Caffeine Nights Publishing

Graham Smith Talks...DI Harry Evans

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 13:26:00 +0000

The EU and why I say...vote leave

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 20:57:00 +0000

I refuse to sit on the fence on the most important vote in our lifetime. If democracy and self-government are important to you, if protecting industries and the NHS is important, If avoiding the odious US /EU trade agreement TTIP is important, if being able to sack failing politicians and voting in new politicians is important then there is only one vote and that is a vote to leave the EU. We won't be leaving the continent of Europe, we won't stop trading with Europe but we will be free to trade with the rest of the world without the EU's onerous restrictions.

The EU already has one flag, a national anthem, an army about to be announced and a future of a single state with no borders. It has expansionist hunger last seen which led to a world war and clearly would allow any old country to join regardless of it's financial strength or weakness, just to increase it's size. Financially it is a crippled behemoth. Britain will be forced to pay extra to make these weak countries stronger while our own services crumble, while our roads fall apart, while our NHS dies. If Greece defaults on the punitive austerity payments they are being forced to pay by their EU 'friends' especially Germany, the house of cards that is the Euro currency could implode and thank god we didn't join that when PWC, the city bankers, various trade industry bodies and so called financial experts were all campaigning for us to join the exchange rate mechanism and surrender sterling - the very same people now saying we should remain in the EU - why? Because they become extremely wealthy through the EU or get massive amounts of funding to keep them rich and us poor.

A vote to remain is a vote for David Cameron, city bankers, and an anti-democratic state, the wholesale abandonment of our sovereignty to a single un-elected United States of Europe, which happens to be just ahead of the Antarctic continent in terms of growth (just ahead), a European army that will threaten stability with non-EU neighbours. An un-elected super state bleeding us dry, while forcing through an army which we have no control over.

I've not even talked about borders or immigration, because let's be frank, to offer any thoughts on this subject makes you an out and out racist or bigot. The truth can sometimes be very uncomfortable for the politically correct. So forget immigration and look at what you stand to lose in terms of democracy and if god forbid we do vote to remain (especially after the Government so slyly moved the time to register to vote by two days) don't complain when you wake up on the 24th June or soon after to news of an EU army being formed and voted through by only 9 members of the EU not the 28 countries that usually have a veto on such important matters...but then again democracy doesn't count for much in the EU. You voice certainly won't...Keep you voice, keep your democratic right ...

vote leave

Ian Ayris talks...April Skies

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 14:02:00 +0000

Crime author, Michael Fowler talks...

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 14:01:00 +0000

The Year of the Derivative Title

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 11:10:00 +0000

Scene: Marketing room at a Major Publishing House

A boardroom with five white middle to upper class people, discussing a title change in order to launch a book

Rodney: Brainstorm guys!

Lucinda 1: Thought shower Rodders, Thought shower.

Lucinda 2: Yeah, Roddykins think of all those poor darlings with epilepsy or ADD or...ooh, shoes. (Lucinda 2 stares off into the distance.)

Lucinda 3: I’ve got it...(Lucinda 3 stands and walks to the flip chart, grabs a permanent marker and writes, The Girl. She sits down clearly exhausted.) Phew...blood rush.

All three Lucinda’s laugh and for some inexplicable reason Rodney turns red from the neck up.

Piers: Is it enough?

Lucinda 4 enters the room carrying a tray with a bottle of Bolly and six glasses: Have I missed anything?

Rodney: Lovely Lulu has come up with a spiffing title for our new thriller but Piers is concerned.

Piers: Is it enough? I mean with Gone Girl, Girl on a Train, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night

Rodney looks puzzled

Piers: Not one of ours Rodo! Savage Girl, Wartime Girls, Girl Interrupted, the list goes on

Lucinda 2: What about?...(stares of into the distance once more)

Lucinda 3: The Gone Girl On A Train With a Dragon Tattoo On A Saturday Night

The whole room turns to look at Lucinda 3, seriously contemplating her title idea

Piers: But what’s it about?

The 4 Lucinda’s respond “Who cares, who has read the bloody thing anyway” and cackle

Piers: shrugs and sweeps his foppish hair back from his eyes: Open the bloody champers, time to celebrate!

Rodney: We’ll print a million, chuck a few hundred grand at it and see what happens eh? Tube posters everywhere, lots of bus advertising and let’s give away 40,000 to generate word of mouth buzz. The buyers will love it!

Lucinda 4: It always seems to work Rodder’s!

Why I Want to Draw a Distinction between Self publishing and Indie Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 14:54:00 +0000

The term indie publishing appears to have been hijacked by the loose fitting collective that is self publishing. So where does that leave true indie publishers like Caffeine Nights and a host of other small but passionate publishers striving to make a difference and an impact in this industry?

If you use the term indie publisher these days many people often think you mean self-published, and like it or not along with that comes the baggage of the old days including vanity publishing. There is a growing consensus of opinion that there are some excellent beginners and professionals out there who are self-publishing very successfully. Sadly that also leaves around 95% of the self published market which is still happy to churn out unedited, unproofed drivel for pennies or free and congest an already swamped market.

Whatever way they wish to look at it and indeed even some parts of the industry has started labelling these successful writing entrepreneurs as indie authors, they are and always will remain self-published authors and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Just please don’t hijack the term indie.

In this rush to embrace self published authors I think the true indie publisher has had to endure a difficult time in the market. On the one hand trying to compete with the big boys and on the other seeing what market forces brought about by the gold rush of everyone has a book in them has done to the hard fought for ground established by true indie publishers. Seeing that ground eroded by readers keen to devour or download every free or cheap self-published ebook available has made it an exciting but also frustrating time.

Personally I don’t think many of those free books ever get read, but what they do is skewer the market affecting sales rankings and damaging sales. Readers need to be able to distinguish good from bad and by diluting or confusing terms such as indie publishing it becomes harder for readers to make informed choices especially with eBook purchases until they actually start reading what they have downloaded.

Indie publishers provide that stepping stone between unpublished obscurity and often the next step for many authors in their career. Small enough to care big enough to produce lovely crafted books and occasionally win a small battle, gain a victory, garner a national review, persuade a buyer to take a book on in their stores, win an award or being short listed.

Indie publishers deserve to keep their moniker and not have it stolen by an equally worthy set of self –published authors albeit a significantly small proportion of self-published authors who are doing the right thing in the right way.

