We’re into that time of year again. Story time. With the
cold weather and the long evenings we could do worse than read a good book - or
even write one.
The autumn colours have been glorious near us. I think
because of the dry summer the leaves have actually changed colour before
they’ve dropped. Beautiful reds, browns yellows pinks and even blues everywhere.
Now that we’ve put the clocks back it gets dark really
early. But doesn’t that make the late
afternoon and evening cosy?
News about my writing
I'm concentrating
on Peace Child 4 at the moment and my
book about the dark side of children's literature – which is making me read a
lot and also reread several works I’ve read before. I’ve put Schellberg 5 on hold for the moment. Peace Child 4 is still proving tricky
but it’s getting there. I’m about half way through the first rewrite. The
trouble is, as I rewrite I find more things wrong with it. Oh hum.
Paying for submissions
We’re definitely
not planning to charge you for submitting to of our imprints. However, I have
raised it on one of the writers’ forums that I run. We all agree: whilst we
accept a reasonable payment for a competition entry as it adds to the prize
money and pays for the judges we don’t think we should ask writers to pay for
ordinary submissions. I note on my opportunities list that some opportunities
that were free are now charging. I
suspect this is because they are using Submittable, a very clever piece of
software that easily keeps track of submissions both for publishes and writers.
However it is expensive. So we won’t be using it just yet. We’ll only start
using it when we don’t need to pass the cost on to writers. I’m gradually
pulling off the list the publishers who charge. If you come across one on the
list that is charging, and it offends you, please let me know.
Catalogue of books for children
I’ve added several titles to this over the last. It is
growing apace. You can find it here. Do take a look if you’re into children’s
books.
Useful links for writers
1940s Group
Just a reminder: this
is a Facebook group for all people who write about the 1940s. Fiction
and non-fiction, for young and old. Topics might then be: the Holocaust, World War
II, Civilian Experience (all sides) and the battle front. We can exchange ideas
about research and marketing. We may promote books and stories, - the last day
of every month and on launch / release day.
Of course, with my
Schellberg Cycle I'm constantly in that world.
Dreamteam
I’ve added Grant
Boreham in as a proof-reader.
Find Grant and
other members here.
This is a personal recommendation. Initially I intend to use
my Dream Team a lot myself but gradually I would add in people that friends and
friends of friends have recommended.
What happens?
You sign up to a mailing list and every time a request comes
in we mail it out to you or the enquirer contacts you directly via my web site.
The conversation then carries on between you and the person making the request.
You may also have a page set up on my blog and you may update that once a
year.
Interested? You may sign up for more than one category.
Beta readers sign up here.
Reviewers sign up here.
Editors sign up here.
Illustrators sign up here.
Designers sign up here.
Proof-readers sing
up here.
DO REMEMBER THAT
AT ANY TIME YOU’RE APPROACHED AND YOU’RE BUSY IT’S PERFECTLY FINE TO SAY NO.
News from all of our writers
Mary Bevan reports that she won second prize in the Henshaw Short
Story comp. The story will be published in their anthology next year. Also, one
of her prose poems was chosen for inclusion in SOUTH 58, the poetry magazine of
the Southern Counties.
Alison Faye reports that she is proud that her 6000 word short story, 'Mr
Dandy' set in 1920's Birmingham (Yes, 'Peaky Blinders' terrain) is out to buy
on amazon as a download or as a paperback. - please support independent presses
like The Infernal Clock- and consider buying a copy and if you do please leave
a review- as reviews matter so much to us writers.
Do keep sending news like this and remember to supply a link
to where reader can buy the book.
Bridge House
Crackers is out with authors for proofing now. The book trailer is almost
finished. Exciting times.
We’re still getting
plenty of interest in our single-author collections. These are now only for
authors we’ve published before and they may include stories we’ve already
published, ones they’ve had published elsewhere and new ones. The description for
this is now on the web site. http://www.bridgehousepublishing.co.uk/index.php/single-author-collections
You may recycle stories we’ve already included in another anthology, and
you may reedit these if you wish. You may also add in new stories. We’re aiming
at a total word count of between 30,000 and 70,000 words.
