few of the older books I have on my shelf - specifically A Pin to See the Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse and I noticed that this edition (Penguin Books, 1952) has the title on the spine reading from bottom to top:

Why? WHY?! I realise this will probably only hold any real interest for the type of person who reads the copyright page before pretty much anything else in any book they get (yes, OK that is me) but I really want to know when this changed and why. Can anyone help?

And incidentally - what a beautiful book:

How to Sell 7000 Books

I met an interesting author last week. Of course all authors are interesting to me but this one was particularly so. He has self-published a children's book, in hardback, priced at £14.99. Every publishing fibre in me was telling me that was a crazy price point and crazy format for this kind of book but the facts speak for themselves.

He has sold over 7000 copies. That's a lot of books. And a fair amount of cash too. If he's not careful he might actually become that ultra-rare species of author who actually (shh) makes a living from writing.

So how does he do it? And could you do it too?

Well unsurprisingly it requires a lot of hard work, and persistence, and, I suspect a rather thick skin. Alan Gilliland is a one-man marketing machine, arranging in-store events up and down the country for (at first) his children's book The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and Us!) and now his second book (a young adult ghost story) called The Flight of Birds too.


He told me that he is booked up pretty much every weekend of the year - the organisation and planning alone must take a fair chunk of time - and he spends a full day at each bookshop, chatting to readers, talking them through his books, enthusing them about his stories and illustrations and finally selling and signing copies. The effort to achieve sales therefore is considerable and it not only takes a certain type of person to maintain this level of effort, but it also requires the author to be extremely confident in promoting his own work. This is unfortunately where many writers fall down - many (most?) feel uncomfortable standing up to say how good their own book is - in fact it is far more common to hear an author downplaying their writing. Which is a shame.


This, then is the hurdle to success that many self-published authors face whatever the price, format or genre of their book. Without the pr machine of a big publisher clanking into action on their behalf, a self-published author is left with the task of standing up and shouting about how great their book is - and many, quite simply just don't want to do that.

Separated at Birth

Vincent Disneur - The Apprentice

Mickey Pierce - Only Fools and Horses

Rattle Tales

I love discovering new and interesting ways to enjoy words and the brilliant Rattle Tales is both. Billed as a night of interactive story-telling, it's an event where authors perform their story and are treated to direct feedback from the audience with, among other things, lots of rattle shaking. Now, if you are an author you may be forgiven for thinking this all sounds rather terrifying but it is a supportive and upbeat atmosphere with the emphasis on a fun environment to share a love of stories and story-telling.

When I read about the inaugural event held in March my first thought was that I wanted to attend the next one and hot on the heels was my second thought - let's host it as part of the Brighton Book Festival! So I contacted the organiser and was delighted to hear that they would be happy to take part. We've got the venue, date and time sorted and now the Rattlers are calling for submissions. For details of how to submit please go here. 


Of course this event is as much about the audience as it is about the performers so please come along, with or without a rattle to join in the fun. 


The event will take place on 12 June at 7.30 and I think it will be a perfect end for the festival. I can't wait.

You can buy your ticket for this event here.

The London Bookfair

I was at the Bookfair yesterday and it was markedly different from last year when the ash cloud had kept a huge number of overseas visitors and exhibitors at home. Although this did mean that you could manage to walk between stands in less than the ten minutes it seems to take when it is heaving, it was nice to see the buzz back yesterday.

As I wondered the aisles I made a note of a few alternative prizes I might like to award. They are as follows:

Most extravagant (and maybe a little ridiculous) stand: Goes to - Hachette!

It has two floors! And therefore a staircase! It is bigger than my house!

Best find of the day: Goes to - the ladies loos at the far end of EC2. Clean, big and virtually empty. None of the squashing and squeezing that goes on in the EC1 loos. It's worth the walk.

Most enterprising author award: Goes to - Dr Peter Altman who was wearing a t-shirt that was printed front and back with 'Wanted! Publisher for my popular science book' and then listed his name and number. 

Platform 9 and 3/4 award: Goes to - Stand J200. I searched for ages and never found this stand which is a shame as it had two indies on it that I was hoping to see. Short of running into the wall à la Harry Potter I'm not sure where else I could have looked!

The award for taking the most circuitous route to anywhere they wanted to go: Goes to - me! My route round the fair must have looked something like this:

And finally a top tip for your visit: The small/indie publishers have much nicer freebies!

