Trios: The Einstein Girl, by Philip Sington: Selling Literary Fiction

Samantha Fanaken works as part of Random House's sales team as a Senior Key Account Manager, and here she discusses selling literary fiction into bookshops.

One of the most enjoyable parts of working for a literary publisher like CCV is reading large piles of paper that will one day turn into books. Reading a book long before it has a cover means you come to it with no assumptions, only the enthusiastic description from the editor when they asked you to read it.

It’s hugely useful to have read as much of our fiction list as possible before presenting them to retailers. Non-fiction is easier to categorise, it’s usually simpler to assess whether a book will appeal to classic military history buffs or foodies etc, whereas fiction is much more subjective.

So, it’s helpful to know a book before trying to recommend it – so you can do the quick reductive ‘it’s a bit blah meets blah’ or ‘if you liked that, you’ll love this’ but then go on to talk about a book in more detail – the characters you can’t stop thinking about, the scenes that stay with you, the plot twists.

The Einstein Girl has much to offer. It has a rich seam of history, set in Berlin just before Hitler comes to power, and uses a little-known fact from Albert Einstein’s life as its core. There’s a mystery to be solved - a young woman is found naked in the woods outside the city with a leaflet to a lecture by Albert Einstein in her hand as the only clue to her identity. There’s a sweet sad love story between her and her psychiatrist, a man battling with his own scars left by the Great War. Slowly between their conversations and the psychiatrist’s own research, the greater story of Einstein’s family and its secrets unravel.

Enough sly pitching of the book at you. Read it, it’s great.

So, reading the book helps give me a steer on the potential readers and how we might best reach them through our retailers. When talking to a retailer like Waterstone’s, who are very supportive of new and developing writers, we have a good discussion around who might buy the book and whether that makes it a candidate for promotion front of store in its first outing in hardback or trade paperback, or whether it’s best to push the paperback a year later. In this instance, I’m pleased to report Waterstone’s are as keen as I am on The Einstein Girl and it is available in all stores in their 3 for 2 throughout August.


Philip's editor at Harvill Secker has kindly squirrelled away five copies of The Einstein Girl for us. If you'd like to be in the running for one of them, all you have to do is answer the following question: where did the designers find the photograph which appears on the cover of The Einstein Girl? Send your answers to "competition at philipsington dot com": next week, Philip will select the five winners at random and I'll announce them here.

Trios: The Third Sign, by Gregory A Wilson: Cover Art

We've heard already from Gregory A Wilson, author of The Third Sign, and from his editor at Five Star, John Helfers. Now it's Joshua David McClurg-Genevese's turn in the spotlight as he reveals how he created this stunning cover image.

I first met Greg at a gaming convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. I was there as an artist sitting in my booth, and I remember clearly he came over and spoke with me about one of the illustrations I had up on the wall behind where I was set up. He talked about a book that he was writing, and that he was trying to find an artist to work with on the cover.

That was where our process began. He contacted me some time later and we began talking about The Third Sign.

The first step was to work with Greg and get a sense of what The Third Sign was really about. An overall appreciation of the book and of the setting are the first things that I try to develop, and after a few discussions the main themes and emotions began to surface. In addition, Greg was kind enough to send me a number of sample chapters so that I was able to actually read part of the book before having to develop concepts. This was extremely helpful in getting an understanding of the world that he had created, and a feel for the characters.

I read through the chapters, and he and I discussed them for a time. He had a good sense for certain scenes in each of the chapters that seemed the most visually interesting and that might be good candidates for the illustration. In the end, we chose two of them, and I began working on concepts.

The second step was to develop a series of rough sketches based on the scenes we chose. I was looking to develop the overall composition of the illustration, the camera angles, the dynamic elements and where the cover text would go. The characters were also roughed in, though again it was mostly to solidify the overall composition. The details would come later.

Once I had each of the scenes drawn out as a rough sketch, I sent them back to Greg. We talked about them and decided what worked and what didn't. We narrowed down the choices, I made a few more revisions, and then we decided on a final direction. In these initial stages of rough sketching there was a lot of back and forth between myself and Greg. I tried to make sure that the overall feel of the piece matched what he was looking for, while still maintaining a good sense of artistic composition and design.

The third step was to finalize the drawing. I again discussed the scene with Greg, focusing now more on the details of the setting and the characters. What color were the robes on Orrinell, how intricate were the markings on Sarrtax's battle axe, what species of bird was Squaar? The details are what really makes an illustration come to life, and establishes a firm definition of the setting. I wanted to make sure that the elements in the scene were accurate, and that the way I was depicting the characters was appropriate.

Once the drawing was finished, I again sent it back to Greg. We revised it a number of times to ensure that I was capturing exactly what he was looking for. Once that was completed, I moved on to the painting.

The final step was the painting itself. I transfered the drawing on to watercolor paper, mounted it to a sheet of masonite, and then painted it with oils. Once the painting was completed (and dry), I made a high-resolution scan that became my master working file. With the digital file I was able to make any last adjustments to color that I felt were necessary, before sending it on for the final review.

In the end, I think the cover turned out wonderfully, and I hope it captures the elements of the book.

Trios: Beachcombing, by Maggie Dana: What Editors Want

Maggie Dana began this particular trio of articles with an account of her potholed path to publication; then Will Atkins, her editor took over and discussed Macmillan New Writing. This time Will considers the role of the author in the publication process, and nails down what authors can do to imrpove their chances of success.


Beachcombing was recommended to us by another of our authors, who was in a writing group with Maggie (‘recommendations’ sometimes make the heart sink, but in this case it was clear from the first page that Maggie was a real talent). Part of the fun of MNW is that we publish across all fiction genres—crime, thrillers, literary fiction, comic fiction, fantasy, historical, etc, etc—and so our criteria for publication are pretty simple: do we love it, can we sell it and does the author have a future? If the answer is yes, yes and yes, then we publish it. Beachcombing is a novel that fits rather neatly into its given genre (broadly: commercial women’s fiction; or ‘hen-lit,’ as Maggie calls it) and is, to abuse a cliché, a perfect beach read—as the title and cover suggest. But sitting neatly in an established genre isn’t, of course, enough to guarantee sales.

Beachcombing was MNW’s first paperback original—nobody wants to lug a jacketed hardback onto the beach, do they? It’s also worth mentioning that the publication date isn’t accidental—it’s a summer read. This enabled our sales team to present it to their key accounts—Waterstone’s, Borders, WHSmith, etc—as a straightforward commercial proposition: loveable book; nice, sunny cover; June publication date. There are now heaps of copies in the shops and, happily, it’s well represented at UK airports and rail stations, just as the summer season gets going. We’re fortunate that Maggie has energetically embraced digital marketing and self-promotion (she even Twitters, heaven help her); she’s made herself available for a fortnight’s worth of readings, interviews, signings and launches during her visit to the UK, and has also proved herself to be an energetic advocate and supporter of budding authors—of all ages—seeking publication (she spoke inspiringly on this subject at the Writer’s Handbook Live event recently).

What we are always looking for is an author whose writing ticks all the boxes: who can create engaging characters and settings; construct plausible and satisfying plots; write with fluency, grace and style. Plenty of the submissions we receive at MNW tick one of those boxes, or two—very few tick them all. We’re also looking for authors who are unafraid to get their hands dirty, who know their value as writers but understand the collaborative aspect I’ve mentioned; and who’re able to weather the knock-backs and dead-ends and ‘potholes’ that Maggie mentioned in her blog, alongside the highs. Above all, we’re looking for writers with a future—who can cast their spell once to capture readers’ loyalty, and then keep casting it, again and again. It’s the reserves of dedication, talent and sheer energy that all this requires that makes truly successful and lasting authors so rare.

Trios: The Einstein Girl, by Philip Sington: Waterstone’s Perspective

Last time The Einstein Girl appeared here, we learned how its cover was created; today, Rodney Troubridge (the Fiction Marketing Planner at Waterstone’s) reveals how he makes his decisions; and next time, a key account manager at Random House will discuss selling this sort of literary fiction to booksellers.


