As we enter our 3^rd month of social distancing and self-isolation due to the coronavirus outbreak, we are more and more aware of the huge cultural gap left by literary festivals, theatre productions, music gigs, book groups and school visits that have been cancelled or postponed.

Which is why, back at the end of March, I threw my PR hat and knowledge into the ring and joined the team at the Lockdown LitFest, a global literature and culture hub that was born in the time of COVID-19 with the aim of bringing a diversely-curated online literature festival directly to people’s home screens. We are a small group of writing, publishing, broadcasting, tech and social media folk who are burning the midnight oil - all working pro bono right now - to deliver the very best, high-quality content.

We’ve been very fortunate to attract a fantastic line-up of participants so far and we now have over 20 author interviews under our belt. The list includes: BAFTA -winning comedian Robert Webb; co-founder of the Women’s Prize and international bestselling novelist Kate Mosse; British explorer, writer and photographer Levison Wood (of C4’s Walking with Elephants fame); crime writing supremo Mark Billingham; Emirati poet and spoken word artist Afra Atiq; star of the hit TV series All Creatures Great and Small and acclaimed author Carol Drinkwater; and inventive star of children’s literature Philip Ardagh, to name just a few.

Taking physical events online, and delivering an enjoyable audience experience, is not as straightforward as it may seem, however.  Here are some lessons we have learned over the past few weeks at the Lockdown LitFest:

You mustn’t run before you can walk - We are learning as we go along, and developing our offering all the time, but we realise we can’t do everything at once.  We are a very small team, with only 24 hours in a day, so it’s important we don’t rush important decisions and that we take little steps in order to improve.

You need to have integrity - Lockdown LitFest was launched for all the right reasons (to be there for authors who need a platform and for readers who love to hear authors speak) and we strive to always keep that ethos central to what we do.  But we realise that you need to do things the right way, to treat authors with respect, and to represent their work the very best way we can.  We may make the occasional mistake, but if we do we will put our hands up!  It’s all about trust and working collaboratively with our partners.

You need to build an audience organically - As we all know, there is no use producing a beautiful ‘thing’ if there is no one out there to look at it.  That’s why we are investing a lot of time growing our online audience via social media, YouTube and our weekly newsletter.  We realise, however, that this growth needs to be organic and that we need to attract the right people.  People who care about books, authors and the cultural world, and who will stay with us on our journey, wherever that may take us.  There’s no point in ‘buying’ followers and then being surprised when they don’t engage or watch what you produce.

You have to launch with some established names behind you - We are very lucky in having Paul Blezard as one of our co-founders.  With a little black book to die for, he has managed to pull in some really big names to get us off the ground.  Bestselling authors who have generously given of their time, shared their photos, and given us great quotes to help us with our social media and PR.  As a result, we have a lot of important publishers, media and agents watching us with interest, who are being supportive beyond our wildest dreams.

You should always strive to represent as many people as you can - at Lockdown LitFest we are trying to create as diverse a mix of content as we possibly can.  Trying to juggle people’s schedules, and making sure that our programme appeals to all parts of our audience, is not easy.  But our aim is to get as eclectic a range of speakers as we can (from different parts of the world, from different backgrounds, talking about as many different genres as possible) and this list will develop as we go.  We have also introduced subtitles for all our talks, so that those who have difficulty hearing can follow along easily as well.

Finally, it’s worth pointing out, this isn’t a short-term project. We’re here for these tough times and beyond, to deliver interviews, readings, masterclasses and more, for an audience of all ages and interests.

If you’d like to see what we’re up to, do take a look at website LockdownLitFest.com and follow LockdownLitFest on all social media channels. We also have a weekly newsletter where you can find out all the latest news.

The three co-founders of the Lockdown Lit Fest are: Paul Blezard (literary broadcaster and commentator), Wai Mun Yoon (tech entrepreneur), and Palash Davé (filmmaker, writer and former VP of The Hay Festival). 

Alex Hippisley-Cox is the Head of PR for the festival, and also works with Frankfurter Buchmesse, the Daily Mail Chalke Valley History Festival, and Bitter Lemon Press.

In this month's Byte Experts, we hear from Jon White, Business Development Director at Makematic, as he shares his advice on maximising the potential of content via video.

 The Covid-19 crisis has in all respects led to an increased need for digital content. Before our current situation, all the trend data was already pointing to a huge increase in digital content, with video content at the top of that list.  Cisco, based on current growth trends have predicted that by 2022, online video will make up 82% of all consumer traffic, whilst by 2020 they say that 1 million minutes of video content will be crossing the internet every second.

Video is having an increasing influence on content mix within the publishing sector too. Education and Professional publishers have for many years seen the inclusion of broadcast quality video as key to digital product success. In the academic sector, Wiley have reported the astounding figures of 447% higher altmetric scores and 111% higher full text views for those articles with video abstracts.  And no one can have missed the video phenomena in the children’s sector of the brands Peppa Pig and Blippi, the latter, launching full fling on Youtube with a strategy which no doubt will penetrate children’s and education publishing sectors very soon. Within our own industry sector we saw the meteoric rise of Diary of a Wimpy Kid which started as a digital only story on what was then Pearson’s Family Education Network nearly 15 years ago, before other publishers purchased the print rights and the movies were made.

What are six steps needed to ensure success of your publishing portfolio whilst increasing this dynamic and exciting format?

