Byte the Book's founder, Justine Solomons has been invited to chair a panel at Greenwich University, it's free to attend and you're all invited, here are more details:

Join us for an evening of discussion with key figures in the publishing industry, hosted by Creative Conversations, an initiative of the Department of Creative Professions and Digital Arts at the University of Greenwich.

Steve Carsey, Director of Original Programming for Audible, Katrina Hopewell, marketing consultant in broadcast and digital publishing, Kate Pullinger, award winning novelist and digital storyteller and Jeremy Thompson, MD of independent publisher, Troubadour and its self publishing arm, Matador, will be joining panel chair, Justine Solomons of Byte the Book, to give their views on the opportunities and challenges for writers, publishers and other industry players in the rapidly shifting landscape, which is contemporary publishing.

On one hand we see massive consolidation of mainstream publishers, on the other there is the ever growing phenomenon of self-publishing. A multitude of new business models and new forms of content are emerging in the space in between.

Some of the questions our panel will address:

Maybe it’s never been easier for writers to publish, but how easy is it for them to make money?

What does it mean to be an ‘authopreneur’?

How are the traditional roles of writer, agent, publisher and publicist changing and what new skills and relationships do they need to develop in order to succeed or even survive?

How far have we gone in the journey towards industries defined by content (food, travel, fiction/drama), rather than platform (books, newspapers and magazines, television, radio, web) and what will happen when we get there?

Come and join the conversation!

Date: Wednesday 20th May 2015

6pm welcome drinks

6.30-8pm discussion

8-9pm wine reception

Venue: Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich, 11 Stockwell Street, Greenwich, London SE10 8EY (DLR stations Cutty Sark or Greenwich, 20 minutes from central London)

Entrance is free, but places are limited. Please register for the event at Eventbrite 

The Novel Studio course at City University London, where Byte the Book's Justine and Jantien both studied creative writing, are now accepting applications for the 2015/2016 school year.

The Novel Studio offers 15 selected students the unique opportunity to work exclusively on their novels for a year.

For the second year running, in a rare opportunity to bypass the slushpile, the top three applications to The Novel Studio will also be passed on to Christine Green Literary Agency with a view to representation.

How to Enter:

To apply, please email:

 2,000 words of your own fiction (short story or novel extract)

 Copy of CV

to Rebekah.lattin-rawstrone.1@city.ac.uk  by 3pm on Friday 29th May 2015. Any applications received after that date and time will not be eligible.

The course starts in October 2015.

We're very happy to announce the inauguration of the Byte Bursary, which will award one young outstanding member of the publishing industry with free membership to the Byte the Book, free access to our other London-based publishing events and mentoring and support through the year.

Congratulations to our first recipient Rebecca Needes. Rebecca is Vice Chair of the Society of Young Publishers and is currently an editor at AA Publishing, working on illustrated and narrative non-fiction, she tweets as @RhetoricAlley.

We presented this award to Rebecca as we have been impressed both by her intelligence and her tenacity and wanted to do all we could to support someone of her calibre.

We intend to make a similar award every April so if you know of someone that you think should be honoured in this way please get in touch with us at info@bytethebook.com

On 30 March 2015, Hodder Children’s Books announced the acquisition of Songs About A Girl by Chris Russell. Senior Commissioning Editor Naomi Greenwood acquired UK & Commonwealth rights from Ed Wilson at Johnson & Alcock in a three-book deal. Songs About A Girl will publish in summer 2016, with books two and three to follow in 2017.

Chris Russell is a novelist and musician based in London. He has performed all over the world with his band The Lightyears, appearing at Wembley Stadium and Glastonbury Festival and performing with rock legends such as Roger Daltrey (The Who) and Roger Taylor (Queen). An experienced songwriter, Chris will be writing an album of original material to accompany each novel.

Synopsis

Songs About a Girl is a modern love story about heartbreak, pop music and the power of teenage obsession.

When fifteen-year-old aspiring photographer Charlie Bloom receives the invitation of her dreams – to take backstage photos for chart-topping boyband Fire&Lights – it's an offer she can't refuse. Overnight she is launched into a world of bloggers, paparazzi and backstage bickering and soon becomes caught between the dark charms of the band's star member and songwriter, Gabriel West, and his squeaky clean bandmate Olly Samson.

At school, Charlie's growing notoriety makes her a daily target for vicious bully Aimee Watts, and though she seeks comfort in her best friend, Melissa, her life spirals ever further out of control.