Your work will go through three stages of editing, and will
be proof-read twice in-house. We design the book and the cover. We hook it up
to all the distributing channels and we complete first-level marketing. We are
risking all of this on you as well as the set-up costs and the copies to the
British Library and legal deposit agency.
You’ll probably not get rich quick: anthologies by new
authors do not sell in big numbers initially. Each month we post to a dropbox
information about books’ performance. A link is sent with the monthly
newsletter. See below for how to access this newsletter.
We have a huge backlog so please be patient. You can always
check our progress at: http://apublishersperspective.blogspot.co.uk/p/work-flow.html
CaféLit
I’ve actually
scheduled a couple of my own stories this month. One will appear in a few days’
time. The other is in the Christmas run. This rather reminds me of how I came
to set up Bridge House in the first place. As an alternative to all of those
letters that people sent out at Christmas, I started including short stories
with the Christmas cards. I then had the idea that it might be nice to put them
together into a book and make a kind of Advent Calendar. But that would take me twenty-four years to
complete. So, I invited others in. Now
Bridge House produces an annual anthology that contains twenty-four stories. Debz
and I no longer contribute as writers.
Story Goes Missing that will appear on CaféLit on 24 December
may seem like a story for children at first and children will understand it at
face value. Adults will probably
understand it in another way. Isn’t that after all how all good fairy / folk
stories work?
The story that’s
appearing later this month is there because CaféLit came to the top of my list
for places to submit work. Oh, yes, I still submit to other publishers though
it may seem bizarre submitting to myself. Never mind. It works.
Some delightful news about The Best of CafeLit 7. Paula Readman
took a copy to her friend who is now in a nursing home and asked her if she
would like to read the book. Paula and
another from their writing group have stories in the collection. Paula’s friend
took a look at the book and said: “Yes,
I will. The font is just the right size.” So pleased we’re getting this right.
Stories are now
all being posted at 4.00 p.m. Afternoon Teatime, Kaffee and Kuchen time and
it's also when the kids are home from school. Just the right time for a cuppa
and a good story.
In October we had stories from: Mehreen Ahmed, Alison Allen,
Peppy Barlow, James Bates, Lynn Clement, David Deanshaw, Jo Dearden, Richard C
Elder, Jacqueline Ewers, Iris Green, Jospeh Isaacs, Nerisha Kemraj, Dawn Knox, Mark
Kodama, Keelan LaForge, Kim Martins, Roger
Noons, Hannah Retallick, Bruce Rowe,
Phyillis Souza, Allison Symes, Alun Williams and Robin Wrigley.
Highest performing posts were:
by Hannah Retallick 623
by Mehreen Ahmed 250
by Mark Kodama 189
By Dawn Knox
French
Press 158
by Joseph Isaacs
Also over 100 are Alison Allen, Jo Dearden, Keelan LaFforge,
Kim Martins, Allison Symes and Alun Williams,
Facebook no longer allows me to schedule posts. Hannah
actually queried why I hadn’t posted her piece on the Facebook page. I explained than now that I cannot schedule
them there it often seems redundant if I see the story is already doing well.
If when I go to my editor’s dashboard I see that a story has fewer than 20
hits, I put it on my own Twitter feed and the Facebook page.
I explained to Hannah how our stories are spread:
- 36 people have signed up to have the stories fed from the blog site
- I tweet about the site from time to time
- some members visit daily or when they have time
- authors make efforts – blog, website, FB, email signature, word of mouth
- casual readers come across the site
- one story being read leads to another
It seems she took this on in spades. She is one of our
all-time “best-sellers”.
Maybe you could all share your ideas of how to make us more
visible and tell us what you do?
You can read all of the stories here.
Here's a reminder of how we select stories: I open my inbox
and I'll often see four or five submissions. I'll select the best of the bunch
and schedule it for in a few days' time. I'll let you know. I may reject one or
two but ones that are basically sound I'll keep forever or until they’re
published. Consequently if one you've
submitted to us has not been rejected, and you find a home for it elsewhere,
let us know the name of the story and the date you submitted and we'll remove
it from the archive. Try to include the drink each time. Do put CaféLit in the
subject line so we can identify your submission. Remember to include your bio
(50-100 words including links for longer stories, just links for 100 words or
less) each time. I haven't got time to look up an old one and in any case your
bio is probably changing all the time.
