Some current marketing ploys

This is just snapshot of what we’re doing right now:

Imprints celebration

This takes place on 3 December and guys, WE’RE SOLD OUT. We’re meeting for two hours in a London pub. There will be a chance for attendees to buy books – though there will only be a limited amount there. Some folk will read from their work. We’ll all exchange contact details and marketing tips. We’ll also be giving some tips as publishers and talking about next year’s plans. We’re organising a big book swap as well.

Making a book trailer

I always enjoy doing this though I can’t do it for every book. I ask each contributor to provide a copyright-free image and a tagline. I put them together artistically and find some nice copyright free music. Anyone can do this using Windows Movie maker. Absolutely free images can be obtained from https://pixabay.com/ and free music from http://freemusicarchive.org. Many authors provide pictures they or friends and family have created themselves. This is often an even better solution.

Marketing checklist

We have a minimum checklist that every book goes through. We currently have six titles at various stages going through this. Next time I’ll post a tidied up version of this. Each book is at a slightly different stage.   

Marketing toolkit

This is for proactive authors who can arrange their own book tour. We’ll provide twenty books upfront free of charge. These can go through the till at the bookshop signing and we’ll invoice the bookshop. Then we’ll top up the number of books. It’s important to allow at least ten days between events for this to work, though we can discuss each case individually. At the end of the tour the author may buy the books at cost plus10% within one week of end of tour. Or they can hold on to them until they’ve sold them all and pay us back at normal author discount rate. This amount can even be allowed against royalties.

Cyber launch

We’re now trying to arrange this for each title. This can be quite fun and quite effective. More about this in another post. It can certainly be extremely rewarding with twenty or so authors working on it at the same time.

I need a time machine

There is never enough time to do it all. Always we end up doing what we can manage. And actually, I’m not even sure that a time machine will help all that much. We still all have only so many heartbeats and days on this earth. If we all pull together, though we can make it happen.                                                       

Delight in putting books together

I have several projects on the go at the moment and they’re all filling me with delight. I’ve a couple of on-going calls for submissions, too. So, watch this space ….

Baubles

This of course is the annual Bridge House anthology. We’ve a lovely selection of stories this time. The inside of the book is almost ready for final proof-reading and we’re working on the cover. I’m busy too, putting together a book trailer.

Don’t forget, we’re holding our annual celebration on 3 December in London. It is free of charge and there will be a few copies of the anthology on sale. We do ask you to sign up, however. You can do this here.

Come and chat to us editors and to our authors and see whether you might be able to write for Bridge House.

Flash fiction collections

I’m busy working on three of these at the moment. One is my own, January Stones. Currently, I have that a as blog. That will be taken down apart from a few excerpts once the book is out. Do take a look here. This will give you the flavour of the type of thing I’m looking for.

We aim to produce small square books. They will be good to hold and will make suitable gifts. I’m hoping that our authors will be proactive in offering readings. I’m currently thinking of fairly plain covers, rather like some French books. Perhaps a tweet-length blurb on the front and a short author bio on the back. I’ll allow the authors to select the colour each time.

At the moment I have signed up Allison Symes and Neil Campbell.

Here are tasters from them:

Allison:

A KIND OF HELL

I never believed in hell. Of all my mistakes in life, I never thought that would be my biggest. But it is.

There are no flames. There’s no smell of sulphur. I am surrounded by furry animals of differing sizes. So where is the problem?

Not only am I allergic to fur so I spend most of my time sneezing my head off, I spent my time on Earth shooting furry animals. Not with a camera either. Somehow I thought hunting animals only for fun was macho.

Guess who are holding the guns now?

Neil:

THE SUN IN SEPTEMBER

Corned Beef went to his local in Burnage to ease himself out of the day with pints of bitter. For years he did this until at one stage he began to see scratches on his face in the bathroom mirror in the morning. Usually they were on his forehead but sometimes on his cheeks. He washed away the thin lines of dried blood and then got on the 197 to work as usual.

     The scratches began to develop into cuts and one morning he woke to see blood across the pillow. He felt for his forehead and his forefinger squished into a gash. He went to the bathroom mirror and took a plaster from the cabinet, placing it across his forehead. In work that day, below a staircase in a dark chamber within the neo-gothic splendour of Manchester Town Hall, he sat with the other porters at break time drinking coffee from his flask.

     ‘Hey, Corned Beef,’ said Bungalow, ‘what’s with the fucking plaster?’

     ‘Cut me head.’

     ‘How did you manage that?’

     ‘Don’t know.’

You can find the full call to submissions here:

      

The Red Telephone call for submissions

I’m looking for the next great young adult book. Will it be yours? Submission guidelines here.

   

Right- now back to more book making!

A plea for patience

I will be thoroughly frank with you. I grow impatient with some writers’ impatience. If you have a contract and I’m editing your work, you will get it when it is ready. If you chase me about it I’ll probably ignore you. If there is a delay – and most times there isn’t – it will grow even longer as I stop to answer your email.

Everything takes longer

It does seem that no matter how long we allow, everything takes longer than we first thought. What are some of the things that delay us?

• Webs sites working more slowly than usual
• Odd formatting appearing form nowhere in a text
• A missing bio
• An author not returning an edit or a proof read on time (Yes, we give a tight deadline on this and it may seem that we are taking forever to do our work – but believe me, we never really stop. As I’m a writer as well I’ve been on the receiving end of this and know how it feels though I understand why it happens)
• We’re suddenly offered a fabulous marketing opportunity and we daren’t ignore it for all of our sakes.
• We get ill, have family crises and technical breakdowns also.

What can you do to help?

• Follow submission guidelines to the letter. We ask for a certain type of formatting because that makes it easier for us to produce the photo-ready copy.   
• Don’t ask for major changes at the third stage of editing or when proof-reading.
• Trust us.  
• While you’re waiting just get on with your next piece of writing.   

We’re all on the same side really

Yes, we are. We all just want to produce a superb book. So let’s just get on with it. And with the next project.  

Creating a happening

Yes. Happening. The old hippy word for an event. Yet it means a little more than just an event. It has added extra. Its success depends to a large extent on the energy that both organisers bring. It’s not just a matter of deciding a time, finding a venue and inviting folk.

Venue found

I’ve successfully found the venue for the 2016 joint Bridge House / CafeLit celebration. Or rather my daughter did. It’s a pub in north London, Primrose Hill. It has a very pleasant upstairs room, a nice selection of gins and real ales. There is even free on-street parking on a Saturday.

Next steps

So, I’ll be putting together my Eventbrite invite. I’ll initially be inviting the writers who are included in the two new anthologies. Then it will be open to other Bridge House, CafeLit and Red Telephone writers. After that it will be the general public.   That particular general public is likely to be one that has a vested interest in the imprints.

Energizing the events

So, what will go on? How will this become a happening? There’ll be books for sale, readings, speed-dating, where we all swap tips about marketing. We’ll give the latest news. There’ll be a book exchange. Most importantly we’ll get to put names to faces.

Oh. And try the real ales and gins.

           

A glimpse across a busy schedule

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.