I hope everyone is keeping fit and well and navigating this
perplexing time easily. Are you out of stories because right now truth is
certainly being crazier that fiction or are the possibilities of how the future
could look tantalizing? If the latter, why not submit to our Aftermath anthology? I’m limiting this to people published by our
imprints, those who receive this newsletter, and the trusted writing friends of
both sets of people. Any genre, any
length (though don’t send me a whole novel or novella- I think you know what I
mean) and it will be accepted though edited. The idea is to capture the
speculative mood of the time. Please send to editor at bridgehousepublishing
dot co do uk. Please submit as a Word document attachment. This way I
can file it easily. Make sure you
have included your by line in the piece itself, below the title. Add a short
bio at the end (max 100 words) Put “Aftermath” in the subject of the email. If
you would like it to be considered for CaféLit as well, put CaféLit in the
subject line as well and also paste the text into the body of the email. The
call ends once I have 50 submissions. I currently have eighteen including one
of my own.
Some recent lessons
I’ve been attending some fascinating events online. I hope
some of this sort of activity will continue even when we get back to normal
completely. Some of it has just been
entertaining and some of it has been useful.
Sixty character titles
I always think it’s a good idea to give yourself an action
plan after you’ve attended a course so that it has some value to you. I
recently attended an online session with Nielsen’s and have been left with a
couple of ideas.
Nielsen’s is the company that provide ISBNs world-wide. Any
book with an ISBN number should be available at least to order by any bookshop
in Europe, US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, parts of India and in other places
obtainable via international distributors. We register Bridge House books with
them ourselves. Chapeltown books are registered
by our distributor.
Once a book is registered with Nielsen’s retailers and
wholesalers can see the details. We optimize the blurb and product description
to attract search engines. We actually use Amazon to test these out.
Nielsen’s point out that titles shouldn’t be longer than sixty
characters as this is the first thing that buyers see and if it’s more than
sixty characters long it won’t fit on to the column.
Something , then, to think about when you’re creating a
title.
Author Central
We had an interesting discussion at the Marketing Workshop I
organised on 19 June and I took a few ideas from this myself.
If you have a story published by us you should have an
Author Central page on Amazon. You may need to argue with them a little if you
have a story in an anthology but we always publish them in such a way that it’s
easy for them to identify that you are a contributor. You just have to quote a page number.
When you provide links in your bio it’s sensible to include
a link to this page as this links to all of your books at a point where it is
easy for your reader to go on and purchase your books.
Mailing list
One of the most effective marketing tools is having your own
mailing list. People who like your work are notified of your new works, any
offers you have on titles and any other interesting news. I recommend either Mailchimp
or mailerlite for this. Both will help you to keep data secure, be
GDPR compliant and be organised and both let people unsubscribe if they want
to.
However, people do shy away from this a little.
You can of course opt to publish such news on a blog that
people can sign up to follow. Then also offer to deliver that content straight
to people’s in-box.
It’s worth remembering here that people are only on your mailing
list because they are interested in you or your products.
How do you buy books?
Think a little about how you decide to buy books. Is there
anything there that you can use in your own marketing?
Revamp of Pre and Post production routines
This is one for me to get on with. But I’m putting this done
here so that you can hold me to it.
The discussion continues in the Scribblers Group. Not a
member yet? Email me to join and I’ll send you an invite.
Revamped submission guidelines
I’ve spent some time redoing these this month. If you’ve used
the old ones and you’re in the queue, don’t worry, your submission is still
fine. But from now on please submit according to what’s written below.
If we’ve published you on the CafeLit or in one of the
Bridge House anthologies or if you’ve already
had another single author collection published by us we’re likely to accept you, it’s just a matter of time. We take
on a new books as others clear their set up costs and as editors become
available.
One book has cleared set up costs this month so we’ll be
offering a new contract shortly.
For the other calls, we make a selection. I’m gradually getting more readers involved
with this.
So see:
·
Single author collections see: http://www.bridgehousepublishing.co.uk/index.php/single-author-collections
·
Flash fiction collections http://www.chapeltownpublishing.uk/p/submissions.html
·
The Red Telephone http://www.trtpublishing.co.uk/index.php/submission-guidelines
The new series
Feisty Women : this is a new series and will include novels
and non-fiction books. It has a slightly feminist sub-text. I’m looking for the type of women who appear
in my Schellberg Cycle books but with
settings in all sorts of other times and places.
