There are several things happening at the moment. All of
them are joyous but there’s pressure as well. So what’s keeping me busy at the
moment?
Bridge House’s Baubles
We’ve made our selection, we’ve got the contracts out, we’ve
started editing and we’re putting together a book trailer as well as working on
other marketing strategies. We’ll have to design the book, find a cover, get everything
done so that we can launch on 15 November. We also need to arrange our annual
celebration for 3 December.
The Best of CaféLit 5
We’ve made the selections and we’re letting the chosen know.
We don’t really need to edit here- that stage has already passed as the texts
were put onto the web site. However, the reformatting here is more challenging
as we’re moving form web format to print format.
Shelagh Delaney Collection
This is pretty well ready to send out to authors for
checking. We just then need to get the cover sorted and a launch date.
Single author collections Bridge House
We’re offering this to our Bridge House authors. They may
recycle stories they already have published with us.
Flash Collections
This we’re offering under our Chapeltown imprint. I’ve possibly
two lined up to start work on in September.
The Red Telephone
This will open again to submissions from October for young
adults novels.
Book Tour kit
We’re offering authors twenty copies up front if they
organise their own book tour. The author takes the book to the shop and we invoice
the shop directly for any that go through the till. We top up the books between
events, so enough time needs to be allowed between events.
At the end of the tour, the author can pay at cost or may
keep the books and pay later at normal author discount rate as they sell the
books on. Or they can be off-set against royalties.
Events, events, events
We’re encouraging our authors to hold their regional events,
perhaps gathering in small groups. That way you might manage to see to each other’s
readers. If it’s local enough to us we’ll come and join in. We love events.
Especially if they involve wine or cake.
Mentoring scheme
This takes off in the autumn. We have five people on board. We’re
looking forward to it.
