A-Z Blogging Challenge: L is London Book Fair

My theme: Writing and the business of writing

I remember when I first came up from the country to the London Book Fair about five years ago, and was struck by how business-like and un-literary the whole event was. And how lacking in writers something calling itself a Book Fair could be. Plus the agents were nowhere to be seen; they were tucked away in the International Rights Centre upstairs, which wasn't accessible unless you had an appointment. I was reminded of the New York Stock Exchange, where huge amounts of money were being moved but where not a dime nor a nickel was ever to be seen.

But, to reflect the rest of the publishing industry, even the London Book Fair is changing. These days there's something called Author Lounge, with several events aimed at writers. Of course majority of these are companies selling digital publication and printing solutions to writers, biggest one being Amazon's KDP, but there are also many seminars aimed to help us Indy writers produce and sell our books.

Alliance of Independent Writers (ALLi) is organising a series of events, including Kobo book presentations by ALLi authors, and a talks by Orna Ross and Joanna Penn on self-publishing. And there's going to be ALLi's 1st birthday party too! (I can't wait!)

So, this year at the LFB, I will be a busy little bee, attending seminars, meeting many other ALLi authors. I even have a pitching slot with an agent. Wish me luck, I'll be on around two o'clock tomorrow!

I will attempt some live blogging from LBF, so watch this space.

London Book Fair, Earls Court, London 14-17 April 2013

A-Z Blogging Challenge: G if for Genre

My theme: Writing and the Business of Writing

Before I started taking my writing seriously, I was almost allergic to the word genre. For one it just seemed so pretentious somehow; it was a word used by Melvyn Bragg on the South Bank Show, not a word an ordinary person who loves books would ever utter. I mean, how often do you go into a bookshop and say, 'The genre I'm particularly interested in is…' OK, as a former bookseller, I know there are people who'd say just that, but I hope you know what I mean?

During my MA in Creative Writing, however, I became aware that genre was something I needed to take seriously. During my first tutorial, I was asked what my genre is. The tutor must have noticed my panic because she said, 'Who's the writer you most love and wish to emulate?'

At the time I was obsessed with Ian McEwan and William Boyd. The tutor gave a lopsided grin. 'Ah, literary fiction.'  I was glad I'd at last found what my aspirational genre was, but was a little puzzled by the tutor's reaction.

It was much, much later when I discovered, that:
a) Literary fiction is the most respected and high-brow of any literary genre
b) It's the most difficult genre
c) It's a genre you have to earn like a badge of honour
d) All authors considered part of this literary fiction genre were at the time (and still largely are) men. (More about women v men in the publishing industry under another letter).

I have since written several books which, if you ignore the literary fiction genre, could be classed as:

1. Romance (The Englishman) 

2. Family saga (Coffee and Vodka)

3. Spy thriller (The Red King of Helsinki)

To have written books in several genres poses many problems for a writer (unless you're of the William Boyd or Ian McEwan ilk, when whatever you write is literary fiction).

First of all, if you do wish to seek representation with an agent, he or she will want to know your writing genre. Same with a publisher.

It's also universally acknowledged that readers prefer authors to keep to one genre only. Readers, according to the publishing industry gurus, want to read the same book (only slightly modified) over and over again. I would strongly refute this, but at the same time, anyone who knows anything about marketing knows that, while building a brand, it's difficult to sell products which fall into totally different categories.

So, with all this in mind, the next big question I should ask myself is not which of the 3 or 4 half-finished manuscripts I should complete, but which of the above three genres I should concentrate on?

And you thought all a writer needs to do is put pen to paper…

A-Z Blogging Challenge: A is for Agents

I've thought hard about what theme I should have for this, my first A-Z Blogging Challenge and decided that since all of my completed novels are now out, I should write about the business of writing and publishing. 

A 'Guide to writing' or 'Helena's Writing Life', if you like.

Sooo, on this April Fools' Day, I am going to talk about Agents. (Seriously, not in jest, although the temptation is huge....)