The Business of Writing
I’m making progress with this on-line course. As you
complete one module you are invited to download the next one. You are also
invited to send in your responses for feedback. At the end of the course you
pay what you think it is worth. This can of course be nothing but you might
calculate this in terms of the quality of the course, the feedback you receive
and how much work that entailed for the person giving you feedback, the value
it has to you – does it make a difference to you? And of course all of this can be tempered by
what you can afford.
I’ve offered these “pay what you can afford” events before
and have always been very pleased with the result.
Writers’ news
Gill James
I have had two more works
published by Page & Spine. They can be found here:
https://pagespineficshowcase.com/stories/the-scars-of-war-gill-james and here: https://pagespineficshowcase.com/crumbs/gill-james
This
publication pays!
I’ve also had a
short article about my work with the U3A published on the Lancashire Authors Association.
You can find it at: http://www.lancashireauthorsassociation.co.uk/Gill.html
Catrin Kean
Catrin’s debut novel is now out with Gomer press. You can find it here.
Cardiff in the late 1800s is grimy, crowded, and grey, and
Ellen, a domestic, dreams of escaping her dreary life there for the sea. When
she falls in love with Samuel, a ship's cook from Barbados, she is able to
fulfil her fantasy by running away with him on a ship bound for the bright
excitement of San Francisco. Life at sea is brutal and dangerous, but it is a
place where they can be free... Until circumstances force Ellen home, and the
hardships of working class life and racism begin to poison their lives. Salt
is based on the lives of Kean's great-grandparents who married in 1878. It is
their love story.
Dawn Knox
Dawn continues to enjoy success with The Basilwade Chronicles. She is
attracting fans in Canada, Tasmania and Hawaii.
Episodes have been broadcast on Gateway radio (97.8fm), read by
John Guest who is also producing the audio book for us.
Here is an interesting article about how Dawn came to write the Chronicles: https://pentoprint.org/friday-feature-creating-basilwade-chronicles/
Note I’m always delighted to
include your successes and news of any event in this section for the newsletter
but please explicitly tell me you’d like to be included. I’d hate to miss anyone out. It’s really helpful if you send me the
details and a link to where our readers can obtain your book or a ticket for
your event. Even for free events provide the full details and a call to action.
News from Bridge House
Mulling It Over
We’re pleased to announce that the following will be
included in the Bridge House anthology, Mulling
It Over, due out on 15 November
2020:
1.
According to Apes Dianne Stadhams
2.
An Angel at Our Table S. Nadja Zajdman
3.
Double Dilemma Linda Payne
4.
Family History Jim Bates
5.
Her Time Sally Angell
6.
Into the Shade L F Roth
7.
It is Time Allison Symes
8.
Lines of Gold Margaret Bulleyment
9.
Making a Decision Dawn De Braal
10.
Malak al Mawt Steve Wade
11.
Marry in Blue Candida Spillard
12.
Me and the Bird Penny Rogers
13.
Perfect Justice Paula R C Readman
14.
Shadow Dancers Cathy Leonard
15.
Taming Fate Dawn Knox
16.
The Holiday Jeanne Davies
17.
The Little Statue Maeve Murphy
18.
The Perfect Haven Janet Howson
19.
The Tangle of Isles Elizabeth Cox
20.
There’s Rosemary, That’s for Remembrance Linda Flynn
21.
Those Nice Suits Hannah Retallick
22.
Twelve Christopher Bowles
23. Waiting for the
pigeons Tony Oswick
Plus one other which must remain a secret for the moment.
New publications
We’re delighted to announce two new single author
collections:
Last Chance Salon by Fiona McNeil
Who was I kidding? I wasn’t a successful businessman running
an empire from a luxury penthouse. I was a chain-smoking, fifty-something,
sometime actor in a cardigan, washed-up in a stagnant corner of south London.”
When Rafe Bunce takes over a run-down hair salon in Penge, he hopes to make a success of his life at last. Not content with improving his own fortunes, he is soon meddling in his customers’ lives, too – with bittersweet results.
The stories in "Last Chance Salon" touch on the hopes and dreams, big and small, which we all carry inside us.
When Rafe Bunce takes over a run-down hair salon in Penge, he hopes to make a success of his life at last. Not content with improving his own fortunes, he is soon meddling in his customers’ lives, too – with bittersweet results.
The stories in "Last Chance Salon" touch on the hopes and dreams, big and small, which we all carry inside us.
Days Pass Like Shadows by Paula R C Readman
Within the pages of "Days Pass like a Shadow" are
thirteen dark tales covering the theme of death and loss. At the centre of
every story is a beating heart. For the reader to make the journey to that
centre, along the flowing veins of the words, all they need is a few minutes
during a lunch break, or at the end of the day. The reader will be introduced
to a rich and diverse collection of characters – a gardener, a serial killer, a
time traveller, a sleepwalker and many more.
