Snowbooks On Tour

Snowbooks has sent five of its authors off on a blog tour and today, they visit How Publishing Really Works.


Paula Brackston runs creative writing classes and workshops, is a script reader for a film company, and sells short stories. She lives half way up a Brecon Beacon with her partner and their two children, and is the author of The Book of Shadows, and the forthcoming Nutters and Lamp Black, Wolf Grey.

Andrew Sanger is an award-winning freelance journalist and travel writer. He has also written some thirty travel guides, and his novel The J-Word is published by Snowbooks.

Thomas Emson has been a singer-songwriter, an author, and a journalist. He lives in Kent with a wonderful woman, an elderly cat, and two house rabbits. His debut, Maneater, became a bestseller as did his second novel, Skarlet. He is writing numerous further books for Snowbooks.

Alastair Sim has published stories and playscripts in magazines, anthologies and on the web. The Unbelievers is one of two books which he wrote while on the University of Glasgow's prestigious MPhil Creative Writing course.

Fiona Robyn writes to help herself and other people to pay attention, and because she loves to. She writes a daily blog, a blog about being a writer, and has an excellent collaborative blog. She lives happily in rural Hampshire in the UK with her partner, her cats Silver and Fatty, and her vegetable patch. Her three novels, The Letters, The Blue Handbag and Thaw are all published this year.


Jane: How long did it take you to get published, and how many books did you write in that time?

Alastair: I've written three books, two of which have been published. Of the two published, it took just over two years for each of them to get from what I regarded as a market-ready manuscript to publication.

Andrew: It's worth mentioning first of all that I had had about 30 travel books published already before I wrote The J-Word. After what I'd heard about dealing with fiction publishers, I felt that I couldn't be bothered with them at all! So I planned to publish The J-Word myself, and was all set to go. But I was tempted to send the book to just one small publisher, because I really liked the look of them—it was Snowbooks. As you see, they wrote back that they wanted to publish The J-Word.

Fiona: I've written two books of poetry, one 'self help' book (A Year of Questions: How to Slow Down and Fall in Love with Life) and three novels. I published the first three myself and then Snowbooks said yes to all three of my novels, six years after I'd started to write the first one.

Paula: My non-fiction has been published since 1999, when I wrote a travel book, The Dragon's Trail about my month-long horse trek around Wales. I then started having pieces included in anthologies, and sold my short stories to magazines. But, from first page of first novel to publication of first novel (not the same book!) was nine years. I need to say that again. Nine years. In that time I wrote four novels and two screenplays.

Thomas: My first book was published in 1996 in the Welsh language. It was the first novel I wrote, but the second book—the first was a collection of short stories, which the publisher didn't want. But they asked me if I had a novel. I sort of did—half a novel, really. But I said yes. I quickly finished it, and they liked it. I've been lucky ever since with publishing - in Welsh and English.


Jane: What do you think you changed in order to get published, and how? Your writing, your editing, your attitude, or anything else?

Alastair: I've been lucky that my 2nd published book, Victorian detective novel of ideas 'The Unbelievers' found a very good publisher in Snowbooks (the first, 'Rosslyn Blood', ended up with an unprestigious American publisher who didn't market it). 'Unbelievers' found a better publisher because it's a better book—it reflects the intensive editing and peer-review input of having been developed when I was studying for an MPhil in creative writing, on the University of Glasgow course which has produced over fifty published novels and one Booker shortlisting.

Andrew: I think the real answer to 'What did I change?' is that I became willing to focus on the reader's point of view rather than my own.

Fiona: This might be controversial, but all that changed was my luck. I somehow felt more 'ready' to be published too, so maybe I was sending out different vibes. I do think it's vital that we constantly strive to improve our work, but I'm not convinced that there's always a direct correlation between how 'good' you are and how likely you are to get published.

Paula: During those long pre-published years I did an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University, which was sort of a statement of intent: 'I am a writer' kind of thing. I also had my two babies, and I do think that boosted my creativity. More practically, after all those hundreds of thousands of words it is just possible my writing got better.

Thomas: I didn't change anything, really. I've certainly learned with every book. Learned to be a better writer, hopefully. I've been a journalist for more than 20 years, so I'd been in the publishing world, if you like—I knew all about deadlines and getting the job done and working with other people—which you have to do even in a solitary job such as writing


Jane: What was the low point of your search for publication? A story involving humiliation or mortification would be good here!