Welcome to Lostland

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 10:04:00 +0000

In a little over 48 hours the good people of Scotland will vote in an historic referendum which decides not only the fate of its governance but also how the rest of the Union will be defined in the world. Make no bones about it; every vote cast is a momentous decision from which there is no return. Whatever happens, these islands will never be the same and Scotland will take a generation to recover. With a country divided, wounds are being opened that will if not treated carefully will fester as Scotland marches towards its future.

I won’t hide my feelings; I am a true believer of a United Kingdom. We are stronger together. The future is more assured and thanks to the arrogance and slack-jawed approach by not only our incumbent prime minister but coalition government and an even weaker stance by the Labour party we are on the verge of seeing the union dissolved.

I can understand a distrust of Westminster politics but to rage against that in the face of common sense and advice seems very short term against what could be long-term disastrous ramifications of a vote for independence.

An independent Scotland (I will resist using the term IS) will not have a currency union for the very reason that the Bank of England will not underwrite the huge risks involved with a go-it-alone small nation. It’s not a case of if Scotland’s oil revenue dries up but when Scotland’s oil revenue dries up. The UK estimates 16 billion barrels are left. Alex Salmond states 24 billion. If we go in the middle and suggest 20 million as a conservative estimate which equates to 20% of an independent Scotland’s entire budget who will make the shortfall when oil runs dry? If an Independent Scotland overspends who will make the shortfall? These are just two of the reasons why a currency union won’t happen because the Rest of the UK (RUK) won’t be the falls guys in this scenario.

The notion that an Independent Scotland will automatically join the EU is also a point which Salmond adamantly states even though the EU itself has stated this could take up to five years and then only if Scotland accepts the Euro as its form of currency. But that’s okay because an Independent Scotland can join the list of Nordic trading countries.

An Independent Scotland wants to rid itself of nuclear weapons, maybe blue facial paint and harsh language will work against unknown nuclear threat but one thing it won’t do is allow them to join NATO despite what Mr Salmond says. Alex Salmond seems to be living in total denial of any legitimate objection to an independent Scotland. Not just partial denial but TOTAL denial. An Independent Scotland is beginning to sound more and more like a one-party-state with President Salmond at the head. His attitude of it’s my way or the highway is very unsettling.

Yes, things aren’t sunshine over Leith with Scotland’s current arrangement in the UK. Believe me it’s not for England too. We don’t even have our own assembly/parliament, we don’t have the promise of extended powers, in fact as an Englishman I watch Scottish MP’s presiding over and voting on affairs which have nothing to do with the governance of Scotland but affect me as an Englishman. Things are not fair, things are not equal but things are a damned sight better together than apart.

This referendum has been divisive, it has been damaging to the economy of the UK and it has opened wounds which were once closed and caused rifts in families that were never there. I only hope that whatever the outcome on Friday morning that those divisions heal.

Regardless of which way you are voting, think about your children’s future and their children’s future and remember the old adage “How do you tell if a politician is lying?”

“It’s because their lips are moving.” is true.

If the vote is for yes then good luck and bon voyage because I think the voyage may be a lot lonelier than you anticipate. I will be sad to see Scotland annex itself from the rest of the UK. We will be weaker apart regardless of the spin and the hyperbole from the politicians on both sides.

If it is a vote for yes then Prime Minister Cameron should do the decent thing and immediately resign. There is little point in calling for a new election or even having the proposed election in May as we would then be placed in the bonkers situation of re-electing Scottish MPs to reside over UK matters for a period of 16 months while the road to independence is mapped out. If it is a yes vote then the RUK’s general election should be differed until Scottish independence is complete.

The political landscape for both an Independent Scotland and RUK will be changed forever, making it very difficult for any party to have overall power in the RUK. Alliances will be drawn and coalition governments will be the norm, with the balance of power held by parties such as UKIP and other independents.

I honestly believe this Pandora’s box was never fully thought through and I believe either way we lose. Welcome to Lostland...

Book Trade Announcements - Caffeine Nights Crowdfunds Thriller

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 09:01:00 +0000

Book Trade Announcements - Caffeine Nights Crowdfunds Thriller

Is this another anti-Amazon Smokescreen from Publishing’s Big Boys?

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 08:50:00 +0000

Is there a smokescreen being created by publishers as Amazon threatens POD for out of print titles? A book should never go out of print! Surely this is the publisher’s obligation to keep their back-list available and a move to POD for titles which have ran their course with a publisher is a simple and effective solution to keeping books in the hands of readers and author’s fans. There was an argument which I saw recently that some publishers are worried because the quality of POD is inferior. All the more reason for publishers to source an excellent POD supplier and provide the quality they can control. By the same token Amazon have no right to simply hi-jack titles and print them POD but the onus is on the publisher to ensure that authors can generate income from their back-list.

If any authors are struggling with this issue with their publisher then it really needs to be confronted head-on with the publisher and the author’s agent if he or she has one. Clauses must be added to contracts which guarantee the availability of titles through POD once a print run has been exhausted.

POD used to be a dirty word but I guarantee many readers would not spot the difference between an excellent POD title and a print run book. I can honestly say that many of our POD titles have actually been better than the print runs supplied by one of the UK’s leading printers.

Amazon’s tactics here may be viewed as being wrong but what they are exposing is a very real neglect of many author’s who simply fall off the radar because the publisher is too busy pursuing the next 12 year old literary genius or d-list celebrity memoir. Clearly Amazon cannot simply produce a POD version without the consent of the publisher but this state of affairs should not be allowed to happen in the first instance. Publisher’s look after you author’s and ensure that while under contract their books are always available. It’s that simple really.

The Frustrations of Being an Independent Publisher or Why Amazon is Actually Saving Independent Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 18:29:00 +0000

I have read a heck of a lot of posts talking about the evil entity that is Amazon and how Amazon is destroying publishing. From my perspective this couldn't be further from the truth. Sure Amazon has been allowed to gain a strong foothold on publishing. I choose my words carefully - it has been allowed - allowed by publishers and authors.

Many authors and independent publishers have no issue with this, having suffered at the hands of traditional routes to market via high st retail outlets for longer than they care to remember. Everyday is a battle trying to convince book buyers to have a look at their titles. Knowing that it is pretty much a futile effort on their behalf. A cursory glance if we're lucky followed by a quick dismissal as buyers return to the 'sanctity' and 'safety' of the lager publishers. So, what are buyers afraid of risking by investing in small businesses in Britain - by this I mean small independent publishers. The answer is pretty much nothing. Let me explain.