"On the Streets of Kabul", which is set in Afghanistan, a soldier faces a life-threatening situation while searching for his missing comrade and childhood friend among the narrow alleys. "Perfect Justice" finds a secretary planning a murder. "Shelved" takes a reader into the unusual librarian’s office, while "Burning the Midnight Oil" has a son uncovering the truth about his dying mother.
So put your feet up, relax with a cup, or glass of your favourite beverage and let’s begin with "The Meetings"…
"On the Streets of Kabul", which is set in Afghanistan, a soldier faces a life-threatening situation while searching for his missing comrade and childhood friend among the narrow alleys. "Perfect Justice" finds a secretary planning a murder. "Shelved" takes a reader into the unusual librarian’s office, while "Burning the Midnight Oil" has a son uncovering the truth about his dying mother.
So put your feet up, relax with a cup, or glass of your favourite beverage and let’s begin with "The Meetings"…
If you can, please support our authors by buying their books
and reviewing them.
Email catalogue of our books
I continue to post every week: https://www.scribblersbooksbooksbooks.co.uk/ . At the moment I’ve stopped the pot-luck
physical books. These come from my stock at home and the logistics of getting
to the post-office are a bit beyond us at the moment. We hope to recommend from 1 August –
providing we don’t go back into lockdown. The offers, with the exception of the Amazon
Count Down deals, though even these are repeated, are in fact permanent. We flag up one a week, but if someone stumbles
across an earlier one, we will honour that.
You can still, however, order physical copies of any of our books
at author discount price and we’re still offering physical bundles of books via
the Friday email. These are all dispatched directly from our printer.
I advertise via Twitter and Facebook and have started to build up
an email list.
I’m keen as well to do a few more featured authors. Here we offer
deals on all of the books you’re in and also advertise books you have with
other publishers. You may offer a giveaway as well. Contact me if you’re
interested.
The impact on sales is tiny at the moment but certainly the
featured books are getting more hits.
Take a look every Friday to see what’s on offer. You can either
join the mailing list at http://eepurl.com/gbpdVz
or just
go to the web site: https://www.scribblersbooksbooksbooks.co.uk/
I’m
circling through: red hot offers ( the books whose monthly sales figures
suggest they need a bit of a boost), little square flash fiction
collections, single author collections, charity
special books, illustrated books, YA books, books for young people, charity
books, The Bets of CafeLit collections, annual
anthologies and then circling through offers on these of e-book bundles ,
physical book bundles, and Amazon countdown deals.
New author discount scheme
We’ve simplified things. You get 25% author discount on all
books. If you order five or more we do
not charge shipping costs. On your first order for five or more of a title you’ve
contributed to you get one free book. If
you order 51 or more books you get a 35% discount. You still get royalties on these books.
The Magnet Book
This is now up and running and the number of subscribers to
the email catalogue list, Books, Books,
Books has more than doubled. It is a
fine book and really shows what a great bunch of writers we have. As I gave it its final proof I really
appreciated it. Hopefully it is also pointing readers to more of our works.
We could still do with more readers on our mailing list.
Invite all of your friends and family to download the book. See what we’ve done
here:
https://cafelitcreativecafe.blogspot.com
(See top right-hand corner)
Please feel free to create your own call to action from
this. The link for the letter sign-up and which then takes your contacts to the
download is: http://eepurl.com/gbpdVz
Save the date
Imprints celebration and launch of Waterloo Competition’s
paperback – 5 December 2020. Watch this
space. We won’t be able to use St Johns
or St Andrews this year as massive renovations are going on. I have a couple of
other ideas but I can’t confirm with these venues until the current crisis is
over. Keep your fingers crossed. Two
things are certain, however: an event will happen on 5 December and there will be
a physical event sometime somewhere.
Useful links
This
month I’ve added more about book launches and this particular one about writing
is rather useful and amusing: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2019/07/24/writing-tips-7-ways-to-write-funnier-fiction/
Book Performance
You can now pick up book performance at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2s0hhlqdgqo4v6z/AABIYFxxVjrblcxeTuscHEisa?dl=0
Those books that are more in the “red” are on the whole the ones
where we’ve bought in services. It
makes no difference to royalties. But remember: when a book gets out of the red
we can afford to start work on a new one.
I’m working on a check list of simple things you can do, one a
day, to help boost sales. Watch this space.
Prompts 2021
Do send prompts in for the 2021 book. It will be a gift to
you again at the end of the year.
