Attention span?

I've seen two dramas on the box recently, both with high profile, excellent actors, and both of which received damning reviews from the main TV critics. I found the first engrossing and memorable, and worth sitting still for over an hour to see to the end, and the second surprising in the reaction it produced and not as heavy or dark - a story made for a Sunday evening audience who like something to ponder while they wind down before the new week.

The first was a David Hare play with Uma Thurman and Jonathan Price. and Paddy Consadine. When I looked in The Guardian the following morning, I saw that Lucy Mangan had written a damning review, saying how bored she was. I felt like telling her to spend the rest of her life reading her beloved Enid Blyton.

The next play was on last night, with Gina McKee, Fiona's Story. This was a very clever play about a husband who has been looking at child pornography online, and is in line for a trial. When he tells his wife, she has to lie to social services in order to keep their family together, despite the fact that their sex life has been non existent for many years. Her disapproval, fear and lack of trust make the audience start rooting for the sad man who looks at the bodies of children in order to light some kind of a sexual reaction in his body, when all else has failed. His children also blame Mummy for being unkind to Daddy, and they want to stay overnight with him.

So, why the lack of appreciation by the Telly Critics? I think they are just young and have been seduced by the ease of obtaining entertainment. The internet is quick, and drama with only a few actors is slow and demands attention. Kathryn Flett did become engrossed in My Zinc Bed, and good for her. Michael Hann in The Guardian called Fiona's Story 'middle-class misery' and thought it was too dark to tell who Fiona had her affair with (utter bollocks, I am afraid).

The other thing that continues to perplex me, is how and where in the heavenly spheres of those who make the decisions about what gets televised and adapted for the small screen, is it decided that child pornography is suddenly OK. I have spent a good deal of this year banging my head against a brick wall trying to get people to read Feather Man. The main story in Rhyll
Mc Master's novel is about the VICTIM, Sooky, of child abuse which does not result in consumation, but is nevertheless damaging. The book is the story of her trying to stop being a victim. In Fiona's Story, we are drawn into feeling sympathy for someone who has admitted enjoying looking at naked children - surely as bad as someone who has interfered with one. Yet, one story gets broadcast to the nation with some excellent acting, and the other gets a chorus of - oh no, it's too dreadful, we cannot read on. Which leaves me completely at sea.

Maybe I should just publish Enid Blyton.....

We have often admitted that Marion Boyars Publishers are essentially four people working out of a terraced house in Putney. Of course, our circle of creative contributors is far larger - authors, agents, sales representatives, distributors, translators are just a few, reviewers and bloggers are also vitally important. But unless we have good ideas, and find great people and authors to work with us, our books would be unlikely to see light of day elsewhere. We publish to make a living and to be able to continue this rather strange, but interesting life.

But as August ends, I will admit I have spent a good deal of the month thinking of projects for the future. The really bizarre thing is that a good many of them could become TV shows or the authors turn into TV personalities.

And if we had not worked closely with the authors this just would not have happened. Now for the reality check - we have actually been contacted by Granada TV and a new production house, Red House, about Victoria & Lucinda for a cookery programme based on their book, Victoria & Lucinda's Flavour of the Month. We continue to talk to the development team at 2waytraffic about Lawrence Potter's This May Help You Understand the World, and we are persuading Lawrence to apply for Carol Vorderman's job on Countdown (his book on maths, Mathematics Minus Fear, continues to sell really well - now in batches of 48 so some classes are obviously having to buy it in bulk). And I have just written a marketing plan for Sadomasochism for Accountants which includes Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead...) playing Alan the accountant, with Tamsin Greig as Luda the transvestite (yes, I know she should be a man but I think Tamsin would do the part wonderfully). Ever since Black Books came onto our screens I have thought there should be a TV show about a small, independent publishing house, but maybe we do not need to go on TV - we are too busy inventing it. Yes, four people in a terraced house providing ideas for the TV mega rich and powerful. Something is a little out of kilter here.

Catheryn

From CBGB to the Roundhouse

We've been quiet here, mostly because it's August and although we aren't French we do publish a lot of French books.
Which doesn't really follow as we're getting busier and busier. That, come to think of it, is a far better explanation for the lack of blogging.

I, for example, having been working on a new book that's sooo much fun.

From CBGB to the Roundhouse is all about music venues across the world - concentrating on those that show popular music.... well, the blurb is on the web page.

I'm helping with research and have also just begun receiving the first few chapters from our author Tim Burrows, who's got kind of a Jarvis Cocker vibe to him. Although it may just be the glasses. Whatever it is, he's getting some fantastic material together including interviews with all sorts of people who have been, are and will be instrumental in running, playing at, cooking/bouncing/engineering/miscellaneous in and going to some incredible spots for live music. Even at this early stage, I'm boggled by the stories I'm hearing.

Just doing a bit of research has been pretty great, I've learned some glorious things. Like what a hipster is, or where the best place to listen to blues is in Austin, Texas.

The only downside is that by eleven o clock in the morning I'm currently tending to feel very much like donning tight jeans, combing my hair messy, grabbing a cold bottle of beer and jumping up and down.

Which I'm sure can't be very professional.

Kit

A fruitful review filled day

Yes, the week continues in a flurry of photocopying, letters and emails. This is what we do when we get new publicity.

Today we saw a nice big feature in the September issue of Tatler, all about Victoria and Lucinda:

'You heard it here first: Victoria Cator and Lucinda Bruce are the new Trinny and Susannah – but their mission is to reinvent the way we entertain rather than how we dress...The real hero of the book is photographer Mark Cator whose sumptuous images bring V and L's succinct tips and recipes to life.'

(We were also called a 'dream collaborator', which is nice.)

and then found that Harper's Bazaar had recommended the book for 'Party Queens' this month.

But that's not all. We also found, thanks to our trusty press cuttings service, that last week, in The Week, Jeffrey Deaver had recommended Heinrich Böll's Billiards at Half Past Nine as, I think, one of his best books ever:

'In addition to recounting a tale of lives torn apart by war, this novel stands as a masterpiece of character. I read it years ago but still recall how each of the characters comes to life. The story, set in post-WWII Germany is both understated and wrenching - a true accomplishment.'

All setting us up nicely for the weekend.


Kit

Lovely bloggers

We've had a blogospheric start to the week, with two very fine reviews:

Firstly, Dovegreyreader posted her excellent review of Feather Man

whilst

Simon Appleby enjoyed The Flea Palace, and was even kind enough to post his review whilst on holiday. A holiday well deserved, following the bookgeeks excellent remodelling of the Faber website.

Many thanks to the both of them!




