We had a book launch. Or was it a party? It felt like a party on the night, and it definitely felt like one the day after. Most noteworthy was the arrival of two genuine hippies. They came in, asked for a book to read, and then sat crossed legged at the foot of the stage, wearing hats, longish hair, beads and ethnic clothing. They were in their seventies, I would hazard a guess, and one of them was John Hoppy Hopkins. He founded International Times, and was a photographer of all poets, writers and literary figures. If you Google him, and find his web site, you will see photographs of many well known figures, including one I happen to be reading at the moment, the lovely Dannie Abse. I am reading his memoir about growing up in Cardiff, Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve. These days there is no ash on anyone's sleeve at a Betsey Trottwood book launch unless they are out on the street, sitting on the benches.

Tim Burrows gave a great speech, and Mike from The Roundhouse not only helped me sell books, but then TOOK OFF HIS SHIRT with the Roundhouse rubric and logo and gave it to Hoppy Hopkins. What more can I say except, buy FROM CBGB TO THE ROUNDHOUSE * and enjoy the nostalgia of past music events yourself - we have lots of brilliant photos in the book taken by Hayley Hatton.
* if you buy the book from The Book Depository, we'll get a small commission. If you buy it from this web site, we'll be happy too! In fact, we really don't mind where you buy it from, so long as you do.

We got to the accountants

We tried a few accountancy magazines, but they are a shy bunch. Then we cracked it.

Latest selling email to hit my Inbox...but my mother would have been amazed. I mean, she spun as good as the rest of them (yes, for the first time in my life I am going to vote Green because I seriously do not believe any of the main parties - I've heard it all so many times before), but I did not ask Plimsoll to write this about Marion Boyars Publishers. Which means they have looked at our results at Companies House for themselves. But it's not worth 300 quid - and I recall Plimsoll going bust a few years ago and causing mega angst for many a small publisher. See, memory has its uses for humans as well as elephants..

Catheryn

RE: Your company is rated as STRONG in the latest Plimsoll report



Your company is one of only 244 in the UK Book Publishing industry getting it right. A new study has just been completed that analyses emerging threats and opportunities in this evolving market and will help you to remain one step ahead of the rest.



The Plimsoll Analysis – Book Publishing will tell you everything you need to know to benefit from an uncertain market. Each of the top 500 companies that operate in your specialist market has been individually assessed to provide a clear overview of their latest performance. Here are some of the key findings:



n Your company has been rated as “STRONG” reflecting your outstanding recent performance

n 110 of your fellow competitors are in financial danger and will struggle to survive

n There are 62 companies of comparable size to you that would be excellent acquisitions

n Competitive pressure is now so intense, a third of companies are making a loss



This brand new edition of the report not only analyses each company in detail over 2 pages, but each company is valued too. Each company in the report is rated on their attractiveness as an acquisition showing at a glance the best prospects in the market as well as those rated danger.



Your own company is fully analysed in the report, allowing you to compare your performance to the rest of the market.



This brand new report is priced £350+VAT for a PDF version. As you are new to Plimsoll’s reports and services, I am offering a £50 introductory discount off your first report, reducing the cost to just £300+VAT. The report will be emailed to you today.

Recession?

Well, there is one, and we've done our utmost to succeed in the task of producing imaginative, different, and exciting books. Looks like up to end September 08 we succeeded.

Another profitable year, our accountant told me today. Turnover good, as high as last year (yes, you'll have to sneak a look at the records at Companies House to find out - it's a really good result for a small company but not the kind of thing that makes the front pages of the financial press). So I hope all you booksellers out there listen up and order more Marion Boyars books - front list AND back list. They are easy to sell - maybe because they are not genre books, and thus are desirable. Go booksellers - to your ordering stations!

Baffled

I'll admit it, today I am absolutely floored by the value systems used by the mighty in this world. We're supposed to admire Quercus for creating some best sellers, while not being able to pay their authors, and I see mention of them going back to investors for more money while spending huge sums of Stieg Larsson marketing. And incidentally, his partner of many years is not benefitting from his fame either, as his children refuse to acknowledge her needs. And our politicians are busy claiming for duck ponds and moats, and apparently are on suicide watch as their guilt surfaces - a wee bit too late.

One of the good chains is on its knees, and Books Etc in particular has always been good at supporting titles from independent presses, and so we have one large quality chain left. There is no way that all the good books to be published can be promoted in one chain, and yet there is no other way to sell any quantity of books.