The Opportunities List
Please remember our waiting list is long. Even with six
editors it takes a while for your work to get to the top of the list and one
book has to recover financially before we can go on to the next. So, it may be
worth looking at this list in detail whilst you’re waiting.
I often add several items a day. I look for fairness. Competitions
must not be too expensive to enter.
Everything must lead to fair payment, decent publication, fantastic
exposure or just be good fun.
Note, I am gradually moving this over to Fair Submissions . It’s
wise to check both sites at the moment. There are reminders on both. On Fair
Submissions to find what you’re looking for, click on Labels on the left hand side.
You’ll see a lot of dates to start with.
Then click Show More and
you’ll see a list of genres and categories.
Or simply type your search term into search filed. When I send out the
list to those of you who have opted to receive it I’ll feature the latest three
posts.
I’ve had to give in and include some who charge submission fees but
I’m still only including those who charge a reasonable fee – no more than £3.00
which is perhaps the equivalent of old-fashioned postage, return postage, paper
and ink. We currently have no intention to charge. I understand totally that
those who charge are doing it mainly because that’s what Submittable software
costs.
Note, though, we expect and approve of a reasonable charge for competitions which may be slightly higher
than this – they have to pay the judges at least expenses and create a prize fund.
You always have to remember however that only a handful of people
will be named in a competition or win.
But if you do get shortlisted or even longlisted it’s a great line on
your CV.
You can sign up to have the list drop in your in-box every time it
is tidied up i.e. every three to four weeks.
Sign up here: http://eepurl.com/doFkD . “Tidied
up “means removing the out of date entries i.e. when it is past the call for
submission date. I don’t have the time to actually monitor whether the web sites
mentioned are active or whether a publisher has gone out of business. So, if you come across anything like that, do
let me know.
CafeLit
CaféLit site
Published in June were:
Jim Bates, C W Bigelow, Harman Burgess, Mason Bushell, Dawn De Braal,
Greg Duncan, Linda Flynn, Anne Forrest,
David Gower, Pauline Howard, Janet Howson, Dawn Knox, R I Miller, Roger Noons, Linda W Payne, Wendy Pike, Mark
Readman, Michal Reiben, Hannah
Retallick Anindita Sarkar, Robert Ward, G
Allen Wilbanks, Susan E Willis and S
Nadja Zajdman.
Top performing posts
The Best of CafeLit 10
Yes, I’m starting votes for this and also doing this
retrospectively. If you are published in a particular month, I’m asking you to
vote for one story that you think is the best that month. You mustn’t vote for
your own. However, if you have two stories published in a particular month, you
may vote or two stories, three vote for three stories etc. Just email me your
choices and say which month(s) they’re for.
Final votes for December 2020 should come in by January
2021.
I think this make it a little more manageable.
Creative cafés
No new cafés added this month but hopefully
we’ll be able to add more as soon as everything starts opening up again.
Keep sending suggestions and review cafés
if you can.
Cafés might further support the
project in the following ways.
- I could provide you with flyers about The Creative Cafe Project and CafeLit
- You could have the e-zine up and running for people to browse and search – they should pick stories according to the drink they fancy!
- run an event on writing for CafeLit
- hold an event for local writers published by CafeLit
- stock some of the anthologies (they are available through normal distributors)
- host a Writer in Residence – see http://www.creativecafeproject.org/search/label/writers%20in%20residence / http://www.creativecafeproject.org/search/label/Writer%20in%20Residence
- host a readers’ event where readers all read the same anthology and then talk about two or three favourite stories
Do you have any further suggestions?
Remember you can now buy merchandise
for the Creative Café project. The profit on anything you buy here goes to the
Creative Café Project. Check this out here.
We’re always looking for new
cafés. If you visit one of the cafés in the
project and would like to write a review of
between 250 and 350 words – nice, too, to have a couple of pictures – send it
to me here. Do the same if you find a new café.
Dreamteam
This is a personal recommendation. I use my Dream Team a lot
myself but gradually I’m adding in people that friends and friends of friends
have recommended.
What happens?
You sign up to a mailing list and every time a request comes in we
mail it out to you or the enquirer contacts you directly via my web site. The
conversation then carries on between you and the person making the request. You
may also have a page set up on my blog and you may update that once a
year.
Interested? You may sign up for more than one category.
Beta readers sign up here.
Editors sign up here.
Illustrators sign up here.
Designers sign up here.
DO REMEMBER THAT AT ANY TIME YOU’RE
APPROACHED AND YOU’RE BUSY IT’S PERFECTLY FINE TO SAY NO.