As a lucky retailer who gets sent a lot of proofs to read it is always enjoyable to think, 'what shall I read next?'

Looking back I think what interested me about The Einstein Girl was that it had been recommended by the publisher at a highlights presentation of their titles a few months before. I didn't know any thing about the author other than vaguely remembering his previous novel but I liked the plot line and so I gave it a go.

I have always liked reading books set in the interwar period in Germany and/or Central Europe and admired the way the doomed Weimar Republic is portrayed and the frightening spectre of the Nazi takeover beginning its terrible influence. I was also intrigued to see how the author would handle the giant figure of Einstein and how he would fit into the overall story.

Luckily my colleagues on the buying team felt equally enthusiastic and we will be promoting the title in branches of Waterstone's from publication.


Philip's editor at Harvill Secker has kindly squirrelled away five copies of The Einstein Girl for us. If you'd like to be in the running for one of them, all you have to do is answer the following question: where did the designers find the photograph which appears on the cover of The Einstein Girl? Send your answers to "competition at philipsington dot com": a week after the third article in this series appears, Philip will select the five winners at random and I'll announce them here.

Trios: The Third Sign, by Gregory A Wilson: The Editor's View

Although Gregory A Wilson has already told us how he found a publisher, it's interesting to read a corresponding view from the other side of the fence. Here, Greg's editor at Five Star, John Helfers, discusses what he looks for in a writer, and how writers can improve the editing process. Next time we'll hear from the book's cover artist but meanwhile, my thanks to John for this revealling contribution.

I first met Greg Wilson at the 2005 GenCon. At first he seemed like one of the dozens of aspiring authors I meet at that convention and others around the country, but as our conversation progressed, I became aware of certain vital differences between him and the rest of the crowd.

Greg’s background as both an associate professor and avid fiction reader gave him an excellent grounding in the tropes of the fantasy genre, which was revealed when I first read an early draft of his novel The Third Sign. He also had the persistence and drive that marks a good author. However, before he could get to that stage, there was one last hurdle to overcome—I had to accept his book first.

Don’t get me wrong—as I mentioned above, the quality was there in his manuscript from the start. However, Greg writes in a crowded sub-genre—the high/epic fantasy. Having worked and written in the field (one of my favorites) for more than a decade, I’ve seen just about everything cross my desk while acquiring science fiction and fantasy for the Five Star line, so I have very high standards. And if an author wants to submit a high/epic fantasy to me, that’s fine, but it had better be something pretty damn special.

After reviewing his work, I saw the glimmerings of what the novel could be, but I knew it would take some hard work on both of our parts to get it there. I went back to Greg with the first three chapters edited, showing him both how I work, and outlining some of the major edits that I felt the book needed. I asked him to revise the manuscript (remember, at this point the book hadn’t been accepted yet) both to see if he could take what I had given him and incorporate it into his book, and, to be honest, gauge his reaction to my suggestions (there’s nothing worse than working with an easily-offended/haughty/balky/recalcitrant author, and often the results just aren’t worth the trouble in the first place). Greg was more than willing to revise and resubmit, and after seeing what he had done with my edits, I was pleased to offer him a contract to publish his novel.

This is not to say that after that first revision the manuscript was ready to go. Both of us worked very hard on polishing and strengthening the final version, deepening character motivations and relationships, working out the timeline so that events happening on opposite sides of the kingdom worked in the overall plot, etc. Happily, Greg was also excellent to work with during the editorial process all through the pre-production stages. I’ve always thought that the mark of a true, professional writer is that they can be open to suggestions and the alternate perspectives on their work, and that’s exactly what Greg was. Working with him to shape the manuscript into its final published form was a highly rewarding experience (for both of us, I hope!) I was very pleased to play a part in bringing Greg’s fantastic vision into print, and hope that his readers enjoy what is hopefully the first of many volumes about Calen’s adventures in his troubled homeland of Klune.

Trios: The Einstein Girl, by Philip Sington: Cover Design

Matt Broughton began designing book covers for the academic publisher Routledge in 1997, and moved to Random House in 2001. He is now a senior designer and continues to design covers for Random House's literary imprints, including Harvill Secker. Lily Richards has worked as a picture researcher at Random House for nine years, mainly working on literary book covers but also for some book interiors. I thank them both for the following piece, which describes how they worked on Philip Sington's book, The Einstein Girl.

Next time we'll hear how a buying manager at Waterstone's makes his decisions; and finally, a key account manager at Random House discusses selling literary fiction like The Einstein Girl to booksellers.



When people ask us how we design covers there is never one answer – ideas can come from any number of areas: authors, editors, and they all are considered along with a more formal brief. The brief is originally conceived by the editor of the book in consultation with Sales and Marketing. Things that would be considered at this stage are the format – is it a hardback, paperback or reissue, comparable titles, position we are aiming for in the market, print runs and artwork budgets.

The brief is for us very much a starting place and for fiction we like to also have something to read – a manuscript, or a book if it has previously been published. A decision will be made by the designer as to how to approach the artwork: commissioned illustration, photography, found images, typographical solutions etc. With that decision made, and with the brief, the book, and the various parameters in mind, we begin the creative process.

In the case of The Einstein Girl, it was clear that the cover would need picture research. We wanted to find photographs of 1930s Berlin, specifically the young woman in the book and the nightclub scene. These photographs would need to be strong in atmosphere as we wanted to achieve a design with film noir look to reflect the writing. We sourced the photographs from a German archive, AKG, and the design could then begin.

Various design solutions were taken to the weekly cover meeting where editors and people from sales and marketing all considered the options. Once we had settled on the present cover, author approval was also sought. Covers are not always straightforward and can change dramatically over the course of being worked on, but it is all part of the process.


Philip's editor at Harvill Secker has kindly squirrelled away five copies of The Einstein Girl for us. If you'd like to be in the running for one of them, all you have to do is answer the following question: where did the designers find the photograph which appears on the cover of The Einstein Girl? Send your answers to "competition at philipsington dot com": a week after the third article in this series appears, Philip will select the five winners at random and I'll announce them here.

Trios: Beachcombing, by Maggie Dana: Macmillan New Writing

Last week we heard about Maggie Dana's potholed path to the publication of her first adult novel Beachcombing; this week Maggie's editor, Will Atkins, discusses the imprint which finally took her into print: Macmillan New Writing.


You might remember that there was a bit of a fuss when Macmillan New Writing launched back in 2006 [I remember only too well—I was very sceptical, but have been proven thoroughly wrong!—Jane]. We decided that, rather than fend off un-agented authors with a broom-handle, we would accept—in fact encourage—unsolicited submissions of debut fiction via our website; we also decided that our terms would be standard and non-negotiable (and this is what didn’t go down well with some): world rights, no advance, but 20% royalty on net receipts.

Macmillan New Writing is now an integral, and pretty uncontroversial, part of Pan Macmillan, and operates in the same way as the other imprints here, using the same editorial, design, production, publicity, marketing and sales staff. Several of our authors have ‘graduated’ to Pan Mac’s mainstream imprints, with multi-book deals, on conventional terms, with an advance. Macmillan New Writing was founded with the understanding that authors’ careers take time to grow. Fundamental to the way the imprint operates is a close working relationship between author and publisher: our authors are often un-agented; and therefore it’s vital that they have faith in us to a) not fleece them and b) publish them well. Successful publishing is about collaboration and mutual trust, and these things are vital when developing an author’s career over the long-term. We try to involve our authors in every stage of the publication process, and we’re fortunate that our authors are eager to muck in when it comes to promoting their own work (and the imprint itself). They are also a wonderfully garrulous and mutually supportive bunch, despite the breadth of the Macmillan New Writing church; and this sense of shared interest and community is one of the things that makes Macmillan New Writing special. All are in the same boat, all serious writers trying to develop a career, and genre snobbery is peculiarly absent, just as it is (I hope) in our commissioning policy. Good books are good books, after all.