Kit

Trumpet Blowing

A fanfare in praise of Feather Man rang out from Dovegreyreader yesterday when she hoped, like Lisa Glass, that it would make the longlist of the Booker prize:

'Marion Boyars have been urging me to read this and I kept saying 'but the first chapter is too upsetting'...'carry on, persevere' they said and assured me it would be worth the effort. I've read it this weekend and how right they were, I would love to see this book on the longlist. '

Unfortunately, the announcement later that day disappointed these hopes. Oh well.

More cheering is the copy of Country Life that's just arrived on my desk. Its review of Victoria and Lucinda's Flavour of the Month begins thus:

'This book is such a clever idea I'm amazed it hasn't been done before.'

and goes on

'The recipes are just right for a grand but unpretentious dinner party...(they are) interior designers, and their table settings show the attention to detail comes with the job.'

Also, a couple of very fine websites have been silly enough to let me sully their pages - firstly with an article on editing Banquet of Lies at Vulpes Libris and today, a piece on Julio Cortázar on Readysteadybook.

It's a privilege and an honour to have been allowed to contribute to both.

Kit

Syncronicity

I like to think that there is book we publish for each and every one of my artistic heroes.

And I'm very glad to be able to add Jarvis Cocker to that list. His current radio show ties in rather well with our new edition of DIY by Amy Spencer. Indeed, most of the people he interviews are featured in Amy's book.

So, zine fans are all sorted...*

Kit



*I couldn't think of a better allusion. Sorry.

And more excitement!

Yes, it's turning out, unusually for summer, to be a thoroughly eventful moment here at Marion Boyars. As well as the attention bubbling around Feather Man:

Victoria and Lucinda appear in this evening's Evening Standard, looking pretty in pink.

The Concubine of Shanghai was much appreciated by Twomanyshoes.

And our translation by Leila Vennewitz of The Clown by Henrich Böll was acclaimed as one of the best literary translations of the last half century by the Society of Authors AND Maureen Freely also made the list for her translation of Snow by Orhan Pamuk.

It's getting too hot for all this, would anyone like ice with their publicity?

Kit

Excitement!

In the last few days we've had more than our fair share of excitement.

We have a Book Sense Indie Pick for our fiction title, Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster. This means it will be displayed in most independent book stores in the US with a bookseller review and 'shelf-talkers' - little displays about the book on the shelf.

As this is the book I have had the most trouble getting noticed in the UK, this is wonderful news. It just feels like, well, satisfaction, since Rhyll's book is the one that did the talking, although having the Literary Ventures Fund send out nearly 300 advance copies, and the efforts of two sterling publicists certainly helps.

Let's hope the UK picks up on the US interest in Feather Man - it is already a prize winner in Australia.

Our launch at Christie's for Victoria & Lucinda's Flavour of the Month was phenomenal with two Tatler photographers, a starry guest list including Trinny & Susannah, and Alexander Bath of Longleat, our hippy Lord. We'll endeavour to put some photos up when the press ones have appeared. Over 300 people! And lots of book sales also!

Catheryn

Preparations...

A despatch from the Kilgarriff household, where food is being prepared for this evening's launch of Victoria and Lucinda's Flavour of the Month.

Before:


















After:

Rainy miscellany

Well it's horrible outside today, so time for another post.

Tomorrow is the launch for Victoria and Lucinda's Flavour of the Month and aside from host's pre-party jitters, we're very much looking forward to it.

Feather Man is getting some more press:

Here and here, and soon there will be a (very good) review of it in the fine American magazine Foreword.

You can also visit Rhyll's new website. And you should.

The joys of publishing: I have spent a significant portion of my time today researching Northern Soul and now my head resounds with half remembered and slightly imagined great soul tracks (It strikes me that up until now, we haven't explained exactly why I'd be doing that. I'm afraid that that'll be another postergated explanation, I've got to get the web page up.) I was, however, slightly perturbed by the high percentage of seventies soul venues in the north of England that seem to have burned down. A pyromaniacal conspiracy? Possibly involving irate folk singers? Who knows.

I've also been pondering (whilst updating our new onix message creating system, see posts passim) whether the possession of an intimate knowledge of the entire backlist of a small but prestigious independent publisher will ever be regarded as an Important Life Skill. Probably not. Sigh...

Kit

sporting failure, one revelation and news

I never went any further with my European Championship predictions, for which apologies to those who said that they enjoyed them, I never seemed to have enough time at the computer. It could only have gone downhill after the spectacular success of the first one anyway.

Now that the football is behind us it's worth mentioning that we have an author called Rafael Nadal. An expert on Lorca, apparently...

In other news, Rhyll McMaster had her Tuesday Top Ten put up on The Book Depository today, it being a Tuesday.

And

The wonderful Complete Review has done a very good review of Banquet of Lies.

It's far far too nice outside to say any more right now.

Kit

If at first....

One of these days, I'll be able to look back on the struggle, and I mean struggle, to persuade readers, reviewers and booksellers that Feather Man is exceptional.

But today, a glimmer of light appeared from a bookseller in Massachusetts, who is recommending Feather Man for the Book Sense pick in September.

'This beautifully written and disturbing Australian coming of age novel grabbed me from the first page. Sooky struggles to overcome her difficult childhood, with a father who abandoned the family, an emotionally distant mother and abuse by the one person to whom she felt close. The effects of this childhood are powerfully portrayed as Sooky moves from relationship to relationship and from Brisbane to London. It is her growing sense of herself as an artist which balances the pain.' Nancy Felton, Broadside Books, MA

It made me return to the first page of a novel which is the most successful Marion Boyars Publishers have ever published - and I expect you would not guess unless I gave it away:

'They're out there.
Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.
They're mopping when I come out the dorm, all three of them, sulky and hating everything, the time of day, the place they're at here, the people they got to work around. When they hate like this, better if they don't see me. '

This is the Chief on page one of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Eat your heart out - booksellers who do not want to read past the first chapter of Feather Man because it is strong. See what the world would have missed if this ethic governed all reading.

To make Feather Man a success right now is similar to a mental image I kept in my head for over five years when I took on this down at heart (then - not now!) company. The mental image was of three figures - 0.00 - and in my mind our front window was decorated with them, triumphantly, with no other message. This was supposed to represent our financial situation - ie no debt! And when it happened (which it did), I felt triumphant in the extreme. So battles are what life is - and they are sometimes what makes it worthwhile.

Catheryn

Kit's LECP Mark 2

Well, I didn't expect to be quite as accurate as all that. Many thanks to Mark at RSB for flagging up the success although I should say that it was not so much boredom that drove me to do this as the realisation that, in my continuing Onix odyssey (updating the whole backlist), I was beginning to claim that we had exclusive rights for Hubert Selby titles in Gabon, (undoubtedly an important territory, but not perhaps quite as relevant as Great Britain) and that I needed some distraction.