.
We're always open
to submissions. Find out to submit here. Remember,
this gives you some exposure, you can add in a short CV each time, and there's
always the chance that your work might be accepted for the annual anthology.
We have some
seasonal opportunities coming up now:
Autumn in general
Guy Fawkes
11 November – end
of World War I
Winter
Christmas
New Year
Valentine's Day
Spring
So, get writing.
On offer for
CaféLit authors is a page on our web site. See examples here. The list is growing. Click on the names to
find out more about the authors and to access their work. If you're a CaféLit
author and would like a web page, use the ones there to get ideas. You need to
send me between 250 and 350 words about yourself, an attractive image, a list
of up to six publications, up to six awards and up to six links. I then also
link the page to your stories on CaféLit. Send to gill at cafelit dot co dot
uk.
Chapeltown
We’re very excited to have produced out first hardback
highly-illustrated book Magical
Christmas. We’re just waiting to get the proof back from the printer. These are folk stories from around the world
produced by brother and sister Karda Zenkő (artist) and Szabő Eniko (writer).
To celebrate this I am offering, at my own expense, ten
copies of this book in a beautiful package with other goodies. First come, first
served.
And of course, I hope you’ll give us a review.
Our Chapeltown
authors continue to be very proactive in promoting their work. They have
managed to get their books into shops and libraries. They are also buying lots
of author copies and are getting on to blogs – mine included, of course.
We’re still interested in producing flash collections but
only by authors we’ve already published on CaféLit or in a Bridge House
anthology or who already have a collection out with Chapeltown.
Creative Café
The month I’ve
added the Poetry Café in London. See it here
. Some of you, especially the poets amongst you, are probably familiar with
this establishment. It encapsulates exactly what the Creative Café project is
about – and it’s been going for long before our project began.
Keep sending
suggestions and review them if you can.
Café s might
further support the project in the following ways.
- I could provide you with flyers about The Creative Cafe Project and CafeLit
- You could have the ezine up and running for people to browse and search – they should pick stories according to the drink they fancy!
- run an event on writing for Cafelit
- hold an event for local writers published by CafeLit
- stock some of anthologies (they are available through normal distributors)
- host a Writer in Resident – see http://www.creativecafeproject.org/search/label/writers%20in%20residence / http://www.creativecafeproject.org/search/label/Writer%20in%20Residence
- host a readers’ event where readers all read the same anthology and then talk about two or three favourite stories
Do you have any further
suggestions?
I'm continuing my
tour of creative cafés where I collect stories for an anthology. In some cases,
writers may offer them and in others customers may tell me their story and I'll
write it for them. Do you know of a café that might be interested in this? Let
me know if you do.
Remember you can
now buy merchandise for the Creative Café project. The profit on anything you
buy here goes to the Creative Café Project. Check this out here.
We’re always
looking for new cafés. If you visit one
of the cafés in the project
and would like to write a review of between 250 and 350 words – nice, too, to
have a couple of pictures – send it to me here.
Do the same if you find a new café.
The Red Telephone
I have some books now lined up to read. I'm particularly
interested in near-futures speculative YA fiction.
Facebook Group for the Imprints
Scribblers Sans Frontières - Here you can:
·
Discuss all technical issues re our books
·
Exchange marketing ideas
·
Advertise and report on your events
·
Promote any of your titles or successes
·
Share good practice and ideas
·
Get help with writing problems
·
Anything else appropriate
The page URL is https://www.facebook.com/groups/185719828704485/
Please come and join us if you're
eligible. Or you can ask me to sign you up.
School Visits
I’m proactively promoting my school visits associated with The House on Schellberg Street
project. I’ve now developed a whole workshop for this. It starts off with a
board game, includes some role play and creative writing and ends with a
discussion.
It is now possible to purchase the kit to work on on your
own. Find details here.
Costs for my workshops = travel expenses plus £400 for a
full day and £200 for a half day. This includes all materials and some
freebies. Two schools near to each other might consider splitting the day and
halving the travel expenses and fees. This is open to negotiation in any
case.