When, a few years ago (hmm...try ten years - how time flies!) I took my MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, (more about this on a later post under 'M'), it was a fact universally acknowledged that you could not be a proper writer, or a published writer, without having a Literary Agent. Getting accepted into the golden stable of an Agent, however, was harder than getting a publisher to publish your work. And most publishers wouldn't even consider your submission if you didn't have a literary agent on your side. 

The job of the literary agent, we were told, was to sell your book to publishers. They would only take you on if they knew they could do this - or as it's called in the industry lingo, 'place your book'. I have lost count of the amount of agents who have told me in letters and emails that they like my writing ('I love your work', 'you have talent', 'you can write'), but that they just couldn't see where to place it. Of course there are several examples of famous writers who struggled to get and agent or a publisher, and went on to sell millions of copies when someone finally believed in their of work. (JK Rowling with Harry Potter and lately E L James with 50 Shades). 

Agents' letters

But times have since changed. 

Today there are several commentators, such as the successful writer, Sean Wesley Smith who believe agents are rapidly becoming extinct as a literary species. Why should you, argues Sean, give your hard earned 15% to someone who is just, figuratively speaking, sitting in your basement, living off your hard work, when you can get your book to market, and straight into a reader's lap without so much as a wink in the direction of the said agent. 

But there are others who feel that an agent still has a place in the physical publishing world. 

Take the author of Wool, Hugh Howie. Hugh self-published Wool in a series of free-standing e-novellas, and when the books became best-sellers online, was contacted by several agents. Reluctant at first, he did sign with an agent (on his terms), and with her help managed to get a unique publishing deal with Simon & Schuster which excluded the e-book rights to Wool. This deal is a first of its kind and something which most independent publishers/authors dream of as the ultimate goal. 

This is worthy of a sideline explanation: To publish printed books takes time and money, as opposed to e-publishing which on the face of it doesn't cost a bean. Not counting all the costs of editing, cover design, online advertising, and the time and effort the author puts into both the writing and the marketing.  So, when an author has already done all the hard work of getting the e-book out, why should a publisher sweep in and take a large percentage of the e-book sales as well as of the physical book sales, which is the part he'll make an actual investment in?

But I wonder if Howie would've got the book deal he really wanted without the help of his agent Kristin Nelson? I somehow doubt it.

So, although a writer no longer needs an agent to publish and make money out of his/her e-books, I personally think in the traditional publishing world a (good) agent still has an important role to play.

This, of course, may change in the blink of an eye. But then, that's today's publishing industry for you!

I hope you enjoyed this first post in April's blogging challenge. Tomorrow I'll be writing a post on the subject of 'Blogging - should writers blog or not?'

The London Book Fair 2012

This is the first glimpse of London Olympia you see when you walk from the Earl's Court Tube station.

It's been a few years since I last went to the London Book Fair. I remember the occasion well because as well as being my birthday, I got talking to an agent who asked me to send him my latest manuscript, 'Immediately'. Nothing came of the exchange, but it was certainly memorable.

Another thing that struck me that day was the total lack of amenities for writers at the London Book Fair. Looking over the vast exhibition hall at Olympia, I wondered how it was that when your badge read, 'Author' you were the least welcomed visitor at any stall. Apart from the few self-publishing sharks who in those non-digital days were trying to sell their £1,000 a pop (and some) publishing 'deals', no-one else wanted to know an unpublished author. Yet, all the industry and deals being made in front of my eyes, must have begun with words written down by an unpublished writer (poet/photographer/illustrator).

That day, three years ago, I was feeling bold after my encounter with Mr Agent (and my birthday), and blagged a pass to the International Rights Centre on the second floor of the exhibition hall. I knew from my research that this is where all the agents sit and do their deals of the week. I wasn't planning to accost any of the agents who had not replied to my approaches (the worst crime of them all in my book), although this seemed very tempting. Instead I just wanted to see what their secret den looked like. Sadly, it was quite disappointingly unglamourous. There were rows and rows of little cubicles where well-dressed (mostly) women sat and scribbled in their notebooks (this was the pre-iPad age). After wandering about for a while, I had a coffee in their private cafe and headed downstairs.