Today, (to continue my fascination with Arno Schmidt) I found myself typing the following:

'A powerful science fiction parable set in 2008. Europe has suffered from a devastating atomic holocaust. In an effort to save their science and culture, the 8 great powers have settled their best and brightest on a jet propelled island, affectionately called 'The Egghead Republic'... The exuberant wit, humour and invention displayed by the author makes this a highly entertaining vision of the future.' The blurb to The Egghead Republic. How great does that sound? Jet propelled!

But to business:

tonight it's Turkey (about whose literature I know quite a lot) against Croatia (less so)









Turkey

Elif Shafak (Striker)
Latife Tekin
Maureen Freely (Who has surely earned a residency qualification)
Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Kemal (In goal)

Now, I'm excited by this team. Not only is it dominated by Marion Boyars authors; the class of Elif Shafak, the energy of Latife Tekin and the tactical nous of Maureen Freely, it's anchored by a recent Nobel Prize winner and there's a very safe pair of hands in goal (in Turkey, they study his technique in school).








Croatia

I had a lot of help in constructing this team, many thanks to my super scouts Mark and Steve.

Miroslav Krleža (captain)
Dragutin Tadijanović (In goal)
Dubravka Ugresic (striker)
Clarice Lispector (A naturalised Croatian - passport awarded hastily)
Tin Ujević (Another one of these utility players)

This is a team that I suspect would revel in the 'Dark Horse' tag. So that's what I'm going call them. The captain is author of the 'Croatian War and Peace' so we can expect him to be a supremely hard worker in addition to his undoubted talent - he's one of these players well respected by fellow professionals without achieving the renown of some. The striker is better known in the UK, and is well regarded for her passion and bravery in the challenge. Clarice Lispector brings some Brasilian flair, but is notorious for only playing really well for short periods. Again I know less about the other two writers except that they have plenty of talent and that for some reason I tend to play poets in goal.


So. With this prediction I really have to go with what I know and what clinches it for me is the understanding of the Turkish team: not only do three of the players play together at club level, but Freely should help Pamuk translate seamlessly into it ( I really didn't think that I'd find a football pun for literary translation). But I can't see Croatia not scoring...

2-1 to Turkey.


Kit

It works!!!!!

Now, Croatia against Turkey. I've got one team covered...

Kit's Literary European Championship Predictor

Everyone else seems to be having more fun then me at the moment: Catheryn is busy inviting people to the launch of Victoria and Lucinda's Flavour of the Month, and Rebecca is either reading, or researching charity shops or things music related (more on the latter another time).

But fortunately I have football to keep me going. I am thoroughly enjoying the 2008 European Championship and not solely because England aren't in it. It has now got to the quarter finals stage, and the matches are getting much more difficult to predict (not that anyone who watched the Czech Republic/Turkey game would claim that the group matches were exactly predictable). To help, I have turned, as I often (always) do, to books.

I have developed a system: literary five a side. Five 20th century (otherwise it gets too difficult) authors from each country in question are pitted against each other and then a judgement is made (by me) as to who would win. Marion Boyars authors will feature prominently of course - thank god that the French are out, that would have made for some very difficult decisions.

So tonight it's Germany vs Portugal.

Kit's teams:








Germany

Heinrich Böll
Peter Weiss (striker)
Gunter Grass(who was trained rather energetically in his youth)
Arno Schmidt (who has oddly popped into my life fairly frequently of late. Not only did a nice man called Dirk order a copy of The Egghead Republic for a student prize giving but then the next day he appeared in a completely unrelated book that I was reading. In the book he went to visit James Joyce. Joyce was rude, apparently. After such a strong coincidence, I've got to play him.)
Erich Maria Remarque (to play in goal)












Portugal

José Saramago
Fernando Pessoa (who is a very useful pick because he can play in a number of different positions)
Eugenio de Andrade (in goal)
José Cardoso Pires
Mariela Gabriela Llansol

Right, so how does this pan out? They're certainly both brilliant sides, I defy any team not to score a few goals with the creative talent of Saramago and Pessoa in the team. But then, Pessoa, in spite of his versatility, has been known to be fairly anonymous for long periods... I'm not that familiar with the final three players although I'm assured that on their day they can be as good as anyone. The big question for Portugal is whether they'd simply be a collection of great players or a great team.

For Germany on the other hand, I suspect that their teamwork would be their strength. With the two Nobel Prize winners, Böll and Grass, in the engine room they would not want for energy, and Weiss and Schmidt, with their unusual playing styles, would be a handful for any defender. There might be question marks about the goalkeeper, does he have the stomach for a fight (sorry)?

Nevertheless, Kit's literary predictor says that in spite of a brace from Saramago, Germany prevail 3-2.

Tonight we shall see if I'm right...

Kit

My reaction to the petrol shortage

I usually drive the short distance from home to the office daily, since the car is also used for huge publicity mailings and supermarket shopping for our family. But as soon as the tanker drivers declared their industrial action, I felt a genuine who cares attitude descend on me. So I took to my bicycle. And I walked to the Farmer's Market.

People who wonder why this literary list suddenly has two fabulous cook books on its list, need some explanation. I am a keen cook, and find it relaxes me after a week of proof reading and managing a company. This weekend I bought asparagus, gooseberries and goat's cheese (and other things) - and cooked a broad bean and feta cheese and bean salad, a gooseberry and apple pie / crumble with cinnamon topping (I made too little pastry for a top layer and decided that a crumble of brown sugar, butter and cinnamon would work - it did), a quiche with asparagus, broccoli and goat's cheese and some spare ribs marinaded for a day, and a potato salad. All ingredients were carried home by me in a very unglamorous shopper with wheels which I also used to take our books into the London Book Fair.

At the bottom of the shopper, before going to the market, were six library books. I read The Outcast by Sadie Jones, and will hopefully read another two books in the evenings this week.

So, I hope you'll see that I practise what I preach - reading and cooking. And I managed to leave the car at home this morning too, and the bike is waiting to take me home, perhaps in a rain storm, but who cares... Catheryn

New Website!

When I said that I'd been thinking about the internet, this is what I meant. Catheryn had the idea for something white and opinionated a few weeks ago and here is the result. I shan't add much here as there are already a number of essays over there. Including one on designing the website. We plan on changing the essays at regular intervals, to keep up interest. AND we're involving everyone, even Rebecca makes an appearance.

But that's not all the news, The Streets of Babylon has been getting attention all over the place:


here

here

here

and I had a great exchange with Glenn at International Noir. A very fine blog.

Kit

Oh, and if anyone was interested, I was an hour late for the thing at Bethnal Green

summer rushes

Catheryn's just pointed out that I'm still not blogging very much at the moment. I have , however, been thinking plenty about the internet recently... but that will have to wait or else I'll be late for the thing. Just. waiting. for some files to uploooooaaaaad. There, finished (new B-format [198x129, 7.99] edition of The Concubine of Shanghai, loadsaorders)!