The Brighton Book Festival

Another project I am working on at the moment is the Brighton Book Festival (9-12 June). The Festival is planned to be a community-based event which hopes to bring book lovers together to share their passion for books and writing. We've dubbed it Bookstock and we're hoping to capture that laid back Woodstock feel and I'm helping to organise some of the events.

I'm looking after the Publishing and Self-Publishing theme and have just listed a book discussion, a poetry reading, a Write Your Book session and a Publish Your Book session. Have a look at the site for more information and to book tickets. There's more being listed all the time (I have a couple of great events that I am waiting to finalise) so do check back or sign up to the mailing list.

I'm running the Get Your Book Published session so you can find information on this and other events I am running or participating in on my site too.

If you're in the area and you'd like to be involved please get in touch. The Festival is growing all the time and welcomes everyone!

Contradictions within the Industry

All from the Bookseller in the last couple of days:

Trade experiences worst March since 2005

Sales soar in Mothers' Day week

Penguin Group Chief Exec takes home £1.5 million

What does that tell us about the state of the industry?

Here Comes the Sun

So today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far. Well I don't want to hear that when I'm stuck at my desk thank you very much! I have a book deadline for the end of this week (which has already been extended twice of course) and I wish I could make myself type super-fast so I could have some time in the garden later. Here's hoping...

Get a Grip, People!

In May of last year I happened upon a blog that really made sense to me. I'm not always convinced by self-help but I liked the tone of this one. The first post I read went like this:


Give Yourself Permission

Not just to fail, but to do anything you like. Give yourself permission to go out and get smashed. Give yourself permission to have a duvet day or pull a sickie.

It’s OK. The world will not fall apart.

If you harbor guilt and you’re looking over your shoulder, you’re not looking in front of you.

So what do you want to do? You want to say to your wife “Listen, I’m going out with the boys”? Say it. MTFU and give yourself permission.

You want to tell your husband “I don’t feel like cooking for you tonight?” Don’t say that. Say “I’m not cooking for you tonight.”

You asked yourself, so you asked all the people that mattered, and they said it was OK.

The only person that matters is you.

Give yourself permission.

Idealistic? Maybe. Achievable? Why not? Whatever, it made me think, and something about that simple instruction to actually do what we already know we should do appealed to me.  So I began to follow How to Get a Grip and  found plenty more of this simple, straight-forward advice.  I thought it would make a great book and before long was in touch with the author of the blog and we'd cooked up a plan to take the greatest bits of How to Get a Grip (the blog) and turn it into the only self-help book you'll ever need. 

And here it is:

Matthew Kimberley is the considerable force behind the blog and the book and he tells you more about it here:

Quick - do as he says - Now!

1. Order your copies at Amazon.co.uk if you’re in the UK.

2. If you’re not in the UK, order your copies at the Book Depository.

3. “Like” the book’s Facebook page:

4. Click here to tweet about this post.

5. Leave your review somewhere we can read it.

THANK YOU

Publishing

The last book I commissioned before leaving my previous job was published earlier this year. Confessions of a GP has done very well and I'm proud to have commissioned it. But that was a long time ago and I've missed the thrill of having a box of newly-printed books arrive. However, just this week I enjoyed the smell of a newly-printed book again. One that will be published on Monday as part of a new imprint of books. A new, small imprint that I'm very excited to be heading up and one that I have some great books scheduled for.
So the first one is out on Monday and I'll tell you more about it then!

A Note on Owls

The beady-eyed amongst you will have noticed that The Self-Publishing Advice Service site has had a bit of a revamp. Inspired by the beautiful illustration on the Brighton Book Festival site I asked the illustrator, Sian Beeton, if she could do something for me.

I love the images she has created and I wanted to share them here and recommend her to you. She is a final year student, so keen to add to her portfolio and very helpful. To see more of her work and get her contact details go here.

 And why an Owl? Wise Old Bird of course...

Hello and Welcome

So-called 'portfolio' careers are all very well, but what happens when you want to blog about all the different things that are going on at the same time? All the exciting new books you are publishing, great authors you are working with and brilliant festivals you're helping out at? I suppose I could have three (or more) different blogs but I've kind of tried that and it's too much of a faff (technical term) so this is my solution. The Hub. It means I can write about The Self-Publishing Advice Service on one day, AdLib Books the next, and The Brighton Book Festival the day after - or even all three on the same day if I like! And I can also chuck in all the smaller projects that might be of some interest or use to someone, somewhere out there without worrying that it's muddling the blog.
So this is my Book Hub. You are very welcome.