Alastair: An agent I was keen to work with turned down 'Rosslyn Blood' because she 'couldn't see a market for a contemporary thriller around Knights Templar and the secrets of Rosslyn Chapel'. This was just months before 'The Da Vinci Code' came out....

Andrew: To be honest, I have been lucky. My problem is not with publishers but with agents. I still haven't got an agent and don't know how to get one.

Fiona: Searching for publication is a constant cycle of reaching out and disappointment, followed by a period of recovery. Depending on the disappointment, recovery can take five minutes or five months. I have got better at handling rejection, and this is a vital skill if you want to be a writer. I think we can be harder on ourselves than any publisher could possibly be.

Paula: Low point, you say? Hmm. Which to choose.… Having an agent who failed (in two years) to place any of my work? Being shortlisted for a crime-writing prize (which included publication) but not getting it? Maxing out all my credit cards with no sniff of a publishing contract? Fortunately, all these painful moments fade faster than a British suntan once you get your first book published.

Thomas: Oh dear! I don't have one, I'm afraid. I've been very, very lucky. When I decided to give up full-time work and focus on writing three years ago I did have low moments, thinking: This is never going to come off. Not because my work was being rejected, but because I was aware how difficult it was to get published. But I've got a wonderfully inspiring wife. And she, along with a dose of good luck, got me through.


Jane: What has been the high point of publication so far? And has it changed the way you see your writing career?

Alastair: Seeing 'The Unbelievers' face-out on the shelves at Waterstones, beside writers whom I admire and respect like C J Sansom. It confers a reality on the business of being a writer.

Andrew: The experience of seeing The J-Word in print, seeing people reading it, hearing people discuss it, was intoxicating, a dream come true. It has been exhilarating ever since. Having a novel published has totally transformed my view of my future. Above all, I feel that it's really worth plugging away at the new novel I am writing.

Fiona: Holding my first novel 'The Letters' in my hand, and seeing it in Borders with all the other real life books! And I'm always very happy to hear from satisfied readers. I have changed my ambitions since becoming published. I used to think I wanted glitzy awards and critical acclaim. I realise now that what I'd like more than anything is for 'ordinary readers' (whatever that means) to love my characters and to learn something about themselves from my books.

Paula: Holding my first copy of Book of Shadows in my hands for the first time. Seeing it on the shelves in Waterstone's. Watching its ratings go up (and down, and up!) on Amazon. Doing book-signing events. Finding my son's 'book' that he is now writing (aged 8) to be like Mummy. Giving my daughter (aged 6) a copy to take to school for Show and Tell. Shall I stop now?

Thomas: When Snowbooks said they wanted to publish Maneater. My first English-language novel. It gave me the confidence to think I could do this as a career. They keep publishing my books and keep making me feel very confident about my stories and my writing.


Jane: What single piece of advice would you give to new writers who are aiming at publication?

Alastair: You've got to combine a bizarre level of self-belief with a willingness to learn and revise, and revise again. Everyone else thinks you're a fantasist for wanting to be a writer—it's up to you to put the effort in which will prove them wrong.

Andrew: Picture a complete stranger reading your book, eagerly turning the pages.

Fiona: Be kind to yourself, and keep on going.

Paula: Don't give up!

Thomas: Write something. Finish something. So many people I speak to say they want to be a writer, but they can't find the time or can't think up a story. Well, without having something written, finished, you've got no chance. Once you've got a completed novel, you've got a chance then. You might need a bit of luck, maybe, getting someone to read it and then like it. But at least you've got something people might read—and like.


My thanks to all five writers for taking part, and to Emma Barnes of Snowbooks for sending them in my direction in the first place (and I do hope you’ve all remembered to subscribe to White Magazine, which is turning out to be a very good thing indeed).

Pitch Parlour

Here's an interesting new blog. Miss Pitch has probably shuffled more slush than she cares to remember. Send your work in, and then brace yourself.

Let me know if your work is showcased there, and I'll go and have a look.

Anti-Plagiarism Day: Friday 17 July

Just a little reminder to you all that on Friday I'll be blogging about plagiarism, and hope that some of you will write about it on your own blogs. If you've already written on the subject send me links (by email or in the comments to my plagiarism posts) and I'll edit them into my piece on the day.

Thank you!

