Zoe Faulder

One Step at a Time: XML Workflows, Cloud Computing and Getting into the Digital Groove

2012-01-27T08:02:00.001Z

Remember when everyone was shouting ‘XML workflow! You need an XML workflow!’ The publishers nodded, agreed, checked to see if they could buy one on Amazon then asked what exactly was meant by XML workflow. Those who were asked were usually trying to sell something so the answer was never really clear but the publishers were assured that they really needed it and the service that was being sold to them for a bajillion dollars totally had it – oh, and it was based in the cloud.

Feeling a bit frightened by that bajillion dollars and not feeling at all enlightened on XML workflows the poor publishers went back to their publishing houses and used the tried, tested and not-bajillion-dollars-worth-of-software-requiring workflows.

Then everyone was shouting, ‘publishers are stuck in out-dated business practices. They aren’t changing fast enough! Only the versatile will survive!’ (My voice may have been a whisper among those shouts but let’s move on shall we.)

The poor publishers sighed, checked their purses and wondered if there was a way to be versatile without becoming insolvent.+

An XML workflow would certainly help versatility and is something that publishers should be trying to implement but it really requires everyone in the company to sit down and discuss exactly what that workflow will look like.

The idea of an XML workflow, for books and ebooks, is that a central ‘file’ (it could be more than one file) be created that will be the base for all formats of that book. This ‘file’ will not only be the content of the book but will also contain all the metadata and information relating to it. This file will be marked up in a way that could represent any media application (like a website). The idea would be that the language used to mark up the file could be used across the board with all books and would be fine-tuned so that minimal editing would be required on any given format - On a side note: anyone who has worked with conversions will know that fine tuning will be a long process in itself.

Once this source file is created information could be pulled from it to create the PDF for printing, the epub or mobi files for eBooks (with metadata embedded), or parts of the contents could be drawn out to be used in a variety of multimedia.

Now that all sounds fine and dandy but first and foremost there needs to be a lot of communication about what is actually needed in that file; endorsements, metadata, keywords, covers, author bios, links to related titles/information or anything else that may be useful in increasing returns on the work. Secondly there will need to be someone with the skills to create and manage the file and the rest of the staff would need to have some similar, though not quite as detailed, understanding. The storage systems would also have to be completely streamlined (preferably in the cloud) so files could be linked easily and outsourced contributors could be involved right at the core.

All this can be done in-house but a publisher would need to have pretty technically savvy employees. Or this could be outsourced to one of those companies claiming the bajillions for their services. Either way there is going to be an investment with quite a high risk factor.

I guess what I’m trying to get at is yes versatility is all fine and dandy, with its XML workflows and cloud computing* but the reality is the majority of publishers do not have the resources to make such a big leap.
So, maybe small steps are what we should be looking at. Perhaps publishers should first gain a secure understanding of what it is they are actually trying to achieve and then map how they might get there.
It might be worth starting off with a single project, maybe set it up on a temporary online platform like GoogleDocs or Dropbox just to get a feel of how a cloud based XML workflow would work.

Taking it slow can seem very frightening in an industry that is changing so fast – but publishers have to be sure they are taking the right path for them, so maybe slow isn't so bad, as long as it isn't stationary.

+ No disrespect to publishers, I'm sure I may only be identifying a minority case here.

* I don’t mean to say this is the only way a company can be versatile but it is one way.

Error Handling

2011-12-15T15:01:00.004Z

I just wanted to point out a correction on one of my earlier posts VAT on eBooks.
I had indicated that a consumer in the EU purchasing an eBook form a supplier outside of the EU should not be charged VAT. I'm afraid this is not true.
I had a conversation with a lovely gentleman in the finance department of Kobo and we looked over the documentation together.
As the place of supply is the home country of the customer the VAT is charged at the rate of that country.

What Else Do We Need/Want to Know About eBooks, Media and Publishing?

2011-10-12T17:11:00.000+01:00

Over the next few months I have to write a research paper for my course. I know I want to write on eBooks but I’m very aware that this is a topic that has quite possibly been more than exhausted.
Below are some thoughts I’ve had about possible topics:

In my Critical Theory class we have been discussing the relationship between technology and culture – I thought this might be a very interesting angle to take in order to look at the development of eBooks. eBooks have been around a long time yet it is only in recent years that they have become commercially popular. Admittedly eBooks have been quite prevalent in academia for quite a while but their adoption as a valid substitute for a print book by the masses has only occurred in past few years. In an earlier post I praised Amazon’s Kindle as one of the main drivers behind the growth in eBook popularity but was it the Kindle alone or were there other sociological drivers?

There is quite a strong push in media towards the interactive narrative – I see it as being an important element in the future of eBooks but I have wondered whether an interactive eBook might become something more like a game. Does an interactive activity that is not work or a hobby immediately become a game? What form could an interactive narrative of a book take?

Most media industries have been sucked into the digital age. Books held on for a while but now print is well and truly digitised in almost all of its forms. The survival of print has come up umpteen times. There is a spectrum between ‘viva le book’ and ‘the book is dead’ and there are people today who seem who to lie on pretty much every point between the two with extremists on either end. I’d be interested to look at the different arguments that have developed and perhaps look at other examples of digital media that the book industry may be able to draw on.

Comments are greatly appreciated and any other thoughts are more than welcome.

Day to day learnings in digital development

2011-09-07T12:34:00.000+01:00

It has occurred to me that I have posted very little on digital publishing recently. The main reason for this is that my digital role has not been very active this summer – ok, that’s not totally true, I have been spending the summer trying to fine tune most aspects of my digital role.

What I have learned from this process?

Designing your own CMS (content management system) without a full appreciation of the user interface is a bit of a waste of time and money.
Designing a website will always take longer than you originally think.
There is no such thing as too much planning.
No matter how eager you are to get things up and running as quickly as possible quality takes time - plan for it.
If you can put together a clear spec that includes a style guide for any digital project.

I won't go into too much detail in relation to the CMS system but I will say that if you are developing a digital product that is meant to be used on a frequent basis by customers involve them (or at least a sample) in the process. It will ensure a much smoother ride once things get going and they will be able to identify issues that you didn't even know existed. My experience in sales and marketing has taught me many things but a key lesson has been the importance of customer communication and high quality service. You may think it's a no brainer but many people can forget that identifying your customer and ensuring you have a good relationship is key in any business.

I've not been involved in much website development (I'm not sure creating geocities sites back in the late nineties/early noughties really counts) but it is something that I've been training myself up on and been very eager to be involved in. Even if websites are becoming a bit 'last season' they are still very important tools for profile building and business (yes yes, I know it's all facebook pages, twitter accounts, LinkedIn profiles and whatnot these days). So I've been involved in helping develop a new ecommerce website and it is taking a good bit longer than I had anticipated.

The reason said website might be taking a bit longer than anticipated is because the plan was a bit rudimentary. There were outlines and I had an idea of what needed doing - I now realise time lines would have made things run a fair bit faster. That and better/faster communication from the developers.

I'd assumed the website would be pretty fast to set up because it was based on a template of another website we have. Even the developers assured me it wouldn't take more than a week (two months ago) as it turns out a direct copy of the template wasn't quite right for the new website and new design standards were implemented and there was a fair bit of trial and error. Key point - trial and error is part of the digital process.

Specs kind of come into the planning side of thing but can also be applicable to eBooks. We've slowly been building up out eBook style guide. For format it can sometimes seem redundant given that the reader has a great deal of control over this aspect of eBooks but it can still be a massive help and avoid a lot of time wasting back and forth between yourself and the converter/designer. The same is true of any digital project ... or even non-digital project. A clear outline as part of an overall plan is crucial - for yourself but especially for anyone else who is involved in the project.

I would have always classed myself as organised, and I am.* I have spreadsheets and plans for everything but even my slightly nut-ball standards of planning and preparation weren't enough on when diving in to digital development. From now on I'm upping my game on the organisational front.

It seems good organisation is key to long term smooth running (but I kinda knew that already).

*I try and determine the most efficient side of the street to walk on... that's borderline psychotic!

FYI - Titles be changing!

2011-08-25T13:03:00.000+01:00

I have been blogging (infrequently) for a few years. In the more recent years my focus has been publishing (as you may have noticed) – this is not likely to change as I absolutely love the industry and have quite intentionally worked at building a wee profile in it. Part of that profile building is getting my name out there and taking part in events – you know … networking. Equally I have been aiming to build my profile online.

A few weeks back I mentioned that social media (and general networking) is not really my strong suit. Through that post I met the lovely Michelle Moloney King whose ridiculously useful posts have really got me thinking about search engine optimisation. I have long been thinking that the name of my blog may not be best suited to the content and more recently I’ve felt it may not help in my endeavour to build a profile. So from today my blog’s title is Zoe Faulder. (original, I know.)

I was considering changing the URL but until I get my own domain I might hold off on that one.

What is success?

2011-08-23T11:13:00.004+01:00

It’s been a few days now since I finished Women Mean Business and I find my self pondering the issues of balance in relation to work and life.

Some of my friends call me a bit of a workaholic – mainly due to the fact that I get into the office before 7:30 for a 9am start – but I don’t really think I am (I’m generally out of the office at 5:30 on the dot – if not before). I work as hard as a need to for the day and then go home and relax. I very rarely work outside of office hours though will do if a project requires it of me and even though I read blogs and articles about publishing in my free time I don’t really count that as work as it is also a personal interest. Yet sometimes I find myself getting personally invested into a project and it becomes such a large part of my life.

I’ve dealt with the issue of over burn before . Once I meet the authors of a book I find my enthusiasm for the project really gets going but every now and then it goes into over drive. I want every book we publish to succeed but it seems every so often I come across a book and every fibre of me feels everybody needs to read it. I have to reign myself in at times like this.

One of the things that really comes across in Women Mean Business is the amount of personal investment – be it time, health, passion or, even to a degree, sanity – required of an individual to be successful. A massive amount of hard work and belief in yourself seem to be the key tools.

So I find myself a bit torn – should I get personally invested? It’s something I’ve done before and it seems to be something you have to do especially if you’re ambitious and want to develop your own successful business but I’m acutely aware that work is only a part of life and the more I put in the more I sacrifice the other parts.

Perhaps it comes down to what success means to each individual – It could be wealth, family, (not to say these are mutually exclusive of course), comfort and security or freedom of movement.

I find my mind diverging into a vast number of directions here in its attempt to qualify success. Is it some conclusion you aspire to in life, or is it what will give you the most happiness on a day to day basis?

To me is ongoing – I’m ambitious and want to make my mark on the world but I also want a certain level of security and the ability to have time that is not work focused (can the two go hand in hand?). But most of all I want to be happy as often as I can be and I want to be able to provide a loving, supportive and secure life for the children I hope to have someday.

What about you - what is success to you?

Women Mean Business: a review ... sort of

2011-08-17T09:25:00.001+01:00

In September we’re publishing Women Mean Business by Rosemary Delaney.

Now I’m being completely honest here so no judgement please – I don’t read every book we publish cover to cover. I’m not an editor so it’s not part of my job description. The work day is pretty full as it is and some of our books are a little dry for taking home and reading before going to bed. That being said I do read a good portion of the content (especially if they’re small) and some like The Career Book or Know Your Rights I take home when they come in from the printer as I find the contents very useful for a dip in every now and then. I even gave Megan and the Money Tree to my niece as a present. As the person marketing the book I need to have a strong enough grasp of the content to be able to actually sell it to people but I also have to balance that against how much time I can put aside to read the books.

Every now and then a book will pass my desk and I’ll start reading it – the next thing I know I’ve got half of it read and have to force my self to pull away to do other things my job requires like, you know, sell books.

This is what happened with Women Mean Business, I wasn’t even reading the final copyedited text and I still couldn’t pull myself away. It probably helps that I’m the target market – young, ambitious, woman and looking to take an industry by storm by developing some much needed service/product/[fill in as appropriate].

In the book Rosemary maps out her path to becoming an entrepreneur and shares all of the little lessons she learned along the way. I haven’t finished it yet but already I’ve taken away a few nuggets. For example – Rosemary and I agree quite heavily on the massive importance of note books. At any given time I have at least four notebooks in rotation. They were mostly kept around for writing purposes or even just jotting down shopping lists or reminders. Rosemary suggested putting down ideas … any and every idea – which I feel a bit silly not having realised my self. Every business idea she has goes down into her notebook regardless of how batty it seems.

I plan to follow her lead. Why only recently while reading Mike Shatzkin’s post reflecting on the future merits and pitfalls of agency pricing an idea popped into my head. I pulled out my notebook, jotted down a few sentences and maybe in a few years time I will be making millions … maybe not.

Gems like this are scattered throughout the pages of Rosemary’s life. Her style is light and accessible and her story is intriguing, I’ve met the woman and I can tell you her voice carries through the pages in all its energetic enthusiasm.

P.s. I’m sorry if it’s a bit crass to be reviewing a book we’ll be publishing soon but the book aint available yet so I don't think this will generate sales. It was just something I wanted to share really.

What's in a nam... I mean, writer?

2011-08-05T12:29:00.001+01:00

I call my self a writer – but to be honest I’m beginning to feel this label is a complete lie. I haven’t written anything substantial in quite a while. In the past few years the only writing I have managed to do is in lovely little writing group that meets up monthly – and again, being honest, the last few sessions I’ve been woeful at actually getting any writing done.

So am I a writer?

Well I hope so. Of everything I’ve ever done in my life so far writing has been the thing that gave me the strongest sense of self. When in the flow of a story I’m at ease – nothing can touch me. I'm totally immersed in a world of my own making. All worldly worries melt away and I am nothing but the words I write.

It’s beautiful and it makes me so happy – but it has been a very long time since I was in ‘the flow of a story’.

In my teenage years writing was my bread and butter. For hours on end while other kids were out playing sports or going to the cinema I was in my room scribbling or typing away – I was so prolific I’d make James Patterson look like George RR Martin (no offence George, love the books!).

Then at 16 I got the mother of all writers block and I’ve never really pulled out of it. In the 9 years between then and now I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve gotten into ‘the flow of a story’.

So, am I a writer?

I can feel the lack of it, and try time and again to get the ‘flow’ back. But I’m my own worst enemy – I start, I falter, I question my ability, I compare my style, I doubt my talent and in the end my insecurities win. Now so many stories are half told, characters never fully realised, worlds partly formed – I long to get back to them.

I envy those who literally can’t not write, I bubble with jealousy wishing that something in me demanded the stories to be told instead of letting them fester in the recesses of my mind (wow, that was a slightly darker sentence than I’d intended it to be). Though I’m also aware that they make time for it – they don’t let their insecurities rule their pen (well, fingers).