As her connection with Gabriel deepens, Charlie stumbles upon a spine-tingling truth: all the songs he has written for Fire&Lights' debut album are, impossibly, about her. How can this be? What dark secrets from the past has he uncovered? Why is Melissa acting so strangely all the time? And will the rivalry between Gabriel and Olly eventually tear the band apart…?

The Inspiration

Chris comments: “In early 2013 I picked up a freelance job ghostwriting for a One Direction fan-club. As a “gossip columnist” of sorts, I soon knew almost everything there was to know about Styles and Co., and within a couple of weeks had developed a genuine obsession with them. Stockholm Syndrome, basically. What’s more, I was immersed in the fan community on a daily basis, and became fascinated by the intense devotion that boybands inspire. We’ve all been there, of course, listening to your favourite album as a teenager and daydreaming that it’s written about you. And that’s when it hit me: what if the songs really were about you…? That’s where the book came from.”

Byte The Book’s involvement

Chris comments: “When I transferred into publishing from the music business in 2013, I was unrepresented, unpublished and barely knew a single soul in the industry. I came across Byte The Book on Twitter, speculatively attended an event, and by nine o’clock that night was in the pub with two extremely charming - and influential - literary agents. Shortly afterwards, Justine very kindly made me her writer-in-residence, and soon I was attending every single month. A year and a half later I have a fantastic agent, tons of publishing contacts and a three-book deal with a major publisher, and while only my initial publishing deal (with Red Button for my debut novel Mockstars) came directly from a Byte connection, in truth I’m certain that being part of the network has given me a leg-up on all fronts. Other than working like a demon and never (ever) giving up, I’d say joining Byte The Book is pretty much the best thing an aspiring writer can do.” You can join Byte the Book here.

You can buy Chris' debut adult novel, Mockstars, published by Red Button here.
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Further information

- Booktrade press release

- Bookseller article link

After the success of One Big Book Launch 2014, submissions are now open for authors to submit their books for 2015 on the theme; 'Inspiring People and Places'.

Zoe Cunningham and Tracey Sinclair met through Byte the Book and went on to create a critically-acclaimed theatre show together. Zoe has written an article to tell us a little more about their collaboration:

I joined Byte the Book right at the start - I was there at the first ever event in The Ivy. I didn't quite know what I wanted to "get out" of the network, but as a general creative person and a networker (trained by Justine - Solomons, founder of Byte the Book - when we worked together at tech company Softwire) I joined because I was intrigued and I stayed because I always had so much fun and met such creative and talented people at the Byte the Book events.

One such person was Tracey Sinclair. Justine introduced us because I was producing an arts show for Zone One Radio and looking for novelists to interview. She said "you'll really get on with Tracey" and I did! I read Tracey's novel Dark Dates (which was to become the first in a series) before the interview and I liked her wit, her attitude and her amazing stories.

Collaboration between Tracey and I carried on as Justine and Tracey kindly agreed to be judges in my first radio play competition in 2012. (You can hear one of the winning plays on Shoreditch Radio.)

In 2014 my interests grew to encompass film and theatre as well as radio and I received a great piece of advice to "do a one woman show". Casting about for an idea for a show, I remembered how much I liked Tracey's central character from Dark Dates, Cassandra Bick, and cautiously asked Tracey if she could possibly be open at all to an adaption. Many Americanos later, we had a first draft adapted from Tracey's novel. Another chance collaboration with amazing one-woman show expert and director Peta Lily resulted in a final script that was described as "engaging and captivating" and "a classy theatrical tour de force" at the premiere at the Tristan Bates Theatre, Covent Garden. Next we take the show to Tracey’s home town of Brighton.

Tracey and I continue to collaborate. Next we are working on a TV pilot about a ditzy wannabe celebrity, and I'm sure there will be more to follow.

Dark Dates is on at the Lantern Theatre as part of Brighton Fringe Festival on Saturday 2nd May at 5pm and Tuesday 12th May at 9pm. You can buy tickets online here.

Review by Jantien Abma

Buy this book.

This pocket-sized book comprises of two ‘slice of life’ stories, the titular Kitchen and forty-page Moonlight Shadow. Each brief yet peculiarly intimate story is told by a young narrator during the purgatorial period of mourning that comes after the death of a loved one, portraying curiously different grieving processes as the protagonists deliberately or unwittingly search for closure. In her first published book, Yoshimoto achieves the extraordinary feat of gently exploring the depths of human feeling while revealing beauty in the mundane with every turned page. In both stories, appearances of soupy rice, katsudon and soba noodles abound regardless of the scene’s mood, much like in my own hopeful imaginings of Japanese life.