Anyway, much more interesting than anything I'd say is this Rhyll McMaster interview with Anthony Thwaite* .


Right, does anyone know how to get from Putney to Bethnal Green in fifteen minutes?


Kit

*I do of course mean Mark

Puzzled

In the Guardian G2 today is a long article on new names in fiction. In amongst it, is comment from book journalists and editors - Joel Rickett of the Bookseller is one and he says that literary fiction is the hardest category, as books tend to be one offs, and writers do not repeat themselves, unlike thriller writers for example.

This got me thinking. If this was really true, we would not have managed to establish a single writer from this house, since I really do find most thrillers so similar that I cannot be bothered to read them - let lone publish them. So, if Joel is right and I am wrong, then I have to re categorise our successes as a publishing house.

So here goes -

Hubert Selby Jr writes about poverty, lust, guns and self destruction - so he must be a sadistic thriller writer - a kind of hunt the morality instead of the killer book (although he does have characters kill people - quite satisfactorily sometimes - for example, using Coca Cola).

Hong Ying is definitely a historical romance writer - everyone knows that Julian Bell was a hunk. And The Concubine of Shanghai has a woman rise through the ranks using her beauty, seductive skill and of course, involvement with Triad gangs in 1930s Shanghai - perfect. Or maybe she isa Mills and Boon type romance writer. I'm in a dilemma here.

Elif Shafak - well, it is getting tricky now. Family saga does not really represent what happens in a multi occupied house in Istanbul (The Flea Palace). But it will do - and the dwarf and the large woman is The Gaze are also in a relationship so that makes is OK.

And what about Sadomasichism for Accountants by Rosy Barnes - maybe we will just have to invent a new genre - completely intoxicatingly funny but does not fit in any category novel.

One up to Joel.

Catheryn

Summer time!

A little while ago, we thought we would give an idea to Waterstone's - I used to be a production manager in a very large retail design company, and I remember with great fondness a trip to Munich with two Debenhams executives to pass on press their new carrier bags when the chain was re launched. We visited a Fairground after a lively session at the famous beer festival, and I went down a helter skelter on a rush mat sandwiched between these two execs. very, very fast.

We have not heard from Waterstone's about their reaction to this bag design, but if you see it around this summer, you'll know where it came from!

And Vulpes Libris have a stonking review of FEATHER MAN, posted today by Lisa - so THANK YOU! (http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/)

Back blogging

I haven't blogged in ages, strangely enough in inverse proportion to the amount of time that I've been spending in the office. The reason for both is that I have been doing extracurricular work which Catheryn has kindly allowed me to do here. It's fair to say that it's been something of a departure for me: I now know the difference between a cinnammon and a blue teal, the varying pitfalls of black and red kites (always my favourite bird - possibly due to the proximity of our names) and the many different ways that inserting pictures into text in Indesign can throw all the page alignments out of wack. It didn't help that the late night work coincided with the best weather of the year so far. On one occasion during a particularly nice sunset, which I was missing, a member of the general public knocked on the window to insist that I stop working and come out to enjoy the summer.

But now I'm back and doing other things, like blogging. And this should begin with news - we have, as some will already be aware, contracted an exciting new book by Rosy Barnes: Sadomasochism for Accountants, which it now strikes me I should have done a web page for – I will do tomorrow. We're already enjoying working with Rosy, the whole project should be a lot of fun.

The Streets Of Babylon has begun to get some attention in the US: in the Library Journal , Kirkus Reviews and blogcritics.org.

We've received our first actual copies of Victoria and Lucinda's Flavour of the Month and, to everyone's great relief, they look wonderful. This means that I've spent much of my time recently phoning up the major magazine conglomerates to check that I have the right names for our mailing lists - my relationship with the various receptionists at the big magazine buildings has gone from 'Sorry, what do want?' to 'Oh it's you. Which mag do you want this time?'. A great leap, I think.

Kit

I'm just back from a sales conference in New York, and found the city very up and full of energy. Not all of it good - for a country which claims to have a policy on energy reduction, you find a cinema on 42nd Street by Times Square where, to get to the auditorium (Number 20!) you go up five escalators. Each one passes by a floor of pumping rock music and a different fast food restaurant - all full on a Sunday afternoon - and all built in the expectation of many customers. The carbon footprint of that building alone would be the equal to half a high street in the UK. It's all so calm here, in comparison - OK , we are maybe a bit bland, but we have the same films (Forgetting Sarah Marshall - a good way to recover from the tension of presenting), and much of the same culture.

Bookshops - Barnes & Noble had more magazines and CD's and very little fiction backlist - they used to have rows and rows. The independents are flourishing, but the chains are cutting back on their stores. Amazon is the fastest growing customer of our distributors.

Our books - they loved Victoria & Lucinda's Flavour of the Month - our yummy mummy cookbook, with game, table design and entertaining. Thank goodness we did the conversions! Also very keen on Horribly Awkward, and I watched a little of the American version of The Office on the plane home - full of Dwight's and introversion. The American version of introversion just happens to be, well, loud....

Catheryn

Tessa is starting her GCSE's right now - the real things, not the mocks. First is her German oral, and she really did talk to herself in German in the kitchen for a couple of hours yesterday evening.

Her last practise included the following, when asked for her hobbies:

Ich sammle briefmarken. Ueden tag beteich.

When her teacher burst out laughing, Tessa claimed she had taught her the phrases herself, and she was bored of saying she watches Hollyoaks and likes shopping and parties (the truth). Her two phrases translated:

I collect stamps. I pray for a while each day.

I think she has kept her sense of humour and everything in perspective, but I may try to drag her to yoga tonight.....

Catheryn

By the grace of....

Over the weekend, I heard that the book printers Butler and Tanner had decided to close without paying the wages for their 287 employees.

We had a quote from Butler and Tanner for Victoria & Lucinda's Flavour of the Month, and it was about £7000.00 above the one we used, an overseas printer (SNP Leefung). I would have liked to use a British printer, as we do for all our paperback fiction and simple non fiction. But they were too expensive.

If I had decided to, we would I think, have lost the whole edition, as the advance copies for this book are due in a week. Our books would have been seized by the liquidators and sold to the highest bidder. Victoria Cator, Lucinda Bruce, and photographer Mark Cator, would have seen two years work vanish (although we could have printed elsewhere - the delay would have been heart breaking). Our own work would also have been put entirely at risk.

I do pity any authors who expected to see their new books from Butler and Tanner this week, and hope these projects can be allowed to leave the factory gate.... I also sympathise hugely with the workers, who have lost their jobs. They were not even well paid.

Catheryn

A journey into the past

Beginning with a fine review in the Independent on Sunday of The Streets of Babylon by Carina Burman.

and continuing with my onix dictated stroll through the backlist - some quotes:

'Firearms are instruments completely lacking in humour'

from Absent Without Leave by Heinrich Böll.