In fact the business model is the least interesting thing about Macmillan New Writing – what is interesting is what we’re publishing: Brian McGilloway, a truly world-class crime writer, cut his teeth at Macmillan New Writing, and we’ve just published the double Orange Prize-nominated debut by Ann Weisgarber, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree. (And look out for Ryan David Jahn’s crime debut, Acts of Violence, in the autumn—a big new arrival).

But the thing we’re really excited about right now is Maggie Dana’s novel Beachcombing. One of the nice things about Macmillan New Writing is that we’re open to submissions from all over the planet, and at any given moment some gleaming gem can ping into my Inbox. Brian pinged his from Derry; Ann pinged hers from Texas; and Maggie pinged Beachcombing from Connecticut.


Next week Will reveals what he's looking for in the slush-pile and what he looks for in the authors he publishes; and how all this measures up to more than the sum of its parts.

Trios: The Third Sign, by Gregory A Wilson: Getting Published

My thanks to Gregory A Wilson for this candid account of his route to publication, and for persisting with this series despite my hopeless lack of organisation! Contributions from Greg's editor and his cover artist will appear over the coming weeks, and if you'd like information about his upcoming readings, convention appearances and other events, just take a look at his website.


The road to publication has always been a long and winding one, as every aspiring author knows. But modern market circumstances and a crowded, competitive field has now made that road even longer and more winding than some might realize, and navigating it to its end now takes more than a good idea and good execution. It takes a bit of luck, a lot of persistence, and an overabundant amount of patience.

I started writing my first novel, a work of epic fantasy entitled The Third Sign, in 1996—or at least the first couple of chapters of it. But as I usually did in those days, I got buried in a host of responsibilities and let it go. Six years later I graduated with my doctorate in English, and wanting a break from academic work I went back to those early chapters, revised them substantially and this time, having learned in the process of writing my dissertation that I could actually finish something I started, stuck with the book until it was completed—which didn’t happen until the summer of 2004 (I moved, started two new teaching jobs, and got married in the interim, so I was a little busy!).

When I finished the novel I breathed a big sigh of relief; I knew there was more work to do, but figured the big job was over. I got my Writers Market books, got familiar with Jeff Herman’s agent lists, and started querying agents, ten at a time, adjusting my query as I went. Nearly eighty queries later I took a step back and took stock of my situation: a number of partial manuscript requests, a few fulls, and a couple of very near misses—including one agent with whom I had discussed a number of aspects of the manuscript before she finally decided to pass, not (according to her) because of the quality of the book but because epic fantasy was “oversold”; she told me she had seriously considered taking on my book anyway, but ultimately decided the market would have been too difficult. At that point I was stuck—I could either put the novel in a drawer and forget about it, going on to something else, or I could go another route.

One year later I attended GenCon, the largest fantasy, science fiction and gaming convention in the world; it had a significant writing track with a number of well-known authors, editors and publishers in attendance, and at a small press panel I ran into one of them: John Helfers, editor (recently nominated for a Hugo award) at Tekno Books, which handles speculative fiction acquisitions for Five Star, an imprint of Gale Cengage. John was interested in my book, and I liked what he had to say, particularly his point that the reason the market for epic fantasy books was allegedly “oversold” was because people kept buying them! So in January of 2006 I decided to submit the manuscript to him. We went back and forth a few time discussing revisions and the like, which I made; I resubmitted the manuscript in early 2007, and in late 2007 he made the offer. I accepted in early 2008, and here we are, only a few weeks from publication in 2009.

I’d be lying if I said I was happy with the incredible time delay in this business. There’s a lot more work involved with getting a book in print than simply writing and revising it, though I believe those have to be your primary tasks: I’m a writer, not a salesman or marketer, and it’s important for me to keep that in mind. (The best thing I can do to sell my first book is write an even better second one!) And the time lag from initial conception to actual print—in my case seven years, thirteen if you count my first dabblings with the book—can be discouraging when you want nothing more than to share it with a larger audience. But I’m very happy that I didn’t abandon the book, or accept the idea that it just “wasn’t meant to be.” Getting this published has opened a number of doors for me in terms of future novels (I’ve already completed a second book and am working on a third) and an editing project, and I’ve been fortunate enough to receive a number of very positive pre-publication reviews thus far. I’ve also been very happy with Five Star in particular; they’re a smaller but well-respected press which has handled a number of prominent authors in the past, and all of the people I’ve worked with there have been both professional and supportive (including the two others who have contributed articles to this series, my editor John Helfers and the cover artist, Joshua David McClurg-Genevese). None of this would have been possible if I had fallen prey to the temptation to self-publish, or even worse to go with a vanity publisher; I was warned away from those options very early in my career before I could ever seriously consider them, and it was an important warning.

Ultimately, despite the difficulties and setbacks, the opportunity to share publicly a world I have long imagined privately has been well worth the time and effort. I’m excited about the prospects for both this book and my future work, since my intention is not simply to write one book but to build a career, and I feel fortunate to have been given that chance—but I think the moral of my story may well be that publication by a reputable press is not the result of divine intervention or random chance, but rather hard work and patience. And the opportunities are out there, if you’re ready to take advantage of them.

Trios: Beachcombing, by Maggie Dana: My Potholed Path To Publication

Maggie Dana, author of Beachcombing, comments regularly on this blog; she wrote a wonderful piece about typesetting for me a few weeks ago, which resulted in a spectacular spike in my reading statistics; and she's recently had her first grown-up novel* published. Here's her own account of her tortured path to publication, in which she demonstrated dedication in the extreme. Following pieces in this particular Trio will come from her editor Will Atkins, who will discuss the success of Macmillan New Writing and explain what he looks for in an author—and it's not just the writing.


When asked what got them started writing, quite a few authors will say they were bitten by the bug at an early age, six or seven, or even as late as twelve. But not me. I was a ripe old thirty-nine before I began writing, and only because my job for an absentee boss at a U.S. children’s publisher left me with little to do. So, to keep boredom at bay (and to look busy), I wrote a kid’s book—on their time, their paper, and their typewriter, and then (oh, sweet irony!), I turned around and sold it to them for $1,500, a decent chunk of change back in 1979, especially for a single mum with three teenagers, a dog, two cats, and a horse to feed.

After writing five more books for children, life intervened and it was another fifteen years before I got back to writing again. Women’s fiction this time. I’d had no trouble finding a publisher for my kids’ books; how hard would it be to find one for a novel? (Do I hear laughter? Snorts of derision?)

A year later, my first effort weighed in at 180,000 words. Feeling rather pleased with myself, I fired off a handful of query letters and landed a New York agent who, while full of enthusiasm for my novel, told me cut it in half. I protested, vociferously, but she put her foot down and deleted the first ten pages while telling me, firmly, that my story began here, at the top of page eleven.

I spent another year cutting and rewriting, and cutting some more, till the story was a manageable 90,000 words and my agent declared she was ready to submit… the day before 9/11 turned the world upside-down. Months and months went by, and my agent dragged her feet, saying the time wasn’t right, that publishing was in disarray and editors were freaking out over the anthrax scare, that nobody was buying fiction, let alone women’s fiction. Discouraged, I stuck the manuscript in a box beneath my bed, and went back to writing for kids.

Picture books this time. I found another enthusiastic agent with an impressive client list, but her personal problems got in the way of her professional life and she wound up dropping the ball as well. Even more discouraged, I stuffed my four picture books into the box with my novel and decided I wasn’t cut out to be a writer after all. Besides, I had a living to earn. I couldn’t afford to waste time writing stuff nobody wanted to read.

But a good friend, another writer, disagreed. She nagged and cajoled, encouraged and threatened, till finally she convinced me to blow the dust off my novel and begin all over again with a different tense, a different point-of-view, and a different title. Using my original version as a detailed outline, I spent ten months writing from the ground up and having more fun than I expected. Layers of stodgy writing fell away, a fresh voice emerged. Maybe I was a writer after all.

