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:

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!

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!