'I came into contact with camels on three occasions, and each occasion ended tragically'

The first lines of Voices of Marrakesh by Elias Canetti.

'In London, in a cellar, in a neighbourhood dive - the most squalid of unlikely places - Dirty was drunk. utterly so.'

Is how Blue of Noon by Georges Bataille begins.

and lastly:

'A mad animal
Man's a mad animal
I'm a thousand years old and in my time
I've helped commit a million murders...'

The first four lines of a short soliloquy performed (poorly, but with worrying relish) by myself in an amateur production of Marat Sade by Peter Weiss whilst still a fresh faced student...

Kit

Back from the Bookfair

and what fun it was... but first:

Helen Oyeyemi has written an excellent review of Feather Man in the New Statesman. It's a thoroughly insightful view of the book and hopefully will help it into the hands of many more people.

And back to the fair, my third and by far the busiest I've been to. There are plenty who find it exhausting, and it is tiring, and plenty who find it symbolic of the less romantic side of publishing, and lots of business does get done, but it's also a gigantic building filled for three whole days with people from all across the world whose common trait is that they are very enthusiastic about books. That, for types like me, makes it a very exciting place to be. Firstly there are the people who you only ever meet once a year (or twice, if you go to the Frankfurt Book Fair, which I haven't), then the people that you meet for the first time; all they want to talk about is books. And then give them to you to read!

We had meetings with people from over a dozen different countries, heard about hundreds of books and committed to reading enough over the next few months to stock a particularly cosmopolitan library. The British Council, English PEN, the Arts Council and more did an amazing job organizing a whole bunch of events, filling gaps in the schedule nicely. And then there's the parties, where there are even more people to meet and talk about books and, of course, gossip about other people who like to talk about books but aren't there.

Although it is possible that I got overexcited; I did apparently introduce myself twice in two days to the same prominent publisher, and was constantly surprised by meetings that had been arranged a long time before.

And now comes the sifting, which is, unfortunately, a lot more solitary...

Kit

This is an entry about what writers, mainly fiction writers, do when they create the world their book takes place in.

They do not, necessarily, present the reader with the world as they already know it. They usually have some idea of the dangerous places their fiction is taking them. Not all stories are ones with happy endings.

I'm writing this since another person has told me they could not read past the beginning of Feather Man. The first one was the person who was judging the Waterstone's New Voices, which Feather Man was short listed for. In both cases, because the book opens with a young girl being persuaded into a sexual act by an older man (who does not actually go as far as he could - guys, this is blog, open to all readers, so I will not be more specific here), they stopped reading. Yes, it is unpleasant, but then books are supposed to open up worlds beyond the readers experience.

So, when we publish books by Turkish writers, we expect readers to read about djinns and spirits as if they were quite normal, as they are in Turkish culture. When Hubert Selby Jr tells of the life of a prostitute, in Last Exit to Brooklyn, we do not pre judge.

So, please, please, read past page 12 of Feather Man and find out why Rhyll has won a major prize in Australia, and had the most wonderful reviews. Discover how a young girl, who men mistreat, actually manages to get her own back. And how she may or may not have achieved the impossible - managing to stand on her own two feet.

Getting ready

I'm sort of getting excited about the London Book Fair. We've done our rights guide, we've designed our posters (and printed them) for the stand, and here are three for you to admire.






We have printed most of our Autumn books, and advances will be on the stand. The major production here was Victoria & Lucinda's Flavour of the Month - 275 x 210 mm (over 10 inches tall to those who like to visualise in imperial) with full page photographs by the talented Mark Cator.

Rhyll McMaster won the prestigious Barabra Jefferis award in Australia for FEATHER MAN, and we are working very hard to get her to a festival here. We have teamed up with the Literary Ventures Fund in the USA, who pick 6 or so books from independent presses a year, and back them with increased marketing and publicity. It's a new way of working - if the book sells then we repay the investment, like venture capitalists. When they picked FEATHER MAN, I was interviewed by phone, and it was exaclty like being in the Dragon's Den - totally draining and every term depended on my immediate response.

And we've also signed our contract with 2waytraffic who develop Who Wants to be A Millionaire and You Are What You Eat for This May Help You Understand the World, so it becomes a major TV brand. We are hoping that Lawrence Potter can be the presenter, and we are tinkering with the follow up book.

The Concubine of Shanghai by Hong Ying will be in a £7.99 format by July to tie in with the Olympics, having sold so well in C format (unusual but true - ask Waterstone's!).

Our sales kits have arrived in the USA and the only way I can cope with doing them is piece meal - so over 3 or 4 weeks they gradually take shape in the office. I have the same approach to building the list - mid August is a flashing beacon in my mind, since by then I need a new American list for 2009 fully formed and contracted, with covers arrived at after many, many versions in house, so the book hits its market.

Not all is totally fabulous - we are still waiting for reviews of Spring books, and can see that some large publishers have similar problems. But I think small can be beautiful, since success here goes a long, long way.

plugs and bilingualism

Lee Rourke, whose book Everyday is published by Social Disease, has written very nice things about us on the Scarecrow blog. Which was a very nice thing to start the week with, I can only second his recommendation of Blue of Noon.







Which brings me nicely from one translation from the French to another: we are trying something new this spring. Banquet of Lies will be published in a bilingual edition, with the French alongside the English. It forms a part of our ongoing attempt to bring translation, and the issues that surround it, to the fore. We have actually done this before; Paris by Julian Green is bilingual and has done very well for us over the years. It got us to thinking: if we have a very good French text and a very good translation (by Frank Wynne) why not do it again? It's a great book to do this with; there's lots in the text that wasn't particularly easy to put into English and so many places where Frank has made the choices that are so important to the translator's art. It's been a fascinating book to work on in this way, I'm agog to see how it gets received.


Kit

On Onix and Selby

We have recently come across an exciting* new way to file and present our book information. It's called Onix and involves tags. We are being helped by a very nice man named Robin, who has been extremely patient with me as I keep sending him incomplete files along with the book admin equivalent of 'are we there yet?' messages.

Unfortunately, for a company that's been around a little while, with something of a back list, updating every single piece of info about every single book into a sophisticated new system is not a small task. But on the other hand, it does mean that one gets to delve into the backlist, which usually proves fruitful. Today was the turn of Hubert Selby to get Onixed, which turned up the following useful quotes:

From The Demon:

"There is only one source of energy for my
hate," he said, "and that's me. And there's only one ultimate destination
for my hate and that's me." which I shall use when stuck on overcrowded tube, or blocked on an escalator trying to get to said overcrowded tube.

From an excellent piece last year by Tony O'Neill:

A book that can divide people along such extremes is usually doing something right. While not comfort reading, The Room is essential reading, and a piece of art that will leave an impression on your soul. As one Amazon reviewer succinctly put it: "Literature is not meant to be safe or easy. Go buy a copy of VC Andrews if that's what you're looking for."

which last bit I shall use for finding out who VC Andrews is/was

and from a Telegraph obit by Peter McRae:

His next book, Requiem for a Dream (1978),
contained Selby's favourite opening line: "Harry locked his mother in a
closet."

which I shall use for proving in conversation that Selby had a wonderful sense of humour.

Kit

*well... perhaps not for everybody

Desks and Stockhausen

It's been a while since I blogged, much has been going on. Two, almost three books off to press, a translation seminar, books coming in which then have to be mailed out... there are times when it seems life is little more than frames on computer screens and the imaginative use of cardboard boxes (we have recently developed a new, environmentally friendly way of sending out review copies).

Catching up:

Artforum have done an excellent tribute to Karlheinz Stockhausen

Mark Thwaite has also reviewed Stockhausen on Music. Both featuring Robin Maconie prominently.

I went to a translation seminar organized by the British and Arts Councils and many others, the first time anyone has thought to get a group of publishers and translators in a room to discuss how to edit translated manuscripts. Being big on translators we think it's a very good idea, and hope more similar events happen in the future.

With reference to earlier posts, it's a blessing that a photo of my desk was not posted for all to see. It's a disgrace and has been, wherever I have had one, for the last twenty years or so. These fantastic roomy ones just seem to give me more opportunity to make piles, creating a minature paper Gormenghast.

It was also nice of Catheryn to make clear that 'twas not me who spent the mid eighties being sold by Olivetti. My name, usually so pleasantly isolated, has been popping up everywhere recently, twice at my old employ: here and here and even in the crime pages. I'm just waiting for the London Book Fair passes to arrive, confusing my gender as usual...

Kit

A while back, Peter Stothard of the TLS wrote on his blog that we had the apostrophe in the wrong place for our Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs.

Although I replied on his blog that I thought we were right, I have had considerable self doubt on this matter of apostrophe's ever since. However, we just had our reminder to update our entry for a well known guide book to the publishing industry - and it is called (have you guessed?)

Writers' and Artists' Yearbook

So now I am pretty sure I was right.

Phew.

Catheryn

Desks

I've wanted to blog about our desks for ages - finding the time is difficult. They came from Walker Books circa 1985. Walker Books was growing wealthy, and it was time to chuck out the Islington junk shop desks which Sebastian had found, and replace them with red metal legged Magpie designer tables, and a colour themed environment suitable for creating children's books in. As they were about to hit the skip, I said that Marion Boyars Publishers had just moved from Soho to Putney, and had nothing. My then boyfriend who worked for Olivetti, selling 'kit' (computer kit, not the Kit who valiantly works here now) borrowed a lorry from Olivetti and the desks all made the journey across town. They are still serving us well, with leather inlay table tops, interesting drawers (some of which are nothing but wood frames with no base).

We wouldn't change them for the world. And. in case you wanted to know, in the middle of the day our desks are always untidy. We're too busy to keep them pristine, but as they are huge, we can sprawl with ease.

Streetwise foxes

The (insert euphoric adjective here) Vulpes Libris have done another great review. This time it's of The Streets of Babylon.

Which leads me to a Streets themed anecdote that brought home to me the quite awesome capacity of Google Book Search:

Embarking on the final proof read, and in a fairly whimsical mood (the author should here admit that this is a fairly common state for himself to be in ed.) I wondered whether the steamer Helen McGregor that brings Euthanasia to London might be a reference to something or other. It's that kind of book.

Sure enough: it is.

How much information was sifted through in less than a second to bring up that result? It's quite incredible and more than a little scary in that way that unfathomable things are...

Kit

It is Monday morning, and I am opening the post. A cheerful start to the week, sun shining, things going well.

The first item I come across is a small parcel of books we sent out last week to a well known TV and film agency, who works with the author's agent. You see, a book we published has a TV offer from a well known company, and we wanted to ensure the best deal was obtained.

I heard late last week that said agent was over whelmed with work. Fair enough. What I had not bargained for was the books to be returned with three red capital initials on the label.

RTS

It took a second to work it out.

Return to sender.

Or rather, do not bother opening, reading the carefully worded note, seeing the work that went into the books, and being generally interested in an independent press that has on its own obtained the interest of a major TV company. No, RTS.

That takes the award for complete, downright, off hand rudeness I have ever experienced in this industry. God, I hope the TV company is successful and this book becomes a multi millionaire brand and show in the early evenings. It deserves to.

Catheryn

Many mentions...

in the press and on the web to begin the week. It really is nice when people notice what you're doing.

Shel Silverstein was profiled in The Times on Saturday. This picture of the winged hippo
having been photoshopically saved by yours truly after it was cruely sliced down the middle of page 88 and 89 of the files we had. You can experience some Silverstein themed mayhem at Jewish Book Week the Sunday after next.

Pornografia by Witold Gombrowicz was named one of the top ten Polish novels ever by James Hopkin over on Guardian Unlimited. It's appreciated even if he did attribute it to the wrong publisher (grumblegrumblegrumble), many thanks to Sarah Crown at GU for putting that right.

Chinese Takeout by Arthur Nersesian got a surprise review on the wonderfuller and wonderfuller Vulpes Libris.

And not leastly,

The Streets of Babylon has been spotted by the eurocrime blog . They will get a review copy as soon as we get our hands on 'em. Which should be any day now...

Kit

A Valentines Day post

I've missed a trick this year - I'm sure that with a bit of planning and an extra injection of charm I might have persuaded a bookshop somewhere to do an MB Valentines Day promotion.

The Concubine of Shanghai pushes all the right buttons for instance - and we got it out in time (regular readers of this blog, if any, will remember much mention of deadlines at the beginning of this year. We met them, hooray!) but there are others:

How about The Devil in the Flesh?, which one of my most favourite booksellers says they sold five copies of yesterday.

Jules et Jim?


The Politics of Love?

Eroticism?

K, of course...

For those lacking someone:

In Praise of Masturbation

and for those who just can't be bothered:

The Art of the Siesta

Cathy says that anyone who is embarrassed to read the second-to-last title on the tube is a prude so, on my recent trip I decided to go one better and read it on my long haul flights back to the UK (9 hours to Washington from Buenos Aires, 8 from Washington to London) only to find that neither of my neighbours on either leg spoke a word of English. Which rather diminished any effect the title might have had. It is a very good book though, which, I suppose, is the main thing.

Personally, I used up all my romance on the trip AND found time to buy a mountain of books. In Buenos Aires they not only have cavernous second hand stores filled with treasures and immensely knowledgable staff, but they have book shop bars! Why, oh why, don't we have them here? I would do my bit to keep them afloat.