More queries went out and a third enthusiastic agent entered my life, but after coming close with a couple of New York editors and being turned down by a handful more, my agent told me to write another novel and she’d sell that one instead. So I did, but the result didn’t sit well with her. At first, I was angry and indignant; then apathy set in. I withdrew from my online writing group, parted company with my agent, and added yet another manuscript to the box under my bed.

Time to think seriously about giving up altogether.

But that determined friend wouldn’t hear of it. She insisted my novel would appeal to readers in England, given a huge chunk of it is set in London and Cornwall, and why didn’t I try submitting it myself to publishers in the U.K.? So I did, and wound up in the capable hands of Will Atkins, my brilliant editor at Macmillan New Writing.

Time elapsed from that hefty first draft to publication? Ten years, almost to the day. So when authors say that getting published is all about the three Ps, passion, patience, and perseverance, I’d like to remind them there’s another P in that path to publication: potholes.

* I'd originally referred to Beachcombing as Maggie's first adult novel but it's been pointed out to me that an "adult novel" has certain connotations, particularly in the USA. So I've changed it to "grown-up novel" now, which sounds slightly Playschoolish to me: if anyone would like to suggest a better phrase, I'd be happy to hear it!

Trios: Diary Of An On-Call Girl, By PC Bloggs: From Blog To Book

This is the final piece in the Trios series about Diary of an On-Call Girl: True Stories from the Front Line, the memoirs of an anonymous police officer, P. C. Bloggs. A couple of weeks ago Dan Collins, the publisher at Monday Books, discussed TV options and rights sales; last week, he looked at the importance of the right title and cover design. This final article, by P. C. Bloggs, considers the problems of writing an anonymous blog and book while still working full-time as a police officer.

P. C. Bloggs is going to be interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour this morning, and her book is going to be serialised on the same programme all week. You can listen to the serialisation between 10.45 and 11am each morning, Monday to Friday, and there will be a repeat each day at 7.45pm so there's no reason for you to miss it!


If there are people who join the police in order to publish a book, there must be easier ways. I didn’t become a police officer in order to get published, and nor was that why I started my blog—a therapeutic but initially light-hearted diatribe against the foibles of my work.

So when I was approached by a publisher within three weeks of my opening post I went with it, but was inwardly sceptical.

Having grown up on a diet of classic fiction, the concept of a “blook” was alien to me. But I had a lot to say about the police, and I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh, so there didn’t seem any harm in combining the two if someone was interested enough to print it.

Actually sitting down and writing it, as well as doing some publicity, and keeping myself anonymous, was another matter. At times I felt like I had two full-time jobs, and two completely separate personalities that did not overlap in any way.

There were frustrations—as a secret public sector blogger you try to reflect up-to-the-minute facts about your job, but you can’t use real life examples that are too recent in case you inadvertently identify someone. But as an author who purports to tell the exact truth, nothing but real life will do, and yet it has to be woven into some kind of coherent story.

The two skills are completely different, and keeping both going has been intellectually exhausting. I do feel, however, that I’ve clung to the principles on which I started: that the book would be true to life, true to the blog, and ultimately none of it would be taken too seriously. The whole thing has to some extent been tinged with disbelief: I didn't actually believe that the book was being published until my mother ordered it on Amazon and it arrived!

I’ve enjoyed my small successes, the opportunity to appear on radio and television, and write for broadsheet newspapers, and the fact that I have an online audience for the frustrations I can’t air at work.

But whilst writing has become a more-than-hobby, a commitment, and a passion, my job—my vocation—is as a police officer. If the two became mutually exclusive, the writing would go. Of course, the decision may not be mine: I serve two different audiences, both brutally honest about how they receive my efforts.

If one day, one or other of them tires of me, I will still look back at these years with incredulous pleasure that they lasted as long as they did.



Thanks to Monday Books' generosity we have three free copies of Diary Of An On-Call Girl to give away. If you'd like one for yourself you have to answer this question: what is PC Bloggs' day job? Email your answer to Dan at "dancollins at mondaybooks dot com" along with your address, and next Monday he'll pick three names at random to send those copies off to. It would be much appreciated if you reviewed them in a couple of places once you've read them and if you do, remember to post a link to your review here.

Trios: Deathwatch, by Nicola Morgan: Book Launches

Nicola Morgan writes for teenagers and has the unusual habit of involving them in the marketing of her novels. Her new thriller, Deathwatch, is being launched by pupils from The Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh, who also helped write the book and appear in the story. One of those pupils, Ailsa Innes, wrote the following article for this Trios series.

Last time Nicola told us about her extraordinary efforts to promote this book; next week we'll have a contribution from bookseller Vanessa Robertson, from The Children’s Bookshop in Edinburgh, which will complete this particular trio.

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win your own copy of Deathwatch then answer this question: in which UK city is Deathwatch set (my more resourceful readers will realise that the answer might well be found on the Deathwatch page of Nicola's website). Email your answers to "n at nicolamorgan dot co dot uk", and a week after the final piece in this particular Trio is published, Ms Morgan will pick one name at random out of her virtual hat.

And now, over to Ailsa.

For a couple of years I had really enjoyed books by Nicola Morgan, especially The Passionflower Massacre and Mondays Are Red, and was very excited to hear that she was coming to talk to our year. I was even more excited when I heard that she was looking for helpers to write her new book about a stalker (the name ‘Deathwatch’ had not been created yet). I put all my effort into writing what I thought was the perfect letter to Nicola, describing why she should definitely choose me to help, and was pleased when I and thirteen classmates from The Mary Erskine School, Edinburgh, were chosen.

One of the first things we did was meet Nicola at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and listen to her read part of what she’d written, although it did help that we had ice creams as part of the deal! We set up a messaging board on Yahoo! and used it to discuss issues—everything from the words a teenage girl would use when she was irritated, to the best name for an invented social networking website. We also said that stick insects weren’t scary enough and decided that Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches were better!

Another early job was to help at the official launch of The Highwayman's Curse, a sequel to Nicola’s hugely successful The Highwayman's Footsteps. We took people’s coats, prepared and served appetisers and ticked names off a list as guests arrived. Two of us also performed a dramatic curse for the audience! I was selling Nicola’s books, and was kept busy trying to calculate change! It was a very fun evening and made us even more excited about our own book’s launch.

I was one of the girls lucky enough to read the first complete draft, months before the final version was ready. It was a very heavy pile of A4 pages, but even then I was gripped by the storyline, and the occasional spelling error! [Thanks! NM] When the final version was ready, I first read it on my computer, but then Nicola gave us each a signed copy of the actual book and our names are in the acknowledgements. Nicola had also asked me if she could use another girl’s name and mine as friends of the main character, and of course I agreed! All members of the team have their names in minor roles in the book, which we find very exciting.

We have been extra busy this term, dealing with publicity: reviews, press releases, getting libraries and other schools involved, and my task was to write this blog.

The launch was an extremely enjoyable night for us, and we were so excited to see our book finally out there and going into bookshops. It was a huge success and many important and exciting people were there!

I started this project when I was 12 years old (I am now 14) and am amazed at how long a real book takes to be produced—there’s so much more than just writing it! I think this whole experience will be something that I will be amazed about when I am older—rarely do teenagers get a chance to help a writer produce a book, let alone get a character named after them in the deal! I am very pleased that I saw this project through and am sure it will be a complete success.

My thanks to Ailsa Innes for this: I hope some of the girls on the team, some of whom are shown with Nicola in the photo above, manage to drop by and comment here: it would be great to hear some dirt on Nicola Morgan from the people who really know. I bet she hogged all the ice-cream at the party.

Trios: Diary Of An On-Call Girl, by E E Bloggs: Cover Story

Here's the latest installment in the Trios series about Diary of an On-Call Girl: True Stories from the Front Line, the memoirs of an anonymous police officer, P. C. Bloggs. Following on from his discussion of TV options and rights sales, today Dan Collins (Bloggs' publisher at Monday Books) examines the importance of good title and cover design. The final article, written by P. C. Bloggs herself, will appear next Monday and looks at the problems of writing her blog and book while still working full-time as a police officer.