This year at the Book Fair, I felt so much more grown-up. I was here with a mission, to find out everything new going on in publishing. I had taken the precaution not to display my lowly badge of 'Author' but was surprised to find that this year there was something called Author Lounge at the fair. On closer inspection it was just the same old, same old: self-publishing companies, now offering digital deals costing much less money. (Progress?) I headed instead for the Digital Zone where I sat through a few lectures. These proved to be very educational. It is mind blowing how quickly the publishing industry is changing. Take dictionaries: the online digital versions of the two heavy volumes I still use give so much more content. It's no wonder that these products can still be sold at a healthy price online.

I also listened to the Booker Prize winning author, Howard Jacobson, who was interviewed by Lisa Appignanesi at the English Pen Cafe. He was so witty and self-deprecating that I immediately wanted to go and buy all of his books.

Apologies for the picture - there were a lot of people listening to Howard Jacobson.

Listening to Howard Jacobson's stories and being able to laugh at writers and the publishing industry was a perfect way to end the first day at The London Book Fair.

It's all just a game of battleship

Image from Google images

I do sometimes wonder if I should give up this writing lark. I keep asking myself if I'll ever get published (properly I mean - I'm not counting anthologies). What's the point in trying to become a better writer and constantly sharpening your pencil, writing manuscript after manuscript (I'm on number four), if all that work just ends up in a dusty computer file somewhere? However much I try to be one of those confident, persistent unpublished writers who, time after time, submit their work and shrug off the rejection letters and emails with an, 'oh well,' while they compose the next agent's cover letter, I still get terribly upset by a simple 'no'. To me each submission is like a love letter to an agent. I cannot help but feel utterly devastated when after a few months I get a rejection, or my approach goes unanswered. (This is the absolute pits: an agent who fails to pen a short answer to a serious submission by a prospective client should be burned at the stake.) A rejection makes me crawl deeply into myself and submit less, and less, and less, until I'm in a situation where I'm only waiting to hear from one person, or have no outstanding submissions at all.


Then I think, 'Come on, be a grown-up'. I do after all know quite a lot about the publishing process. I have an MA in Creative Writing, I read trade magazines, follow various writers', agents' and publishers' blogs and work in an independent book shop. I understand how difficult the market place is at the moment, how the shift from printed to digital material could turn the whole industry upside down. I also know that many successful writers were rejected hundreds of times; such as J K Rowling, Barbara Kingslover, C S Lewis, to name but just a few. I know I should take rejection just as another 'not at this address' hit. It's just a game of battleships, as  Savannah J. Foley so brilliantly describes in this post on Let The Words Flow -blog. A rejection only means that instead of finding the right home for my work, I've narrowed it down by eliminating an agent who doesn't get my writing.

Because however much I try, I cannot stop writing. It's like a disease, or a drug. It makes me feel at peace, it drives me mad, it irritates the hell out of me and it makes me a better person. I've written here before about how I feel writing a novel is like having a tumultuous love affair, and that about sums it up. My home may be a mess, my financial affairs unkempt (for an accountant), my family neglected, but I'll always finish writing my latest novel. Unless, of course, I fall out of love with it, in which case it just wasn't meant to be. (I've lost count of the partly completed manuscripts littering My documents -folder).

Watching the lovely and very talented singer, and until last night an X Faxtor contestant, Treyc Cohen, on telly this morning, I was amazed at her graciousness and positive attitude. After only hours after being so remarkably - and unfairly - rejected by the X Factor judges, there she sat on the sofa and said she knew she'd be a success and would not give up her singing career. Goodness, I admire this girl. If she can do it, so can I.

So here I am today, going back into the fray (don't tell me if I've said this before): I'm going to make regular submissions. Today, or perhaps tomorrow; definitely by the end of this week. 

Wish me luck!