Because lists are strangely compelling here is one of the books I bought or was otherwise given:

In no particular order. Unless, like Borges, you don't believe in Free Will.


Don Quijote which I didn't previously own in Spanish.

Viaje Olvidado by Silvina Ocampo and another collection of previously unpublished Ocampo writing which I've forgotten the name of and is at home. Silvina Ocampo is a quite, quite brilliant writer whoeveryoneshouldread.

A literary biography of Clarice Lispector.


The second newest (he seems to have just released another) book (again I can't remember the title) by Marcelo Cohen, who is described by his publisher as 'the best contemporary Argentine novelist'. High praise indeed, but from what I've read by him its deserved.
Respiracion Artificial by Ricardo Piglia

The Buenos Aires Affair by Manuel Puig.

A volume of Keats' letters edited by Julio Cortázar

and, most excitingly, the last remaining copy of 62: Modos para Armar also by Cortázar, in all of Buenos Aires. Or at least in the fifteen bookshops I looked in. Cortázar's work is being re-edited in Spanish which means that for next few months it'll be really difficult to get ahold of. If there is a better feeling in the world than searching for a favourite book that you've previously lost and the finding it in the last shop of the day at five to eight when it shuts at eight, especially when at first they say they don't have it but then find it in the display window then I don't want to know about it.

All of which means I have plenty to be getting on with. Constructing some new shelves for a start...

Kit

PARTY

I'm going to a posh party tonight (The Wallace Collection to celebrate Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize for Literature) and I think I will not know many people, but at least Gary Pulsifer of Arcadia will be there and has promised to rescue me. It's one that the establishment of publishing will be at in force, and they have little idea of how the independents survive and spend their time.

So, in my handbag are a pair of very high plum suede shoes which I share with my sixteen year old daughter (we have the same size feet exactly) - except she can walk in them and I can't really. On GMTV this morning I caught a glimpse of a competition they are doing for Mother and Daughter modelling contracts. There was Jerry Hall with Georgia Jagger - hmm I think, Georgia should be doing her mocks today. I think it was a pre recorded clip though. Somehow I don't think my daughter and I will be competition - for a start I am nowhere near five foot eight.

All day, I've battled to find a 300 dpi image for the cover of Feather Man - eventually located - imported into InDesign and print quality cover PDF exported. Kit is in Argentina, Rebecca is recording two songs on XFM radio with her band, and Alice is in next week, so I'm alone here. Good news is that a bank transfer of what Publishers Weekly would call a 'nice' five figure sum arrived and is now safely in our UK bank account. So we're OK for a while, BUT the Spring books are key - The Concubine of Shanghai by Hong Ying is due from the printers on Monday and we have 5000 advance orders. That, for an independent, is bloody brilliant.

Catheryn

New covers and eclectic philosophy

Eagle eyed website visitors will have noticed that The Concubine of Shanghai has changed her spots. It has gone from this:

to this:


The work of our previously mentioned new designer. That is Hong Ying herself on the cover. Yet another one of our authors with the ability to leave me red faced and toungue tied.

Much better to stay hidden reading eclectic philosophy. Upon which subject there was a review of Blue Sky Thoughts in the Guardian last weekend.
And I'm on holiday for a week, yay! January was a month in which we had the full complement of people for just a single day.
Kit

Catalogues, as far as the eyes can see...

We have a new catalogue! It came in on Friday, and went out the next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And is, indeed, still going out. To make the arrival even more nerve racking we got a last minute phone call from the printer on the day they were supposed to be printing saying he thought we'd got our measurements wrong. Now 'twas I who did those measurements originally so if 3000 copies of our most important sales tool were about to turn up unusable, it was going to be squarely my fault. My hands actually shook before cutting into the first box.

They were fine.* Good even. Striking, different, one hopes. The front cover depicts the image from Banquet of Lies with definitions of translation (reflection, combination,transformation) written colourfully in our new designer Alice's (I wonder if she'd like to blog? I'll ask next week) sprightly hand. Inside you will find interviews with not our front list authors BUT our frontlist translators. The spearhead of our efforts to publicize the importance of translated fiction.

The week was of course spent sending them to everyone we know, the Big List came out, the one that in theory everyone we meet gets added to immediately that it seems to us they might be interested. And then it was the monotony of take, open,shove, 2 militres saliva, 10 grams pressure, address, 10 more grams pressure, stamp (the royal kind), stamp (the ink kind), flick of the wrist. This last because rather than piling envelopes up neatly it seems far more fun to see how high a pile of envelopes can be built from two and a half metres away. I find this fun because I am a boy. I think Rebecca, who is not, found it thoroughly annoying.

And so now they're out. All except foreign ones and all the people who were left off the Big List. Should anyone find themselves in this unfortunate situation please let us know and we'll flick a copy thuswards.

Some news:

The splendiferous Vulpes Libris have done a review of This May Help You Understand the World , which is still doing very well.

The Spectator gave a brief mention to The Bookaholics Guide... in an article on books on the internet.

And on Monday, hopefully, we welcome back Catheryn. Whose birthday it was yesterday, should anyone like to send us cake. We can offer impeccably measured translation themed catalogues in return.

Kit

*It is, of course, unlikely that if there had been a problem, I would have mentioned it on the blog. I'd be cowering in shame somewhere, probably curled up under something, making a plan to fix things somehow.

Cheerful and at home!

It's been raining all day and the garden has had a moving show of squirrels, pigeons, jays and thrushes, in addition to very noisy foxes last night, which makes a pleasant change from the view of the Wormwood Scrubs playing fields from the Hammersmith Hospital which has been my view for the past week.

So, on the mend now, and blasting instructions by phone to the hapless Rebecca, Kit and Alice, but we have books to get to press very shortly and every tiny details matters.

So, what did I read over eight long days in my ward prison? Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn, Stephen Clarke's A Year in the Merde, On Chesil Beach (do I need to tell you who it is by?) and a good chunk of Affluenza by Oliver James. The quiz at the start of Affluenza is interesting - and you will have to go find a copy to be enlightened, but I ticked YES to the first five boxes and then NO to all the rest. I think I can honestly say I have never had envy of anyone else's material possessions which I did not have the ability to obtain if I really wanted to. Lucinda Bruce's Aga photos in our new book, Victoria and Lucinda's Flavour of the Month is the closest I've got to it. So I do not think I am affected by the affluenza virus, but I love reading about it.

A Year in the Merde did make me laugh even though Stephen Clarke deserved to get some come uppance for his attitude to les femmes, and if this is how the French see us and how we see the French, then goodness knows how we have managed to co exist in this part of the world for so long. Do I see a battle of tea bags being lopped from Hastings at the French coast, only to have a volley of Cantal cheeses come back at us? Who knows.