Diary of an On-Call Girl is going to be serialised on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour next week, following an interview with PC Bloggs on Monday 15 June. You can listen to the serialisation between 10.45 and 11am each morning, Monday to Friday, and if you miss it (as if you would) there will be a repeat each day at 7.45pm.



They say you should never judge a book by its cover. Sadly, people ignore this. The story of Diary Of An On Call Girl actually starts with another book, our second. Called Wasting Police Time, it was based on PC David Copperfield’s Policeman’s Blog. It was all about the Gogolian, Orwellian and Kafka-esque scandal of bureaucracy as it affects the police – and therefore, the public – and it sold very well (nearly 80,000 copies to date, which is ‘very well’ by our standards).

After BBC1’s Panorama called to ask for our help in making a whole show about the author, we decided we were onto something; having struck brass with Wasting Police Time, we decided to try to repeat the trick.

WPC Ellie Bloggs, author of the PC Bloggs blog, wrote about similar issues to Copperfield – the pointless box-ticking, the cowardly arse-covering and the mindless management – but from the perspective of a woman officer.

Some of her stories were amazing – like the one where a mum reports her four-year-old son missing and then declines to join the search for him, saying she has a hairdressing appointment and demanding that the cops bring the child to her at the salon if they find him.

Her blog had a reasonable readership (if not quite PC DC’s tens of thousands), we had lots of people clamouring for a follow-up to Wasting Police Time… what could go wrong?

Well, something did: Diary Of An On Call Girl has sold far fewer copies than Wasting Police Time, despite being (I think) a much better book.

Why?

It’s not about the words in the book, which manages to be both extremely funny and also very moving.

As proof of this, take the reaction from TV companies: within a few months of publication, we had received six approaches from production houses eager to buy the rights so they could turn it into a policing comedy. They included Hat Trick (Have I Got News For You, The Armstrong and Miller Show) and Talkback Thames (Da Ali G Show, I’m Alan Partridge), and we eventually did a deal with Clerkenwell Films (this is John ‘Rebus’ Hannah’s production company, and they are currently working on a pilot episode for the BBC).

I mention this astonishing response not to boast (well, just a bit) but to show that, objectively, other people with great experience in judging literary works for their commercial value thought it was a good read (the BBC are making it a Book of the Week on Woman’s Hour this month, too.)
Could it be that people had just lost interest in the subject? I don’t think so – the national debate about police bureaucracy which Copperfield did so much to create continues apace, and a third book, Perverting The Course Of Justice by Inspector Gadget is selling very strongly.

Partly, I think the smaller sale is because Bloggs is a woman; a chunk of the title’s market would be police officers themselves, and they are mostly male, and, for some strange reason, men don’t seem to buy books by women (while women are happy to read books by men).

Mostly, though, I think we (by which I mean Monday Books) screwed it up.

We did this by getting both the title and the cover wrong.

The ‘On Call Girl’ bit of the title was meant to be a sort of play on the Belle Du Jour books. The jacket, equally, had a model (that’s not PC Bloggs) looking at the camera in a way which was supposed to convey the idea that she had a secret of some kind, but ended up just looking mildly suggestive.

Based on the two, I fear the potential reader may have been expecting the memoirs of a hooker who specialised in punters who like uniforms.

In the worst of all cases, many people wouldn’t be interested, and those who did buy it would have been rather disappointed.

So, misjudgments all round, though, in our defence, it was quite hard to get right. It is the novelised truth about life as a modern female police officer which attempts to make serious points about crime and society in a humorous way: how do you suggest that?

If we were back in 2007 and I could do it all over again, I think I would have called it Life On Venus (as a counterpoint to TV’s Life On Mars) and would probably go for a more ‘chick lit’ cover – probably illustrated and possibly pink… but I still don’t know if that gets it, either. We’re currently working on the follow-up (which I think will be called Life On Venus) and may well reissue DOAO-CG in a new cover. So any and all ideas for both are more than welcome! (The Gadget cover returned to the Copperfield style.)


Thanks to Dan's generosity we have three free copies of Diary Of An On-Call Girl up for grabs. If you'd like one for yourself you have to answer this question: what is PC Bloggs' day job? Email your answer to Dan at "dancollins at mondaybooks dot com". Make sure to put "HPRW Trios competition" in your subject line and include your address, and on Monday June 22 he'll pick three names at random to send those copies off to. It would be good if you reviewed them in a couple of places once you've read them: if you do, remember to post a link to your review here.

Trios: Deathwatch, by Nicola Morgan: The Joys Of Promotion

Nicola Morgan writes for teenagers and has the unusual habit of involving them in the marketing of her novels. Her new thriller, Deathwatch, is being launched by pupils from The Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh, who not only helped write the book but also appear in the story, by name. Later, one of the girls will write about their experience, and then bookseller Vanessa Robertson, from The Children’s Bookshop in Edinburgh, will complete the trio.

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win your own copy of Deathwatch then answer this question: in which UK city is Deathwatch set (my more resourceful readers will realise that the answer might well be found on the Deathwatch page of Nicola's website). Email your answers to "n at nicolamorgan dot co dot uk", and a week after the final piece in this particular Trio is published, Ms Morgan will pick one name at random out of her virtual hat.

Here’s Nicola:

My punishment today is to write out five hundred times: “Next time I have crazy promotional ideas, I will keep very quiet.” Trouble is, if I have an idea I have to act on it. I’ve just paid for a personality assessment, only to be told I’m a raging entrepreneur with “constantly flowing ideas.” This is news?

So, whereas other authors of Jane’s trio pieces (thank you, Jane!) will talk about the agony and ecstasy of the creative process, I will talk about press releases, podcasts and YouTube. And teenagers. I know you’re not meant to work with children or animals, but these are teenagers and beetles, which are entirely different sorts of fish.

Letting teenagers handle promotion may seem bold. True, it can get hairy. For example, to me, deadlines mean “do it now, in case you’re hit by a bus later”; to them, deadlines mean “outwardly, I will look as though I haven’t heard; inwardly, yeah, whatever.” So, last week, I was worried because my brilliant Deathwatch girls (one of whom will be writing the second item in this trio—with a DEADLINE, Ailsa…) had a deadline, because this week they would have exams, choir practices, time-table changes, school camp, climbing Everest (I may have got that wrong), and I was away. I needn’t have worried—I got back from away to find thirty-four emails, covering everything that they’d planned, and more. They’d designed posters, competitions and press releases; they’d written reviews and sent them all over; they’d done on-line wizardry and sent our viral downloadable bug and screensaver around. They’d had ideas that made more sense than mine and politely suggested them without making me feel like an idiot.

They have been charming and amazing and they haven’t finished. They’re organising today's launch-party (that’s where beetles come in) and are accompanying me on the Deathwatch Dash on 15 June, bearing chocolate, I hope. Certainly, Gill and Vanessa from the Children’s Bookshop hope so, as chocolate is essential not only to writing but also to book-selling, we feel.

Oh, the Deathwatch Dash—it’s been reported widely so I can’t get out of it now. To set a world record for the number of separate school-talks by one mad author in one day, I will talk in six different schools. Then die. Briefly, because I’m doing events the next day. Then going to London for three days and other places around the UK throughout June.

Yes, I’ve made a podcast, and a YouTube video featuring the lovely screensavers that my publishers made. Making the YouTube thing would have driven me mad but luckily I was already. So then I made a cartoon animation of an interview. I’ve designed postcards and other materials and… oh, this is getting tiring.

(Are you wondering what my publishers are doing? Fear not: they’re being brilliant in ways that I haven’t told you about. Connecting to readers is my job. And pleasure. That’s what writing is, after all.)