All books 'bought' (and I use that term very loosely) by buyers are actually 'bought' on sale or return. Meaning that if after a designated period the books have not sold, they are returned to the publisher and any monies exchanged are promptly returned to the retailer in exchange for the books. So, no risk for the retail outlet. Now let's look at why they prefer dealing with larger publishers - yes, they have larger marketing budgets so there is more likelihood that there will have been some exposure to the title from the consumers point of view...possibly. But here's the kicker - they run extraordinarily large runs of books. On the sale or return method (or no risk of exposure to the retailer method as I like to call it) the retailer can 'buy' thousands of copies of a single title and flood the stores with them - it's great for turnover for two reason.

1: The publisher is likely to pay for prime locations in the store to actually enhance selling more copies (Don't believe the charts or the hype. It's all about how deep a publisher's pockets are)
2: The retailer can return every unsold copy sometimes within weeks of publication to the publisher and claw back every single penny - sometimes they don't even have to display the books - let's face it, who can check every single store, right?. The large publisher gets a little cash boots to quickly invest and earn some interest off before the books are returned to them. i.e you scratch my back...

With buyer's reducing range of indie books in store it is becoming increasingly difficult and frustrating for independent publishers to get vital book events to promote books even at a local level. A certain high street store invariably hides behind an array of excuses when trying to decline a book signing or launch event in store. Managers up and down the country seem at odds as to what excuse they can use not to engage with independent publishers. Usually this terminates with a veiled response ending at the MD's door.

Here is a couple of corkers I have been told over the past year:

"Oh, you need to guarantee 80 sales on the day to make it worthwhile" To which I challenged them to name any single book which had sold 80 copies in a day in the past 6 months. Silence pursued.

"In line with our new stricter author event guidelines, I must consider whether her books are suitable for our market and will actively sell off the shelf, and unfortunately our sales don't reflect this." To which I responded, If your buyers aren't buying the book and placing them in-store how can they sell? Silence pursued.

There is much wrong with publishing and book retail in general - don't get me started on publishers selling off their over large runs at ridiculously cheap prices to supermarkets and remainder stores. These are usually the remainders sent back from the high street stores - but when there is an absolute stranglehold on buyers by the big five publishers it is difficult for independent publishers who scrape a living through Amazon to have much sympathy for their plight when they complain about an uneven playing ground. If you want an uneven playing ground try wearing the shoes of an independent publisher for a day.

Why Huge Publishing Advances can be Huge Steps Backwards

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 13:23:00 +0000

The reality of a six figure advance is highlighted this week by the failure of Harper Collins to realise its investment in Kindle best-selling sensations Mark Edwards and Louise Voss. A lot of noise was made in 2011 as the Harper Collins joined in a desperate scrap to secure the writing talents of the duo. Sadly and not surprisingly the transition from Kindle sensations to mainstream authors did not work for either Harper Collins or Edwards and Voss. The lure of big money is impossible to resist for most authors and for some they think the journey has ended there and then. Money in the bank, a big publisher behind you, books secured in high street stores and supermarkets...happy days. But the truth in the modern and complex retail environment is much more difficult as Edwards and Voss have found out. And this points to an extremely important factor which both Harper Collins and Edwards and Voss appear to have missed. I am talking about the disconnect between publishers and readers and authors and readers. Edwards and Voss were Kindle sensations through their own hard work and marketing. Harper Collins naively assumed all those Kindle readers would follow Edwards and Voss into the supermarkets and book shops. This was as likely to happen as Waterstones or WHSmiths core base of customers buying all their books online. The two are distinct and different animals. Sure there is a cross-over but percentage wise the cross-over is small. And here lies the rub for the future of the industry and brick and mortar environments. Books in these environments are spoon fed to us by curators (buyers) who make the choices for what we read. They make these judgements for us based on certain criteria: marketing budget, relationships with publishers, print runs – yes size matters, even if it means pulping a few hundred thousand unsold books. We were used to being told what to read by ‘influential’ reviewers – don’t for a second believe that all reviews are impartial and unhindered by the same criteria as buyers face. The whole of publishing was sewn up in a nice virtuous circle which the Internet has broken and publishers are still struggling to come to terms with. For now – but who know for how long – there are enough retail outlets that support the cosy virtuous circle but these are diminishing. Independent book shops in the UK have fallen below 1000 outlets. Book buying shopping habits have changed, who knows if these changes are permanent. Edwards and Voss have now signed for Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint having learned the importance of reconnecting with the readers they worked so hard to win in the first place while wanting ingress into retail at some level. Louise Voss recently told The Bookseller “It is so hard to get into bookshops these days. It would be lovely to see our book getting into WHSmith but it is getting harder and harder and both Mark and I would like to make a living through writing books.” As an independent publisher I can only second this sentiment and it echoes the importance of the work authors do in making those connections with the new readers through social media activity and online engagement. Whether self-published or with a publisher authors in the new age are the most powerful aspect of their own success. Publishers can add a vital role through expanding the reach for authors and their books and adding to the media reach as well as through new platforms such as apps. Publishers and authors can work together but both need to realise how the boundaries have changed and what the expectations and realisations of this new democracy are.

PR Fluff and Puff

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 09:31:00 +0000

We are all guilty of it. Terms such as hotly tipped literary sensation, bidding war bonanza and the next JK Rowling (Substitute any authors name you care for here, it depends on the genre – Stieg Larsson, Stephen King, EL James etc). These are no more than PR devices meant to engrain in the mind of the casual reader some element of worthiness to their next ‘must-have’ purchase. The same can be said to books which win awards. The reality is that even the Man Booker is no more than a bun fight in a tea shop. Awards are supposed to be a recognition of achievement but often real achievement and worthiness is overlooked in the fog of PR and deep pockets. Deep pockets to fund the PR machine and to pay the fees needed to get a book shortlisted. No, I am not suggesting any impropriety; the Man Booker is open to all publishers as long as they can fund the prize money. By which I mean coughing up £5k if you are shortlisted and a further £5k if you win. So clearly this award does discriminate on a basis of cash flow and circumstance.

So, how do we learn to discriminate between the fluff, puff and hyperbole? Discretion and curiosity remain two key tools in our armoury and forgive me but this is where I am going to praise Amazon for what it is allowing to happen in the book buying marketplace. It is giving the consumer or the reader a little more democracy and choice. It does not discriminate anywhere near as heavily as ‘those who know better’ and make our choices for us. It allows the consumer the chance to find the good, the bad and the downright awful and this allows the cream to rise free from the restraints of PR.