Inside Publishing

There are several websites and blogs out there which provide concise, verified, useful information about the publishing business, and several more which send daily or weekly emails to their subscribers which are packed full of news about the publishing business. They're invaluable for writers, even those who aren't overly interested in the mechanics of publishing or in insider gossip.

I recognise that this is not an extensive list and it's very biased towards the UK, too: so I'd be very grateful if you could add recommendations of your own in the comments, complete with links and descriptions if possible so that I can edit them in here and build a really useful list. Thank you!


The fabulous AuthorScoop publishes a few posts each day, most of which are lists of links to publishing news and writing views. It's wonderful stuff and I'm very fond of it: if I'm not particularly disciplined AuthorScoop eats up whole days of my life.

BookBrunch sends out a good email roundup of publishing news and views daily, which is free: but if you want to read the full versions of each story on the BookBrunch website, you have to pay subscription fees.

Book2Book (also known as Booktrade Info) also rounds up publishing news stories and provides an email news service which anyone can subscribe to free of charge: unlike BookBrunch, however, Book2Book doesn't charge subscription fees to those who want to read the fuller story. Book2Book often links to publishing blogs: I've made their lists a few times now, and each time have enjoyed a very healthy boost to my viewing statistics as a result.

The Bookseller's website has a news section, a blog (which I've contributed to), job ads, rights sales, everything. It's sometimes criticised for being a little too staid but I don't think that's fair: it's thorough, demands meticulous, verifiable research from its contributors, and covers a lot of publishing ground. There is apparently an email update, which I have subscribed to but have never received. I don't think the problem lies with my spam-filter, but might well be wrong.

5th Estate is a blog written by editors, publishers and writers and is published by Press Books (a division of HarperCollins). It features book previews, opinion pieces and industry news, and, unlike some publishers' blogs, isn't wholly promotional.


Thanks to Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware! for providing me with the following links and information, which is mostly oriented toward the US market:

Publishers Lunch: For the "deluxe" version of this newsletter, you have to be a member of Publishers Marketplace, but the free version provides plenty of news and links.

Shelf Awareness is a free email newsletter for booksellers. It's bookstore-focused, but there are often fascinating tidbits of news here that you don't see elsewhere.

Publishers Weekly offers a number of free newsletters about the industry. I think you may need to be a PW subscriber to access these, though.

GalleyCat is a great resource for publishing news. You can also sign up for MediaBistro's Daily Media Newsfeed, which covers the media in general (not just publishing).

Happy Birthday To An Awfully Big Blog Adventure!

The gang of children's writers who write An Awfully Big Blog Adventure have decided to spend their blog's first birthday by celebrating children's books. They've promised that their party will include guest posts from industry professionals, a MASSIVE book giveaway, lots of comment and virtual cake; and it's all happening today.

I don't know what they're doing for you lot, but you can keep your hands off the free books and cake because it's all mine.

Bad Science And Bad Research

You might remember how I’ve decided to discuss logic and research here in an attempt to fight back against some of the very dubious argument techniques I've seen some writers rely on. And as that all sounds very dull and dry I'm getting things off to a nice gentle start today by suggesting a little reading, backed up with a great giveaway.

Dr Ben Goldacre writes a column for the Guardian called Bad Science in which he discusses the misuse and misinterpretation of science. One of his common themes is how the media frequently misrepresents scientific research in order to present a more sensationalist story and while we really should know what our politicians are up to and how our banks’ bosses are paid, the stories Goldacre covers are far more important to most of our daily lives. I’m astonished that his column isn’t more appreciated.

His Guardian articles also appear on his blog, which is a true delight: the discussions that evolve there are well-informed, articulate, reasoned and hilarious, and I usually learn more there about the truth of a story than from the news coverage I see all about me.

There is also a Bad Science book, which is a quick and funny read: but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s lightweight. It’s beautifully researched, meticulously referenced and jam-packed solid with advice and information for everyone who has ever marvelled at a newspaper story, or wondered why so many scientists seem to research such ridiculous things. And it’s all written in very clear and accessible language so it’s suitable for just about anyone, even those without a science background: my thirteen-year-old son is now reading my copy and is enjoying it immensely.

I have no doubt: if your writing depends on research in any way and you don't want to make yourself look foolish, this book is essential reading for you no matter what you’re researching: it discusses verifying data, interpreting data and how research should be structured, and warns against common misconceptions and mistakes.