Kitchen follows the directionless teenager Mikage as she figures out how to live life after the passing of her grandmother, her last remaining blood relation. She moves in with Yuichi and his transgender mother, who, with the help of their inviting kitchen, support her in finding her feet, before an unexpected tragedy hits their little home once more. Rather than indulging in sorrow that is plain to see, Kitchen’s narrative paints a life simply and distinctly by honing in on the pleasures and banalities of an average Tokyoite existence. Interestingly, Yoshimoto nonetheless very effectively permeates the story with a sense of grief, using it as a subtle presence that colours Mikage’s and Yuichi’s every action. More than anything, Kitchen highlights the vague unpinnable feelings that go hand in hand with both youth and tragedy.

Moonlight Shadow is the shorter and arguably more poignant novella that follows.  It launches immediately into the post-loss stupor of Satsuki and Hiiragi, struggling to cope with the car crash which killed each of their significant others. Satsuki’s deceased boyfriend Hitoshi was also Hiiragi’s older brother, a fact that links the two in a symbiotic healing relationship. Satsuki’s solitary pre-dawn jogs, an answer to her grief-induced insomnia, are slowly whittling her frame to skeletal proportions while Hiiragi, a popular high school student, has taken to wearing his dead girlfriend’s school uniform to school. Satsuki realises that their new habits are different versions of the same thing: an attempt to lend ‘life to a shriveled spirit’. They are what each character clings to to avoid total emotional deterioration.

A mystical turn in Moonlight Shadow’s narrative spoke to my predilection for the gothic genre when an ostensibly cheerful stranger named Urara appears on a bridge during one of Satsuki’s solitary winter jogs. Bidding the bubbly woman farewell, Satsuki jogs away, but looking back over her shoulder, is shocked to see Urara gazing out at the rushing river with a horribly severe expression on her face. The sequence of events that follows is a testament to traditional Oriental storytelling, which so beautifully told, transcends our pragmatic attachment to what is real and what is not.

This little book was as strong an evocation of Japanese charm as I have come across without having had the privilege to have been there. Whether taken from city life or from more remote, traditional regions, Yoshimoto’s details of Japanese society, food and perspective have left me yearning to experience the melancholic Japan from her writing.

Words by Chris Russell, photos by So Fraiche Media

Author and freelance journalist Daisy Buchanan chaired Byte The Book’s March event, leading a discussion on how writers, bloggers and vloggers can use different platforms to build an audience.

Our fantastic sponsors  The Publishers Licensing Society on the FROW featuring Antonella's 14cm heel Louboutins (just seen)

Publisher and blogger Lisa Edwards opened the floor, sharing the strategy behind her popular blog Because I Can, a frank and poignant insight into the life of a forty-something singleton. Lisa’s platform is WordPress, but this, she added, is incidental - what’s more important is how she amplifies her content. Because I Can has three main amplification points: Twitter, Facebook and the Huffington Post, where Lisa blogs regularly in the lifestyle section, allowing her to tap into the website’s ready-made, global audience. Author and historian Greg Jenner is another keen advocate of this approach, after his success as a HuffPo blogger (and the fanbase this brought him) enabled him to secure a book deal. When asked how he made the original connection, Greg pointed out that anyone can approach the Huffington Post directly with a proposition, and if the in-house editors like the work, bloggers are given freedom to write whenever, and whatever, they like (within reason!).

Our brilliant panel had the jammed packed audience rapt

The discussion then moved onto the topic of vlogging. Digital content expert Rosie Allimonos explained that, while all digital platforms allow for an authentic two-way conversation, vlogs are the purest form of dialogue because there’s very little to hide behind. In this arena, authenticity is key, making the format particularly appealing to younger audiences, for whom vloggers are the new rockstars, boasting millions of subscribers, pulling in big bucks and creating hysteria at public appearances. John Green, for instance, the superstar YA author behind The Fault In Our Stars, began as a vlogger, reading out book chapters on YouTube and factoring fan feedback into his work. His success followed organically from there.

Our chair for the evening author and journalist Daisy Buchanan

While blogging, vlogging and other digital platforms are of course modern phenomena, everyone agreed that there are plenty of lessons to be learned from past masters. For instance, explained Greg, Charles Dickens was an author who truly understood the power of cross-platform promotion, cannily re-selling his stories many times over as novels, serialisations and stage shows. And when Rosie drew attention to the classic vlogger struggle between being “on-brand” and being “real”, Greg pointed out that Queen Victoria carefully censored her diaries pre-publication. In this sense, many of the dilemmas facing writers today are, in fact, centuries old.