This is not an attack against PR. It is one of the best and most powerful tools that can be used with discerning journalists and editors as long as there is an actual story, but when the story clearly is lacking and it is no more than the contents of a hot air balloon, it pays to pinch yourself every now and then and scratch beneath the surface a little deeper to find the truth and remember not everything you read is true.

The Cuckoo Who Squawked has them all of a Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:33:00 +0000

As news filters through that JK Rowling’s unmasking as the author of The Cuckoo’s Calling was from her lawyers’ it seems a little hard to swallow. If Rowling was serious about keeping her crime writing pseudonym of Robert Galbraith safe, you would assume everyone connected to the project would have been made to sign an non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with severe penalties for anyone found leaking the story or those connected to anyone leaking the story. Not wanting to duck the issue, this could look like a well timed PR stunt designed to do exactly what it has achieved and that is to sell a load of books after stirring curiosity. Will there be swift justice?

It really does beggar belief that the best friend of JK Rowling’s solicitor’s wife, would disclose this information on Twitter, let alone the fact that the trusted legal employee (Chris Gossage) would be so careless in the first instance to reveal the truth so casually. Stranger things do happen though. Would this happen at Penguin? Or is it all a PR lark? If true I dare say Ms Rowling is huffin and puffin as well as effing and blinding.

Having sold 1500 copies prior to the leaking, the book has now been reprinted with over 140,000 copies flying onto the shelves.

Ms Rowling is not naive and I cannot imagine she would have had no measure for recourse built in to keeping her identity safe. If this is not a PR stunt then we can safely assume that there will be consequences for Russells Solicitors, Chris Gossage who revealed the identity to his wife’s best friend Judith Callegari who promptly repeated it parrot fashion on Twitter – how ironic. If true, they must be feeling like a bunch of tits.

It certainly does make you wonder about the standards of legal professionalism, and whether Ms Rowling is appointing a new legal team to take action. I can already see them circling like birds of prey.

A New Direction – This is the Modern World

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 06:35:00 +0000

Recently Caffeine Nights announced a first look deal it has made with Richwater Films, an extremely vibrant and exciting British film production company, and I was drawn to thinking about the parallels between the digital revolution happening in both of our industries. Publishing and the film (or Movie) industry is being transformed and democratised by digital. I use the word democratised because that is exactly what is happening. Not only is digital giving greater access to people who would have been shut out of the old worlds of film and books but it is also transforming the way we are working. The advent of high definition cinema quality images shot through DSLR which can be purchased by companies rather than being on the treadmill of forever loaning equipment and buying film stock, let alone the worry of processing the shot footage and storage of negatives etc has been swept away with the new tide of digital. Digital in publishing means so much more than eBooks. It has affected every part of the book making process from design to the finished product. The same can now be said of the films you watch.

Quality, as ever will out but because something is new and presented from new sources it should not be dismissed. The democratisation I speak about also includes gaining access to creative input from people who would never have been accepted by the ‘old school’ and this is not just the working classes but bright young, middle aged and old film makers and publishers from different backgrounds, classes and ethnicities. This is the true democratisation. The ingress of digital is reaching many of our visual and audio arts. Beginning for me with photography and music before the tendrils of digital and advent of technology allowed publishing and film to join the club. I see digital as the new wave or punk revolution for our time and it is a breath of fresh air. It opens a world where ideas can be discussed more freely and investment in those ideas more attainable through the cost savings digital offers. This brings new art, and obviously here I am talking about books and film and all each encompass, to the masses.

Straddling the divide between publishing and film is the author or screenwriter. Authors like our own Dougie Brimson, who has carved a career in both industries through his bestselling books like The Crew and Top Dog, selling thousands of copies and writing screenplays for features such as Green Street starring Elijah Wood and the forthcoming screenplay of Top Dog from his own novel for Richwater Films. Dougie is a prime example of an author who has capitalized on digital in both industries through talent, hard work and determination.

This digital era defines success in different ways and offers different channels for success. While it is great to have film distribution to a network of cinemas or book distribution to a network of book shops it is no longer necessary for that to happen to have a hit on your hands. There is an eager audience devouring new digital content. At Caffeine Nights and Richwater Films we are lucky to be working in both the traditional and new world of distribution. Our books will be available in stores as well as online. Films such as Richwater Films up and coming ‘Vendetta’, starring Danny Dyer and Vincent Regan will get a theatrical release (through distributor Anchor Bay) before it reaches the consumer shelves as a DVD, where it will be seen by many thousands of viewers and of course eventually online.

The book industry used to sneer at entrepreneurial authors who went down the self-publishing route and called it ‘vanity’ publishing. Now it has a new respect through the sheer force of numbers in sales it commands with some authors. The film industry is also battling with an entrepreneurial spirit that is embracing digital, those roughneck mavericks with their low budget features and guerrilla style film-making techniques. Arguably some of the output may be less slick than their big rich cousins and I really do mean arguably - in some cases it’s difficult to tell the difference between a £1m pound movie and a £30m pound movie - but it is also fresher and doesn’t feel as sullied or tainted by a corporate shroud which often stifles originality and creativity. It is this democratisation that frightens the establishment .

Digital is the common factor that drew Caffeine Nights and Richwater Films like magnets to work together - combining our talent pool so each can benefit. I am equally sure that other arts have been brought together in similar fashion. Without this revolution neither company would exist, or at least not in the way they do today. We have chosen to ride the technological new wave flowing through our respective industries and seize the opportunities each is presented with. It is without doubt one of the most exciting times to be in publishing and film making in the UK ever.

Many years ago Paul Weller wrote “This is the modern world, we don't need no one to tell us what's right or wrong” For me this sums up the democratisation of digital.

Book Shops are Shutting Their Doors to Publishers

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 22:48:00 +0000

I don’t know if this is a trend started by Waterstones but it seems to have spread to independent book retailers. Recently we talked to an independent book shop in Welwyn (there is only one) about a Welwyn author whose book we have launched to see if we could arrange a book signing event. We have had some really nice coverage in the local newspaper and the promise of more if we have an event in the store. Negotiations took over three weeks to try to arrange a simple book signing. Remember this is in a local store in the town where the author lives. 3 weeks. I rang at the beginning of the week to see what was happening to be greeted by – “Oh, did no one contact you...” followed by an awkward silence, “...the owner has said no. He didn’t give a reason...sorry”

Now, here’s the thing. We were going to supply all the books directly to the store to maximise the stores revenue from the event – which would be £3.15 per book from an £8.99 sale. Not bad for providing a bit of space. Oh, but you are thinking not bad for you either making £5.84 per book sale. Let’s break that down. Printing cost £3.28 per unit leaving £2.56, minus shipping and handling coats, publicity and marketing costs, author royalty at 30% leaving us with a little over £1.30. Less than half of what the book shop would gain just for hosting the event with no risk to them whatsoever.