I kept the Waterstone's 3/2 stickers on my books through my stay, so the huge amount of people passing my bed could see a) what good value books are and b) how unbored I was compared to the blank, head nodding people in most of the other beds. What a strange world! Books are the only way to fully engage your brain, relax your mind and body and survive, I think, and no screen, kindle or gadget comes close. We need a really, really good publicity campaign to encourage reading - all positive and full of bright colours and interesting thoughts and quotes. Come on Arts Council, government, whoever, it's all there for the taking! Publishers would co operate, and everyone would benefit.

Catheryn

If publishing didn't involve the production of books then one could get a lot done...

We're down one boss.

She's being very brave about a longer than expected stay in hospital, but it sounds horrible. Hopefully she'll be back next week or the one after.

Which means that there's a lot more to do around here, as, factoring in the importance of respective jobs, she makes up about 80% of the workforce.

But we're coping, it's just that I haven't got to a single New Year Email (You know the kind: all the ideas you've had whilst away, people you've realised you haven't contacted for a while, etc.) yet. Let alone a proper New Year Blog. Why do people insist that the books they buy include poncy things like punctuation, spelling and formatting? Ifbookswerejustbigblocksoftextmylifewouldbesomucheasier.* The editorial equivalent of Duplo.

Some more reviews; Two more for The Bookaholics' Guide:


Monsters and Critics

and

Curled Up.com

and one for Enlightenment

at the wonderful

Vulpes Libris


As always, we appreciate all coverage.

*I am being facetious. Please do not startsubmittingbigblocksoftextasIvaluemysanity.

Still busy...

By the time we've got through everything that needs to be done it'll be a new year all over again...

But here's some stuff:

Stewart at Booklit wrote a review of The Devil in the Flesh a little while back now. Apologies to Stewart for taking so long to flag it up, the whole process of getting him the books was far more difficult than it might have been. I reused an Amazon package that we had lying around the office only to receive it back a couple of weeks later after the post office had delivered it to Amazon rather than Stewart, Amazon kindly sending it back to us with a question mark. I now no longer reuse Amazon packages, which is a pity because they are potentially very useful. Oh, and when Stewart eventually did receive the package he pointed out that I had sent him different books to the ones that he'd asked for. Not at my best there.

There is an interesting post by the bibliophilic blogger about Witold Gombrowicz who needs an author page, although he uses a pretty old version of the cover of Pornografia , our one's much better:


and back to texts and alignments and covers and deadlines and catalogues and printers and authors and deadlines and indesign and sales and deadlines...

Kit

Happy New Year!

The only problem with holidays is all the work waiting for you when you get back...

But we've waited far too long to mention that the wonderful bookanine website Vulpes Libris has an interview with our MD Catheryn here.

Hopefully they'll be doing some reviews of our stuff later on this year as well.

I'd write more but it's late and I'm whining. Tomorrow hopefully.

Kit

Catheryn here. It's been a while since I blogged - my excuses are a flying visit to New York and Boston for our sales conference with Consortium, and a battle with my gall bladder, although in early January I have surgery after a four month wait. Yippee! I could write a book on the NHS, an institution starved of resources which we all rely on.

So, here is a little record of the Christmas messages which have pleased us the most. Firstly, a lovely embossed Moleskin notebook from the Hay Festival. The Hay Festival has been key in the making of our authors reputations - first, they agreed to take Elif Shafak when no one knew who she was, and she stunned an audience of 500 and has never looked back. Then Maureen Freely went this year, and loved it so much she stayed for five days (sorry Faber, I think you got the lion's share of a whopper of a hotel bill), and this year we hope to send Rhyll McMaster to Hay, to talk about Feather Man.

Today we had an email Christmas card from Waterstone's - yea! Retailers appreciate independent publishers! We certainly appreciate retailers, so it's good to feel loved back. Next, my HUGE desk diary from Haynes, who have just had their first order from us for printing. Now, I like cars as much as most women do (they are not exactly the stuff of my wildest dreams), and I am the only driver in my house, so I'm not sure what do with the monthly drawings of the innards of the Ford Zodiac etc, but the Appointments schedule at the back will be invaluable for book fairs. My computer crashed irrevocably one September and I had to painstakingly recreate my Frankfurt schedule from memory as I had not printed it out - never again!

So, have a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR, all you booky people out there.

Party!!

Christmas party that is, ours, tonight. Now, this may sound a rather optimistic proposition for an office of three people BUT not only are we now FOUR ( A new designer, we'll be able to show some examples of her work soon...), we invite other people to bring the numbers up to a jolly party.

And it's been a good year: Chocolate and Zucchini, Enlightenment, Four Walls, Touba and the Meaning of Night,thelistgoesonletsjustsayourbooks... all did well in very different ways and over an extended period of time, and This May Help You Understand the World is rocking around the Christmas tree at the moment. But even more exciting is the feeling that if this year was good, the next (touch wood)... could be... (are you still touching wood?) Great. Here's hoping...

Some odds and ends:

There is a new Pauline Kael author page as I mentioned.

A dialogue between two young women heard on the tube (commuting, I am currently discovering, is rather wonderful for catching up on both backlist and submissions, although it's hard to carry A4 sheets and a coffee at the same time. They sometimes end up entwined.):

'What did you think?'
'Yeah, I really liked it.'
'Really!?'
'Yeah, I really like it when people take history and then make it into a story, and that's what you've done'

At which point I reached my stop. I think I shall call it the discovery of the historical novel.

And thanks to 3AM and the British Council for their very different but equally enjoyable Christmas parties.

Kit

Stockhausen RIP

The sad news came over the weekend that Karlheinz Stockhausen has died. Fan or not, there's no doubt that he was one of the most distinctive figures in 20th Century music. he inspired many very different kinds of musicians and his electronic experimentation was especially innovatory.
Here's our author page and here's our book Stockhausen on Music.

Functioning at 65%...cough...64...cough...63...

The office is riddled with coughs and splutters today but too much has been going on recently not to leave some kind of post.

Firstly TV. Yes, that's right, we've got writers on it. Channel Fives' Cooking the Books kindly hosted two of our newest recruits: Victoria and Lucinda. Much excitement in the run up to this: hairdressers were visited and the phrase 'glammed up' used. You'll be able to see the results on Boxing Day 2007.

Secondly Maureen Freely took part in an event with Martin Amis and Ed Hussain on Monday night, a 650 seat sell out. Of course, the event was lent much of its piquancy by the fact that Amis has recently been portrayed as attacking all muslims everywhere – a story too eye catching to be dulled by looking at what the man actually said.
The event sounds like it was a good evening: a couple of accounts by those who were actually there:

Prospect Magazine

and
Liberal Conspiracy

and also Maureen's own account.


And thirdly: Congratulations to Clotilde Dusoulier whose Chocolate and Zucchini won the Best French Cuisine book in the UK section of Gourmand magazine's World Cook Book Awards 2007.

Kit