See why I wish I would keep my ideas to myself? But how can I? If I don’t care about Deathwatch, why should anyone else? Besides, it’s not nearly as hard as actually writing—the agony of that afore-mentioned and then ignored creative process is way tougher. And writing Deathwatch was hard, harder than anything I’ve written.

If you want to know: all this crazy promotion isn’t about confidence, but fear: fear that the book will die, fear that the writing struggle will be wasted, fear that people won’t like it or won’t hear about it. It’s that fear that keeps me going. Compared with that, teenagers and gruelling book tours are a doddle.


Regular readers will know Nicola best from her very useful blog. My thanks to her for this lovely piece. Now go and buy her book!

Trios: The White Road And Other Stories, by Tania Hershman

Following the lovely response to her appearance in my Trios series, Tania Hershman is feeling particularly generous: she has offered to give away not just one copy of her lovely book, The White Road and Other Stories, but two. Step forward, Cindy Caldon and Miriam Drori: you'll each be getting a copy in due course (and if Tania hasn't already emailed you to ask for your addresses, just let her know as soon as you can, so she can get the books off to you). Congratulations to both of you: it's a lovely book.

(And Cindy, if you post a link to your blog or website in the comments here I'll turn it into a nice little clickable link for you. If you want.)

Trios: Diary Of An On-Call Girl, by E E Bloggs: Selling TV Rights

This latest Trios offering looks at Diary of an On-call Girl: True Stories from the Front Line, the memoirs of an anonymous police officer, P. C. Bloggs. This week Dan Collins, Bloggs' publisher at Monday Books, discusses how TV rights to her book were sold; the next piece in the series looks at the importance of title and cover design; and the final article, written by P. C. Bloggs herself, considers the problems of writing her book while still working full-time as a police officer.

P. C. Bloggs will be interviewed by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio Four on June 15 (the program begins at 10am), and her book is then going to be serialised on Woman's Hour every day that week. You can listen at 10.45am and again at 7.45pm each day, but I bet there's a listen again option if you miss it. Which, of course, you won't!


I'd hate to give the impression that I know a great deal about the alchemy involved in selling book rights to TV, because I don't. It's not like we're experts—we've sold the rights to just two books, and been approached for the rights to three others (details below). But based on our own experiences and those of friends in the industry, this is what we know—or what we think we know, anyway.

Just selling the rights doesn't mean your book will make it to TV. Usually, you (meaning the publisher) will have been approached by an independent production company looking to buy an option to the rights to a given title. They then hawk the idea round the broadcasters and hope for a bite. No bites means no TV show, and that's pretty much where it ends. I don't know how many books get optioned and never make it to the screen, but I think the answer is probably 'a lot'. This means that there's not much money to be made out of this unless your book actually gets made. The option fee, which gives the purchaser the exclusive right to look at ways of adapting the book, is typically quite small.

We turned down an approach for Wasting Police Time by a company approaching us on behalf of the 'Pub Landlord' Al Murray because they were only offering £1,500 for the option. We thought that was derisory. Turns out it's quite normal. Well, you live and (hopefully) learn.

If they get their 'bite', the TV company will usually then pay you a rights fee—a one-off payment of perhaps double or treble the option fee (this is either 'on account of' or 'not on account of' the option fee; one of these phrases means that the option fee comes off the rights fee, but I'm not sure which one it is. The former, I think). Then you ought to get an additional fee 'per half hour of TV'—say £5,000.

Thus, if you sell the rights to your book and it gets made into an eight-part series of 30 minute episodes you can expect to clear £1,500 for the option, £3,000 for the rights and £40,000 for the show itself. I say 'clear', but obviously you have to pay the author (and the taxman).

How such income is split between the publisher and author varies. Some publishing contracts pay royalties on a 90/10 split in favour of the author. Ours are 50/50. We justify this in two ways. As with most small, independent publishers, our authors tend not to have the sort of following which makes them hot properties before they even put pen to paper (compared with—say—Ross Kemp, whose book about gangs was nailed-on as a TV series from the moment it was conceived). Additionally, the books themselves tend to need quite a lot of editing work. Thus, we argue, if TV are interested it will be in some (possibly quite large) part down to the work we do. If we involve lawyers—which we do—then we pay their fees. The legal bill for reading and amending the contract for the rights to Diary Of An On Call Girl cost more than we have made out of selling the rights, so far. Given that there is no guarantee it will ever get made (and thus that we will ever recoup the difference), I don't think it's unfair that we defray those costs out of the upfront fee. We could, of course, not use lawyers—but with all the additional stuff to think about, like repeat fees, DVD rights, internet rights, other broadcast rights, what credit the author and the book get if the darn thing makes it to telly and so on, it's a brave publisher who simply trusts his own judgment. We have sold the rights to two of our titles—Frank Chalk's teacher's lament It's Your Time You're Wasting (to SMG, who own Chris Evans' Ginger Productions and make Taggart, Goodbye Mr Chips and lots of other stuff), and the aforementioned Diary Of An On Call Girl. We're currently in negotiations with Alison 'Lily Allen's Mum' Owen's company to sell the rights to Wasting Police Time and Perverting the Course of Justice, and a writer has just started work on Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel (And Other Half-truths from Baghdad) in the hope of being commissioned directly by one of the major broadcasters.


My thanks to Dan Collins, publisher of Monday Books, for this piece.

Trios: The White Road and Other Stories, by Tania Hershman: The Bookseller’s View

Sara Crowley has had fiction published by Pulp.Net, 3:AM, elimae, flashquake, Litro, Cella's Round Trip, Dogmatika, Red Peter, Better Non Sequitur, and a variety of other lovely places. “Salted”, her novel in progress, was shortlisted for the 2007 Faber/Book Tokens Not Yet Published Award. She is, among many other things, a bookseller at Waterstones and if you visit her blog you’ll be able to see photographs of some of her displays of the short story collections she so enthusiastically promotes—including one with Tania’s book in centre-stage. I wish that every bookshop had its own Sara Crowley, and offer her my warmest thanks for this piece.


I am a writer, mother, and part time bookseller in the fiction section of a large branch of Waterstones. I like to read and write short and long fiction; each has its own craft, skill, and reward. Novels outsell short story collections though, and there are a number of customers who are resistant to them. I understand how satisfying it is to immerse oneself in a lengthy story, but just as we are capable of listening to, and appreciating, both singles and albums, I don’t see the need to pick one form of writing and reject the other.

I maintain a short story collection display case and have no difficulty in filling the nineteen available spaces. I like to mix classic must-reads (Sylvia Plath's Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, Raymond Carver's Where I'm Calling from) with new voices (Lee Rourke's Everyday, Neil Smith's Bang Crunch) and contemporary greats (Lorrie Moore's The Collected Stories of Lorrie Moore, Ali Smith's The First Person and Other Stories). I hope there’s something for everyone, and regularly change things to keep the display fresh. My colleague (who runs the fiction section) has a vast knowledge of fiction past and present; between us I think we offer wonderful range.

Customers often bring in reviews they have cut from the paper, or ask for a book they heard about on the radio. I’m not sure that short story collections get the necessary publicity in the press to generate buzz about them so one way of attracting potential buyers is to write a bookseller’s review. One of my favourite authors is Janice Galloway, so I ordered in copies of her superb collection Where You Find it, wrote a glowing review, and have sold 55 copies so far. It really pleases me to think that I have helped people to discover such a talented writer, and it proves that if good quality work is visible then people will buy it. Tania Hershman’s name may not be familiar to people yet, but if they read my recommendation and pick up The White Road and Other Stories they will see that it is beautifully produced and it offers something a little different, as Tania prefaces the stories with snippets of scientific articles that have inspired her. She is a very skilled writer, so reading a passage or two is likely to make the customer buy the book.

It’s sad to think that without publicity some wonderful books can remain undiscovered.


Two weeks ago we heard how Tania Hershman promoted her book, The White Road and Other Stories; and last week Jen Hamilton-Emery of Salt Publishing discussed some of the difficulties involved in running an independent press.

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win a copy of The White Road and Other Stories, then answer this question: which magazine's articles inspired many of the stories in Tania's collection? Answers to tania@thewhiteroadandotherstories.com. You have until May 27 to get your emails to her, after which time she will select one winner at random from all of the entries she receives.

Trios: Devil's Gold, by Julie Korzenco

Congratulations to Eric Stallsworth, whose name has just been pulled out of a virtual hat over at Julie Korzenko's house. He'll soon be receiving a copy of Julie's novel Devil's Gold, which kicked off my Trios series a few weeks ago.

Commiserations to those of you who weren't lucky this time round: all is not lost, though, as there's still time to join in the rush for a copy of Tania Hershman's wonderful The White Road and Other Stories which you can read about here.

Trios: The White Road and Other Stories, by Tania Hershman: The Publisher’s View

Salt Publishing is a tiny independent press which specialises in publishing strong literary fiction and poetry. As is so often the case for independent presses, Salt has struggled to remain in business: but, thanks to the determination of its proprietors and their incredible ability to find exceptional authors, Salt Publishing now has an established and growing reputation for publishing beautiful, exciting books which people actually want to read, including Tania Hershman's collection of beautiful short stories, The White Road and Other Stories. My thanks to Jen Hamilton-Emery, Salt Publishing’s co-founder and publisher, for this piece.


For eight years I did, quite literally, conduct my life from within a small press. Salt, which both me and my husband run, lived in a room off our living room. During this time the walls in the hall took on the colour of cardboard, and our garage and shower room were redesignated as warehousing space. Our every waking minute was spent in the office – before breakfast, last thing at night, in between dinner courses, we juggled sending emails, typesetting, packaging and franking books. Salt was as intimate a part of our daily lives as our children were, though they got less of our time by far.

In June 2008, Salt moved to an office two miles down the road in the next village. We have our house and back and our sanity restored. But I do think there’s something to that old adage ‘you don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps’ that keeps us going as a small press. Life at Salt is challenging yet rewarding in ways that most conventional employment isn’t. And quite possibly in ways that working in a large publishing house isn’t.

For a small press to survive and thrive, it has to find its niche. Forget trying to compete with the big guys; many of them happily sell shed-loads of books at a loss, aiming for quantity over profit and instead making their money on the selling of TV, film and translation rights. Small presses however have to think smart. They have to become known as the best in their chosen field, and some have done this extremely well, becoming the leading expert in areas such as welding (Woodhead Publishing) and autism (Jessica Kingsley Publishing). For literary publishers however, things are that bit tougher.

Go to any newspaper and look at the book reviews section. Chances are that at least 75% of literary reviews are of books published by corporate publishers or large independents. That is the power of employing a team of publicists with entertainment budgets. At Salt we have a small board and a team of commissioning editors. Two of us run Salt’s operations (Chris and me), we both decide which books are to be published, negotiate contracts with the author or their agent, pull together all the bibliographic data and manage its flow through the various book systems around the world to ensure that every book shop and on-line retailer knows about it, copy edit, typeset, proof, design the cover, liase with the printer and work with the author to promote and market the book. We are lucky that we now have a part-time member of staff who packages, franks and sends orders and review copies – until recently we also did this ourselves and you wouldn’t believe how time consuming or problematic getting books from point A to point B can be. We have a couple of interns who now help us phone bookshops and other places we think would be interested in stocking or promoting our books, as well as working on converting texts into ebooks (all this too used to be us). We load and manage our website, plus our on-line shop and our blogs, Facebook Fanclub (over 3,000 members), as well as do our best to answer emails. And we have three children, ages three, ten and twelve, all at different schools.

All of this is good fun. And a lot of work. It’s work that we hope pays off through people buying our books and bringing in the income we need to keep going. So far, this hasn’t been the case, and although our sales have been growing (until the credit crunch set in, when they dropped by 12%) we have had to rely on various grants from the Arts Council England, as well as odd pots of money from the Department of Trade and Industry, the Australia Council and overseas governments for translation grants. Our particular areas of publishing – poetry and short stories – do not lend themselves to huge rights deals that the big players can negotiate with film companies. We have had several stories and poems on the radio and in anthologies, but not to the extent that we have the luxury of not keeping an eye on the profit margin of our book sales.

Despite this however, we remain positive. Positive that our sales will grow again, once people get over the fear of spending money and we won’t need to rely on those hard-to-get grants. And we continue to be proud of our publishing. Basically, we love our books. We love that we can publish work that we feel deserve to be shared with the world, without having to concern ourselves with whims and fads that the big players have to. Salt’s niche is two of the trickiest areas of publishing but because they are genres that matter to us personally, we are on a mission to make them count. It’s hard to describe the feeling we get when we come across a manuscript that knocks our socks off, or when books arrive in the office, freshly printed, or when an author first gets their book in their hands and loves it. Or going into a bookshop and seeing Salt books on the shelf. Or hearing that one of our authors has been shortlisted for a prize, or, as happened recently, publicly commended by judges of a major award (Tania Hershman by the Orange Prize judges). All of that is why we do it.

Life in a small press? I wouldn’t change it for the world.


Last week we heard how Tania Hershman has promoted her book, The White Road and Other Stories; and next week Sara Crowley reveals how a good bookseller can make all the difference to the sales of a book.

If you'd like to win a copy of The White Road and Other Stories, then answer this question: which magazine's articles inspired many of the stories in Tania's collection? Answers to Tania at tania@thewhiteroadandotherstories.com. You have until May 27 to get your emails to her, after which time she will select one winner at random from all of the entries she receives.

Trios: The White Road and Other Stories, by Tania Hershman: Self-Promotion

Tania Hershman is a former science journalist who has recently been commended by the judges of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers. Her first short story collection, The White Road and Other Stories, is published by Salt Modern Fiction (and has been very favourably reviewed by Sally Zigmond, who comments here regularly). Her short stories have been widely published in print journals and online, and she is the founder and editor of The Short Review, a site dedicated to reviewing short story collections and anthologies. She has generously offered to give away a signed copy of The White Road to one of my readers: you'll find the details at the end of this piece. My thanks to her for contributing.


My first book, The White Road and Other Stories, was published in September 2008 by Salt Publishing, a small press based in the UK. I was delighted when they offered me a book deal. After having had an agent for several years with no result (she dealt only with mainstream publishers and they all told her, "come back when she's written a novel,") I decided to take matters into my own hands and submit stories myself to Salt. The agent and I have now parted ways amicably.

Being published by a small press has meant for me that I have a personal connection with my editor, Jen Hamilton-Emery, rather than feeling lost in a large publishing house. I made suggestions about the book cover, and Salt came up with what I consider the perfect cover. I chose what stories to include and proofed the manuscript several times, but apart from that didn't have any other input into the process, which was fine by me. I was thrilled when the book was published, I think it is beautiful.

Jen made it very clear to me, and to fellow Salt authors I am in touch with, that Salt doesn’t have the resources to do much promotion and that I would need to be very involved in this. Before the book came out I was given a long author questionnaire to fill out listing potential reviewers, competitions the book could be submitted to, author events I might appear at, and other ideas for promotion.

I wasn't quite prepared for how much work promoting a book would be and in some ways it has been overwhelming. I had experience building websites, I built my own site and the online review journal I edit, The Short Review, so I always planned to build a website for the book. This has links to excerpts of the stories, videos of me reading at a short story conference, some of the stories which having been broadcast on BBC Radio and podcasts, and it also has some background and "added value" material about the book. Half the stories in my book are inspired by articles from the weekly UK magazine New Scientist so I created a page explaining my concept of "science-inspired fiction", with links to other books and websites that I see as fitting into this category. Another page explains flash fiction (which is the other half of my book), with links to many online literary magazines that publish flash fiction. I get a lot of hits to the website from people searching for "flash fiction", so I am doing more than just selling my book, I am providing resources for writers.

Another good idea was my partnering with Eco-Libris, a company which "balances out" the trees used to print books by planting a tree for every book. I pay them a small sum per copy printed, and they plant a tree. They are very active online, they took part in my Virtual Book Tour (see below) and they publicised my book on green websites far and wide. I joined forces with them because I hated to think of the amount of paper involved in my book, and our partnership has exceeded my expectations!

In terms of reviews, Salt has been fabulous, sending out review copies to anyone I've asked them to send to, wherever in the world, and this, together with my nudging of the reviewers, has resulted in quite a few reviews. Because of the connection to their articles, I was very eager that New Scientist see the book, and hoped they would review it. Getting them a review copy was a struggle, the books kept getting lost, but Jen persevered and I kept in close contact with them to ensure they remembered who I was. This paid off: not only did they reprint the title story, The White Road, on their website, with a link to the article that had inspired it, they reviewed the book in their Christmas Books Special: Best of 2008! I sold two hundred copies in one week at Christmas and was for a time in Amazon UK's Top Ten Bestselling Short Story Collections, and I believe this was down to the New Scientist review.

Reviews are vital, especially for short story collections which get far less attention than novels, and this was why I set up The Short Review eighteen months ago to focus exclusively on reviewing short story collections. I now have over forty reviewers worldwide reviewing ten books, new and older, every month. In the end, I decided I couldn't commission anyone to review my book for the site, this smacked too much of nepotism, but I have received a lot of attention because of The Short Review, which was wonderful yet unexpected, and this has definitely had a positive effect on my book, with reviewers asking for a review copy of my book to "return the good karma".

Being a small press with limited resources, Salt have seized the opportunities the Internet provides, and are very dynamic and active on their website, blogs and Facebook pages. I have also been one of Salt's "guinea pigs" for their Cyclone Virtual Book Tour program: I found eleven blogs willing to host a stop on my tour, and was interviewed by a blog a week over eleven weeks, about various aspects of my writing, my reading, my life — anything and everything. This was wonderful, yet exhausting, even though I didn't have to travel anywhere! I am not sure how much this translated into direct sales, but I strongly believe it created a buzz. I used my websites, my blog, Facebook, MySpace, RedRoom (a website for authors), and various online writing communities (WriteWords, Zoetrope), to publicise every leg of the tour, as well as any reviews the book receives. I also signed up to be an Amazon author, and blogged on Amazon.com's page for my book. A recent review on Amazon (by someone I don't know) mentioned "the hype on the internet and in New Scientist", so I guess something is working!

It's been six months and while the Virtual Tour is over, book promotion goes on and several reviews have just been published, in an Australian print magazine and two book blogs, with others forthcoming in the US, Canada and the UK, I hope. I was recently in the UK and took part in the launch of a short story anthology at Jewish Book Week, and although that wasn't about my book, they stocked The White Road and Other Stories in the festival bookshop, and I talked about it during the event. I also went back to my high school in London and spoke to a group of 14-year-olds about writing. I was trying to think "out of the box" about book promotion and had seen from their website that they had a creative writing society so I wrote to them and offered to come. They were thrilled, it was a wonderful experience — and I was amazed when three of them bought books! They have invited me to come back and do a flash fiction workshop next time I am in England. I also alerted the universities I studied at and the mentioned me in their alumni newsletters, from which my websites have had a number of hits.

So, to sum up, promoting a book is hard work, and not, I believe, just for those published by small presses. Authors have to do a lot these days, whoever the publisher is and whether it is a short story collection or a novel. I expect to be promoting my books for many more months, if not a year or two. I put all the time and effort into writing the stories, Salt put all the time, money and effort into producing the book, the least I can do is try and do what I can to get copies sold, from the point of view of my royalties as well as readership. I am trying not to let this interfere too much with my current writing, but it does, there is no getting away from that. That is part of having a book, and I wouldn't have it any other way. However continuing to write and publish new short stories, and enter into short story competitions, also serves to publicise my book.

Next week we hear from Jen Hamilton-Emery of Salt Publishing, when she discusses the difficulties involved in running an independent press; and the week after it's Sara Crowley's turn, when she reveals how a good bookseller can make all the difference to the sales of a book.

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win a copy of The White Road and Other Stories, then answer this question: which magazine's articles inspired many of the stories in Tania's collection? Answers to tania@thewhiteroadandotherstories.com. You have until May 27 to get your emails to her, after which time she will select one winner at random from all of the entries she receives.

Trios: Devil’s Gold, by Julie Korzenco—Marketing The Book

Julie Korzenko, author of Devil's Gold, has been kind enough to arrange a trio of articles for me about the publication of her book. Two weeks ago Julie described how she found a home for her book; last week her editor at Medallion Press, Emily Steele, discussed the editorial process; and this week Paul Ohlson, Medallion Press's Marketing Manager, takes his turn in the spotlight. But first, a brief note from Julie.

My first book signing for Devil's Gold took place on March 7, 2009. I had appropriately threatened, er I mean invited, all friends and family to what I hoped would be a pleasant evening and not the nail-biting excruciating experience of being the only person to show up at my own debut. Much to my relief, it was a wonderful event. But what made it even more special was the additional effort of the book store owner. She had received her monthly copy of Book Page and was thrilled to find Devil’s Gold advertised. When I arrived at the store, right next to my stack of books, was a framed print of the advertisement. It made me feel special and loved by my publisher. So here’s a big shout out to marketing: thanks for being there on my debut night!


Everyone gets the general concept behind marketing, right? Advertise. You have a product; and in order for people to buy the product, they need to know it exists. Wait a minute, though. Is it really enough anymore just to advertise? Have you ever had this happen? You’re telling a friend about a commercial you like, and when they ask, “What company was that for?” you say, “I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

We are so inundated with advertising that little of it is memorable anymore. How can it be when we see it every minute of the day? At some point, we’re bound to tune it out. But studies still show that you can’t just stop advertising altogether, because if you do, consumers will forget about you! Isn’t it odd that consumers can’t remember companies in advertisements, but if you stop advertising, consumers will forget you exist? So what can we do to stay at the forefront of consumer memory? Repeat, repeat, repeat! Consistently, too!

How does all of this relate to marketing books? Here’s how: Your book is a product. It doesn’t do any good for a product to have a big to-do when it’s released and then just drop off the face of the earth (and out of the minds of consumers, I might add).

Typically what you’ll find throughout the publishing industry is a publisher taking care of the big to-do when a book is released, but the author is then expected to take the reins from there and continue riding that big horse until it wins the race. But so many authors want to create this big push the same month their book releases, and then afterwards their efforts stop—and so do sales.

If you’re not an upper-echelon author or celebrity, then the success of your book is a marathon, not a sprint. This means as an author you must find ways to repeatedly and consistently talk about your book over a long period of time.

Luckily for you, the internet makes this all possible. Sign up for as many social media outlets as you have time to consistently update. Get involved in online groups, forums, and conversations. Arrange interviews with local papers and television stations. Join book clubs at local bookstores. Get to know the owner or general manager of the local bookstores, as a consistent patron of their store first; then several months down the line, if the relationship is good, ask them if they’ll host a signing for you. In other words, create relationships. Do this over a long period of time. How long is long? It’s until your next book releases.

And don’t forget to keep writing! You won’t only need to be consistent with your marketing; you’ll also need to consistently put out new products. This is just a continuation of the repetition. Think of it this way: if you put out a new book every year, then every year your publisher is creating the big to-do for you. In the meantime, you’re marketing that book all throughout the year until your next book releases with another big to-do from your publisher. Talk about consistently, repeatedly staying at the forefront of consumer memory!

My thanks to Paul Ohlson for contributing this piece: he might just pay us a visit at some point today, so if you have any marketing-related questions to ask, do please get them in as soon as you can. Thanks too to Julie, for organising this mini-series, and for offering to give away a free copy of Devil’s Gold: if you'd like to get your hands on it, just email her at “jkorzenko at gmail dot com” and answer this simple question: what is P3? You’ve got until 12 May to get your emails in to her: after that date, Julie will select one lucky winner at random from all entrants who answer correctly.