When stores no longer wish to support authors from their own community and make easy money you have to wonder what their purpose or future will be. I can tell you that you don’t need rose tinted spectacles or even Google glasses to see that the disconnect between stores, their customer base and publishers is leading only one way and that is with the shutters permanently down and the ‘To Let’ sign hanging outside the store written in large red lettering.

Too many book retailers sit around bleating "oh woe is me, eBooks are killing book retail". If retailers do not wake up and I mean wake up quickly it will be too late. As a publisher of paper and eBooks we are adapting to the ever-changing marketplace to survive and grow - and grow without brick and mortar shops. We want to work with them. They are too ignorant, blind or filled with their own hubris to realise we can actually work without them. I love book stores and want our books and authors to engage with them and their (dwindling) customer base and grow that into something healthy which engages the local communities around them. They want easy sales without effort...or so it seems.

I believe the recent news of management restructure inside Waterstones stores may herald some hope for a new engagement with publishers and author – I certainly hope so. As for the independents, with this sort of blinkered response I can only guess as to what lay ahead and it ain’t good.

Publishing is Booming But It’s Still Gloom on the High Street

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Sat, 04 May 2013 12:54:00 +0000

The recent news that publishing is growing despite the introduction of digital seems to have lifted the spirits of many in the industry. Why is this such a shock? The only thing the introduction of digital has reinforced has been the fact that people love reading and are prepared to take on more convenient ways to do this via eBooks and online shopping. The cold chill that should be sweeping through James Daunt, Alexander Mamut and book shop owners everywhere is ‘if publishing is flourishing, why are bookshops struggling?’.

Go into your local Waterstones on any given day including Saturday and take a look around. Look into the recess of the store where Costa Coffee is rammed with customers, look around the book aisles and see if there are any people browsing and then look at the till point. Chances are there won’t be a queue of people waiting to be served unless they have a coffee and croissant in their hands. Now see if there is an in-store event. Is the store engaging with the local community by bringing in local authors? Are the staff reaching out to offer their ‘expertise’? Is there any form of engagement between the store and the customers?

Rather than herding people into the back of the store to drink coffee and disassociate with the books why not open this experience out to the store encourage people to break the confines of the ‘coffee shop’ and enter the ‘book shop’. Why not bring in local schools and community groups to engage with books and authors? Why not have in-store events where authors can engage with your customers?

The answer for Waterstones is because Mr. Daunt doesn’t do this in his boutique stores in the ‘select’ areas where Daunt book shops are successful. Well, here’s a newsflash Mr Daunt, Waterstones and Daunt Book Shops are chalk and cheese and what applies to one in no way applies to another. Every week I speak to the frontline troops at many different Waterstones stores and it’s clear that while they know they are engaged in a battle, the communications hitting the front line are confused, open to being misinterpreted, leaving morale at an all time low.

From store managers to shop assistants they wonder what is going to happen next as footfall dwindles and stock remains stubbornly on the shelves. James Daunt will within the next 12 months be able to declare an increase in bottom line profits and he may even then think about returning to manage his own empire, Daunt Book Shops. Leaving him to walk away as the ‘saviour’ of our last remaining high street book chain but this will only be achieved through the closure of the university stores and many other high street stores such as those in Leicester where trading has been particularly difficult or there had been duplication of stores in towns from the legacy of Waterstones acquisition of Dillons and Ottakars book shops. Any positive figures will not be achieved through organic growth but the shedding of ‘dead wood’.

It’s amazing that Waterstones past strength of buying out its rivals may well be part of its current downfall and one wonders if the high street may not have been a healthier place with more competition and not less. Offline retail needs offline competition to stimulate growth. Waterstones needs to reengage with its community, its customers and its suppliers to survive and currently under its present leadership it looks as though this isn’t going to happen.

By excluding local authors and independent publishers, all Waterstones will achieve is make us more creative and determined to find new ways to sell our books without its participation. Independent publishers are opening pop-up shops and taking to selling directly to customers. As technology marches on and book stores remain stubbornly in the 20th century we are taking to the streets with our stock, credit card readers and the ability to sell books at a lower price thanks not to having to give away a large wholesale discount to a store that does nothing but act as a very poor shop window.

Are we prepared for life without Waterstones? The answer is we have been for a long while because they have not been prepared to accept anything but the the large cartel of five publishers who dominate the industry. Independent publishers have had to be adaptable to survive and what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger. As an independent publisher I want to trade and work with Waterstones. I am a fan and an advocate for the store even in the face of its downward spiral and lack of association with anyone but the big five. However, as things stand I don’t foresee a rosy future for Waterstones as a High Street presence.

The London Book Fair 2013…it’s déjà vu all over again

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Study the photograph and then compare it with my report from previous years. You will be hard pushed to spot the difference and that is exactly what visiting this year’s London Book Fair was like. Many of the seminars were not just similar, they were the same. And the ones that were not were often shocking in the content within. It was a kinder surprise moment where you have eaten the chocolate only to find that you swallowed the toy too. One talk, I believe this one must have been entitled ‘How to Suck Eggs’ or was it ‘More of the Bleeding Obvious’ I can’t remember which, gave a blow by blow account on how to get published; yet offered nothing in terms of really useful information. I also witnessed word for word and slide for slide repeats from 2012 or was it 2011…they seem to blur. However it held the audience spellbound as they excitedly scribbled every word down as though from the mouth of a messiah. I did wonder when they reviewed those notes if they would find a picture of a naked king.

The digital zone is by far and away the most exciting area at the exhibition but even this year it was dull and uninspiring apart from one or two exceptions. Yet all the major players were there – Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Sony, Samsung and even Barnes & Nobel with its Nook. For those of you who visited and did not find Barnes & Nobel, there is a very good reason. They were in fact hiding in a room with virtually no signage. I am not sure what their strategy was but for the most part they remained locked in a room having private meetings. I did manage to speak to them about various topics Nook related and was pleased to get some answers. The main obstacle for British publishers wanting to get on their platform being B&N’s insistence that British publishers must have an American bank account and that means a US residency. They seemed shocked to learn this and promised to look into it.