I could go on about how this book makes science interesting, accessible and entertaining; or about how the fabulous Dr Goldacre meticulously unravels all the nonsense about supposed links between the MMR vaccine and autism; I could quote extensively from the book to make my point and make you laugh at the same time: the chapters about homeopathy and Gillian McKeith are riotously entertaining. But I won't do any of that. Instead I urge you to get your hands on a copy and read it for yourself, and there are two ways you could do this: you could go out and buy yourself a copy right now, or you could leave a comment here and tell me exactly why you deserve to be given one of the free copies which HarperPerennial has promised to provide to my readers.

The lucky winners will be selected a week from today from everyone who has commented on this post, and I’ll admit right now that I’m likely to be biased towards people who make me laugh, people who pay attention, and people who make sense. Those nice people at HarperPerennial will, of course, have some say in the matter so if you promote Bad Science and this giveaway in some way (on your own blogs, perhaps—remember to post links here or we won't know about your efforts), then that might well score you extra points.

Anti-Plagiarism Day: Friday 17 July

A few weeks ago I watched a nasty case of plagiarism unfold which involved some writers I’ve had close dealings with over the last few months.

One trusted, talented member of an online writing workshopping group went much too far when looking to his colleagues’ writing for inspiration, and ended up in deep and particularly dirty water. He won at least one cash prize with a plagiarised story, and there are possibly more out there which have not yet been discovered or acted upon.

His actions were hurtful and distressing to all the writers concerned. The plagiarised writers are terribly upset and understandably angry, while the plagiarising writer has lost the support and friendship of a valuable critique group and is unlikely to ever be published again by anyone who is aware of this whole ugly mess.

The plagiarising writer still insists that he did nothing wrong; I don’t think he’s even aware of how deeply he has hurt his friends and his own reputation, or of the corrosive effects that his actions will continue to have. I don’t think he had malicious intent: he just didn’t consider what he did to be stealing, and he still doesn’t seem to understand what is and isn’t acceptable when seeking inspiration.

I wish I could have made him aware of the facts before he went so far: it’s too late to help him now. However, it’s not too late for other writers and I’d like to try to reach some of them, with help from all of you.

I’m declaring Friday 17 July Anti-Plagiarism Day. On that day I’m going to blog about plagiarism, and I’d like you to do the same: on your own blogs, on message boards, on Facebook or Twitter: anywhere where writers congregate. If you don’t have a blog of your own but would like to get involved then email your piece to “hprw at tesco dot net”, with a subject line of “HPRW anti-plagiarism day”, and I’ll post it here. Send me links to your blog posts or message board discussions and I’ll edit them into my piece.

You can write about anything you like, so long as it’s based on plagiarism: what it is, what’s allowed and what’s not, famous cases of plagiarism, how it feels to be plagiarised, and what effects plagiarism can have (on both of the writers involved): anything which is plagiarism-related, honest, well-researched and properly informed.

I hope that by extending this theme across a lot of blogs and cross-linking between all the pieces we’ll create a network of articles and discussions about plagiarism which we can point to whenever we feel another writer is veering too close to the edge, or when a new writer asks why it’s wrong to “borrow”, or when an established writer grows lazy in her ways. We’ll reach writers who are unaware of the laws and conventions, or misinformed about them. And if in the future our work stops just one writer from making the same mistake my former friend has made, then we’ll have done a little bit of good.

Spread the word.

Selling Books To Book Shops (Part I)

The following article first appeared on my blog in October 2008, but thanks to my technical ineptitude it disappeared from view a couple of months ago. Here it is again. I hope it stays here this time!


Mainstream publishing houses employ sales representatives who work all over the country, visiting all the book shops they can find. Their publishers provide them with gorgeous colour catalogues to work from, which show all the books on their publisher’s lists; they use streamlined ordering systems which deliver books swiftly and efficiently, and usually the next day; and the book shops have accounts at their wholesalers or distributors, and so don’t have to pay for the books that they buy straight away, which gives them a chance to sell the books before they have to pay for them, and so gain a nice bit of positive cash-flow.

Independent presses often don’t have access to such sales teams. They might employ a sales agency to sell their books for them, and so increase their turnover that way—but there’s a fair amount of cost involved in this, and it’s not an option that the smallest independents can take. Once they’ve developed a good-enough reputation they are sometimes allowed to sneak in under a bigger publisher’s wing, which allows them to remain independent but still gives them access to the bigger publishers’ sales teams; this gives them that all-important nationwide representation, which invariably leads to a swift improvement in sales figures and, therefore, turnover (which is not the same as profit).