I’ve started a new project, it’s something fun – but ridiculously complex. I decided to start at the end – something I’ve never done before. I’m already feeling the insecurities rise and excuses to avoid it start so I find myself writing this post. I’m writing it for an outlet – to give these fears a place that isn’t my head. But also to ask – how do you push through? Do you have any little techniques to keep you going?

Guest Post on Pink Tea and Paper

2011-08-01T16:15:00.000+01:00

The lovely Ellen Brickley has kindly hosted a guest post by me on Book Fairs and my experiences as a Newbie at the London Book Fair this April.

To read more visit Pink Tea and Paper.

Faux Reviews

2011-07-25T13:00:00.000+01:00

I don’t really buy books on Amazon but at Christmas it becomes a bit of a godsend for other random items and I find myself going mad on Amazon.com to get presents for the relatives in the US.

My buying habits are hugely influenced by the reviews.

When it comes to buying books the reviews are less important to me, I tend to buy books on recommendations from friends more than anything and like I said before I don’t really buy books on Amazon.

I do wonder about other people and their buying habits though.

Based on anecdotal evidence it does seem that the Amazon book reviews are massively encouraging when people are trying to decide on books they want to buy. I imagine especially so when it comes to non-fiction, as there can be multiple titles on single topics.

The point I’m meandering my way too is the practice of faux reviews. It’s something that is easily done and if an individual has enough time and patience they could collect a nice little wealth of reviews. I’ve heard of it done and it has been recommended to me as good online marketing practice. I don't know if it is common online marketing practice and I can't say if it is something others engage in, but it is something I keep in mind when looking at products on Amazon.

As of yet I have never written a faux review.

On a personal level I do not like the practice and it just ‘feels’ wrong to me. As a professional and the head of sales and marketing in a publishing company I can see the merits.

One good review may encourage a few more people to buy the book and possibly lead to more positive reviews.
A good review may even increase the search profile of the book and thus lead to a higher click through rate which could raise its search profile further.
Books that would otherwise have limited profile offline have more of an opportunity to build it online through positive reviews.
Real reviews would be preferable but sometimes you just need to get the ball rolling with one or two faux reviews.

I still have difficulty with it.

In order to review multiple books one may have to create a few fake accounts – already this feels a bit dodgy. Depending on the sophistication of the software on Amazon you may have to re-route your IP address – this makes things a little more complicated but it is not impossible. Then there is the writing of the review – generally pretending to be someone you are not.

Personally I think the best solution is asking authors to get their families and friends to write reviews – sure they may be bias but the review will be more honest and it will be coming directly from them. Or, if you have read the book and honestly would recommend it review it as your self! Pick a couple every year and include them in the list of other books you want to review.

Amazon reviews are important and extremely helpful – but I’m well and truly in the field of keeping it as honest as possible!

Social media: The scary pit of despair or happy fun times with friends?

2011-07-18T13:53:00.002+01:00

I have a confession to make.

I suck at social media.

Yes, I’m on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and I have a blog. Yes, I understand the principals and how it all works: good content + good engagement with community = social media success. And yes, I want not to suck at social media ... yet I suck at social media.

How so? I hear you ask (or maybe you don’t because a fluffy kitten getting tickled on Youtube has pulled you away).

I’m an introvert with very low self esteem and high rate of sensitivity. I have no confidence in my opinions and I’m convinced nobody is particularly interested in what I have to say or someone has already said it. I’m also mortally afraid of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. Good content and good engagement with the community do not come easily to me.

Most of my social media activity is sharing other people’s content and interaction with people I know personally – I find interaction with people I’ve never met very difficult.

But, I’m writing this aren’t I?

True – I’m rather fond of battling my own limitations. I find them annoying and frustrating and so even though I am an introvert with low self esteem I’ll be damned if I’ll let that stop me!

In this day and age social media is a very powerful tool and any individual, company or product wishing to build a profile will need to be/have someone versed in it.

This is why I keep at it, I work in publishing – I’m interested in the digital development end of publishing. I also write. Conclusion: I’m going to need to be well versed in social media.

It’s been over a year since I first set up my blog and my twitter account. The numbers following me are modest and I am truly grateful to everyone here for taking the time to read and engage with me and my content. And guess what? The numbers are growing! Very slowly, yes but there is a definite increase in my social media presence. I guess I must be doing something right!

Every now and then there are days where I feel like I’ve finally got it sussed (I’m guessing these are my confident days) articles are shared, debates are ignited, daylong friendships are forged! On days like that I truly enjoy the social media experience – there is a bizarre sense of belonging (to a very wide, very diverse, very odd community).

If you want to engage in social media but are finding it too daunting all I can say is – just give it a try! You may suck but it could still be fun; and you might get one of those great days – eventually they’ll start happening more often!

Wordle

2011-07-13T17:33:00.001+01:00

Wordle of my blog today :) via wordle.net

Changes

2011-07-11T08:43:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed that in last Monday's post, subtitled what I want to be when I grow up, I never actually specify what that is. This is because the exact role isn't in existence yet but I have a fuzzy idea of what it looks like!

This September I’m going to brave poverty and go back to University. I’ve been working in publishing nearly three years now and I have earned a wealth of experience and met an abundance of interesting characters; but now I’m going to take a detour and up skill.

As you may have guessed from this blog a lot of my interest is in digital publishing* – through my current position I have been able to view and interact with those who supply the services. Now I want to properly engage and fully understand those services so that I myself might one day be able to supply them. Mixed with my current experience and skill set in publishing this could make me a very attractive candidate for employment in the digital publishing arena or, should the path of life lead me in that direction, sustainable self-employment.

Book publishing is changing – it’s no longer just ‘book’ publishing – it’s branching out into a new medium (or a composition of old mediums). I certainly see a domain of publishing that will encompass interactive digital media (incidentally – that’s the name of my course). With the ever growing popularity of tablet devices, smart phones and the introduction of websites such as Pottermore it’s hard to deny that interactivity is becoming an essential part of the reading experience.

I don’t believe the traditional roles in publishing are becoming obsolete – good editors, proofreaders, sales and marketing teams and even typesetter and printers will still have fundamental functions. It is the new roles or the additional skills people in the traditional roles will be expected to have that are changing.

An editor will need to be able to prepare a text for digital, print and interactivity, as will a typesetter. Sales teams will have to communicate with online distributors as well as the physical bookstores for both the physical and digital content. Marketing teams will need to be well versed in the ever changing sphere of social media including the traditional means of publicity and may have to be versed in website development. If interactive reading becomes an important facet of the book then someone with programming skills would be massively beneficial.

A lot of the above applies today, yet the process is slow going - there is a certain insanity in trying to enforce current workflows onto digital projects, yet it happens. Outsourcing is a common solution and works very well, but having a highly skilled workforce will keep the communication on outsourced projects clear or will reduce the need to outsource at all.

Gauging exactly what the industry will look like in ten years is difficult – maybe it will be something like the video and music industries, maybe it will develop in a whole new way, maybe everybody will be turning back to the physical book. What ever the landscape I believe in being prepared!

*It’s so shiny and exciting!

Guest Post: Wringing the Literature Student out of the Publisher

2011-07-08T10:27:00.001+01:00

Guest post today to continue on with my theme of getting into publishing. A lovely commissioning editor I know was kind enough to put this together for me a while back.

Book publishing is an unpredictable and, to many, a mysterious industry. I remember a naive conversation with a fellow graduate about what our ideal careers would be and I said that I would like to be an editor because an editor got to read books all day. My degree was in English Literature and History, so what I was envisaging was an extension of my student life. I did not consider the profit and loss of publishing, the importance of the market, the bottom line.

As may be obvious, studying Literature in university doesn’t set you up for the world of profit and loss. I imagine that, behind the doors of the English Department, the academics knew the value of getting articles published and keeping the funding coming. But to us students the English Department was serene in its apparent insularity and self-assured about its place in the world, which was very much removed from the grubbiness of money. Publishing, also dealing in books, would be similar, I imagined. And I wasn’t the only one. In fact, I know a handful of people who went into teaching English in secondary schools after spending time in publishing precisely because they realised that publishing isn’t about elbow patches, tweed and Virginia Woolf.

After university, I did an internship in a publishing company in Dublin. Apart from a stint recording the times the ferries arrived in Oakland Dock, San Francisco (bless you, J1 Visa), my jobs so far had been in the services industry, waitressing and working in sales jobs and shops. I knew how to handle myself in these contexts, having been yelled at by chefs, teased relentlessly for my hair colour (which changed a lot in those days), argued with and insulted by members of the public, and locked in a large fridge.

Office life was quieter. People were a lot more careful with each other. No one was rude and no one was particularly friendly. I ate my lunch on my own, but so did pretty much everyone. Like most interns, my life revolved around the photocopier and trying to make it work without having to call in someone to help me. I left thinking that I had to cultivate a genuine horror for misplaced apostrophes before this world would accept me.

After the publishing company, I did a stint as a teacher in a secondary school covering a maternity leave. I would compare that experience to what people say about having a drug addiction – extreme highs and extreme lows. I developed a wrinkle on my forehead which I used to examine in the dull light of the teachers’ toilet every day. I started buying anti-wrinkle cream and took up smoking. To cut a long story short, after that I landed right back on the publishing idea.

So I did a Master’s in Publishing in the UK and hightailed it to London, the land of opportunity, where I did numerous interviews and second interviews.

Publishing is known as one of those industries that is difficult to crack into. It is very definitely an employer’s market and there are oodles of people graduating from master’s courses, and indeed with Firsts from Oxford and Cambridge, all wanting a bit of the action. Of course, either they don’t realise how difficult it is to make money from books or they fancy a life of genteel poverty – the ‘I can’t afford a scrap of bread but I still have my books’ mentality.

I used to look at people who were in publishing – those who interviewed me and others – and think them so privileged. Incidentally, once I got to the other side, I didn’t feel privileged – just bewildered.

The way into publishing is different for everyone. A lot of people have a master’s; a lot don’t. Some do internships for a while and get their jobs through gaining that experience. Some slip in via some job they don’t want and then sidle into one they do want, which is what I did.

My first real publishing job was in a small publishing company in central London, which published in the areas of fiction, drama, politics and literary criticism. Oh, and cricket – must not forget that. I had walked into the interview with nothing to lose, having had quite a bit of experience of the particular bum’s rush that the publishing industry had to offer. The interview was for a sales and marketing position, since editorial seemed nigh impossible to crack. I was at the stage when I would have considered a job as a stamp licker in a publishing company in Milton Keynes. I had rent to pay.

I had seen the interiors of many publishing companies in this city, and this was the first place that was floor to ceiling with books and manuscripts. It was unapologetically messy, satisfyingly disordered. It corresponded to my ideal of publishing as creative and eccentric, not glossy, corporate and efficient.

My time in this company was valuable in a number of ways. Being a small and open-plan office, it allowed for others to overhear me answering the phone and they were never shy about correcting me if I got something wrong. I was pulled up on everything. At the time it made be a nervous wreck, but it did me great service in the long run. There was a pride in excellence here, and this didn’t come from the top down – it came from individuals. When I expressed an interest in the editorial side of things, rather than sales and marketing, I was given the freedom to move in that direction, though not without the odd impromptu spelling test in front of the whole office.

I let go of some of my original ideas about publishing in this company. I learned that it is not always great books that are published, but books that the boss wants to publish or that are seen as being marketable. And even when good books are published they can have relatively limited sales. Oh, and when something goes wrong, just pass the buck. The buck landed on my desk one too many times and that, plus a general sense of itchy feet, had me looking for a job elsewhere.

I was called to an interview for an editing position in the ‘popular’ fiction section of one of the large publishing houses. Two dudes in jeans and tee-shirts interviewed me. I wasn’t wearing a suit but I was dressed smartly. The difference in our dress codes set me off on the wrong foot. I felt preppy. I sat with my legs crossed while they asked me seemingly casual questions.

‘What do you like reading?’ they asked.

I told them that I liked reading fiction.

‘What kind of fiction?’

I knew that the question wasn’t just conversational, but I told the truth. I told them that literary fiction was my preference – though I didn’t add ‘Whatever that is.’

‘What are you reading at the moment?’

Now, if I had been quick enough and if I wasn’t so enamoured with the book in question, I might have lied here. But I didn’t. I told them I was reading The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. Now, in the labyrinth of the Arts Block from where I emerged, these words would have been sacred. Even in the company I was currently working for (and seeking to leave), there would have been an approving nod at this juncture and perhaps a follow-on discussion of the book. I don’t know what I expected here, given the job I was going for, but somewhere in the back of my mind I thought it would be understood that I could edit romances and thrillers, etc. during the day and still read my Henry James in the privacy of my own dark little home. Couldn’t I?

One of the guys tilted his head to one side as if to regard me from a slightly different angle and said, ‘Don’t you read anything for fun?’

And that, as they say, was it. That was the moment I realised that publishing has nothing to do with literature really. Or, at least, it has as much to do with literature as it does with books on cricket or fishing or any other niche.

Needless to say, I didn’t get the job and the other person they were interviewing did. I wasn’t heartbroken.

I think I began to realise after that interview that I could be just as happy working on self-help or history books, or even obscure academic titles, as I would be working on most kinds of fiction.

The company I now work for publishes all non-fiction titles. In my job I want to commission books that add something to a particular area, and that can inform and inspire. Each book generally has its unique purpose, in addition to making money – that is the nature of books and what makes working in publishing different to, say, being a kitchen-knife salesperson.

I should know – I sold knives door-to-door during the summer after college, while dreaming of being back in the college library, breathing in the smell of books.

Getting into Publishing: what I want to be when I grow up

2011-07-04T11:16:00.000+01:00

As I will be doing that live Q&A in the Guardian today (see last Friday's post) I thought I'd post about my experiences of getting into publishing and suggest some little bits and pieces you might want to know.

When I went to my first interview for a publishing job I was ashamed to admit I didn’t really know much about the industry or what kind of roles existed in a publishing company. Unlike many individuals I didn’t go the internship route – I don’t believe any route is better than another but mine suited me at the time. In the interview I was actually asked what kind of role I wanted. I shamefully admitted my ignorance, and the only roles I’d come across were editorial; however, I was keen to try my hand at anything to see where I slotted in.

Surprisingly, I got the job.

