All the Fun of the Fair

Well, after I had got over the trauma of the ‘sandal scandal’ (see previous post) I had a fantastic time at London Book Fair.

After the masterclass on Saturday I gave a talk on self publishing and took part in a seminar on the same subject.

Afterwards I was chatting to the commercial manager of AuthorHouse, one of the world’s largest self publishing companies, and he was in agreement that there was a real buzz around self publishing at the fair this year.

Owing to the increasingly cautious and commercial world of the traditional publisher, self publishing is starting to look like a real and exciting alternative for writers. It felt great to be able to talk about my own experiences and offer some kind of hope and alternative to the other writers there.

 The fact that both self publishing events were packed out says an awful lot too.

I thought it might be useful to summarise the facts that people seemed to find most useful from the talks:

• It costs £800 for the standard self publishing package from AuthorHouse.
• I would recommend print on demand when self publishing as this frees you from having to stock and distribute your book.
• If you do go with print on demand make sure that the company you use have links with Gardners (the UK’s major book distributor). This will ensure that your book is available to order via stores and on Amazon.
• The internet can be a fantastic and free marketing tool. The importance of a web presence cannot be under-estimated. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube – all can be used to great effect to publicise your book.
• The internet also enables you to give some of your work away for free as downloads – which can also be a great way of building readership.

If you have any questions regarding self publishing please feel free to email me via the mailbox on this site…

London Book Fair Sandal Scandal!

Yesterday I took part in a panel discussion at the London Book Fair.

It was for a masterclass entitled How to Get Published and my fellow panellists were the literary agent Carol Blake, Hodder publisher Mark Booth and award-winning novelists Lionel Shriver and Meg Rosoff.

Several hundred people came, and it ended up being a very sparky and interesting two hours.

It had been a couple of years since I’d taken part in an event of that size so I was pretty nervous as I arrived at Earl’s Court.

Although four of my books have been published by mainstream publishers (including Hodder) I knew I had been invited to talk about the rise of self-publishing and my decision to self publish my last two books and as such would be somewhat of an outsider on the panel. I also knew that this would mean a fair amount of verbal sparring between myself and some of my fellow panellists.

What I hadn’t bargained for however, was that I would almost be banned from entering the book fair because of my footwear!

Picture the scene (here’s a photo to help you)…

I’m walking up to Earl’s Court thinking, holy crap I’m about to talk in front of 500 people in there, when suddenly a steward came running over to me shouting, ‘Are you here for the book fair?’

‘Yes,’ I replied.

She pointed at my shoes with her walkie talkie. ‘Well I’m sorry, you can’t go in wearing those.’

I looked down at my sandals in shock. ‘What’s wrong with them?’ I asked, baffled. Was London Book Fair so exclusive that they even employed their very own literary fashion police? Should I have worn some black buckled affair a la Will Shakespeare?

‘No open-toed shoes allowed,’ she explained.

‘But it’s sunny,’ was all I could think of in reply. ‘And I have to go in – I’m one of the guest speakers.

She looked at me and frowned. Then got on her walkie talke. Then came off her walkie talkie and asked to see my paperwork.

At this point I started looking around for the candid camera. Surely this had to be some kind of wind-up? But apparently not.

My mind started going into over-drive. How was I going to explain to the organisers that the reason for my no-show was that I like wearing sandals when it gets warm?!

‘I don’t have any paperwork,’ I replied. ‘I was asked to come and take part in the panel discussion at 11am.’

Some builders who were having a smoking break on an adjacent wall started staring at my offending sandals and chuckling – just what you need when you’re trying to remain calm and confident.

I took a deep breath. ‘Why can’t I wear open-toed shoes to the book fair?’ I asked her.

‘Because it’s a building site,’ came her somewhat baffling reply.

Right. So I had been asked to take part in a literary discussion in a building site. Could the morning really get any more surreal?!

‘But I’m taking part in a talk,’ I bleated.

She frowned. ‘Oh hang on a minute. You must be in the conference centre,’ she said.

