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.