Self-publishers don’t have the option of employing a sales agency, or of persuading a big publisher to help them out with their sales (after all, if they could do that then they probably wouldn’t have self-published in the first place). The only way that they can realistically hope to get their books into bookshops is to sell them in there themselves, which means visiting each and every bookshop they can find. And even in a country as small as ours, that’s an awful lot of bookshops for one writer to visit, and a very unprofitable way to sell just one title.

The Author's Big Mistake

I thought that this novice writer's reaction to a poor review was bad. But last week Alice Hoffman claimed the prize for The Worst Ever Reaction To An Unfavourable Book Review by posting the reviewer's email address and phone number onto Twitter and encouraging her fans to harass the reviewer concerned.

In Hoffman's favour she has now apologised, and her Twitter account has been deleted: but I'm amazed that she saw fit to put someone else's personal information up on the internet in order to get others to make contact. It's an appalling thing to have done.

I loved Hoffman's book Blackbird House, and I've enjoyed a good few of her other titles, too. But as a direct result of this, I will not be buying any more of Alice Hoffman's books.

You can read a good account of this at the wonderful Galleycat; Gawker mopped into all the corners with screenshots of all of her terrible Tweets; The Book Maven told the story and added some more background about a previous Hoffman overreaction. You can read what Lynn Price (of Behler Publications) has to say about it here; Editorial Ass has picked up the story, too; AuthorScoop mentioned it; and (inevitably) it's now being discussed at Absolute Write.

In an attempt to be fair, I have to point out that Alice Hoffman isn't the only writer to spew her objections to a bad review onto the internet. Anne Rice introduced her new and exciting paragraph-free style when she objected to an Amazon review of one of her books, while Laurell K Hamilton took us Christmas shopping for her characters and along the way revealed how much work her editors have to do.

This kind of reaction to a review has been called The Author's Big Mistake for a very good reason: it can't change the review, and the results are going to hang around for an awfully long time (as is shown by the links I've given above). If an author is determined to respond to a bad review but would like to keep some dignity intact, then the only possible course of action is to thank the reviewer for his or her time, and hope that they like the next book better. It's possible to do this with grace and style, as was ably demonstrated when I reviewed a book called We'll Always Be Pals on my other blog, The Self-Publishing Review. I wasn't terribly keen on the book but its author, Tom McManus, left a few very gracious comments, including this:

It's all good Jane, everyone is entitled to their own opinions and you have yours. I am not hurt by it. As you know, when you put something out there like a book, you take the good and the not so good in stride.

I just wish that Alice Hoffman had spoken with Mr McManus before she visted Twitter. She could have learned a lot.

But the last word here must go to John Scalzi, who has written an excellent analysis of The Author's Big Mistake. Some people are indeed crazy screechy monkeys, and some writers are asstards.


Edited to add some more linky heaven:

Thanks to Daniel Blythe, here's another writer reacting to a poor review. She's switched off the comments to her blog so there are no reactions there: we'll just have to make up for that here.

Pub Rants has now blogged about it too.

These ones come courtesy of AuthorScoop:

When Richard Ford shot Alice Hoffman's book: "it's not like I shot her." That's OK then.

There are some scary stories about more writers who have overreacted to bad reviews at The Salon.

And here Alain de Botton reacts to a very negative review. I've not read the book, but I am backing slowly away: here it's the reviewer who scares me the most.

Arrghhh!

I'm SO frustrated. Not one of the posts I'd scheduled for this week has appeared, and each time I try to post anything else those posts just don't appear. I'm trying to update my blog once more (having finally managed to make a new review appear at my self-publishing review blog), and if this post appears here I'll be thrilled.

If my silence continues, please don't think I've gone away: it's my youngest son's ninth birthday this weekend and we have many festivities planned; I'm struggling to get anything published here; and I'm working on two absolutely cracking proposals, and if either or both of them get picked up I'll be dancing like a mad woman: you have been warned.

Talk amongst yourselves while I try to get this sorted. Like Arnie, I'll be back.

Guest Review: Ron Carlson Writes a Story

I'd not come across this book before Caleb J Ross submitted his review, and it's a real treasure: I strongly recommend it. If you have your own favourite book about writing or publishing do please consider sending me a review, and I'll put it up here as soon as my schedule allows.