‘Yes,’ I replied.

‘Oh that’s fine. Go ahead.’

‘What?’

‘Go ahead. Follow the building round to the left.’

‘Yes I know. That’s where I was going before you came over!’

‘Good-o,’ she said, walking away.

‘Thanks!’ I replied.

It all worked out fine in the end.

I got into the building. I held my own in the discussion. And I was intrigued to witness the negativity and arrogance coming from certain quarters.

But most importantly, I came away more convinced than ever that the advances in self-publishing and internet marketing are the best things to have happened to writers. If yesterday’s discussion is anything to go by I’d say the cliquey and closed shop traditional publishing world is a rapidly dying beast.

Exciting Times!

In my writing career I have been lucky enough to have many exciting things happen to me.

I have been lucky enough to get not one but two literary agents. I have been lucky enough to get four book deals with major publishing houses. I have been lucky enough to sell the options for my first novel to a film producer and sit in a meeting where I was told that actresses like Kate Winslett would ‘kill’ to play the main character! (I had yet to learn that film producers can talk a fair amount of b*****ks!) I have been lucky enough to appear on national television and radio more times than I can mention. I have been lucky enough to acquire a German publisher. I have been lucky enough to receive amazing emails from readers all over the world. And I have been lucky enough to receive positive reviews for all of my books in the national press.

However, I have also experienced a rather more unpleasant side to the world of publishing.

I’ve experienced the pressures of living up to a publisher’s high expectations. And the crushing disappointment when they are not met. I’ve experienced the fear and isolation when your editor resigns and you are left to sink or swim on your own. I’ve experienced the frustrations of being given book covers that I didn’t feel represented the content of the book. I’ve experienced the shock of having a book published by a major publisher with no publicity or marketing budget.

And more recently I experienced the ‘delights’ of dealing with a publisher without an agent. This was with my first book for young adults, Dear Dylan.

Initially it all went really well. I had heard that a publisher was looking for new titles for their fiction list so I sent off the manuscript. It was the first publisher I sent it to.

Within a week I was offered a two book deal.

My agent doesn’t deal in children’s fiction so I decided to handle my own contract.

The contract I got was, quite frankly, an insult.

As soon as I compared it with my previous contracts from Random House and Hodder & Stoughton I realised that I was being offered way below the standard rates.

So I sent the contract back, amended in red, with what I thought I ought to be getting.

The editor immediately upped her offer. Quite dramatically.

But this all left me with a really bad taste in my mouth.

 Clearly the minute the publisher learnt I was representing myself they thought they would try it on. All the emails and phone calls I had received raving about how ‘fresh’ and ‘original’ my book was and how excited they were to have it, were seemingly forgotten. Author’s royalties are low at the best of times. To try and bring them down even lower was an absolute joke.

So I withdrew my book.

I wasn’t being a diva – it just didn’t feel right.

Then I sat on it for a while, trying to decide what to do next.

Today I made my decision. And I have to say it has been the most exciting and rewarding moment of my writing career to date.

I’ve decided to give the book away for FREE.

I wrote Dear Dylan after years of running workshops for teenagers and wanting to give them something that would help them through what can often be a challenging time.

I wanted to write a piece of fiction that teenagers could hopefully relate to and take inspiration from.

SO…

I have decided to self publish the book with a company called AuthorHouse and give it away for FREE as a digital download. Hopefully this way Dear Dylan can get to as many readers as possible. It would also be kind of fun to fully embrace the digital revolution that seems to have the traditional publishing world in a bit of a panic. And coming from someone who vowed she would never, ever part with her vinyl record collection this is set to be somewhat of a steep learning curve!

So now I feel like kind of like the Kevin Spacey character in American Beauty when he walks out of his job.

After years of worrying about keeping a publisher happy it is so liberating to say, to hell with it, I’m going to give the book away. And it feels very, very right.

The book is now being launched at the London Book Fair in April , where I am also guest speaking.

Exciting times indeed!