I also offer a free half day visit, though you pay my travel
expenses, if you allow me to promote my books.
I’m continuously adding materials for schools to the site
that are different from the ones I use for the workshops. I’ve recently added
in resources and books to do with the topic. See them here:
Query for a school visit here.
I’m also happy to tailor a visit for your agreed donation.
This can be for either a Schellberg Cycle
visit or a creative writing workshop. Any monies raised this way will go
specifically to a project I have for a non-fiction book about a journey that
will follow the footsteps of Clara
Lehrs. I’m hoping to do the whole journey by train, including departing via
my nearest Metrolink station. It’s important to feel the rails beneath my
feet.
I offer as well standard author visits which include
readings from my books, Q & A sessions and creative writing exercises.
Please remember, with these as well, I’m open to negotiation
if you can’t afford the full price.
Free listing for our writers
If you are one of
our writers and would like to offer school visits, please contact me. I'm
offering a free listing on the imprint pages.
State: age groups
you are prepared to work with, a definition of your work, distances you are
prepared to travel. Appropriate links. Please provide an image.
Upcoming events
Waterloo Festival Writers’ Workshop
If you’re already published by us you may not need this but
you would still be welcome. On the same day as our celebration event we are
running a workshop for people who want to enter the Waterloo Writing
Competition. Debz and I will be running this together. You can find details
here: https://www.waterloofestival.com/shortstory
London Event
London event 1
December 2018
Just a few places
left now.
Places are free
but must be booked: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celebration-event-tickets-48762320413
This will follow
our normal pattern of events.
There will be:
- general mingling
- cash bar
- an opportunity to buy books at an advantageous rate
- “speed-dating” where you get to speak to as many people as possible in the room i.e. promote yourself to readers, swap tips with other writers
- author readings
- latest news from me
- collection for the Mustard Seed charity
- big book swap (bring one of your other titles and take something else home – hopefully all will be reviewed. If you bring a non-writing friend they can just bring a book they love)
Scribblers Celebration Event
YOU DON'T NEED TO
BE AVAILBALE ON 23 DECEMBER TO JOIN IN.
https://www.facebook.com/events/528939584193914/
23 December 14.00 – 17.00 GMT. Do come even if you can't come at that time.
Items will be added to before and after that time.
This is for all
those people who cannot attend the event on 1 December; perhaps you live too
far away or you have something else on. You can attend outside of those times
but it will be live then.
Take a look at my
blog post about cyber events: http://apublishersperspective.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-on-line-launch.html
There is also a chapter about this in my book on marketing: So Now
You're Published, What Next?
This gives you
some idea about how this all works.
In addition, I ask
that everybody who attends offers a secret Santa. This could be a physical gift
that you send to one other attendee. One of your books, a notebook with your book
cover or coffee mug. Or you could offer
a one-off service such as a critique of a short story. Or you may offer a file that I'll put into a
dropbox and you could expect multiple downloads. This could be a mobi or PDF of
one of your books, an audio file, an excerpt, or a tip sheet.
Would you like to
make a short video of you reading?
Current reading recommendation
Most of this month
I’ve been making my way through a huge book set in ancient Egypt and written in
Spanish. It is fiction but introduces us
to a lot of fact about this era. It’s particularly interesting for me as I
write historical fiction based on true facts - see my Schellberg cycle.
I’m also currently
reviewing a YA book in which the pace is so fast I feel dizzy.
This just leaves
one other, a book I read for my book club. Fortunately it was an excellent novel: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Alexander
Rostov is under house arrest and lives in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. We get
to know him well and see that he is indeed a gentleman. Russian history plays
out in the background and he seems to live in a protective bubble. It gradually
becomes clear, however, that he is far wiser than we at first believe.
The text engages throughout. The ending is both upbeat and
surprising. Give it a try.
Find it here.
Calling all writers
I'm running an occasional series of interviews on my blog.
If you would like to be on my blog just answer the questions
below and send them with appropriate images to gill dot james at btinternet dot
com.
Please feel free to pick and choose which of these to
answer.
1.
What do you write? Why this in particular?
2.