Kobo took centre stage this year stepping up the battle to be notice by just about being everywhere in Earls Court 2. Having chosen LBF to launch the Kobo Aura HD eReader it certainly wasn’t going to waste the opportunity and the Kobo stand was pretty packed for most of the exhibition. Amazon were friendly and ready to be engaged but not too prepared to impart much of any use in terms of information regarding promoting books on its platform apart from the horrendous Select program.

The big thrill for many was getting your hands on an M&C Saatchi ‘Books Are My Bag’ bag. This pretentious little bit of fluff was being hailed as the saviour of the print trade and retail alike. Only time will tell, but it kept the ‘Rodney’s & Lucinda’s’ very happy as they strolled around LBF with it slung over their collective shoulders. I do often wonder who these campaigns are aimed at and if they may be missing the target.

There was some good software solutions from EasyPress with Atomik ePublisher an online solution for editing and converting word docs to InDesign files. Sadly the pricing for access to the software makes it only viable to large publishers or certainly publishers with deeper pockets than mine.

The big debate on Monday was ‘Amazon – Good Guys or Bad?’ It’s too late guys, the horse has already bolted on gossamer wings. Trying to control it now is like trying to fight a bush fire with a thimble of water. The publishing industry needs to join forces to stop participating in 20 pence promotions and marketing tools such as Kindle Select and seriously look at pricing of eBooks to nurture a market willing to pay a decent price for digital content. The same goes with printed books. If publishers really cared about book stores it would spend more time reducing print runs and not supplying supermarkets with overstock paperbacks to sell for £1 and less time kidding themselves that books really are their bag.

One thing that I always find disappointing is the lack of presence from our only serious retail chains Waterstones, WHS and to a lesser extent Blackwells and Foyles. Surely this show should present a chance to speak with publisher and authors alike to gain an on the ground overview from the trade.

LBF needs shaking up and 2014 will probably be the last time the show is held at Earls Court as it prepares to be bull dozed and make way for housing and shops – maybe even a book shop. So 2015 should present the perfect opportunity to re-invent this show as it prepares to find a new home. Let’s hope so…

Why things need to change with Booksellers before its too late

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:11:00 +0000

Iain Dale founder of Biteback Publishing has roasted our High St booksellers and online giants Amazon (http://www.thebookseller.com/news/dale-booksellers-have-publishers-over-barrel#comment-71595) and I totally agree with what he has to say.

Waterstones has become almost impossible to deal with especially for book events. London branches have become a no-go zone with store managers demanding authors sell 80 books in 3 hours. It’s fine if you are a big publisher with a line of celebrity authors but Waterstones must live in the real world and realise we can add value and much needed revenue to stores. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get unknown, up and coming talent into the stores. They have started demanding that we hold launch events there instead, getting the authors to invite all their friends for an evening event, conveniently when the store is closed to actual customers. Why on earth would we want to do that and sacrifice a large percentage of sales when a local room above a pub would equally serve that purpose and not steal half the sales?

WHS are even harder to deal with. It’s no wonder publishers are turning to the Internet as the main source of sales. But as Iain points out things are not all rosy here either for publishers or their authors. Amazon has too much power. We surrender 80% to Audible (an Amazon owned company). Just in case you think you didn’t read it right they take 80% of net for every audiobook they sell for us. They do drop to a very generous 75% once you meet certain criteria, giving the publisher a few pennies back for all the investment in producing an audiobook. Amazon’s stranglehold on ebook pricing, especially subsidising ebooks and selling them at 20p to match Sony’s equally mad promotion is harming the industry, just as much as the large publishers do by virtually giving away it’s over run stock to supermarkets. Readers are being constantly reinforced with the idea that paper books cost nothing to produce so ebooks must be worth even less. Value is intrinsically linked with perception.

Waterstones and WHS need to realise that many of its problems stem from its association with the cartel of publisher known collectively as the big five, or is it four or three these days…who knows. Either way they have the whole game stitched up. People will say that talk like this is biting the hand that feeds but occasionally that hand needs to be bitten to make it wake up before it’s too late. If Waterstones and WHS were to collapse tomorrow I would be devastated as I genuinely think there is a place and a need for them on the high street. I just feel that they have lost their way despite James Daunt’s somewhat strange methods of operating. I have already been planning life without Waterstones and WHS through necessity brought about by their restrictive trading methods. So while I will be sad if they went the way of so many of our well-known high street stores, the impact for us will not be anywhere near as harsh as it will be for the big five. Will I be sorry though…that’s a different question.

Rigged charts; rigged sales charts; promotions pushing celebrity TV personalities favourite reads where a publisher’s only criteria for selection is coughing £25K to get a book on the list; leading book award competitions where publishers have to pay £10k out of the prize money if they win…it goes on and on and all the time the reader is being conned and cajoled into believing talent rises to the top.

Congratulations Mr Dale for saying what you have said far more eloquently than I have. I applaud you.

Amazon – Legalising Piracy of Our eBooks

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:14:00 +0000

As if authors retailers and publishers do not have enough to worry about, the news that Amazon has received a patent for a system for selling 'pre-owned' digital files may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. For a start it is a nonsense to believe that a digital file can be 'pre-owned'. What we are talking about here is an infringement on the license to sell the ebook, and who will monitor that files are not merely copied and sent on as pre-owned. Regardless of whether the 'original' digital files sits on the cloud or not, allowing sales of 'second hand' digital files is more worrying than piracy and in many respects it is difficult if not impossible to distinguish between the two. Both methods strip the publisher and author's legal right to obtain duly earned royalties from content they have the rights to.

This is clearly a case of Amazon being its usual savvy forward thinking self being at least 500 steps ahead of the current judicial system on digital content ownership. If this is allowed to go ahead we may as well send all of our content out for free because the idea of actually making money out of publishing will die. We will look back on the days where we could sell for 20p (This is another dreadful promotion accepted by the industry that is ultimately harmful) because returns to authors and publishers let alone retailers (except Amazon who will own the patent after all) will potentially be diminishing from the very first day of publication as books find their way immediately into the 'second hand' market. The only option left to publishers will be to dramatically raise the price of eBooks universally to protect the financial investment we put into books and authors.

Open Letter to Mr. Daunt & Mr. Husain

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:24:00 +0000

Dear Sirs,

The world of publishing is listening to you but are you listening to publishers? Caffeine Nights Publishing has been one of the greatest supporters of Waterstones since we began selling books. We know the importance of it as an entity not only in the high street but in the community in general. The same cannot be said of Foyles but they do play an important part in the overall picture of book selling in the UK.

However, it is clear that you are both only transfixed with dealing with ‘the big five’. Your whole business model is suffering because you have become transfixed in a relationship which drives your business, offering you no flexibility to trade with smaller publishers.

Yes, Caffeine Nights is a small publisher and we only offer thousands of pounds to your turnover not millions. I do wonder though if a book for book or like for like study would show who actually gives you greater profit per title if you allowed us to play on a level playing field. By this I mean allowing us to trade directly with you. When we do manage to do this I know that you earn over £3.15 clear profit per copy on an £8.99 sale. This is a much great margin of profit than we as a publisher makes and even more so when we pay our authors 30% royalty on net sales. Yet still you refuse to trade direct on most occasions, preferring to use and pay for an unnecessary middleman (Gardners or Bertrams) to slow the ordering procedure and significantly cut your profit margin. Yet still we hear you bleat about the margins being offered by publishers. I honestly recommend you look at the arrangements you have with your distribution channel before playing the downtrodden retailer.

For over three years we have been trying to talk with Waterstones to get them to make an arrangement with Ingrams to allow direct distribution of our books to their stores rather than through Gardners who take over 20% of the margin for doing little but delaying the delivery of book from store to consumer.

Now Waterstones is closing the door to one of the few channels small publishers have to actually get our books and our authors in their stores by banning book signings from ‘unknown’ authors. Tell me Mr. Daunt how do you expect new talent to become known? Apparently, if we cannot guarantee selling 80 copies on a book event the stores won’t have ‘unknown’ authors. They will of course be delighted if we have an evening launch where we invite people to come and buy the books. Seriously, why would we do that and give you 35% when we could hold that sort of event anywhere and keep the profit margin or pass it on to the reader?

Waterstones and Foyles both need to seriously look at what they mean by being a store for the community if they are not prepared to work with small publishers whose authors work, live, play and buy books in that very community.

Mr. Daunt says he will have Waterstones in profit in two years. If he is not prepared to work with small publishers I say good luck with that and good luck with the future of community literacy and entertainment. Our response has been to actually cut the price of our books on our website (www.caffeine-nights.com) stripping out the margin we used to offer Waterstones and Foyles and passing the saving back to the reader. All this does is enhance the online offering taking more readers away from the high street. It is a move we have resisted for over three years because we wanted a level paying field between the web and the high street.

Mr. Daunt’s response, effectively banning small publishers like Caffeine Nights from its stores, has left us no option which is why from today all of our paperback books are available from our website for £5.99 instead of £8.99. We know no other website or book store can offer our books at this price, so in effect it is a move which will have some impact on them (albeit very minimal). The future is clearly written on the wall Mr. Daunt and Mr. Husain, and its not a pretty one. The truth is, without your participation and forward thinking in working with small publishers, you are doing yourselves and your customers a major disservice. Online will survive and flourish but the days may be numbered for book shops in the high street, which I think is incredibly sad. However, if you are not prepared to listen to small publishers as well as the big five then no amount of oil or gas money will save you.

All in All, Another Brick in the Wall…

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 12:34:00 +0000

How does a publisher fight against the inequalities of favourism levied toward the big publishers on Amazon’s platform. It seems to me that the marketing opportunities available to the larger publishers present a very uneven playing field. For example, MIRA books are able to place free chapter samples of its authors: www.amazon.co.uk/Crime-Thriller-preview-Ellison-ebook/dp/B008472Y7S/ref=zg_bst_362247031_46 and benefit greatly from providing free content for readers to download. Its something we would love to do yet the only route to providing free content for smaller publishers is to use Amazon’s Kindle Select programme, and then you only have the option to do this five times over a period of 100 days. What sucks about Select is that you have to make your books exclusively available for a period of at least 100 days to Amazon. Even though Amazon is the market leader I have no desire to give them an even greater advantage over Waterstones, Kobo, Apple,Barnes & Noble and all the other platforms which sell our eBooks. Amazon’s desire for exclusivity is nothing more than a spoiler aimed at hurting its competitors and from a business point of view understandable but from a publisher and author point of view restrictive. However, the larger publishers don’t have to worry about the drawbacks of Select as they have a managed publisher account. So how do you get one of those if you are a small publisher? The answer is you don’t, you have to wait for Amazon to contact you…so, don’t hold your breath.

Publishers with managed accounts can post free books, sample chapter books and a host of other marketing ploys which give them the edge and always will do. The rest of us have to be tied into restrictive promotional tools which hand tie them and their authors. The advantages already enjoyed by larger publishers are brought about through their financial clout and it would be foolish of me to believe they haven’t earned their position of favouritism. They have.

The big publishers have huge marketing budgets and can populate online and traditional media with marketing campaigns for their books and run large print runs to ensure you are tripping over the latest blockbuster the next time you visit Waterstones. Ebooks provided an area we could take them on at least at a more even level, based on how good a book is, how gripping a story is, how excellent an author writes. We shouldn’t however fool ourselves into believing this will last much longer. I think 2013 will see a distancing of the the gap between small publishers and large with eBooks. It will be a year where small publishers will have to look at the market and see what they can use to ensure that the gap doesn’t become so large that we cannot compete at all. So Amazon, please find a way of helping small publishers maintain the competition, as it is healthy for the industry, beneficial for readers to discover fresh new talent and great for small business and an economy that has shrinking opportunities outside of the Internet.

SHOTSMAG CONFIDENTIAL: The Next Big Thing Interview with Nick Quantrill

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:11:00 +0000

SHOTSMAG CONFIDENTIAL: The Next Big Thing Interview with Nick Quantrill: Following his interview with Peter Guttridge at www.crimetime.co.uk , Howard Linskey talks to Nick Quantrill for the ‘ Next Big Thing ’ se...

DRM – The Great Misnomer

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 13:02:00 +0000

There is a lot of rubbish written about DRM and to be frank, we all know it doesn’t work for those who are determined to hack it. However for the majority of readers who are legal, law abiding citizens, they don’t care and probably don’t even know or care what DRM is or does let alone if it is DRM free. Why don’t they care, because unlike music, games and movies most readers keep their book collection on a single machine to read and for those that don’t, five machines is ample enough to move a book between. The great misnomer is believing all the hype about DRM, how it affects the poor reader. This is total crap. The average reader consumes his or her books without anything inhibiting their enjoyment of their books. So we then have to address the other issue; are some publishers lofting themselves on white chargers and slapping themselves on their own pious backs as champions of DRM free titles. The answer to this is sadly, yes.

In reality DRM doesn’t actually do anything except maybe stop kids who are too lazy or too untech savvy to crack it, so it does offer some protection from exploitation at a basic level. As mentioned, those who wish to crack it can do so easily. The average reader who now outnumbers the early and vocal adopters of ebooks (These are the people who believe that all eBooks should be free) is willing to actually pay for their books and read them (generally) on the machine they purchased them on.

As the eBook market has matured with the number of readers increasing (These are now the people willing to pay for books and keep a library in the cloud) the issue of DRM either pro or anti will diminish. This is because the majority of people are honest and feel that the content they purchase belongs to them regardless. How many machines does the average reader want his/her content on? What has happened here is that the industry has become so fixated on the argument of piracy by comparing it with the music industry that no one has stopped to compare what is two distinctly different sets of consumers. The music industry is mostly driven by a much younger audience who have little interest in paying for content. Lets examine how they perceive this. They hear music on the radio for free, they tune into MTV and a host of other TV music channels for free, music is short and relies on repetitive plays/listens for it to become popular and many artists/record labels release their content to platforms such as YouTube to be consumed for free. So this audience has been educated to believe that they shouldn’t have to pay for music. Therefore it is perfectly reasonable (their view not mine) to upload/download, swap, share and generally pass around for free.

The book industry seems to have got so caught up with not making the same mistakes as the music industry that it has assumed the audience is the same. The fact is that it is no longer the same audience. It was at first, when the early adopter was kids looking for more free content (regardless of whether they would actually read it) but now the uptake is a more mature market where the thought of sharing files the way music files are shared is not part of their psyche.

Without generalising too much, the biggest threat to file sharing from the younger generation is going to be academic books. They are too busy watching movies, listening to music and playing online games to spend hours reading other than their school and university obligations. So the whole debate about DRM is a bit of a misnomer. Of course I am not discounting professional thieves, conmen and rogues who will exploit any loopholes in content security, these people are so determined they will crack whatever is placed in front of them. The fact is that with the book industry, the market is actually far more limited than the music, movies and games industry.

The book industry and its majority of consumers are happy purchasing their digital content and reading it on a single machine (Though even with DRM they have the ability to use this on 5 machines – how many do they do they need in reality?). The industry has indeed changed but I think publishers have so got caught up in a spurious argument that it has failed to see that its core audience has changed as it has grown and developed from the early adopters. Even this does a miss-service to younger consumers, many of whom are also prepared to pay for content.

So the next time you see a publisher boldly shouting ‘Our titles are DRM free’ ask yourself a question as to what they are really saying or understand about the current market and if it is no more than an attempt to make themselves look good while not actually conceding anything.

GOING INDIE: THE WRITER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:32:00 +0000

On Thursday 22nd November I was invited to sit on the panel of an event looking at publishing in the digital age. I was on the panel with one of our authors, Shelley Weiner, Rachel Ogden a director from publisher marketing company Inpress, and Justine Solomons from Byte the Book. The event was hosted by Rebecca Swift, director of The Literacy Consultancy in Farringdon where the event was held. A broad range of subjects was discussed and it was clear from opinions on the panel that there were areas of great contention especially the shifting tide of sway held by the voice of the reader now being one of the main influencers of a books popularity rather than the considered opinion of reviewers. Times are changing and there is a paradigm shift toward popularism over literature. All I mean by this is that digital has opened the door of democracy taking the opinion of a few select reviewers/judges and given that power to readers. This is the reason why it is important for publishers and authors to engage with their readers and equally important to know who their readers are.

Rebecca Swift did an excellent job in keeping the panel on topic and opening the conversation to the packed house of 50 who turned up on a cold November evening. Shelley Weiner gave a very thoughtful and considered talk on what going indie meant for her following a reading from her novel The Audacious Mendacity of Lily Green. This kicked off the evening adding plenty of strands of conversation.

It was clear from the audience response that Amazon is a big issue for many readers and writers alike, seen as both the bogeyman and the democratiser of publishing. Topics on the night ranged from royalty rates, self-publishing, hybrid publishing, editing, proofreading, the recent mergers of Penguin and Random House as well as the proposed Simon & Shuster rumblings.

My overall thoughts are that the passion for publishing out there is in a far more healthy position than many realise and although this is only a snapshot of 50 or so people, there is clearly a desire to accept change and find ways to exploit that change while still wanting to protect bricks and mortar book stores. Whether this can be achieved is doubtful as I fear for the long-term survival of book stores in the high street, especially independents who are had tied through finance and often by a mind set that is set in the good old days. Those days are gone and unless stores adapt they won’t survive.

Publishing equally has many obstacles and the same can be said for publishers, unless we adapt and learn then we too will become redundant. We have to work with the likes of Rachel from Inpress and listen to forward thinkers like Justine from Byte the Book while listening to our readers and being innovative in our own thought and ensuring we can make ideas turn into strategies.

GOING INDIE: THE WRITER IN THE DIGITAL AGE

noreply@blogger.com (Caffeine Nights) — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 22:08:00 +0000

Event Announcement

Smaller independent publishers are enjoying a renaissance in the internet age. For writers they can offer the kind of personal attention and access to digital services that may be hard to find in the mainstream. At what point, therefore, might a writer approach small presses rather than a large publisher? What, if any, is the role of the agent in this changing world? Can it be financially viable for a writer to be published by an indie press? And – most importantly of all – who can we trust (small press or large conglomerate) to ensure that the best quality writing finds the audience it deserves?
Join Rebecca Swift, Director of The Literary Consultancy to consider these questions with a highly qualified panel:
Shelley Weiner whose new novel ‘The Audacious Mendacity of Lily Green’ is published by the go-ahead indie, Caffeine Nights
Darren Laws, head of Caffeine Nights
Rachel Ogden, Director of Inpress, an organisation that seeks to ensure that small presses do not get lost in the marketplace
Justine Solomons, whose member organisation, Byte the Book, helps inform writers about how digital publishing really works.
Thursday 22nd November 2012
Free Word Centre
60 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3GA
6.30pm – 8pm
Tickets: £10 (Glass of wine included)
To book call Free Word at: 020 7324 2570