I have now been working in the same company for three years, in that time I have been an administrative assistant, editor/proofreader, in Sales and Marketing, and Digital Something or Other.*

Somehow I also found my-self on the board of Publishing Ireland at the tender age of 24 – I spent the first meeting as a silent nervous wreck; intimidated by all the company directors and publishing connoisseurs that surrounded me - I’ve an annoying habit of throwing myself into the deep end of things. It turned out to be a brilliant experience; forcing myself to network I met a tonne of wonderfully interesting and truly individual characters.

All in all It turns out I’m pretty lucky – I work in a lovely company that offers immense flexibility, I’m getting to meet individuals from all over the industry and I’ve worked on a variety of projects for the board.

And through it all I’ve worked out what I want to be when I grow up.

Getting experience is key, especially now that the industry is changing so quickly. Even though I have reservations about internships (I’m always laden with guilt upon hiring free labour and become consumed with the need to offer valuable experience in exchange) I still think there is a lot to be said for them. Getting to grips with the different roles and responsibilities set an individual on the right path to choosing what they want to be when they grow up. It is very hard to do this with out having someone to supervise you.** If you keep on applying for an editorial job without really knowing what’s involved you’ll:

a) never get a job in publishing

b) be totally screwed if you somehow manage to get the job and ...

c) possibly discover you’re really not suited to it and may not have the flexibility to move to another position.

On top of all that the traditional roles aren’t quite what they used to be – I’m increasingly becoming convinced that a flexible work force will be the saving grace of any publishing company (and possibly your career). Multi skilled individuals will be increasingly more attractive to publishers as they could decrease the need to outsource. If an editor can design a website, or a sales executive understands the ins and outs of digital distribution they are valuable assets - they could be saving the company a great deal in costs.

In summary:

Get experience
Keep upgrading and honing your skills
If computers frighten you get to a course and work on that
Oh, and don’t be afraid to jump into the deep end every now and then.

*I kid you not, this is the job title I give my self
** took me three years

The Guardian Live Q&A: Getting in to Publishing

2011-07-01T14:32:00.002+01:00

If you read this blog* you probably have an interest in the publishing industry – maybe you’re a writer, a wannabe publisher, maybe you like books or most likely it’s a mix of the lot.

I have been asked participate in a Q&A session in The Guardian on Monday from 1pm:

Live Q&A: Getting into publishing

Thinking about a career in publishing? Find out more about the traditional roles and how ebooks are shaping the industry in a live Q&A on 4 July between 1pm and 4pm. Post comments and questions here: http://bit.ly/ld0sPN

I figure as readers of this blog it is something that will interest you so please come along, submit questions, make points, wildly disagree or just watch the discussion – all are welcome!

*when it’s updated that is

What's a bookshop to do?

2011-05-11T13:12:00.001+01:00

What is a book worth?

Depends on the type of book; depends on who the market is; depends on where you buy it; depends on what format it’s in; depends who wrote it; depends how much I want it.

Might as well ask: how long is a piece of string?

In the end the fiscal value of the book is determined by how much you spend on it, and the amount the consumer is willing to part with to get the book appears to be coming down.

I’m a little addicted to boards.ie these days and this particular thread on the price of Sci Fi & Fantasy Books caught my eye. Price of Sci Fi & Fantasy Books

There’s a lot of giving out about the prices of the books in retail outlets like Eason’s and Dubray – the funny thing is these prices are the retail price set by the publisher. Amazon and Book Depository are heralded as the reasonable pricers yet the prices they set are heavily discounted from the actual set retail price.

Should the physical retail outlets should match these prices? The discounts for a large Irish wholesaler and Amazon can’t be that different? No, they’re not that different* but running costs are. Unfortunately the relative margin a physical bookshop needs to keep its head above water is larger than that of an online retailer (especially ones in Ireland with ridiculous lease agreements). So the only edge a bookshop has over an online retailer is immediacy – go in, get the book, start reading. (Yes, 3G enabled eReaders make this point obsolete, but I’m going to assume that –in Ireland anyway – most of the population is still without an eReader.+)

So what are booksellers to do – they need to price books at their retail value in order to cover overheads, yet consumers view retail value as too high. A €10.00 trade paperback is vastly over priced when it can be found on Book Depository for €6.50 including postage.

Yes there will be some people who will still buy the €10.00 book because of the immediacy aspect, or because they are of that rare breed that booksellers and publishers love who wander into bookshops and buy books just because they value the experience but the numbers of these people are dwindling.

Are there steps that bookshops should be taking? They can’t drop prices and sustain any kind of profit margin so another option is to stock books that will definitely sell. This is what supermarkets do and it is what book shops are doing more and more. Shelf space is filled with best sellers and ‘sure things’ only. This makes things tricky for a book buyer searching for something not mainstream but by no means hidden in a forgotten backlist.

The one edge bookshops had over online retailers begins to falter – Immediacy ceases to be a major incentive when stock diversity is woeful at best.

Can anything be done? Should we just clam up and resign the idea of that traditional bookshop to its inevitable fate?

What do you think bookshops can do?

*There may be a small difference but it will depend on the type of book and from whom they are sourced.

+probably won’t be the case for much longer though

Amazon's lead into Interesting Times

2011-04-28T13:26:00.002+01:00

I realise that some of my more recent posts may lead readers of this blog to think I have something against Amazon. I don’t ... not really ... well nothing more than I have against any major faceless corporation. To be fair to Amazon it has had quite a profound influence on the massive changes we are seeing in the book industry today. Whether you take these influences as good or bad I suppose depends on your perspective on the whole thing but , to state the obvious, the substantial growth in eBook sales is in no small part down to Amazon.

eBooks have been around quite a long time – Project Gutenburg is a good milestone and that started up in 1971. So we’re talking a good long time before Amazon was even a gleam in Jeff Bezos eye.

Even with the popular adoption of the internet (lets say in the 90’s) people weren’t suddenly reading novels on their PC’s – some tried (like me) but it just didn’t work. The experience just wasn’t right. Apparently reading a book is quite a specific and somewhat unique experience that could not be easily mimicked by technology for a good while.

Then came e-ink and the dedicated e-reader – not the perfect substitute for a book but one that was damn well closer to the experience than a laptop. Lightweight, easy on the eyes and compact the dedicated e-reader had all the essentials except maybe easy access to content and a means to distribute it.

And then came Amazon; with a dedicated device, brand recognition and a growing e-library behind them Amazon hit all the right notes at just the right time. Pricing was high to begin with – the first Kindle was priced at $399 – but quickly came down with the Kindle 3 retailing from $139. Many eBooks for sale on Amazon have had extremely attractive pricing with many retailing well below the paperback price. Content was not really an issue when Amazon cleverly offered very easy ways to create eBooks for their store. The floodgates were opened, not just for publishers but for self publishing authors as well.

By the mid noughties I’d say publishers were already mentally preparing to go digital – it was going to happen soon. Amazon, with the Kindle, was the catalyst that finally got the whole thing going. By 2008 e-readers, distributers and eBooks were popping up everywhere in most of the English speaking world. At this stage so much was changing so fast – devices, formats, general standards – it was hard to say where a publisher should focus their time and money.

Four years on and the industry has a slightly better handle on things. However, there is still a lot of floundering and uncertainty; for a publisher it feels like the individual options for each step – conversion, distribution, social media/marketing – are endless! Then there are all the nitty gritty bits like tax and charges that nobody seems to have grasped yet. There is also a grudging acceptance that some of the workforce may have to have a very different skill set than are currently available. There are still a lot of hot topics, such as pricing and DRM/piracy, that may never permanently settle.

It’s still a bit tentative and overwhelming but also incredibly exciting. So I’d like to thank Amazon for the pivotal role it has played in the shaking up of the publishing industry; pulling it kicking and screaming into very interesting times.

London (Book Fair) Calling

2011-04-07T16:37:00.002+01:00

So, I’m off to the London Book Fair next week; having never been I’m not entirely sure what to expect – sure I’ve read blogs, seen pictures and eves dropped on a seminar but I’m still a little flummoxed.

I’ll be there for all three days and, as the seminar I was lucky enough to accidently attend suggested, I have a schedule. It’s broken down in to hours and days. I have filled each block with either meetings, presentations, seminars or stand time.

I also have an aim. Ok, I have about five aims:

Learn more about conversion options (XML workflows)
Look into the best options for selling eBooks/digital content online
Research cloud computing
Networking
And if at all possible sell a few rights.

Yes, I have only a limited idea of what I’ll actually be walking in to but I know what I want to take away with me and I’m seriously hoping that’s half the battle.

Amazon.com - Charging the Rest of the World More

2011-03-29T12:12:00.000+01:00

This whole issue of Amazon.com charging international customers and extra $1.75 - $2.00* per eBook sold has really been niggling at me. How do they justify it?

Doing a little research I came across this Guardian article, which seems to have fallen off the radar (in this digital age memories rarely go back more than a few months – I’m delighted the internet remembers everything for us). This particular comment from Amazon jumped out at me:

"International customers do pay a higher price for their books than US customers due to higher operating costs outside of the US … Additionally; VAT rates in the EU are higher on ebooks than on print books."

Operating costs I can understand but I’d be keen to see what costs these are and how they compare with those in the US.

VAT rates I don’t understand – in my previous post I pointed out, that for Ireland at least, there should be no VAT charge on eBooks supplied from outside the EU. Even if it were a VAT charge is Amazon then paying what they collect back to the respective governments?

After a little more web searching I came across blogkindle.com and found this:

“What is the story with international book download surcharge of $1.99? Who will pay it? Where? When?

International data roaming is expensive. When I visit Canada with my US iPhone, I’m offered a rate of $15.35 per megabyte for data roaming. Average book is at least 300 kilobytes. This would translate to around $5.00 additional cost per book. So Amazon’s surcharge of $1.99 actually looks like a bargain compared to that.

There seems to be a lot of confusion around who is going to be charged this amount and when. My understanding is that only customers with US shipping address would be charged extra $1.99 per book when travelling abroad. Customers from all other countries are never charged anything above the actual list price of the book no matter where they download it. However this is reflected in the book price which is $2.00 higher than for US customers.”

Those last two sentences seem to contradict each other but I get what the writer is trying to say - there will be no additional price to the one listed on Amazon, which is $2.00 more than the price listed in the US.

Other than the last two sentence the main point makes some sense – but only if you are using a 3G kindle. You are only paying for data roaming if you are on a 3G network if you are using WiFi you are essentially connecting to a network that is already paid for. It doesn’t really make sense to add a fixed cost to every book sold to and international customer for something that is so arbitrary.

To be fair to Amazon it may be fairly difficult and time consuming to regulate what network each eBook is purchased through. However if this fixed cost is being added on to cover intermittent charges surely it should be a cost that all Amazon.com customers pay.

What do you think? Is the extra charge unfair to international customers or does it make sense?

*I've heard figures varying figures for the charge.

VAT on eBooks

2011-03-23T13:07:00.001Z

For the past while I have been trying to get a handle on exactly how VAT applies to eBooks. In the UK and Ireland VAT on Books is 0% - this has made the whole process of sorting out how it applies relatively straightforward. eBooks are classed differently to books and therefore VAT is charged on them - getting a handle on exactly how it applies has taken a while. I thought I'd use examples to explain things but as you'll notice later on nobody seems to be following the same rule book.

According to Irish revenue eBooks are considered ‘electronically supplied services’ (http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/leaflets/eservices-and-broadcasting.html) in all EU member states and VAT applies at the standard rate (21% Ireland, 2011). So just to clarify, eBooks are classed as a service not a product.

For the sake of clarity in this run down of VAT on eBooks I have extracted a table from revenue.ie and have included a column indicating if VAT is to be charged. I will then include six examples to illustrate the six different place-of-supply rules. (I have not included Businesses supplying from outside Ireland in this table.)


Supplied From	Supplied To	Place of Supply	VAT Charged?	Notes
1) Business in Ireland	Business in Ireland	Ireland	Yes	21% If both companies are VAT registered it can be claimed back by ‘supplied to’ business.
2) Business in Ireland	Business in other EU State	Other EU State	No	No, other EU state business accounts for it. VAT number of both businesses should be recorded.
3) Business in Ireland	Business outside EU State	Outside EU	No
4) Business in Ireland	Private consumer in Ireland	Ireland	Yes	21%
5) Business in Ireland	Private consumer in other EU State	Ireland	Yes	21%
6) Business in Ireland	Private consumer outside EU	Ireland	No

1) In the first instance we can imagine a publisher supplying eBooks to Easons (for customers to purchase and downloaded from their website). When invoicing for the sales the publisher would charge Easons VAT but Easons would be able to claim it back.

2) When an Irish publisher is supplying eBooks to Amazon UK the Irish publisher would not charge VAT when invoicing, Amazon would account for it themselves. So the price you see on Amazon.co.uk includes a VAT charge. (The publisher may need to mention that reverse charge applies on the invoice and will need to record Amazons VAT number.)

3) When an Irish publisher supplies eBooks to a company such as Kobo (based in Canada) to distribute no VAT would be charged.

4) When an Irish consumer downloads an Irish published eBook from the publisher’s own website VAT applies at 21%. It is very important for publishers to keep track of who is buying their eBooks and what country they are based in.

5) Much like supplying to a private consumer in Ireland supplying to a private consumer in another EU State would incur a VAT charge. The place of supply would be Ireland and thus the standard Irish VAT rate would apply (21%).

6) If an eBook were to be purchased directly from a publishers website by an individual outside the EU then no VAT would apply.

For an Irish Consumer

I haven’t really factored the Irish consumer end of things, but for a quick run down – if the ebook is:

bought from an Irish business VAT is charged at 21%
bought from a business in another EU state VAT is charged as in the other EU state
~~bought from a business outside the EU … ok, this deserves a heading of it’s own (see below).~~ After a discussion with Kobo on this issue my reading of the situation was actually incorrect. The place of supply is Ireland and so Irish VAT should be applied.

~~Buying eBooks from outside the EU~~

The best example of this is Amazon.com. Now to start with I should say there should be no VAT/sales tax on eBooks bought from Amazon.com. When we price eBooks on Amazon we’ve noticed that an extra amount is added on – this is around $1.50 to $2.00. It can't be tax as looking at an Amazon.com eBook sale breakdown no sales tax is added.I've looked around the Amazon.com forums and nobody seems to agree on what this charge is for. If anybody out there knows I'd love to hear from you.

~~I thought I'd use Kobo as a counter example, but Kobo quite blatantly charge VAT when as far as I can tell they shouldn't.~~

Useful links

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/leaflets/eservices-and-broadcasting.html

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/leaflets/printing-and-printed-matter.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=502576#outsideeu

Who wants one?

2011-03-09T12:41:00.002Z

I do!

