London Book Fair 2015

London Book Fair 2015 was exhausting and energising in equal parts, as always. Looking around and listening to what people have to say, all those thousands of people selling millions of books worldwide, is a healthy reminder that you need to be sharp and dedicated to stay in the game. That’s one reason it’s so important.

When you prepare for a book fair as an agent or rights person, you think you know what your ‘big books’ are. But often you’re taken by surprise. At this fair, people were interested in gift and parenting books for dads: DAD’S WISDOM and the SUPERDAD SPEEDBIBLE were requested over and over again.

There were great tips to be picked up from contacts in various countries. For example, it’s vital to have a good author photo. A particular project didn’t make it into a co-agent’s catalogue because the headshot was poor.

In the UK, independent publishers were upbeat and strong. They may be working harder than before, but their lists look vibrant and the quality is high. They’ve weathered the e-book storm, and now do well in both e- and paper formats.

Our wonderful new Spanish agents, Sandra Bruna Agencia Literaria, were full of good energy. They said too many publishers follow a bandwagon, take on ‘copycat books’ to follow a trend, then wonder why they don’t sell as well as the book that started the trend. Why not set the trend by doing something original? They love to present fresh ideas.

I was inspired by a fellow freelance writer and editor who had also given up a well-paid job to go it alone. She said the challenges, difficulties and continual learning of being a freelancer were something positive, and she was never bored these days.

On the other hand, at another meeting a gentleman from a European publishing company made it explicitly clear that the books I had to offer were not sufficiently best-selling for him even to look at them. Comments like that are the exception rather than the norm at book fairs. Book people are usually supportive people, which is why book fairs are also occasions to meet up with old friends. I was at least cheered when a woman stopped me to compliment me on my white linen dress and ask me where I got it.

For the first time, I found myself stopping to listen to some of the panel discussions for authors, since the venue was conveniently located halfway between the exhibition floor and the rights centre. Representatives from the Daily Mail and the Bookseller magazine as well as a book blog agreed that most self-published book jackets are ‘awful’, and that good covers and beautiful books matter. As reviewers, they spend a little more time with a book if the cover is great, because it’s more likely to end up being a success. They said that co-publishing offers a good opportunity for authors to work with a team who understand what covers and marketing work for the trade.

Another talk mentioned that to make a book successful you need commitment, passion, and a story that makes people jump for joy and want to tell all their friends.

On the evening after my second day at the fair, the lens fell out of my glasses – glasses I need for navigating my way around a big trade show and spotting familiar faces. So thanks most of all to the lovely woman at David Clulow opticians in Hammersmith, where I dashed in at one minute past nine on the second day of the fair, who fixed my glasses. It’s the little things that are sometimes the most important…

Turning a Blog of Your Incredible Journey into a Book? Some Tips...

I was recently approached by an author who had done an amazing trip with a friend, and was in the process of turning his blogs about the experience into a book. He wanted some advice - and it occurred to me some tips might be useful to others:

It’s sometimes difficult to know how to develop diaries and blog entries into a full-length book. First, read a few books of adventurous journeys and think  about what appeals to you. 

Bear in mind is that the world of publishing moves slowly; we have to ‘sell in’ a book to the trade six months before publication, and the book retailers don’t like to take travel books during the 'Christmas' period between September and February. And you want that book to stay on the shelves for a good few years too. So avoid too many dates and events that will make the book feel dated. Try to make it a timeless story – one that will still inspire 5 years from now. That means you don’t have to rush it, although obviously it would be good to get the book out there before your followers have forgotten what you did… Think about whether a traditional publisher is right for you, if you need to get the book out quickly.

Make sure it’s a great story. You’ve probably got loads of material. Trim the stuff we don’t really need to know. An ideal length for a book like this is 80,000 words. Develop your best anecdotes into scenes with dialogue and description, so we feel we are there with you on the road. Let us feel we are on the journey with you. But a real journey has plenty of boring bits, and they don’t make for good reading (do we really need to go through the experience of visa applications with you?). Get us on the road with you as soon as you can, then tell the bits about setting up the journey in flashback perhaps. Though do include some of the difficult times – the highs and the lows – and if one of the lows is boredom, it’s fine to show that.