Instead of waxing on aspects of craft or grammar as so many instructional writing books do, Ron Carlson’s (author of the collections At the Jim Bridger and A Kind of Flying among many others) Ron Carlson Writes a Story opts for a focus on the process of organically discovering a narrative. Using his story, “The Governor’s Ball,” as the book’s foundation, Carlson takes the reader on his journey from word one to THE END, emphasizing the discovery above the planned technical route that many of us may be used to.

Carlson champions this organic process of discovery, rooted by what he calls a “collision,” which is an idea, event, anything that strikes his attention in a memorable way. This is the seed of a story, pre-outline, pre-pen to paper. In the case of “The Governor’s Ball,” this collision is between the actual event of Mr. Carlson losing a mattress from the back of his truck during a move, and an actual governor’s ball that the author and his wife attended years ago. Now, with this seed, or collision, where does he go?

Carlson dismisses detailed outlines and otherwise structure in favor of the story’s already present inventory. As he says, “I’m constantly looking for things that are going to help me find the next sentence, survive the story”. Simply put, he promotes using every word laid down as an inventory of possibilities for following words, until reaching the end of the story. Seems logical, and it is. But so often forgotten.

Ron Carlson Writes a Story is not a typical Writer’s Digest, prepackaged how-to. This is something useful, something with the potential to truly influence a writer’s storytelling abilities, but beware of control, As Ron Carlson says, “Writing is exploration, it isn’t neat”.

Caleb J Ross has published fiction and non-fiction all over, most recently in Flint Hills Review, Vestal Review, and online in Dogmatika, No Record Press, Word Riot, 3:AM Magazine, and Cherry Bleeds. He is the co-editor of Colored Chalk and a co-editor for the Guild of Outsider Writers. He loves ACID cigars.

Editors And Publishers

Just about every publishing company has its own website, which you can find without too much trouble: the ones that I've listed here are those which seem particularly useful to me, or particularly interesting. If you have your own personal favourites and don't see them here, do let me know so that I can add them to the list.

The Abbeville Manual of Style is exquisite. Read it every day.

Behler Publications is an independent publishing house founded and run by Lynn Price, who comments frequently here. Behler used to have a Blogspot blog but has now turned to the dark side and gone over to Wordpress. Both blogs are worth trawling through, as they're dense with information.

Bluechrome, independent publisher of lovely literary fiction, short stories and poetry, blogs. Which is just as well because lovely though Bluechrome is, I can barely read its website because of the colours of the text.

Ebury Publishing has a blog, a balcony garden, and a lot of lovely books. Each time I see pictures of the balcony garden I wonder how long it'll be before the whole thing plunges off the face of the building, ripped away by the weight of all those sodden grow-bags. But the strawberries do look wonderful.

Editorial Anonymous is the blog of an American children's book editor who blogs almost daily about the publishing business, what editors and agents want to see from writers, or cake. It's a winning combination.

Editorial Ass is the blog of a New York-based editorial assistant who writes about her work and her life. It's funny, informative and insightful. Lovely.

Little, Brown's blog is little more than a catalogue of its forthcoming titles and various author events: I would do so much more with it, and I'm afraid it's a missed opportunity for them.

Me And My Big Mouth is Scott Pack's blog. You'll find lots of reviews there, lots of talk, and a fair amount of publishing information and gossip too. Mr Pack used to run Waterstone's, and now he runs The Friday Project, which is an imprint of HarperCollins.

Monday Books publishes mostly non-fiction with a slant towards politics, satire and memoir, and all of the Monday Books titles that I've read have been bloody brilliant.

The Penguin Blog has some interesting content related to its books and I like it: but I found little there concerned with writing or publishing.

Picador, which is part of Pan Macmillan, blogs.

Salt Publishing specialises in publishing anthologies of short stories and poems, and I've not yet read a bad collection from them. Gorgeous books, the lot of them.

Snowbooks. Beautiful books, lovely people, and a great blog.

Two Ravens Press publishes lovely literary fiction, and has a very interesting blog.

Applying For Arts Council Funding

My thanks to Daniel Blythe for this piece.



I've applied for four Arts Council England grants in my life—three between 2000-2005 for community-based arts projects (two successful, one not) and one in 2008 for my own writing development (successful).