All it needs is a tea holder and a place for cakes and biscuits!

Image taken from http://booksinmedia.e-bookvine.com/2011/03/05/galleycat-la-bibliochaise-combines-bookshelf-chair/

The Dublin Book Festival 2011: A Quick Note

2011-03-07T12:55:00.003Z

The Dublin Book Festival is over and I’m delighted to say it was a complete success. Every event was well attended (some a little too well) and city hall was bustling throughout the weekend.

Multiple venues worked brilliantly and brought books and Irish Publishing out into the whole city.

Have a read of the festival blog - it is still being updated and will include information on what was discussed in some of the events (in case you missed one or two) so keep your eyes on it.

A big thank you to everybody who was involved in the development and running of the festival; I’m looking forward to see how it develops in the future.

I’d love to say that with the Festival over until next year the busyness will settle – but that’s not true. It’s March and in Publishing world that means a load of spring titles are about to hit the shelves. It’s also 2011, which seems to be the year of innovation and change, and there is much to plan and prepare for. So, hi ho, hi ho, it’s back to work I go.

The Relationship Between Publishers and Booksellers - What next?

2011-02-11T11:39:00.001Z

In contemplating the future of the book industry Kassia Krozser on Booksquare eloquently explores how independent booksellers out do their larger commercial counterparts in her post Bookstores Now, More than Ever.

What gives indies leverage? Customer service. Community. When it comes to a physical store, I go there because I want a certain level of interaction. I want human contact. I want tactile. I want readings. Events. Original content. Something unique that I can’t get anywhere else.

She also poses the question, 'what are publishers doing for booksellers?' This is a vital point - the relationship between publishers and booksellers* has been symbiotic - by and large they rely on each other. So maybe the question should be 'what are booksellers and publishers doing for each other?'

Then again, should booksellers and publishers rely on each other so much? These days many booksellers sell much more than just books and publishers are diversifying and changing their supply chain. Does is make better business sense to change the relationship?

*Note - I'm referring to booksellers in all capacities, not just book stores.

Booksellers and Publishers: What are the options?

2011-02-02T11:23:00.000Z

Yesterday it was announced that Waterstones’ two Dublin stores would be closing. On top of that, in the US Borders is on the brink of bankruptcy. Yes, we’re going through an economically difficult time but that fact compounded with the rise of online retailers such as Amazon, bestsellers being available at large discounts in supermarkets and the ever increasing availability of online content turns the pinch into a punch.

Both booksellers and publishers are finding it difficult to cope in this environment. Old business models just aren’t cutting it any more; the survivors will be the innovators – those with creative new ideas and business plans to address the rapidly changing expectations of the consumer.

We’re already seeing quite a hefty shift in the book industry towards digital in the US and the UK. This has opened up a whole new way for industry in those markets to grow. In Ireland the same shift is quite a bit slower and though expansion into the digital area is certainly essential I don’t foresee strong revenues being generated from it for a few years yet.* That being said the Irish book industry (which is rather small in comparison to it’s US and UK counterparts) is still being hit by the same punches as the US and UK – so what can be done?

Again, the innovators will be the survivors – creative solutions beyond eBooks are needed, in all book markets. These solutions will come from a complete re-jigging of the way business is done. Yes, this will require some investment and quite a hefty helping of risk – two things that are daunting but expected – but the real difficulty will be in letting go of old assumptions and stepping into the new paradigm.

I notice at this point I haven’t actually offered any solutions, I’ve just thrown out a load of ‘buzz words’ that sound good but aren’t practically helpful. To be honest I don’t have any strategic solutions, just general ideas (and not exactly innovative ones at that but lets get the ball rolling).

1. Niche it up
By creating a strong brand for yourself in a very select and loyal market you can completely corner it. Naturally you’d have to be careful to select a market that will actually pay for what you’re offering. I’ve seen some small independent publishers do this already and they seem to be holding steady – doing well even. The downside to this model is the lack of room for growth – by selecting a specific market you are limiting yourself to it.

2. Expand services
Supermarkets are a good example of this; over the years they have been expanding their range of services – Tesco for example – in doing so they have successfully reached quite a few new markets. Many publishers are already doing this with eBooks and some have done this in the past by offering distribution services but there are still many other possible ways to expand beyond. However, this option is problematic for the independents, who are already stretched as it is, but it shouldn’t be ruled out. A niche independent publisher could develop an online community in their area. Using that as a platform they could run events or conferences – or they could license/sell content. With a strong community behind you the options are limitless.

3. Mutual support
The independents are possibly among the hardest hit; with limited resources very little capital can be put towards development and innovation as it is all being put into the basic running and survival of the business. One way to tackle this is by joining forces with other independents and spreading the resources. In a small market like Ireland it will also bring down the number of individual players working against each other. This idea seems to have been bandied about over the years but very few seem willing to take the plunge. With this option the independence of the business is diminished, which can be quite an unattractive side effect.

Do you have any bright ideas to put to a wavering industry?

*This is not to say that eBooks will be the saviour of the US and UK book industry – we will probably see more publishers and booksellers in both these markets fail over the next few years.

VAT and eBooks: A Saga ....

2010-09-10T16:42:00.000+01:00

First off, I want to thank everyone for their questions in relation to eBooks and digital publishing, there are some fine gems there that I would love to know the answer to as well. I’ve gathered them all up, and plan to use them, either through the Digital Committee or I might even attempt to answer some of them here – if I can.

I have been doing quite a bit of research in to eBooks recently. One area that has interested me (primarily because nobody seemed to have the answers) was how VAT applies to eBooks.

All publishers groaningly accept that VAT is charged on eBooks at the standard rate in the European Union. I’m not too sure what the situation is in the US, but I’m under the impression it’s similar. If anybody out there wants to correct me please do as I’d love to know!

The standard rate of VAT in Ireland is 21%, so for every eBook that is retailed at €10.00 it is sold at €12.10. Well, actually, it’s more like that 21% of the €10.00 is the VAT. So, for the most part the consumer doesn’t even notice it. Believe me, the publisher does. I also wonder if Amazon.co.uk is actually making a profit on eBooks when selling them for pittance and VAT (17.5%) being included in the price. I doubt it, but as a market leader for online shopping they don’t really need to.

In Ireland and the UK (and some other EU member states) there is no VAT on books. So, one could argue, why is VAT applied to the eBook, if the book is VAT free? There are quite a lot of people lobbying for the VAT on eBooks to be dropped. Given the state of most economies I seriously doubt any government will remove a form of income, regardless of how small. Though I hope I’m wrong.

I had actually started writing a post about how VAT is applied to eBooks in a global market, as I thought I had figured it out (with help from a Delightful Someone). However while writing the post quite a lot of questions came up, so I have put them all together in an e-mail and sent them off to an accountant. Hopefully I will soon have a very informative post aimed at clarifying the VAT mystification.

What to expect from me

2010-09-04T17:29:00.000+01:00

Hello there everyone! Thank you to all those who have joined from KarenG’s BBQ! I’ve really enjoyed reading through your blogs and am looking forward to your updates.

To those who don’t know, KarenG is having a blog BBQ throughout the whole weekend. I would recommend heading over there to have a gander through some of the fantastic bloggers who are attending.

Some of you may have noticed that my updates lately have been sparse at best, this is due to the desire to update every day, which is hindered by an unfortunately hectic busy life. I have decided to relieve some of the pressure by allowing myself to update weekly.

The busyness is actually good news, with nine books due to come out this September in a variety of genres I have no doubt I will have tonnes of interesting things. On top of that things are really starting to move in all three committees I am on for the board of Publishing Ireland.

The digital committee recently sent out a survey and I was hoping I could put one of the questions on it to you.

If you could ask one question in relation to digital publishing what would it be?

Vague I know, but I’m dying to see what is on people’s minds!

Just a link that relates to my earlier post

2010-08-27T14:57:00.000+01:00

The Writing Business: Part I
I love this blog, I think more people should subscribe to/follow it. Most of the points about publishing made here actually relate the benfits of going with a publisher as opposed to self-publishing - be it digitally or print.

Is there a role for the publisher in a digital market?

2010-08-27T14:34:00.000+01:00

There were two articles in the Guardian recently about the role of the publisher in the ever growing digital market. The first article by Ray Connelly ‘Who needs publishers?’ (12 August) is like many I have seen recently. As the title of the article suggests, he argues for self publishing when it comes to ebooks.
Ursula MacKenzie (ceo of Little Brown) responded with ‘The digital era has not made publishers defunct’ (27 August). She presents some very valid points as to the benefits of publishers, again nothing new seems to be added to the debate.

After reading Ray Connelly’s article, my initial response was that a major aspect of the publishing process was rather quickly glossed over, and it is probably one of the main reason I would still hold to being published, digitally or physically, by an experienced publishing company.

In a market that could very quickly become saturated with self published authors it will be those who are effective marketers who will succeed. In a world without publishers individuals would have to rely on their own time, connections and savy to get the ebook talked about, and thus bought and read. This is not impossible, but is rather difficult to do effectively, especially when you’re competing with every other author out there.

A lot of marketing and PR is about relationships. Journalists, broadcasters and reviewers are inundated with information from people trying to get free publicity; they won’t be able to follow up on all of it. However they will be more likely to follow up on a press release or book review request if the person it comes from has supplied them with interesting relevant information in the past. Individuals will have a difficulty building these relationships on their own and for one book. An option would have to source to a PR agency, this would just create ‘selection process’ that publishers and agents already adhere to.

Alternatively the author could have to fork out a few grand here and there for advertising.

If we were to pretend that in the publisher-less future all authors would simply market their ebooks on their own then the ‘selection process’ would benefit those with marketing savy. I would fear that a lot of high quality content would be lost due to the author’s inexperience. Then again, this is a purely hypothetical situation, and realistically I don’t think we would ever find ourselves in that world.

Then again maybe I am stuck in the current publishing paradigm and can’t see past its limitations. Maybe there will be a massive shift in market share distribution. Instead of a small number of titles holding 80%-90% of the market there may be a huge re-distribution. A larger number of titles will hold a larger market share. Yes, there will be fewer multi-millionaire novelist, but the wealth might be distributed more evenly…

Apparently I’m developing a liberal movement for writers and publishers… I wonder if Amazon realise their supporting a socialist revolution.

When are you Willing to Invest? Starving Writers and Pricey Opportunities

2010-08-19T12:23:00.000+01:00

I saw this writing course advertised on Irish Publishing News.

As I was reading it my mind was already working out the logistics of attending and how to fit it in to my insane schedule. I then saw the price. The course was immediately logged into the ‘nope, not a chance in hell’ box in my brain. But why wouldn’t there be a chance in hell?

The timing is perfect (Wednesday’s are my “free” days), it’s around the corner from where I live and I’ve hit a wall in me WIP and could really use something like this to get me back in to the ‘writing groove’.

It’s €2000… or €1800 if booked before 14th of September.

This is no small sum, in fact it is quite a hefty portion of my savings, and I’m extremely frugal at the best of times – begrudging the bus the €1.60 it costs me to get to work I opt instead to cycle regardless of weather conditions.

But my dream is to be a published author with a modest income (and maybe a part time job to supplement writers block). Surely if I am serious about writing investing in improving my craft is logical, otherwise how am I to develop?

All artistic endeavours no doubt require training and up skilling much like any job. Yet there is an innate resistance (in me anyway) to invest in more than just note books and pens.

Writing in itself is a relatively cheap past time. All you need is pen and paper, or access to a computer/typewriter. All you need to invest is time. Ok, that’s not as easy as it sounds, but it’s relatively cheap. In the simplest of terms, and hour a day and you’re on your way to a novel.
Voila, you have finished 50 000 words! Yes there is editing and revising, which requires even more time investment, but in financial terms, what did that cost you?

This is the way I thought about writing, and I’m inclined to think it is very limited. The scope for improvement is minimal. Sure, you can set up informal writing groups and get peer criticism, but there is no training or development. When you submit the fine tuned, polished, final masterpiece and it not find representation it’s likely that the problems will have been subtle nuances in style, structure, narrative voice, or characterisation that only a trained eye can pick up. So it only makes sense to train your own eye.

Is this the difference between a past time and a marketable skill? If so we should start investing in that skill.

Stumbling: Browsing for the useless browser

2010-07-15T13:27:00.000+01:00

So, when it comes to the Internet I'm not really much of a browser. I know what sites I like, I check the odd link here and there, but so much content just passes me by because of my inability to just browse.
Enter www.stumbleupon.com
Just five minutes on it and I came across some fantastic links for writers:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/07/janet-fitchs-10-rules-for-writers.html

www.oneword.com

www.languageisavirus.com

www.phrasefinder.co.uk

www.writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts/

Unfortunately I couldn't find a 'publishing' topic.

Effing Titles: Naming the Book

2010-06-18T14:55:00.001+01:00

The creative aspect of my job is awesome, be it designing fliers or wording press releases I get a little taste of the creative juices every now and then and it adds a delightful spark into my day.
I even like the brainstorming sessions for covers and titles – well, normally anyway.

We had a title for The Book, and it was a fine title for a book, but after a very informative meeting with one of the buyers for the Big Bookseller it became apparent that perhaps the title did not work for this book.

The Book is our big Christmas number, so we’re hoping it will be a big seller. The Book is currently title-less; we have pretty much spent the week brainstorming possibilities. Our parameters are fairly straightforward – snappy, informative, positive, short and memorable. It turns out that those parameters are fine on their own but all together they are virtually impossible to meet.

I know every company has its own way of going about title selection, and I imagine this would normally involve the sales and marketing department. In small companies the sales and marketing department may be a bit small to really be able to consider all the possibilities, so everybody gets a say.

Democratic title discussions aren’t easy or straight forward. Though the input of a variety of individuals is infinitely more useful than that of one, you do find yourself ploughing head first into the realm or artistic differences. This is increasingly pronounced should the range of personalities be extremely diverse as well as strong. The discussion can last hours, with everybody envisioning something different and every proposal being equally compelling.

Even before you find yourself in a debate about the use of the word ‘the’, title selection is gruelling. Having come at it from both ends – publisher and author – I know that finding that one phrase that encompasses the entirety of the book is like trying to elegantly ride an over loaded camel through the eye of a very small needle.

Though I imagine there are those special instances where a title literally falls into your lap one night while you are looking over and fixing chapter 8 for the bazzillionth time.

It happens eventually, I mean The Book needs a title.

Do you find title development and selection equally challenging, or are you one of those odd creative geniuses that sees the words forming all by themselves so you only need to pluck them out of the ether?