Daisy's panel, Lisa Edwards, Greg Jenner and Rosie Allimonos

Finally, while the post-discussion buzz in the room confirmed that this had been an informative and enlightening debate, the event may be best remembered for two of Byte The Book’s most controversial (and therefore tweetable) sound-bites to date: namely, “Zoella is a modern-day Anne Frank, minus the Nazis” and “Dickens was the original Kim Kardashian”. Coming soon to a t-shirt stall near you.

The panel concludes and the networking begins in the fabulous Groucho Club

If you enjoyed this report and want to keep up with the latest happenings in publishing as well as network with publishers and authors alike join us at for our networking at London Book Fair. Members of Byte the Book can get in free to London Book Fair (saving you £35) and you can join us for just £60 a year here.

 Click on this link to see more of the official photos of the event.

Buy this book here

Review by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone.

When I was studying my A Levels I had a friend from Southern Japan. I was with her the first time she saw England in the snow. It was a small country town with plenty of trees and pretty cobbled streets and though everything was covered in glistening layers of whiteness the snow was still falling. My friend turned to me and said, “It is so beautiful. Like feathers being shaken from a dead swan.” The Vegetarian has much the same aesthetic.

Split into three sections, each from a different character’s perspective, the novel tells the story of Yeong-hye who has a terrible dream that turns her vegetarian. Up until this moment Yeong-hye has been the meekest most absent of people who fulfilled her family’s and husband’s expectations and lived quietly in the background. Her refusal to eat meat causes surprising upheaval and leads Yeong-hye into a world in which one unconventional behaviour breaks many barriers.

Her story is told by first her husband, then her sister’s husband, and then her sister. It is her sister who remarks of herself, “It’s your body, you can treat it however you please. The only area where you’re free to do just as you like. And even that doesn’t turn out how you wanted.” And the book is all about what we do to our bodies, why we do it and how these actions are interpreted. We are physically bound to the world around us and The Vegetarian explores how little we think of our intermingled physicality, employing dreams to break through the surface of our conventional real through the use of the surreal. I don’t want to spoil the plot but her brother-in-law’s narrative is all about bringing the surreal into reality in a cleverly lustless congress of floral blossoming.

We do hear snippets of Yeong-hye’s voice in her husband’s narrative. It seems a strange place for them to come free given his almost complete distance from her even when he chose to have her in his life. I think I would have taken them out of his narrative entirely, given them their own place outside of the three sections, but I could easily be misunderstanding something.

Ultimately, The Vegetarian is a pleasing, engaging read full of ideas and provocative images. You’ll know if the idea of the story appeals to you and whilst I can’t promise you’ll be blown away byThe Vegetarian, you will enjoy it and it will leave you with questions to ponder.

Are you always complaining you don't have enough time to write? Well here's some advice from author, journalist and editor Lane Ashfeldt

For years before putting any real graft into my fiction, I wrote professionally. I even did a sizeable stint as a fiction editor, refining stories and novels by other writers. I was following the logic that as a young working mother, life was too full for me to write a book of my own. Wrong!

In the end, my fiction writing kicked off when I was doing subbing shifts at a news agency, a job I’d taken because it fit around school hours. On the subs desk the big challenge was to balance speed with accuracy. Possible stories were assigned as soon as they came in, and subs had to crank them out pronto. You had to pull out any guff or waffle trying to pass itself off as fact, rewrite the copy, fact check and house style it, and press publish. And always, you aimed to press publish before the next guy. A bit like running word-races at six in the morning every day.

Between assignments there were odd chunks of unused time: three minutes here, half a minute there, rarely as much as ten. We couldn’t muck about and make tea, it wasn’t a break. We had to stay at the desk, alert. Most sub-editors used to talk or read magazines, but I was on earlies and am not a big talker in the morning, so I followed weird internet links instead. In those chunks of dead time between assignments, I’d follow facts that interested me, drift into the worlds they came from, and start writing short stories. By lunchtime when I went to do the school pick-up, I’d have some half-done stories that would keep until the little one went to bed.

Being the parent of a young child is an under-rated period for writers, I think – yes, it’s full, but that very fullness gives you lots to draw on. And there’s an energy, too, in that constant rush.

If I’d needed to stuff my writing in envelopes and queue at the Post Office, that would have defeated me. Instead I emailed stories to online fiction magazines and short story comps. Lucky for me, a few of them were scores.