We're enjoying fabulous publicity - Daily Mail and Evening Standard books of the week, Lettice Wilkinson of Charity Shopping will be on Robert Elms next week, and yet you try getting books into shops ahead of this publicity. It's not possible to do it. No. Or rather a deafening silence from the over worked key buyers. It's a real shame, and I think my idea of getting the large presses in the UK to buy Borders is not a bad one. At least the publishers would then have an interest in bookshops, and make sure, with sound editorial values, that good books got to be seen by the public, who, luckily, still love books. As we do here.

DAILY MAIL HEALTH BOOK OF THE WEEK!

Wow - we have a HEALTH BOOK OF THE WEEK in the Daily Mail as of 12th May! The choice and review is by a doctor, no less than Dr Thomas Stuttaford, the former Conservative MP for Norwich South. Maybe he is a friend of Victoria Cator, who is one of the cooking duo Victoria & Lucinda, of Flavour of the Month, published by us last summer, and who also hails from Norwich.

Anyway, here is the glorious review by Dr Stuttaford, who is also pictured in the Mail - he looks like just the kind of chap you would want for your family GP. And no, that's not him on the blog - that's our author Rosy Barnes, who is also in the news at the moment. Although I am sure that Rosy would have made a lovely, symapthetic doctor if she had not developed an interest in experimental drama, art and literature which seems to have rather diverted her career away from medicine or anything else sensible (next thing she will decide she wants to be a publisher - the least sensible thing of all...).

I can affirm that all of us in this office followed the advice of Dr Carole Hungerford, our author of THE GOOD BODY GUIDE, while editing and after. So we snack on fruit and dates in this office, take vitamins and we're actually all pretty healthy. So it works - buy the book on amazon or via our own web site, using secure PayPal which takes all credit cards. It's a bargain of a health book, and you will not regret it.

DAILY MAIL HEALTH BOOK OF THE WEEK
'Orthodox doctors and their patients will have few worries about accepting her general advice on diet. Those who have fallen prey to illness may need the support of wise words of doctors from Harvard, the BMA, or the Royal Society of Medicine. If, however, the reader is keen to keep out of the doctor's surgery and hospital, they could follow this lifestyle plan.' Daily Mail Dr Thomas Stuttaford, former Conservative MP for Norwich South and doctor for over 40 years

And other news - coming up on June 20th - author of Sadomasochism for Accountants will be taking part in an event for debut authors - Borders Book Festival, Melrose, Scotland, Harmony Marquee, Saturday 20th June at 3.30pm. All you Scottish literary types - get yourselves over there and learn how to break into the book shops with your first novel. Sadomasochism for Accountants is presently on sale through WH Smith Travel and I spotted a good pile in Terminal 3, Heathrow, on my way to New York.

Massive fan gets to meet the author

I am just back from sales conference in New York, which was fun, buzzy and full of interest. After my presentation, I was walking near the village, and saw that Laila Lalami was giving a talk at Barnes and Noble on Avenue of the Americas near Washington Square. I went along, and she read from her first novel, Secret Son, and yes, I did speak to her and got a signed copy. She is Moroccan, and so is interested in reading our July novel, SEE HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU by Luis Leante, about the Sarahawi people, who are still living in the Saraha desert, over 200,000 of them in tents. This is one of the humanitarian overlooked issues in the world, and there is a good chance that the book will bring international attention to the plight of these people, since at the moment the Sandblast charity in London are the only ones who are working on helping these people. (Go to the Sandblast web site, www.sandblast-arts.org - even if it is just to hear the music which is wonderful.)

So, I saw someone whose work I love, got a signed edition, first of course, and also hope she will want to review Luis Leante's prize winning book in due course for its American publication in January 2010. And 2010 feels like it is quite soon now.

New York was at its best - sunny, people in restaurants on the sidewalks, lots of good humour, culture and amazing art galleries and people to talk to at the conference. What could be better - hopefully it will mean better sales for the front list also.

Tonight we kind of have a 'works outing' - to the Putney Theatre to see Twelfth Night, directed by Ian Higham of Nick Hern books. Rebecca suggested to me that I may like to try for a part, as they have an ad. on their web site.

Now, when push comes to shove and I am on holiday in a lovely French house with twelve people who happen to have brought along twelve photocopied sets of Habeus Corpus by Alan Bennett, I will take a part and do my best not to sound too ridiculous. But to willingly put myself on the stage in front of perfectly well educated, upstanding members of the community is just a step too far. I once worked in a product design consultancy, and was told that my boss, John Boult, liked dressing up in drag for Am Dram. Whenever I came in to work, and saw him at his desk, in my mind he was still wearing a blonde wig with bright red lipstick, not trying his hardest to gain design commissions from serious blue chip companies like Mars or Crapochino plastic coffee capsules. So I think I'll stay off the stage.