When Drive leads to Road Kill

2010-06-14T14:13:00.001+01:00

If you glance at the sidebar over there and have look at my blog archive you’ll see that the activity there leaves much to be desired. My original aim was to post once or twice a week, more if I possibly could, but unfortunately that became quite difficult. Blogging successfully requires time and focus, two things I simply haven’t been able to give.

This leads into me being busy, in case you hadn’t guessed.

I love my job, possibly to the point where I am just a little bit too invested in it. I have recently been putting more and more of myself into my work, thinking it is what was required of me. I am constantly hearing of, and reading about, people who work until seven or eight in the evening, throwing themselves into ten, eleven or even twelve hour days. I thought this is what I should be doing since I love my job and want the company to do well. I want to contribute to its growth and help our author’s ambitions and aspirations come to fruition. If that required longer days and shorter lunches so be it.

Unfortunately not all of my expectations have been met, and it has been a bit of a blow. That’s not say anything has failed, but I was a bit short of the heights I wished to reach.

I’m drained now, and I’m beginning to realise that perhaps long days and emotional investment may not be the way forward.

I was recently asked how much of myself I should be putting into my work; my first thought was 100%. Of course it’s 100%, I mean what’s the point unless we put in everything we’ve got!

The point is there is more to our lives than work. For one thing, we don’t sleep in the office, it is not where we live. Even people who work at home know that there has to be a designated space for work that is outside the rest of their life. Work shouldn’t be our life even if it is our dream. Whatever job you have, office lacky, actor, hill walker (yes I met someone who did this professionally) or writer surely it shouldn’t be all that you are.

What do you think, how much of yourself should you be putting into your work/job?

Sentimental Value - The hidden worth of books

2010-05-28T16:43:00.001+01:00

When I read this article in The Guardian a wave of nostalgia washed over me and I was pricked with a small tinge of sadness.

I first read Jean M Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bears at a relatively a young age (around 11). I flew through it. It was such a new experience for me, I had never read a book like it. I then quickly moved on to Valley of the Horses and before I knew it I had read all the way through The Mammoth Hunters and into the Plains of Passage. In retrospect I have to admit I flicked past quite large sections and Auel is prone to detail that can at times be
slightly over whelming. However the concept itself is so enticing and the research so engaging that the pages devoted to ancient techniques of canoe building don’t seem so dry.

I remember in 2002 when The Shelters of Stone came out, I was 15 and 4 years felt like an age to wait for a book. I curled up in bed with it and started reading about the end of Ayla and Jondalar’s journey. Unfortunately the book didn’t grip me, so to this day I still have not finished it. I might got back and try again though, I have an ulterior motive for wanting to finish these books.

The reason I was pricked with sadness is because my grandmother and her partner will never read this book. Back at the beginning my grandmother was the one who passed it on to me. She always had so many books and she is the reason I read Pride and Prejudice, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and so many other classics, but before I got on to them I picked up Clan of the Cave Bears. Gags had all the paper back editions, and Geoffrey, her partner, had all the hardback. In 2002 they were both so excited at the prospect of the new book. They had been waiting years to finally read it.

My grandmother passed away in February 2009 and Geoffrey the year before. I’m sorry they will not be able to add this book to their collection, but I love that news of its release has made me think of them.

I still have those paperback copies, my dad is not allowed to throw them out. I’ll hold on to them and add this one to the collection. It’s moments like this that make me think that books will survive.

Blog Viewing

2010-04-30T15:20:00.001+01:00

How do you do it?
A month or so back I decided to check out Google Reader. After a few false starts I now use it for all my blog reading. Everything is ordered nicely, I can ‘star’ things I like and I can mark things as unread if I want to go back to them. The best thing, that was driving me nuts about blogger.com, is that I can access any feed, so almost every blog, regardless of who hosts it, is now available to me in one place. And just to make the deal sweeter I can also add feeds that aren’t blogs such as regular features in papers or news sites.

There are however a two major downsides. The first is the ease with which you can add blogs or feeds, or anything really. I am now following more blogs then I know what to do with (some may not see this as a downside, but bare with me), and unfortunately I just don’t have the time to read all of them, so I’ve taken to skimming, which I hate doing as there are some fantastic entries I know I’m missing.
The second downside is that there is no way to comment through Google Reader, even on blogger.com blogs. I guess this isn’t a major complaint, because it you click on the title of the blog entry you are taken straight to it and can comment. I suppose I’m spoilt and would like everything in one place where it is easy to manage.
I also forget to ‘follow’ people sometimes, so even though I am regularly reading their blog I am not down as a follower. And of course you do begin to miss the gorgeous blog layouts.

In summary, the ease of Google Reader is fantastic. Having everything in one place is wonderfully efficient. However a certain aspect of ‘the personal touch’ becomes lost. If you do opt for Google Reader you might find yourself popping in on the odd blog just so you know it’s still there.

Does any one else use Goole Reader or do you have your own way of organising the lot?

The Cyrstal Ball - Publishing's Hazy Fortunes

2010-04-23T10:41:00.001+01:00

Even though the general storm of ebook related news seems to have died down a bit everybody in the industry is constantly thinking about it, wondering what the future will hold and how publishers can hope to survive.

The New Yorker has an interesting article by Ken Auletta that has a pretty good sum up of the story so far.

Personally I’m constantly mulling over the fortunes of the industry and wondering what a young aspiring publisher can hope for from the future. The plan is to stay in the business – it drives me nuts but boy do I love it – but what will publishing look like in ten or twenty years time? Even if no one can decide on the exact shape of it, everyone agrees, it’s going to be very different.

Will books become a luxury commodity and ebooks the market staple? Will book stores whittle away until only a few chains survive by selling a variety of other products? Is the time of the small independent publisher coming to an end? Will self publishing be the new way forward, or will authors still feel they need publishers to help make their book the best it can be? Will we all be zimming around in flying cars with headsets attached to our skulls beaming books directly into our brain? Ok, maybe that last one is a bit further away then twenty years…

What do you see when you glance into your crystal ball? What do you think the future for publishing will hold?

The Impending Press Release

2010-04-12T14:00:00.002+01:00

So I’ve been in this Sales and Marketing gig about three months now, I’ve done plenty, learnt lots – mostly that I get overwhelmed a good deal and somehow still soldier on.

Now, in those four months we hadn’t actually published anything. But with the onslaught of the spring time birdies and blooming flowers comes the season for books to be published.

Yes, books are being published all year round, but spring time, specifically April, is one of the two times in the year that the majority of titles hit the printers followed by the book shelves.

We have two trade books coming in the next day or so and two more are heading to the printers before the week is out. I have everything ready, mailing lists, press releases, basic marketing plans and lots of other little odds an ends – oh, and lists, lots and lots of lists.

I’m getting my two press releases ready to go out. I'm reading them over, making sure they’re punchy, informative, and have a good hook. Tomorrow they should both be sent out to my mailing lists.
I am feeling very apprehensive.

Maybe it’s the fear the press release is no good, or the realisation when it goes out the whole process really gets rolling, or worse still that when it goes out nothing will happen. But come what may that press release must find its way to those inboxes.

I have been thinking a lot about press releases, and done a decent amount of research on style and structure. I also have past press releases to use as templates and examples and I’m pretty sure I have it right.

All my research agrees – you need a hook, something that will relate your product/news item to the world today. In Ireland we have a banking crisis that no one seems to get sick of hearing about and businesses are going belly up like fish in an irradiated pond. This is an unfortunate state of affairs but very useful for the two titles I am marketing. My opening paragraph links up this state of affairs with the book.

Once I have established my hook I can then go on to offer more detail about the book itself, ephasising it's main selling points without coming across as a glorified advertisement.

With this all done I have to wonder about the style, is it overly dry and informative? Or maybe it reads too much like an ad? Is it over a page long, or written in a narrative voice? In the end I wanted something punchy, to the point and brief.

Due to the layout of the press release it is difficult to even get it a page long (we include company logo, title and subtitle and some simple stylistic items at the top and contact details at the bottom). I have about two thirds of a page to work with, which is probably a good thing. The press release needs to be concise. You have to keep in mind who your reader is, and chances are there will be at least another 50 press releases competing against yours. Make it too long and you've most likely lost the reader before they've even started; too short and there isn't enough information to work with.

The final thing to add to a press release, which I have mentioned in the parenthesis above, is your contact details. Ok, it seems silly to mention this, it's common sense to add them - but also quite possible to forget. It's no good sending on all this information to the media if there is no way for them to come back to you and say, 'Hey, yeah this sounds great. I want to put this author on our prime time slot and give the book a full 20 minutes of uninterrupted coverage.' The whole exercise would become somewhat redundant.

So, to sum up: hook, brief, concise and to the point, (all three technically mean the same thing, but you get the idea), and finally contact details.

I would suggest a small bit of googling before you sit down to your press release and keep up with current affairs for your hook.

Interesting Links (Because I am a Useless Blogger)

2010-03-31T09:07:00.000+01:00

Yes I know, I suck when it comes to updating, I could use the ever popular ‘but I’m so busy!’ excuse – but who isn’t these days.

Anyway, all I can offer you are two interesting links to blog posts I read recently.

Ebooks are a Cul-de-sac – A very interesting piece about the ever hot topic of ebooks.
Working in a publishing company that is dipping its feet into the ebook realm I find this extremely interesting. The current digital market is not structured to the benefit of the publisher, and it is up to publishers to challenge this.

How to become a Blogging Expert Overnight – Sure, I could take some pointers from this.

Chasing Down Famous Folk: The Search for the Testimonial

2010-03-23T17:48:00.002Z

Trying to pull a testimonial out of a celebrity is a very slow and tedious process.

If you are fortunate enough to have a contact (a friend's, cousin's fiancée who is in the same tennis club for example) it makes life that little bit easier. Ireland is full of these contacts, everybody knows everybody to some degree, it’s a bit terrifying to tell you the truth, but I’m going off topic.

In most countries this two to three degree separation is generally extended a fair bit, and as a foreigner in Ireland I’m not quite so ingrained, so I get the rest of the world’s experience I guess.

So getting a testimonial from a celebrity; the first thing you have to do is find that contact. My celebrity had a small production company, this is preferable to just a show in a massive TV station. A production company has individual e-mails and a smaller number of employees, and direct phone lines. I was delighted that my search was made easier by this little production company, everything I needed was easy to find. I’d only have to get the assistant's contact details, get in touch and voila! Contact is made.

If only.

As it turned out the production company had gone belly up, the individual e-mails no longer existed, the direct lines were disconnected. I was going to have to do it the old fashioned way.
A bit of research got me the names of the producers for the celebrity’s show – well, there are a few shows, but only one that is running at the moment.

Here comes the frustrating bit, calling the station and listening to the long automated answering machine listing, in a soft pleasant feminine voice, the various department and requesting extension numbers. Finally it states ‘for all other queries please hold for the operator’. So I hold. It rings. I hold it bit more. It rings. I hold still, it rings out. Sighing, I dial again.

The second attempt got me the operator, I stated the name of the producer and was put straight through ... to her voicemail. Fortunately this producer gives her extension number on her voicemail. I leave a message and write down the extension number.

As it turns out this producer is a lovely woman. She called back the next day!

I was out at a meeting.

I called her back, but only got the voicemail. I left another message and waited. For a day or two I called every few hours always getting a voicemail. I didn’t leave any more messages, one is enough (I didn't want to seem like I was harassing her).

Finally in a fit of frustration I made a wild stab at guessing her e-mail address – my powers of deductive reasoning led me to believe it would be the same format as every other producer we dealt with in the same station. I was right, the e-mail sent with a blurb and preface attached.

The producer responded within the hour, she was delighted to help and would pass on my e-mail to the celebrity.

SUCCESS!!!

Now to wait for the response requesting the full proof.

Just wait.

And wait.

And wait a bit more.

I think it was over a week before I finally sent another e-mail. A meek e-mail. Asking the producer if said celebrity had received the previous e-mail. And thanking her again for her help.

The producer got back to me within the hour again! She stated my celebrity was ‘madly busy’ but would love to receive an outline of the book and a draft.

SUCCESS!

I hope anyway - this last exchange was today, I have to wait and see how successful I was.

Sales and Marketing: A Two Month Reveiw

2010-03-22T16:45:00.000Z

Sales and marketing in publishing during a recession in a small and saturated market is: time consuming draining, challenging, overwhelming, discouraging, engaging, enlightening, interesting, soul destroying yet strangely compelling.

But over all - in the end, - it is actually quite satisfying.

The Dublin Book Festival: A Pleasant Reprieve

2010-03-05T16:55:00.001Z

Tomorrow the Dublin Book Festival will kick off and I am delighted to be involved.

It feels like the book industry is in the dumps at the moment, with Hughes & Hughes* going into receivership, the first quarter of 2010 looking a bit dire and government funding being cut (albeit the book industry was not the worst hit by this), it is a pleasure to have something light and fun like a book festival too look forward to.

All the talks look very interesting and they cover quite a range of topics that might interest writers, publishers, booksellers and the general public. I’d recommend looking at the event guide and popping into some - If you happen to be in Dublin that is.

I was asked to chair one of the talks, the prospect initially terrified me, but I didn’t say no outright. I have an intense fear of public speaking yet also have a horrible habit of throwing my self on stages in front of vast numbers of people … I don’t know why it just keeps happening.

As it happens I think chairing would be fine as I wouldn’t have to say much and none of the attention would be on me yet I’d still get the … um … prestige, or just experience, of being involved. I'm quite keen to become more active in the Irish publishing scene.

So far my experience of a centralised publishing entity (only way I can of to describe it at the moment) is of Publishing Ireland, as of yet I have had nothing but good experiences when working with/through them. I got my current job by posting up on their careers page. I was wondering if such organisations exist in the US, UK or in any other country around the world?

Now I’m quite excited, I have printed off the summaries of the different speakers’ topics and have two books that we published on the topic to have flick through to become better acquainted with it. I am now quite excited and glad that the festival is getting some media attention such as this article in Irish Times.

* I haven’t forgotten about this, there is a blog post in the works but a bit of research involved so it’s slightly more time consuming.

The Traitor: Rejection Letters

2010-02-18T13:20:00.002Z

I think I almost crumpled up into a ball of despair when I was first asked to do this. I felt like a traitor to my kind. How could I, as a writer, not feel torn while putting together rejection letters?

The first one I ever wrote was almost an A4 page long, typed in font 11. The proposal had been for quite a personal book that would generally have fitted our list, but we already had a book like it in the works.