What got you started on writing in the first place?
3.
Do you have a particular routine?
4.
Do you have a dedicated working space?
5.
When did you decide you could call yourself a writer?
Do you do that in fact?
6.
How supportive are your friends and family? Do they
understand what you're doing?
7.
What are you most proud of in your writing?
8.
How do you get on with editing and research?
9.
Do you have any goals for the future?
10. Which
writers have inspired you?
Please write as much or as little as you like for each
section and supply as many pictures as you like. Also let me know your latest
publication and supply me with a link if it's not on Amazon.
I 'm also happy to offer you a post whenever you have a new
book come out, even if I'm not your publisher. In this case answer the
following questions:
- Tell me about your book.
- Tell us about your research for this book.
- What inspired you to write this?
- What's next?
- How can we get a copy of the book?
- Do you have any events planned?
Again write as much or as little as you please. Alter and
add to the questions if you wish. Provide as many pictures as you wish.
Send to: gill dot james at btinternet dot com
Giveaway
It’s that time of
the year and I’m giving a lot away! Four opportunities in fact:
- Last month’s giveaway is still accessible. Sign up to have this letter deliverd to your inbox (see below) to get the link to the dropbox where you will also find:
·
An
extract from Clara’s Story
·
Some
seminars for schools about The House on
Schellberg Street
·
Some
fiction writing exercises
·
The
opening chapters from my manual for writing the young adult novel
- At my own expense I’ll supply you with up to ten copies of Citizens of Nowhere. You might like to send one to your MP or you might want to sell a few to support an appropriate charity. Note: contributors will still get royalties.
- See what I said under Chapeltown about Magical Christmas.
- A paperback copy of my language learning book: The Complete Guide to learning a Language.
Just email me if you’re interested in any of these offers.
Note, that normally my books and the books supplied by the imprints I
manage sell for anything form £0.99 to £10.99, with most on Kindle being about
£2.99 and the average price for paperback being £7.00. We have to allow our
writers to make a living. But we’re offering these free samples so that you can
try before you buy.
Naturally we welcome reviews.
Some notes about my newsletters and blogs
They do overlap a little but here is a summary of what they
all do.
Bridge House Authors For all those published by Bridge House or
interested in being published by us. General news about the imprint. News for
writers. Link to book performance. Sign up here.
CaféLit Writers For all those published by CaféLit. General
news about the imprint. News for writers. Link to book performance. News about
the Creative Café Project. Sign up here.
Chapeltown Authors For all those published by Chapeltown or
interested in being published by us.
General news about the imprint. News for writers. Link to book
performance. Sign up here.
Chapeltown Books News about our books and our authors. Sign up here.
The Creative Café Project News
about the project and CaféLit – for the consumer rather than for the
producer. Sign up here.
Gill’s News: News about my writing, general news about what the
imprints are doing, news about other writers I know, news about the Creative
Café Project, a recommended read, a
giveaway each month. Find it here.
Opportunities List Remember I keep a full list of vetted opportunities on my writing blog. See them here. New ones are added several times a day. Roughly once a month I go through it and take out all of the out of date ones. At that point I send it out to a list. If you would like to be on that list, sign up here.
Pushing Boundaries, Flying Higher News about conferences and
workshops to do with the young adult novel. (infrequent postings) Sign up here.
Red Telephone Authors For all those published by The Red
Telephone or interested in being published by us. General news about the imprint. News for
writers. Link to book performance. Sign up here.
Schellberg Cycle Workshop News Offers and news of events to do
with Schellberg Cycle workshops. Sign up here.
School Visits Offers and news of school visits. Sign up here.
Red Telephone Books News about our books and our authors. Sign
up here.
A Publisher’s Perspective Here I blog as a publisher. Access
this here.
CaféLit Stories Find these here
Gill James Writer All about writing and about my books. View
this here.
Gill’s Recommended Reads Find information here about books that have
taken me out of my editor’s head.
Gill’s Sample Fiction Read some of my fiction here.
The House on Schellberg Street All about my Schellberg project.
Read it here.
Writing Teacher All about teaching creative writing. Some creative writing exercises. Access this here.
Happy reading and
writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment