What a year it’s been in the world though in my world of
writing, editing, teaching and publishing life has gone on pretty much as usual.
The weak pound has made our books cheaper worldwide but printing costs have gone
up. On a personal level I’ve had my usual mixture of acceptances and
rejections. Since the end of September and giving up the day job I’ve been getting
more writing and marketing done. That had always been the plan and it seems to be
working.
Bridge House
Bridge
House got out its annual anthology, called Baubles this
year. You can read a few extracts here. We also managed to
get out the Shelagh Delany collection Salford
Stories just in time for Shelagh Delaney Day 2017.
Our new annual anthology for 2107 will be Gliterary Tales. So, glittery stories that have a touch of
literature about them. I wonder what that will add to the debate about the
difference between literary and popular fictions? Debz Hobbs Wyatt
will be getting the call for submissions out soon.
Remember we’re also
offering to publish single-author collections. These are for authors we’ve
published before and they may include stories we’ve already published, ones
they’ve had published elsewhere and new ones. We’ll be putting a description
out about this soon but we’ve already had some enquiries. 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 80,000 words.
If you’re interested in this, contact me here.
We’re being a bit
cheeky and getting a little political. Are we are in danger of getting our
books burnt? Well, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. We’re doing an extra
anthology, Citizens of Nowhere, with
the theme of the global citizen. Oh, I hope we don’t upset Ms May. We’re
commissioning just over half of the work from known authors but there is room
for a few open submissions. Stories can be “one you prepared earlier” or a
brand new one, with a cut-off date of 31 January, though this may very well be
extended. Stories between 1,000 and 4,000 words. Submit to editor at
bridgehousepublishing dot co dot uk.
CafeLit
Remember, we’re
always open to submissions. Find out how here. I’ve
been encouraging my students to submit. I’m beginning to see some of their work
appearing.
The Best of
CaféLit 5 is now available. There are some lovely stories in this. I’m very
pleased that I have a story in this collection. Order your copy here.
Chapeltown
We’re currently looking for collections of Flash Fiction.
See our submissions page here. We have
two writers signed up already and I’ll be putting out one of my collections as
well soon. I’m also currently reading a third. I have one waiting in the wings also.
Take a look here.
Chapeltown is also
excited to be publishing Colin Wyatt’s
Who will be my friend? – a delightful
picture book about friendship and accepting others. Yes, Colin is Debz’s dad.
He is a Disney licensed illustrator and his latest publication is The Jet Set. We feel very
honoured to be publishing him.
Creative Café
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.
I’m now going to send out a welcome letter to each new café
that’s added. This will also offer them the opportunity to join the mailing
list.
I’m also now proactively encouraging cafes to stock The Best of CafeLit. Do you know anyone who
might like to stock it? We can offer a 35% discount to retailers. Query gill at
cafelit dot co dot uk.
The Red Telephone
We are currently
open for submissions. Hoorah! We’re looking for the next great YA novel. Check
out the details here.
We’re particularly open to speculative
fiction but we’ll also like anything that is well written and
well-targeted. I’m currently reading a
couple of full submissions. I welcome others but send sample chapters and synopsis
first. The full details are on the site.
I’d like to remind
you of our new enterprise - something between a mentoring system and an online
course. Though publication is not guaranteed, we will at least look at your
full book if you’ve attended one of the courses. We’re offering it for free to
a few people at first. We’ll refine as we go along based on feedback from our
clients. We’ll then continue to offer it at a discount for a while before going
to full price when we’re completely happy with it. We’re not sure what the full
price will be. Again, we’ll be guided by our current clients. Find out more here. Four people have now signed up. Room for one
more. We’re running out of space so if you’re hesitating, now is the time to
make your mind up. We look forward to
hearing from you.
Book tours
If you’re a Bridge House / Red Telephone / CaféLit / Chapeltown
author and you want to get serious about book tours, consider our author’s kit.
We provide twenty books you take to the bookshop and the bookshop can put these
through the till. We then invoice the bookshop, with a 35% discount for any
sold and top up your supply to twenty. A the end of the tour you can either pay
for the remaining books at cost + 10% or keep them until you’ve sold them and
then pay the normal price of 75% of RRP. The latter can in any case be set
against royalties. You need to allow at least ten days between events. Contact
me here if you’re
interested in this.
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. I’m offering this half price to schools that apply in January 2017 and
schools that apply in February 2017 can book two for the price of one. Contact me here.
Query for a school visit here.
I am also happy to do standard author visits which include
readings from my books, Q & A sessions and creative writing exercises.
Costs= 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.
Books and short stories
I continue to make good progress on Shooting Hitler.
Clara’s Story is
being serialised. The cover makes this theme quite clear. The novel is can now
be found on Channillo. You may read it here.
Clara’s Story is
the second in the Schellberg circle. All five stories cover roughly the same
period and are very much happening in and associated with Nazi Germany and the
Holocaust. They can be read in any order. The stories overlap to some extent
but where they repeat we see the happening form another point of view. For
instance The House on Schellberg Street
is mainly about a young girl, Renate, who comes to England on the
Kindertranpsort. Clara’s Story is
about her grandmother. Girl in a Smart Uniform
explains how at least one German girl associated with the story became a Nazi –
and then gave it all up. Shooting Hitler
is Renate’s mother’s version of events. In The
Round Robin we learn about what happens to Renate’s friends.
Past events
CaféLit and Baubles writers, along with their
friends and family and other writers and connections of Bridge House, CaféLit,
Chapeltown, The Red Telephone and their associates met for a celebration on 3
December at the Princess of
Wales pub, Primrose Hill. This seems to be the ideal venue but we’re
probably about to outgrow it. Tickets were free but we “sold out”. In any case,
we’ve already booked for next year.
Upcoming events
Coming soon: a read through of J K Rowling’s The Cursed Child. Watch this space and
social media for details.
I’m also planning a celebratory event in Manchester for all
of the imprints. Again, watch this space.
Giveaway
This month I’m
giving away a copy of Fibbin’ Archie. This
is only available as either a mobi-file (for Kindle) or a PDF. However, this time it’s available for anyone
who wants it. Contact me on gill dot
james at btinternet dot com and sya whtehr you’d prefer mobi or PDF. Fibbin’ Archie is a bit of a ya rom com
and a writing experiment at the same time.
Writing opportunities
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, sing up here.
Happy reading and
writing. And all the best for 2017
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