Though the rejection was long and full of advice the one thing I had to be careful of was that I didn’t offer any possibility of reconsideration. This was difficult. On the one hand I wanted to be helpful, insightful and not batter the aspiring writer’s ego, on the other I had to be firm and to the point. When I read it over I think I was successful in these endeavours (I haven’t read it since and am a bit nervous to for fear I have been deluding myself).

As the proposals continued to come in and the commissioning editor continued to pass those that would not make it my way I tried to keep up the personal touch. Sometimes the rejections were easy because the proposed title simply didn’t fit in with our publishing company. For these I’d point to resources the author could use to find the right kind of publisher. For the others it started getting quite difficult, and quite time consuming. I never wrote another rejection that was as detailed as the first one, and slowly I have moved into the realm of letting the template do most of the work.

Every now and then there is a proposal that demands a more personal response, but unfortunately they are few. Trying to keep up with the detailed and insightful rejections took up so much time I’ve had to stop.

I’d like to say this experience will soften the blow for when I get automated rejections from agents/publishers, but I know me, I’m a ~~paranoid~~ sensitive soul and will surely take it personally.

But I also know that one day it will happen. One day I’ll get that call/e-mail/letter from my dream agent/publisher that will lead to my book hitting the mass market.

You can’t say I’m not an optimist.

Meme: Over The Top! (because I'm still catching up on Blogland)

2010-02-05T13:09:00.000Z

Due to utter insanity on the busyness front leading to falling of the face of Blogland, today I'm going with a blog that requires very little creativity on my part.

Rules: Answer the following questions with single word (I know I know... I used more than one... so sad for me) answers then pass this along to 5 other bloggers. Make sure you let them know about it though.

Your Cell Phone? Purple

Your Hair? Curly

Your Mother? Nurturing

Your Father? Inquisitive

Your Favorite Food? Thai

Your Dream Last Night? Nada

Your Favorite Drink? Tea

Your Dream/Goal? Published

What Room Are You In? Office

Your Hobby? Diverse

Your Fear? Loss

Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? Published :)

Where Were You Last Night? Movies

Something That You Aren’t? Sane

Muffins? Banana

Wish List Item? iPhone

Where Did You Grow Up? Cascais

Last Thing You Did? Read

What Are You Wearing? Jeans

Your TV? Home

Your Pets? None :(

Friends? Wonderful

Your Life? Happy

Your Mood? Excited

Missing Someone? Always

Vehicle? Bicycle

Something You Aren’t Wearing? Hat

Your Favorite Store? Nonexistent

Your Favorite Color? Purple

When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Commute

Last Time You Cried? Ages

Your Best Friend? Multiple?

One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? Cumbria

Facebook? Aye

Favorite Place To Eat? Anywhere

Um, I’m meant to tag people… I’m sorry if you’ve been tagged already, I don’t expect you to do one again.

Moira
Ellen
Christine
Esther
Karen

iPad bandwagon, here I come!

2010-01-28T13:22:00.003Z

Watch me jump on this bandwagon!

The internet appears to have been taken over by one thing today. One thing fills the blogs, articles and Twiteratti. Yep you guessed it, (probably because you noticed too). The iPad has hit the ground running.

Maybe you haven’t noticed, I’m not sure how, but still just in case, here’s a link so you can catch up.

Now in my roamings around the interweb I generally find there are the stories that the news media are talking about and then there are the stories that the book media are talking about. Today they are one in the same. I have now read close to ten reviews of the iPad, and dude, it looks awesome! If you’re a book industry person perhaps this link or this one will suit you. I personally quite liked the review in The Guardian , but I would recommend having a look around.

Anywhos, on to my thoughts (because I know you’re all dying to know that I think).

I’m a gadget addict, I love them. The only thing that stops me from buying them all is my somewhat stronger addiction to money. That being said, I won’t buy this iPad. But let me tell you, it is enticing me far more than the Kindle or the Sony eReader ever did. My plan is to wait a year or two and purchase a later model where hopefully the screen brightness issue will be sorted out and its Awesomeness has increased ten fold!

The fact the iPad is not only an eReader but is essentially an iPhone/net book, with all the multimedia that those two entail, is also drawing me to it.

What do other people think? Will you ever buy one or are you totally uninterested?

Piracy and eBooks: A Changing Industry

2010-01-26T16:44:00.004Z

Victoria Strauss, contributor to Writer Beware Blogs! linked to this article (Confessions of a Book Pirate) in her Twitter feed.

Now to start with, I in no way condone book piracy. That being said I do think that there are some interesting points made in the article. For example, a pirated book does not necessarily equal a lost sale.

It's worth a read for anyone interested in the publishing industry. To a degree, those who download books are prospective customers, they are the book shop amblers of the web. Sure you want them to take your book, but you'd kind of like it if they popped over to the cash register before they left.

With the changes in information sharing these days perhaps new business models have to be explored to work with them. Then again the only business models I know of that survive with a free product rely heavily on advertising revenue. I'm not too sure how that would work for smaller publishers. Perhaps some really ingenious thinking is needed to redefine the publishing industry. Don't worry, I'm working on it.

I’d be curious to see what other people thought. Is piracy inevitable? If so should we work with it or do everything in our power to stifle it? Or will reader’s loyalty to books see piracy reach a peak and then wither back to its niche markets?

Lost Printers

2010-01-21T16:49:00.001Z

I’m mildly shocked; one of our main printers appears to have gone out of business. I feel a bit silly for not having noticed until now, considering they were the type of printer that e-mailed weekly and were constantly pestering me. Now I know why.

It’s funny how it happened, there was no sign, no warning whatsoever. We hadn’t been told when it happened; there wasn’t even a notification when I e-mailed them. They just seemed that they disappeared into the ether.

I’m perturbed on two levels; one is in the callous business sense. When I would go looking for printers for our books I’d get a few quotes in (see The Joys of Printer Shopping) One printer always came in the with the lowest price, but we weren’t overly thrilled with their service, so I would take the low price and ask a printer whose service we were happier with to match it. Some times they could, sometimes they couldn’t. Suffice to say the lowest price came from the printer that went bust. We used them a fair bit, and though they were grand most of the time there were the odd occasions when they promised deadlines they couldn’t meet. So, I’m perturbed because that low price I often used to barter with is now gone.

My other level of ‘perturbedness’ is perhaps a little more personal. I feel upset for the workers, and even though the constant pestering got on my nerves I know that these were good people. I’ll be sorry to lose the biannual meetings with the company director (a salesman to the core), and the pleasant conversations with their sales rep. It’s never easy when something like this happens and, as everybody knows, it seems to be happening everywhere.

I know the publishing industry is taking a serious hit at the moment, but I suppose I forget sometimes that the printing industry is possibly taking a worse one. The advent of eReaders, multi app phones and the ever increasingly accessible internet is making print almost obsolete. We already know the print media is suffering heavy losses, and thus they have to evolve, unfortunately printers will find this evolution very difficult and due to the very nature of the business will most likely not be able to follow suit.

I’m torn between the callous realist who knows you can’t change what is happening and the soft idealist who just wants everything to stay the way it was, but unfortunately the realist in me is strong, I just hope that we all learn to adapt to the changes together.

The Marketing Moral Battle

2010-01-20T11:23:00.000Z

In The Small Publishing Company, we publish a lot of books with shelf lives. With these books the aim is to have a massive marketing push just as the book is coming off the presses in the hopes that most, or even all, copies will be sold in the first three month period. If we had to reprint we’d be singing.

One of our bestsellers is such a book, we bring out a new edition every year, publicise it like nobodies business for about 8 months and then move on.

At the beginning of the New Year, a few months before the next edition is due, I am faced with a small little dilemma. We’re still publicising the book, keeping the author’s profile up so that we don’t loose momentum, but that means that people see the full product (regardless of edition) and want to buy it. We had a few orders with the last media coverage the author got. A week or two later I got the odd disgruntled phone call telling me the book was out of date. I’m more than happy to issue refunds and accept the book back but I don’t take too kindly to people being outright insulting, which has happened.*

The moral battle lies in the fact we still have a fair bit of stock of the old edition. We want to sell it, but there is never a good reason to mislead your customers. So, now that the phones have started up again and the orders are coming in, I have been informing the customers that the discount price refers to the old edition and that a new edition will be available in a few months. If they are happy to take the old edition I take the order, if they would rather wait for newer one, I take contact details so we can inform them when it is available. So technically we don’t lose the sale.

I have to admit, the money maker inside of me wants to flog those old books, but I know that a good relationship with the customers is worth gold. They may not pay the discount price now, but it is more than likely they will pay a full price soon.

*Side note: if you have been mislead by a media outlet that is in no way connected to the producer of the product you have purchased please do not call the producer with a long line of insults at the ready. Call them, politely indicate that the mistake has been made and request a refund, if you offer to return the product that’s a nice little added bonus. I say this because the person you have just called more than likely has no control over marketing decisions and has probably recently dealt with other people just as disgruntled as yourself who were far less polite.

When Books Get Old

2010-01-18T10:21:00.001Z

Due to a stock take that will be taking place in our warehouse in February we’ve decided to have a look at our in-print titles. We’ve decided to remainder a few. As far as I can gather this process is not an every day practice for publishing companies, and according to this Wikipedia article is rare in the UK.

When a title is remaindered any or all stock is sold to a remaindering company (or possibly a large wholesaler) at a significantly reduced price. I’m talking about €1 but generally less per unit. It is an attempt to make some money off books that are currently costing more in warehousing than they are bringing in through sales. Naturally you have to be quite careful in what books you’ll remainder, as many publishers will have backlist titles that act as cash cows (this is generally what we like to see happen to books we publish).

However, there are books that have shelf lives (annuals, legal guides, books relating to tax) and these books are very unlikely to make any sales after their expiration date passes. So, rather than just pulp the lot we look to make a wee profit on them. Naturally a remaindering company will not take books that have no sales value and this must also be considered in title selection.

Now, I have no idea what happens to the books once they have been remaindered, perhaps they are sold on, recycled or used as door stops, I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind finding out. If anyone knows if there is a particular process that remaindered titles go through, or if differs from company to company do let me know?

Remaindering also happens when a publishing company is going out of business, for the reason alread stated. I’m guessing (though I’m not entirely sure) that this is the most common reason for remaindering, as an active publishing company would prefer to try and find a direct sale for an old title, which hasn’t made it to cash cow status, that will see some decent return.

Unfortunately when books grow old and they cannot be remaindered we send them on to a better place... and they are pulped.

Fun With Words

2010-01-14T10:23:00.002Z

BIBLIOCLAST (noun): def. destroyer of books

I am so writing a novel where this is the name of the antagonist, and perhaps I shall call it Bibliomaniacal.

I have a new book, I love this book; it is called The Mellifluous Book of Hard Words by David Bramwell. The above comes from the first section 'Hard Words'. There are two other sections that I have quickly dipped into, 'Harder Words' and 'Hardest Words'. I adore words that are dripping with irony, such as:

SESQUIPEDALIAN (adjective/noun): def. using words with many syllables (often in a pedantic or smug manner); very long word.

Oh, it just tickles my insides and makes me giggle. I plan to continue to dip into this book and perhaps the odd word will pop up here in my blog when I wish to be sesquipedalian.

I'm quite fond of little non fiction nuggets like this. Sure I don't read them cover to cover, but they are perfect when you are between books and not to sure what you wish to read next. Last night I lay in bed giggling like a little school girl as I flipped through the pages. Sure there are a few words that are not new to me, but to put them in the right context is certainly helpful.

Oh, on a mildly related note, I was absolutely thrilled when 'discombobulate' was used in the new Sherlock Holmes film.

A Whole New World of Publishing (for me)

2010-01-11T09:17:00.001Z

Damn my uselessness in blog updating, I keep on meaning to, it’s just (here come the excuses) back to work, new role and being introduced to the almighty prettiness of the boys in Supernatural has taken over! I know, excuses excuses (but those boys sure are pretty). If it hadn’t been for the Writers Group I just started in I doubt I would have got any writing done.

As it turns out being a creative type is all fine and dandy but it takes some serious reformulating of your brain to become ‘marketing creative’, which alas, I still am not. As I pointed out in my previous post my role in The Little Publishing Company has changed some what. I have been pulled well and truly out of editorial and chucked into sales and marketing. I feel wholly unprepared and completely inadequate, but I still soldier on pretending I know my stuff.

I was fortunate enough to do a fair bit of work with our previous sales and marketing director, she was absolutely brilliant and a wonder to work with, she helped me see that there are elements of sales and marketing that can be quite fun, and interesting (yes there is also the compiling of mailing lists, but we’ll leave that aside for now). However, I’ve been thrown in the deep end with out some form of support; I will be led gently and slowly down the pool until I am ready to swim solo.

All in all I’m both terrified and excited by this new role, admittedly I’m still doing all of the admin and printer liaising that I was doing before, but now I have meetings to go, I’m being referred to as our marketing person, and I’m going to learn all kinds of new things and try my darndest to think out side the box when it comes to selling books. That’s right folk, I shall become marketer extraordinaire!

2010 and all that may follow

2010-01-01T18:41:00.001Z

There was nothing spectacular to my new year. To me new years eve is not a public holiday, it is my birthday. It was a fantastic birthday. I wrote, I saw family, I had a wonderful dinner and I went out to a pub for a few drinks. There was some counting down and a bit of singing but it was still my day. The gods were even kind enough to favour me with a beautiful snow shower so it was one of the most majestic evenings of the year.

New years day opened up 2010 in the most magnificent way. Pulling the curtains aside I look out onto a beautiful winter wonderland of unmarred snow. I wrote an entire chapter and am raring to go on the next, if this is a sign of the year to come I am full of delight and hope. Perhaps I will finish my novel and finally be satisfied with it so the query process will begin.

Having read a few posts today I feel like I'm missing out on something quite substantial. January 1st is a day of new beginnings and hopes and plans, as well as looking over the previous year. So far my glances back at 2009 have been few and far between. It was a year where much change took place, but as of yet I have not really thought about it. There is a chance that I won't as despite 2009 being the year my writers block truly broke it was also a year of great uncertainty and difficulty

Thank you for allowing me to be a little self indulgent, I'll try and move on now.

I've been lurking about the blog scene the past week, but not really posting, with life starting back to normal I may have to opportunity to update more and with a brand new role opening up before me at work I can share even more experiences of a silly little novice finding her way in the publishing world.

Sloshed slurring Chrishmas ramble

2009-12-25T16:52:00.001Z

As it turns out I am and have been absolutely rubbish at updating over Christmas. I have also been usless in my attempts to write. Each day I have found my self busy shopping, cooking or wrapping presents. Can you forgive me?