 Good characters are essential – the main characters are you and whoever you went on the journey with (if anyone), so make sure we get a good sense of you. If you did the trip with someone else, we'll need to know if that other person is thinking of writing a competing book - not a good idea! Ideally, if you're both interested in writing a book, you'll want to be working together to maximise potential.

Adventure stories are great, but we also want to understand why you’re doing this journey. It's an interesting measure of our times that people are doing extraordinary journeys all the time. We get dozens of proposals from people who've cycled the world, or walked around Britain. So there has to be a reason why people will want to read your story, what makes it special and inspiring – and you have to tell it in a compelling way. 

No pressure, eh?!

If you're thinking of sending to Summersdale, I'd like to see a proposal and two sample chapters, ideally the first two. Let me know what plans you have for the future. 

And good luck with it. 

My Home Office

It's well over a year now since I moved to a little Greek island to set up as a freelance writer and editor in a home office.

For the first year, I divulged my whereabouts only on a need-to-know basis. Thanks to the magic of Gotomypc.com, when I'm doing Summersdale work, it looks like I'm working from an office in Chichester. To a lot of agents, if you're not in London, it doesn't really matter where you are - most London agents (most Londoners, in fact) aren't quite sure where Chichester is.

I'd realised that most of my job was done by email anyway, whether I was dealing with someone in the US or Australia or Manchester. As long as I had a good internet connection, I could work from home. On an island, so that when I was finished at my desk, I could get outside and in ten minutes be walking up a hill, or down to the sea.

I work with people for whom 'normal' is to do something like rowing across the Indian Ocean, or skiing to the South Pole, or paragliding across the Himalayas. They weren't bothered that I was going to live on a Greek island. And in fact, a lot of people in the publishing business shrugged and said, 'Oh yes, I know someone else who did something like that.'

It's important to see people face to face a couple of times a year, and I love my trips back to the UK. But being far away from the UK has also forced me to get more connected with people online and to use social media resources more (which is, I suppose, why I'm writing this).

Last summer, a few months after making the move, I acquired a book called COMMANDO DAD for Summersdale after a series of Skype discussions with the authors; it got lots of attention, to be featured on ITV and in the Guardian and Telegraph: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Commando-Dad-Elite-Carer-Birth/dp/1849532613/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348515415&sr=8-1. I also acquired UK rights to Torre DeRoche's LOVE WITH A CHANCE OF DROWNING, which would never have happened if I hadn't been spending more time on Facebook: http://www.fearfuladventurer.com/archives/5940.

And two weeks ago, in a cafe in Rhodes, I acquired a wonderful new travel book about Sri Lanka by a British author who was at that point in the Andes. She was very relieved to find out that her not being in the UK wouldn't be a problem.

Rejection

I've been meaning to write a bit more on this blog for a while. Thoughts over a glass of wine at the end of the day, that sort of thing.

An author wrote a very flattering and effective pitch letter to me at Summersdale not long ago, saying how his adventure book would be a perfect fit for our list. The way he described it, it certainly sounded that way. In the end, however, we decided it wasn't for us, and I wrote to let him know. He lashed back with a nasty email saying, among other things:

'I wonder if you didn't find the story compelling because it doesn't have tales of drugs, sex, drunkenness and generally hapless travelling exploits like... most of your other travel publications.' 

It would have been funny if it hadn't been so vicious and mean. The odd thing was, he also said he'd just been taken on by an agent, so he really had no reason to be bitter about the rejection. But if you've ever wondered why publishers often send standard rejection letters, that's one reason why. Still, I like to provide a personal note when I can. 99.9% of authors are grateful for that.

I remember a job I interviewed for back when I was trying to get into publishing in Canada. Well, I don't remember the interview at all, but I remember the rejection letter they sent had a spelling mistake in it (something like 'we recieved a huge number of applicants'). Of course, being young and foolish I had to write back to them and say maybe they should have hired someone who knew how to spell. Ouch. Just as well I didn't end up working in children's publishing, as it's a small world and I'm sure someone wouldn't have let me forget that.

Another author who took my rejection of his manuscript rather bitterly a year or so ago has ended up being a friend. He recently told me he thinks I was right to turn down his first manuscript. I understand how much rejection hurts and niggles - I'm an author, too. But it's part of the process of publishing - it's unusual to find a famous author who hasn't had rejection letters.

Anyway, I wish more of our books had drugs, sex and drunkenness. We'd probably make a lot more money.