And of course, you could be using
these people yourself.
School Visits: Free listing for our writers
If you would like to offer school
visits, please contact me. I'm offering a free listing on the imprint pages.
State: age groups you are prepared to
work with, a definition of your work, distances you are prepared to travel.
Appropriate links. Please provide an image.
School visits are tricky at the moment
but you can meet up via Zoom, Google Hangouts or Skype and you might consider
offering a few free materials for “home schools” at the moment. Perhaps even a
video of you reading out some of your work.
Calling all writers
If you would like to be on my blog just answer the questions below
and send them with appropriate images to gill dot james at btinternet dot com.
Please feel free to pick and choose which of these to answer.
1.
What do you write? Why this in
particular?
2.
What got you started on writing in the first
place?
3.
Do you have a particular routine?
4.
Do you have a dedicated working space?
5.
When did you decide you could call yourself a
writer? Do you do that in fact?
6.
How supportive are your friends and family? Do
they understand what you're doing?
7.
What are you most proud of in your writing?
8.
How do you get on with editing and research?
9.
Do you have any goals for the future?
10.
Which writers have inspired you?
Please write as much or as little as you like for each section and
supply as many pictures as you like. Also let me know your latest publication
and supply me with a link if it's not on Amazon.
I'm also happy to offer you a post whenever you have a new book
come out, even if I'm not your publisher. In this case answer the following
questions:
- Tell me about your book.
- Tell us about your research for this book.
- What inspired you to write this?
- What's next?
- How can we get a copy of the book?
- Do you have any events planned?
Again write as much or as little as you please. Alter and add to
the questions if you wish. Provide as many pictures as you wish.
Send to: gill dot james at btinternet dot com
Work Flow
Please note the new site for checking work in progress on
editing, designing and post-production.
https://apublishersperspective.blogspot.com/p/work-flow_18.html
You can click from here to separate
pages for all of our editors. My page
includes other processes.
Note also the new Submissions awaiting assessment section
and new pages for Allison, Alyson, Amanda, Linda and Madeleine.
There is now a separate page for progress on assessing
submissions:
Some notes about my newsletters, blogs and Facebook groups and pages.
They do overlap a little but here is a summary of what they all
do.
1940s Group
Just a reminder: this is a Facebook
group for all people who write about the 1940s. Fiction and non-fiction,
for young and old. Topics might then be: the Holocaust, World War II, Civilian
Experience (all sides) and the battle front. We can exchange ideas about
research and marketing. We may promote books and stories, as often as you like
and especially on launch / release day.
Of course, with my Schellberg Cycle
I'm constantly in that world.
Bridge
House Authors For all those published by Bridge House,
CafeLit, Chapletown or The Red Telephone or interested in being published by
us. General news about the imprint. News for writers. Link to book performance.
Sign up here.
The
Creative Café Project News about
the project and CaféLit – for the consumer rather than for the producer. Sign up here.
Fair
Submissions Remember I keep a full list of vetted
opportunities on this blog. See them here. New ones
are added several times a day. Roughly once a month I go through it and take
out all of the out of date ones. At that point I send it out to a list. If you
would like to be on that list, sign up here.
Pushing
Boundaries, Flying Higher News about conferences and workshops
to do with the young adult novel. (infrequent postings) Sign up here.
Gill’s
Recommended Reads Find information here about books that have taken me out of
my editor’s head.
Writing
Teacher All about teaching creative writing. Some creative writing exercises. Access this here.
The
Young Person’s Library This is where I review books for children and young
adults. My reviews are factual and
neutral, offering information about the books for concerned adults: teachers,
librarian, parents, guardians and scholars.
Find it here.
Scribblers Sans Frontières This is a private group is for
writers published by one of our imprints: Bridge House, CafeLit, Chapeltown,
The Red Telephone. Here you can:
• Discuss all technical issues re our books
• Exchange marketing ideas
• Advertise and report on your events
• Promote any of your titles or successes
• Share good practice and ideas
• Get help with writing problems
• Anything else appropriate
• Discuss all technical issues re our books
• Exchange marketing ideas
• Advertise and report on your events
• Promote any of your titles or successes
• Share good practice and ideas
• Get help with writing problems
• Anything else appropriate
I also tend to let you know news that appears here earlier
and in a little more detail. It’s a sort
of inner sanctum, if you like. You need an invite to join this: contact me for
an invite.
Gill James Writer You will find this page here. This
informs you in brief about what I alter put in my newsletter. It is slightly
more immediate. It also alerts you when
I’ve posted on one of my blogs.
Happy reading and writing.
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