Christmas eve was spent shopping and cooking chilli for my mother and sister. The chilli was fantastic. However, the peppers did conspire to seep in to the skin of my dry hands. So in a bizarre turn of events my hands were burning most of the evening, and my thumb continued to do so well in to Christmas day. It has settled a bit now.

At 8am on Christmas morning mummy came into my roon with a cup of tea. I turned on the electic blanket and we both sat up in my bed opening our stockings. Chocolate was devoured well before breakfast in the true Christmas tradition! With presnts and wrapping paper littered around us we nattered for over an hour about all kinds of bizarre and interesting things.

After a lovely breakfast of smoked salmon and cream cheese on bagels we sat down in front of the tree and started to unwrap the multitude of presents that lay beneath it. I could go on to list what we recieved but I feel that might bore you silly, so I won't. But we both did very well.

The preparation of Christmas dinner was in no way taxing. with the turkey in the oven and the bread sauce sitting, we got in a great deal of chilling time. We spoke to the relatives and thanked people for gifts. We watched christmas movies and did a load of laundry. I even got in a shower and managed to do my hair!

So now we sit. Christmas dinner in our bellies and gin in our veins. There is still plenty to be eaten, but we are happily tipsy and pleasently full. With our gin and tonics beside us we wait with silly grins on our face for the Christmas special of Doctor Who to begin... Only one hour now.

On a side note: I got alot of books this Christmas, I did my bit for the book trade, I supported a great many authors and book stores (even Eason's) and before the year is out I will support more, as I have birthday coming up in less than a weeks time :D

A very merry Christmas to everyone!

A Small Publisher's Countdown to Christmas

2009-12-16T10:35:00.006Z

Note: there is something delightfully pleasing about opening your advent calendar and seeing the words ‘only ten more sleeps till Christmas!’

In seems that in the weeks the preceding winter the book world becomes relatively peaceful. Sure there may be upsets here and there causing the online literary world to go blog mad, but for the most part there is a tender tranquility in the offices and book stores with the slow steady flow of books in and out of the warehouse.

Then December arrives. It seems that the bookshops suddenly order in en mass and advertising becomes increasingly competitive keeping sales and marketing teams on their toes. Authors suddenly decide to finish up their manuscripts, or have a frantic urge to talk to their editor face to face, giving the editorial departments little time to breath.

For folk such as myself, I suddenly find myself laden with tasks from all departments, but the great big looming one is chasing people for unpaid invoices. I have mixed feelings about this part of the job, naturally it has to be done, and sometimes I quite like it when I'm on a roll. However, I have always been averse to asking people for money, regardless of whether it is owed or not.

The deep seeded discomfort, possibly laden with a little bit of guilt, that gurgles in my belly when I pick up the phone to request information as to why the invoice is unpaid is stemmed slightly when I see the invoice is eight months old. It is stemmed even further when I see it is a small amount owed by a large corporation. Here the bulbs of indignation begin to flicker. With repeated phone calls, various e-mails and a few letters in the post ignorance can not be claimed. Surely fifty euro is a measly sum to those whose profit margins see over six figures. This is generally where the 'roll' begins.

With sums, sales and sorting taking over my days I find my self eagerly awaiting the mornings when I will not have to wake up before the sun; when the freezing morning mist will not bite at my extremities as I cycle to work; when a warm fire will keep me toasty all day as I make luxurious meals with my mother; when Christmas morning and Doctor Who are all I will think about.

Cheeky Bookshop Escapades

2009-12-13T21:07:00.002Z

Side point: My relative blog silence the past few days has been down to an annoying feature of my computer. For some reason I cannot copy and paste into blogspot... I hope I figure out how to fix this before the Christmas holidays.

Christmas is fast approching and soon the new year will be upon us.
Bookshops are stocking up truly now for the Christmas rush. We are delighted to see large quantites of books leaving the warehouse on their journey towards the bookshelf or bedside table. My only worry is that many may not make it all the way.

In a cheeky attempt to avoid this my sister, her friend Grainne and myself slipped into a crowded bookshop, fished out a specific title that was hidden spine out among other small time books. We held it close and snuck to a main display. Careful not to be seen we placed it there, face out, where it should've been to begin with.

Now as naughty as this might have been I redeem myself by stating that it was the last copy in the store and needed purchasing, which wasn't going to happen being stuffed into the deep recesses of the bookshop backlist. Also, I don't make a habit of this type of behaviour... only when it is truly necessary, which it will be when I publish my first book.

Yep, that's right! I plan to mess with as many displays as I possibly can! It's good marketing sense. Don't you think?

The Need of a Plan?

2009-12-10T16:41:00.000Z

After following the advice of the lovely Ellen, I found my self happily typing away at a new scene in my novel. As suggested I used the commute home to ponder what I wanted to write about and how I wanted to go about it. Unfortunately everybody on the roads in Dublin last night had gone mildly mad, which meant I didn’t get a lot of time to think beyond one scene. After dodging a woman walking on the cycle lane I found my self saying, ‘I’ve got far more important things to be doing then looking out for you people.’ This isn’t really something a road user should be saying! Still, I’m happy with what I wrote.

Formulating what is going to go on the page before actually writing really seems to help the creative juices flowing. The scene was in my head, I knew what the character would think, how she would feel I even knew exactly what she would be wearing. Even the scene’s relevance to the rest of the novel was clear. Going from there was easy.

I suppose this takes me to a popular topic in Nathan Bransford’s new forum ‘Outline or Out of the Mist’: are you the kind of writer who plans ahead or just writes out of the mist? I wonder if you could quite happily be both? Even though I am currently writing a novel I have written twice before there are so many things even I don’t know yet. I’m at a point where a crucial decision has to be made and I’m still not sure what is going to happen.

Maybe an outline keeps you balanced while the mist offers excitement?

Defeating the Block

2009-12-09T09:57:00.000Z

When a severe case of ‘writers block’ has finally been lifted I find you have the tread quite carefully to stop it from manifesting again.

For me, writers block was caused by the immense amount of pressure I put on myself while writing. I couldn’t get lost in the words like I used to. I got caught up in the quality of the structure and the strength of the dialogue and couldn’t focus on simply moving forward and letting the story take hold.

This writers block lasted quite a few years, nothing substantial came out of me in that period of time and I felt like I had lost something precious. Then, only a few months ago I broke through. I found a calm and tranquillity when I was in the Lake District that I hadn’t felt for years. I would take long walks in the morning and think about my characters and their dialogue and suddenly before I knew it a chapter was written in my head.

I’d get home, sit in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea next to me and suddenly I would find myself in the worlds I had thought were lost to me.

I get a feeling when I’m writing, when describing it recently I had to hold back tears of joy, it is such a pure sense of calm and serenity that allows me to fall into what I am creating. I become my characters and the scenes in which they live. I learn more about them as each moment passes. They grow and change and slowly become more real than the room I sit in. I love it, I missed it. It is how I know that writing is what I want to do with the rest of my life. But it is so delicate.

I find it hard to grasp that feeling when I am working each day. I can write but the quality suffers a great deal. There is no continuity in my thoughts and I become frustrated by the stagnant paragraphs the pour out of me.

I know that surviving on writing alone is not exactly feasible and for the most part a day job is recommended, but when writers block is still so fresh in my memory the tenuous balance between this world and that of my stories topples.

How would you overcome this? Just keep writing (teehee, as Dory would say)? Embrace those moments when you are fully immersed in your novel? What tricks of the trade am I missing?

Some Words That Once Moved Me

2009-12-08T17:52:00.000Z

When Rachelle Gardener put up her competition ‘Words Move Me’ I started thinking about the words that had had some profound effect on me. Unfortunately I am not the kind of reader who absorbs novels to the hilt and takes notes every other page. In fact I would find it difficult to quote to you a small extract from a novel I had just finished. I have felt at times that this makes me a ‘lazy’ reader. As if some how I don’t participate in the experience as much as I should. Most of the time I realise this is silly. When I do get into reading my whole mind is taken over and I am lost to the depths of whatever world is being weaved. I may not absorb every word but I do absorb the worlds.

Now, while trying to pull up quotes from the deep recesses of my memory a few unexpected things came up. Most of them were poems.

At the risk of being labelled rather dull in my choice of poetry, I love the work of Emily Dickenson. I adore the simple alternating meter of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Its simplicity and basic rhythm crept into my mind and stowed away for most of my teenage years. The themes she explored in her poems were magnificent in their profound simplicity and I got lost whenever I read them.

I’d like to share my favourite poem by Emily Dickenson, and perhaps in a later post I will share the poem it inspired me to write.

'I taste a liquor never brewed,

From tankards scooped in pearl;

Not all the vats upon the Rhine

Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,

And debauchee of dew,

Reeling, through endless summer days,

From inns of molten blue.

When the landlord turn the drunken bee

Out of the foxglove's door,

When butterflies renounce their drams, I

shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,

And saints to windows run,

To see the little tippler

Leaning against the sun!'

Books and Wine

2009-12-08T08:39:00.000Z

A joyous perk of the job: book launches. Oh I do enjoy them, even when they are boring and drab, there is always something or someone interesting to make the night a hoot. I get to chat to my colleagues about books, boys and writing without the shroud of work.

Ok, we do have to sell books, but we are pleasantly charming, with our sweet smiles and soft words. Sometimes the books fly away, some times they prefer to crawl. Tonight was an airborne night!

I'm three glasses of white wine in and as giddy as anything. I had a wonderful night. All things considered my mood is unexpectedly chirpy. We sold a book to almost every person in the room, which at a launch is all you can ask for really. The author was all smiles and light jibes (despite the stores waiting a few weeks to start stocking his book to the hilt).

The launch was a success, and I am going to bed with a smile on face, wine in my blood and a cookie in my tummy!

The Digital Age and the Analogue Book

2009-12-03T11:01:00.000Z

To this day I feel that eBooks could never replace the physical thing. That being said, I’m no fool. I realise my feelings on the matter are by no means universal, nor are they correct and there is every chance they may change, but right now I am pro book!

Currently, at my little publishing company, we are experimenting with eBooks. It’s slow going. Trying to engage in a digital market in Ireland is a bit like trying to get antelope to frolic in Antartica. Everything in their being insists that it is wrong, it is not the natural way of things, and even though you might get a few out there, the numbers are so small they are almost insignificant.

There are many reasons for this, perhaps the slow progress of broadband is making the digital world seem that much more alien, or maybe the fact that very few people have eReaders is working against us. We try to tackle this by offering our books for download on to laptops, desktops or memory sticks, yet still people are hesitant. Regardless of the price drop and even if the eBook is practically free most of our customers still prefer the ‘analogue’ book.

Naturally this development leads me to believe I am absolutely right in my feelings about books, they are physical beings and should remain so for all eternity!

Then I glance over the Irish sea and am shocked to behold the slow but steady growth of the digital book market in the UK. I then turn my head and gaze over the Atlantic and almost topple over in disbelief at the gargantuan monster of the digital book market there, and it is growing at a phenomenal pace. I can’t quite believe my eyes as it seems poised and ready to pounce on Europe.

I suppose the whole Dan Browne escapade was one indicator, but the major eye opener for me was the recent poll on Nathan Bransford’s blog. I voted, and was happy to see that the majority voted my way. But then I saw the polls from the previous years. Though this may be a small section of the market, even I could see that the force of the eBook was growing. It may be small but by gum it is evident.

I suppose what sparked all this would be this article sent to me by our Marketing Director. I would recommend anyone interested in a future in publishing (as a publisher, writer or agent) read it. Sarah Lloyd offers a very dynamic perspective on the development of the digital book market and the basic dos and don’ts are definitely worth taking into account.

Book Value and Pricing

2009-11-25T09:08:00.001Z

I find myself in a strange position. Being a reader, writer and working in publishing I love books, and adore owning them. Having a bookshelf stacked high with novels I have read or plan to read just fills me with satisfaction.
Now, the oddity is that I am also rather stingy – due to a low income mind – and not a big shopper in any sense of the word.
These points lead to the following problem: the desire to own books is hampered by the need to hold on to money and the dislike of shopping.

There has been much debate on the internet about the value of books with large retail chains slashing prices in order to remain competitive. Thus the latest best seller could be found for €7.00, or possibly less. This does lead to problems for independent bookshops but I am more focused on the consumer aspect right now. With prices falling, how much do we (well, I) feel a book is actually worth?

I have noticed time and time again when I walk into bookshops with intention of buying a book I leave 20 minutes later empty handed, generally the thought 'I'll just get it out of the library' floating about my head (generally the library disappoints).

I can't tell you the amount of times I have gone into a bookshop with the expressed intention of buying Graham Greene's The Power and Glory and then left without it because it tends to be over €10.00, which for some reason just seems extortionate to me – for a smallish book.
The reverse side of this coin is that I work in a publishing company and we rarely price books under €15.00. Admittedly non-fiction is generally priced higher than fiction, but at least I understand that books tend to be priced at their limit (taking all costs into account) so to drop them lower would be asking most publishers to go bust.

One of the bonuses for publishing houses in the past was that a book was generally viewed as a valuable commodity, especially in non-fiction. Thus higher prices were expected. However, due to falling prices over the past years the value of a book has dropped, I suppose this is primarily in fiction, but still affects non-fiction. In essence, I guess, a consumer purchasing a book sees the physical thing before considering the content. So, a non-fiction book the same physical shape as a fiction book yet twice the cost would be viewed as highly over priced, regardless of content.

Yet knowing all this I still can't bring myself to spend over €10.00 on a single book. I'm not just talking about Graham Greene (well established and I’m sure his costs are covered by now). In an attempt to purchase Kathleen Winsor's Forever Amber I was thwarted by €11.00. There are a great deal of books that I haven’t bought merely because I couldn’t justify the expenditure to myself.

Now, this isn’t always the case. The last book I spent over €10.00 on was Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, a very thick hardback that had come with tons of positive reviews; it also touched a sentimental thread with me - being based on the Snow White Rose Red fairy tale. I viewed the books value to be equal to the price, thus paying over €10.00 (possibly closer to €20.00) was acceptable.

I suppose some of this depends on your relationship with money as well as your relationship with books or a particular book. Also there is the element of the type of shopper someone is. However, for a book that seems interesting, but isn't a vital read, how much should you spend?

Bills, damned bills and electricity

2009-10-17T10:29:00.000+01:00

Moving into a new home can be quite a wonderful experience, especially when you begin to feel like you belong. Nesting, I believe it’s called.

I have been in my new place almost three weeks and it is fantastic. I’ve ordered in the internet, bought the TV license, added in new needed furniture. All in all it is a lovely feeling, this nesting thing.