1. Read everything you can about Arts Council grants on their website.

2. You don't have to be a published writer. What you do need to do is to demonstrate that the project you are undertaking is a "literary" contribution and that it represents a turning-point in your career—that completing this work will enhance your artistic career and take it off in an interesting direction. In my case it was my first novel for children after fifteen years of writing for adults. In the case of a friend who was also awarded a grant, it was his first full poetry collection, for which he already had an offer to publish.

3. Give your local Arts Council office a call and talk through your idea for a project with one of the development workers. They want to help you and should be able to tell you if it sounds viable or not.

4. If they sound at all enthusiastic about it, then go to the "funding" page at the Arts Council website and download their application form and notes.

5. Be absolutely sure you know what the budget for your project is going to be. If this is going to be a book or script you are working on at home, this will include things like what proportion of utility bills you will be using, your stationery costs, etc.

6. You need to find 10% of the cost yourself, and be very clear where this is coming from. I funded mine through my private work teaching and critiquing manuscripts.

7. At some stage, talk to someone else who has done an Arts Council grant application. I found it very valuable to speak to another published writer who had just received notification that his application was successful. He let me look at his application and supporting statement so I could see an example of something which had got the nod.

8. If you want a quick response, go for one of the smaller grants (less than £5,000), as they turn those around within three months. A larger one (£5,000 and over) will take six months.

9. One tricky thing on the application is the question of the numbers of artists, participants and audience. This is easy-ish to answer if you are putting on a play or a community writing project. It's not so easy if you are writing a book and don't even have an offer to publish yet, let alone any idea of the print-run. If you've been published before, then I can only suggest working out the audience from what a reasonable print-run would be based on your previous career. If you haven't, then I'd suggest asking a published writer or the Society of Authors for advice.

10. Sometimes, the Arts Council will come back after the application is in and ask you for more information on your project outside the boundaries of the application form—this is usually a good sign. It happened to me and I ended up writing an extra 1000 words on the project. I was grateful for this opportunity—I thought it could only be a good thing, and I was right.

11. You are more likely to get the award if you seem professional, focused and on top of your material. Woolly, vague applications are no good. Also be able to say exactly how long it will take you and how you will evaluate it at the end.

12. If you are successful, you may be asked to do some publicity. I've not been asked to do an awful lot. I was featured in some local newspaper articles and I have been happy to put an Arts Council Funded logo and link on my website. I wasn't asked to do the latter, but it just seemed polite. And of course I will mention the grant in the Author's Note at the start of the book, if and when it is published.

Reported Sales: Selling In vs. Selling Through

There are two different levels of sales for books: the numbers that sell from publisher to bookshop; and the numbers which sell on from bookshop to reader.

That first number, which is usually referred to as the sell-in figure, is always the higher of the two, because a few books will always get lost, stolen or damaged; and so long as returns are allowed, many of those books will eventually find their way back to the publisher: sadly, returns rates of 30 or 40% are not unusual.

The number of books sold from bookshops to readers is usually called the sell-through, or the sell-on, and it's a very different thing. Readers tend not to return books unless the pages fall out as they turn them, or a segment of the book is bound the wrong way around. As the second figure is more fixed than the first it is a far more reliable indicator of a book’s real sales, even though it is usually much lower.

So while publishers will often use the sell-in figure to trumpet a book’s success, writers should not rely on it when estimating what their royalties are going to be like, as those will usually be calculated from sales figures even lower than the sell-through, thanks to the joy of the reserve against returns. Which deserves a whole series of posts of its own!

Reader's Reports

When an agent or an editor requests a reader's report on a manuscript which has been submitted to them, they'll usually send those reports onto the writer once they've made a decision about the manuscript concerned, whatever that decision is—and whatever the reader has reported.

Reader's reports often contain some strong criticism and discuss the manuscript in very frank terms, and if you're not able to deal well with constructive criticism they can be very painful to read. But if you're keen to make your work the best it can possibly be, and can overcome the initial disappointment and hurt that you might feel, these reports can be extremely helpful: they focus closely on a manuscript's flaws and so make very clear how it could be improved.

Reader's reports are very valuable tools for a writer who is serious about improving his craft, but agents and editors only ever request reader's reports on a tiny proportion of submissions: the ones which show real promise. And as most submissions are rejected a long way before a reader’s report is even considered, relatively few writers will ever get to see one.