That is, until the first bill arrives… with my name on it. Believe it or not, two years out of college, five away from home and this is the first big bill to be sent to my name directly. And boy is it a whopper.

Now, in all fairness, three weeks living in an apartment with heating running, ovens cooking, tumble dryers drying and water being warmed and the actual electrical cost is €25.00. Not bad right? It’s the bloody security deposit that’s doing my head in! I didn’t even realise there were such things on electricity bills. A house or apartment I get, even a rented car… but electricity?
I understand the thinking behind it, but I wish to be indignant for a night, and rave about the audacity of the electricity company to demand such an amount of money from me for no other reason than, ‘we don’t fully trust you to pay your bills on time and thus would like some money up front, just in case we’re right.’ Well with a bill like this I’m not entirely sure they’re wrong.

Ok rant over.
Being financially self sufficient isn’t as fun as I had once imagined.

Update – the following morning: so, it turns out the security deposit is only for people who will not be paying by direct debit… good thing I pay everything by direct debit. I think we’ll change supplier any way.

Routes to success... or something

2009-10-15T11:18:00.000+01:00

One year in the book business and I already know that there are a million wonderful ways the next publishable book (non-fiction) will find its way in to the book shops. There are the usual channels of a proposal sitting in your inbox, sometimes sent by an agent, sometimes not. Then there is the response from the public figure, or his/her agent, you were hassling for a manuscript. It could be, but rarely is, a phone call from a writer trying their luck. Sometimes it can even be from that smarmy guy who sidled up to you at a launch with a brilliant idea. There are so many ways that that book finds its way through the cracks, especially in non-fiction publishing.

Today, however, was a new one on me.
A pair of perspective authors were sitting in a little café in town discussing the publicity for their new business and the book they wanted to write. An elderly gentlemen sitting at the next table turns to them, ‘I didn’t mean to be eavesdropping,’ he says kindly, ‘but I couldn’t help overhear that you need a publisher?’
Both men nod, slightly bemused by this enigmatic fellow.
‘As it turns out there is a publishing company just around the corner from here. It is a wonderful place staffed by the most charismatic people you shall ever meet (Ok, so I’m kind of making up this conversation, but I’m sure I’m not far off). They have a brilliant reputation for quality and are relatively speedy in churning out publications.’
Eager to find this wonderful company the two men get directions from this odd stranger. When they have paid for their drinks they turn to thank the man, but he is no where to be seen.
Nonplussed the two men make their way to… wait for it… our door. Suffice to say I was a mass of confusion seeing two strapping lads standing there, pitching a book with so much publicity behind it I’m quite surprised I hadn’t heard of it. (my lack of national TV watching could be to blame). I also couldn’t stop cursing my self for not having showered that morning, (one of the lads was rather dishy).

Now the pitch was interesting, we had been considering such a book. Our book seller had rather eagerly suggested the idea at a launch not too long ago. So our commissioning editor delved a little further. What she found sewed the seeds of doubt. She passed on the link of their website to me and I too began to wonder if this really was ‘the next big thing’. There was a slight edge of misogyny in the business, which doesn’t bode well when you’ve approached a publishing company bodied by females. However, regardless as to the content of this title, at least the guys got our attention – primarily by listing off the publicity that they could provide.

But still, a note to all aspiring writers: there is no telling how you will get published; there are many routes to take. There are the more conventional tested routes, which are highly recommended, or there are the obscure routes, revealed by enigmatic elderly gentlemen…

That all being said, don’t go banging on doors of agents and publishers with your manuscript in hand. You might make yourself mightily unpopular. For the most part, conventional routes are generally the best – they are tried, tested and tend to work.

Dreaded Deadlines and Empathetic Editors

2009-09-17T10:42:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I figured deadlines after college were… well… dead. Silly silly me. I have a deadline, and its looming, and I’m not going to make it. Deadlines are rough, but deadlines that have to be met and there is dependence on other people are just plain evil.
I don’t really blame anybody for things being late, it really does all come down to me, and I suppose I could’ve planned things a bit better. A thousand excuses bubble up in my brain but I have to quell them, in the end the responsibility was mine. Fortunately the world will not end if this deadline is extended a little bit.

I’ve realised deadlines have never been my forte. I’m generally uber organised and try to plan for all eventualities, but for some reason deadlines are the one thing that seem to get me. I wonder if this is a hang up from school years. Coasting through most of my classes meant I didn’t have to work too hard, and I was terrible for getting homework in, it never really affected my grades, and college wasn’t too different.

Maybe it’s more of an issue as you get older, you become increasingly aware that your deadlines are never really yours alone – you share them with other people. Even in school or college a late paper meant more work for your teacher/lecturer, but for some reason that never really enters the heads of a teenager. I am now more aware that my inability to get things in on time will affect the people who are waiting for them. This only adds to the stress mind.

Maybe I shouldn’t get too hung up, perhaps deadlines are more guidelines in the book business? Or maybe that’s a small company mentality? I’m not entirely sure, I’m only a year in to all this.

A Country Girl at Heart

2009-09-07T07:56:00.001+01:00

There is something about being woken up by a mooing cow that just puts a smile on my face. Maybe it’s the strange nervous strain in that deep sound. Or maybe it’s the fact that it can happen here. I mean being woken by a cockerel in the country has become a bit of a cliché, but a cow?
Now, other than the mooing cow – who is still mooing away desperately an hour after having pulled me from my slumber – there are also the birds. These birds will twitter and tweet like mad little children, happily bouncing from tree to tree looking for berries and nuts, or simply flying into gardens and nibbling the bird feed. I’ve seen a few woodpeckers go for that bird feed, it’s not as amusing as you might imagine.
I’ve woken up and feel like I’m in some sweet paradise, albeit and overcast paradise, but the greenery of it, the peace, the beauty. It’s heart warming, for me anyway.
I have always loved coming here. I’ve always had a sense of things being right here. It’s wonderful to have a place that just puts you at ease. It might be a bit much to live here, but coming for a week every now and then just feels perfect.

The Joys of Printer Shopping

2009-08-26T15:15:00.000+01:00

Today I am negotiating my socks off; I love this part of my job! A year in China did wonders for my haggling skills if I may say so my self.

Printing is one of the most expensive aspects of publishing a book. This is one of the costs that you really want to keep down, and fortunately there is a great deal of competition out there in the printing world. The best thing to do is get in as many quotes possible, this allows you to develop a base cost that you’re willing to pay, you can then discuss with other printers whether or not they can match it. However, building a repertoire with printers is also useful, remember who offered good prices and what kind of format suited which printers. All printers will have areas of the market that they are most competitive in.

Finding a printer for your title is like bargain shopping, you look around a lot, measure up price and quality, and decide on what will suit you best. Some times you’ll go to your old favourite stores, but every now and then you’ll try something new.
I know what I’m getting and I’ve narrowed it down to three stores. I love this bit!

Editing Note

2009-07-16T10:57:00.000+01:00

A note to all novice editors:

When writing to an author or agent always, and I mean always, proof your e-mails/letters. It reflects very badly on an editor if his/her correspondence is full of errors. You end up feeling quite silly...

The Rightful Budget: Part II

2009-07-11T15:44:00.000+01:00

Before working out a budget you need to work out your current expenses. You can do this by creating a table. I suggest making a table at this point as it will give you the base on which to work out your own personal budget.

The thought of working out our expenses can be quite daunting. Do we really want to know how much we spend a day? Not really. This is because we know, somewhere deep inside our selves, that we spend a lot more than we let ourselves realise. This is the hard truth about budgeting. You will finally find out why your bank account appears to haemorrhaging money, and its not because a metaphysical gremlin is eating away at your finances I’m afraid.

Income
Before we go on to the daunting task of disproving the existence of the Bank Balance Gremlin it is worth looking into what your income is. Write down your monthly earnings (after tax). If you have any other form of income, be it grinds, babysitting, or the royalties of a book you wrote a few years back, note down the average monthly amount you accumulate. Add that up and we have the figure we wish to balance those horrifying expenses against.

Expenses
I always found when putting together my expenses I had to revise things a few times as there was always something small but vital I had missed out. When starting your list of expenses don’t bother with figures. They can be added in when you’re comfortable. Also remember that the first few budgets will need revising, so they are not gospel.

Start with the big expenses, such as rent/mortgage, bills (break these down if you need to into ESB, Telephone, Internet, T.V.), insurance and so on. These big expenses are your fixed costs. They are a solid cost that must be paid every month. Don’t put figures in yet.

The next list is your smaller day to day/week to week expenses. These include your groceries, transport (bus fare or fuel for car), and even your social outings. These are your variable costs, thought I prefer to call them ‘living costs’. When working out this list it is useful, though not necessary, to hold on to receipts, these helps you see how much you’re spending and what you’re spending it on.

You can make another list which will be your ‘luxuries’. This list will include things like shopping and holidays. Personally I simply add a category called ‘extras’ in to my living costs, I try to plan ahead for things like birthdays and Christmas as well in this category.

Figures
We have the income, now it is time to start adding figures to our expenses. Here you have to be brutally honest, which is why I suggest the receipts. If you have the time and the patience try keeping a note book with you and list what you spend each day for one week.

A basic idea of what you should be preparing
(not below is a monthly budget):

Income
Pay (after tax) - 1500
Last months net - 320
Total - 1820

Expenses
Fixed:
Rent - 650
Electricity - 40
T.V. - 21.50
Refuse - 5
Phone - 30
Internet - 20
Savings - 100
Total - 866.50

Variable:
Groceries - 400
Social - 400
Transport - 76
Washing - 20
Extras - 100
Total - 996

So now to work out how much you are spending you add the two expenses lists ( 866.50 + 996 = 1862.5), and subtract that from your income (1820 - 1862.5 = -42.5)
Your net balance is -42.5.

Having done this we can now decide what expenses you can cut down on. These cuts will come from your variable spending.
I'd suggest cutting your social costs, it is possible to socialise for less and see if investing in a bike might cut your transport costs (depends where you live of course). Perhaps you can shop around for cheaper prices on your groceries. You might be able to knock off up 300 from your expenses.

Of course all this depends on the type of lifestyle that is important to you, the only thing you should really be aiming for is a happy life (and keeping the bank balance in the green).

€€€€ vs ££££ vs $$$$ - Who will win?

2009-07-08T09:55:00.000+01:00

I have heard many a complaint in my five years living in Dublin about the extortionate cost of living. Once or twice I tried to explain that there were places such as London that had it much worse, but my peers refused to believe me. Then again such conversations would more often than not take place over a €5.30 pint, so my point seemed rather lost.

Today, having read about the Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living Survey (city ranking) I am glad to announce, I was right!

However, my being right aside, it is interesting to see how cost of living has changed rather dramatically in so many places. Of course there are a variety of factors involved (not just the cost of a pint) in determining the cost of living such as rents, currencies and what not. Certain elements will effect us as individuals quite differently than the survey may suggest. For example, if we are a social bunny and enjoy going to the pub three or four times a week, we are going to feel the pinch quite severely as tax on alcohol is rather high in this country. However if you are a bit of a hermit, like my self, then the falling rent prices will make Dublin seem like a haven!

Now the fact Dublin has dropped 9 places (from 16th in 2008 to 25th in 2009) and London has dropped 13 places (from 3rd in 2008 to 16th in 2009) would appear to be rather astonishing, but what really amazes me is that, apparently, the cost of living is higher in Caracas, Venezuela (from 89th in 2008 to 15th in 2009) than it is in either of these two major European cities!
Sorry Dubs, we have nothing to complain about anymore (Well there is always something to complain about, but you know what I mean).

For results see http://www.mercer.com/costoflivingpr

The Rightful Budget: Part I

2009-07-06T17:16:00.000+01:00

These days everybody seems to be a financial guru. We all have tid bits on how to save and what is best for our money. A fair few times we’re full of dollop, but sometimes we’re dead on.

Now I don’t suppose I have all the answers or even the best ideas, but one thing I have come to learn about myself in the past few years is that I am astoundingly good at budgeting. My bank balance is always well above zero come pay day, I have managed to save a fair amount of money in a short period of time and I still live a comfortable life on a fairly low salary. Not to toot my own horn or anything…

Budgeting is a great way to keep control of your finances and to avoid spiralling into debt. It is also helpful when you want to save comfortably for that future deposit on your dream home or for your grand world wide adventure. However, that all being said it is not something that will come easy to many people, and I believe the only reason I am any good at budgeting and find it relatively easy is because I enjoy planning and predicting my finances (cash flow forecasts make me happy). I’m also a bit of a control freak, but each to their own.

Not meaning to sound like a broken record of personal finance gurus, but in order to successfully budget you have to set your self realistic goals. Assuming to save €400 a month on a salary of €1200 a month, is ludicrous, even if you’re only paying €400 on rent. You’d be living as a hermit on beans on toast and no heating, with the luxury of fruit and socialising coming by at rare and mean intervals.

For successful budgeting you have to apply a great deal of self control in relation to your spending. For example, I adore new electronic gadgets, but I tend to get bored of them relatively quickly. For example, on a whim last winter I bought a Nintendo DS for just under €200. Sure I loved it for a few months, but now I can’t tell you the last time I played it. Regardless of this fact it is taking all my self control not to go out and buy a Nintendo DSi, despite the promptings of my boyfriend. To buy it would be a waste of money, regardless of whatever offers are out there. Sure Harvey Normans offered them for €99 for a day, I could have bought it and traded in my old DS for various new games! It seems like such a sensible deal. But alas, at this point in time I don’t have €99 to spare.

Give yourself some time to work out your budget, decide how closely you need to keep to it. Is it just a general outline to help sort out the finances, or does it need to be kept stringently to? Think about what is important to you, saving for the future, or living with a bit of financial freedom? Is retail therapy a part of your life? Do you need a weekly night out with your friends? Are summers abroad integral to your existence? You don’t need to cut out the joys of life when budgeting, just plan for them.

Whoops

2009-07-03T08:54:00.000+01:00

Having named my blog and it now being created I notice there is terrible euphimistic potential in that name, or do I just have a one track mind?

This name stems from the apple, banana and orange sitting on my desk. There is always an apple, but the banana is a new development, unfortunately the orange has been ignored.
Oh, also, I love fruit.

So to start I can offer you a basic introduction to me - beyond my aparent fruit fetish.
As every individual I am, in myself, a bit too complicated to sum up in one sentence. Even a paragraph seems a bit futile. But the basics. I am a 20-something British national, Portuguese raised and I spend my days in a small publishing office doing a little bit of everything in the industry. Beyond this there is little more to say.