1) Video is here to stay

By accepting that video must play an important part in any publishing portfolio, then the necessary steps can be taken to put in place a strong strategy with short, medium, and long-term goals. The evidence suggests that video content is fast becoming a preferred medium for consent consumption for those under the age of 25. Recognise this, plan accordingly and thoroughly because in a truly multimedia world many others, who you would not see as traditional competitors, currently are.

2) How are you currently budgeting?

Budgeting for video is different to that of print or other digital products. The amortisation of video as an asset is something new to which publishers need to adjust. Start with an understanding of the ROI and work backwards.  Those publishers who are adjusting their business models accordingly, are the ones who are capturing and captivating a new video-content oriented consumer. Plan your product investment for future success.

3) Developing a new workflow

The workflow for producing video is vastly different to that of published content. Key changes will need to be incorporated, particularly around publishing programme timings, because short-form video, animated or live action, takes a period to produce. Talk to and engage those with the knowledge that you need and incorporate the necessary changes to ensure future success.

4) Defining what is right for your audience is king

With the explosion of video-based social networks such as TikTok which owe their continued success to low-production-value video shorts uploaded by users, we’ve seen that defining the right look and feel for your audience is king. Broadcast quality can define a brand, more social media friendly formats can help build digital product audiences even with lower production values. It is key to define what is right for your brand and your digital product audience. In the overall process of building out your video portfolio, the idea of ‘quality’ should be separated from production standards. A current style of social media format may have a limited shelf-life so finding the “right quality” is what leads to engagement and impact.

5) Creativity & Engagement & Fun!

Building a video portfolio around a product or brand is a particular skill. It is important to find a team to work with, who can bring a wide range of creative ideas and engagement tactics to your publishing portfolio. Keeping a digital product fresh and new is a new challenge for the publishing sector and short-form video offers an opportunity to excite and engage your consumer, whomever that consumer is. So, use it as an opportunity to do just that. Video content allows boundaries to be pushed and can inject a big slice of fun. Whether it’s bringing children’s reference and drama content to life, injecting short informational films into an ELT or schools education programmes, explaining complex research papers in a quick two minute overview, or helping someone cram for a law, accountancy, finance or business exam, video is the perfect medium for captivating an audience.

6) What is your overall strategy?

As we have seen with the effect of global lockdown recently, having a solid digital strategy for your systems infrastructure, content portfolio and content blend is key. Whilst we are facing challenging economic times, many in the publishing world are seeing the true size of the digital opportunity, in particular, the power of carefully created and disseminated short-form video content. We have seen the explosion in importance of audio content and are about to witness the same with video content too.

The future retention and increase of customers and revenues for publishers in any sector will come to those who realise the importance and value of a spread of digital content assets within a publishing product portfolio and start working for future success today.

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Jon has over two decades of experience in digital content and publishing. He has held senior roles with DK, Macmillan Education, Ingenta plc and Semantico, He is fascinated by the constant changes being driven by the networked economy, how this affects all aspects of content consumption and whether or not parallels can be drawn across media sectors. He can be contacted via jon@makematic.com

VISIT WEBSITE

FOLLOW @MAKEMATIC ON TWITTER

COVID in Brixton

Jess picked at her teriyaki noodles. They were a bit too dry. She’d made them so many times in these 12 days of isolation, she should know better. But after the first week, she was close to the bottom of the barrel in terms of choices. Would it be illegal to break isolation early to go get some soy sauce?

The only view she had of the outside world: the bins. Rows of them from two mansion blocks together. On the plus side, from the 3^rd floor she didn’t smell them. Well, she couldn’t smell anything at the moment, thanks to the virus. And if she went in the far corner behind the TV she could see further out over the rooftops of terraced houses with their chimneys. At least there was variety.

Inside the flat was there was one bedroom squeezed off the lounge, a kitchen so thin you had to go in sideways, and a bath with a truncated tub and a hose for a shower. But if you were on your own, it was all you needed. She had chosen it because she could just about afford the rent, and it was in Brixton. The neighbourhood was normally alive 24/7 with people, nightlife, markets, films, and her photography studio nearby on Electric Avenue.

All that was now closed off, cancelled, or on hold indefinitely. And she was alone, in a microscopic flat.

Someone knocked on the door. No one had knocked for 12 days, or even longer. Should she answer it? What if it was an axe murder? She stood there, dithering.

‘Hello? Can you help?’ A man’s voice called. Perhaps he could sense her, there in her pyjamas, with unwashed hair and bed-breath.

She had the chain on the door, just in case, so she could only open it a little. She recognised a man from her floor. To be fair, he was quite good looking. Didn’t look like he was in the middle of a pandemic. He probably had washed his hair recently, and changed his clothes.

‘Sorry, I’m Richard. You know, in flat 312?’ he gestured vaguely behind him. ‘I smelled gas in my flat, and I didn’t know what to do. My phone is totally dead. I managed to grab it before I cut out of there but…’ he held it out like a stone. ‘I can’t stay in there, can I? It could kill you.’

She started to speak but instead had to cough before clearing her throat. She hadn’t spoken to anyone all day. Come to think of it, she didn’t speak to anyone yesterday either. Even Mum had stopped calling after growing bored with conversations about nothing. ‘The thing is,’ she said, when her voice came back, ‘I’m in isolation. Had the virus, complete with shivers and fevers and all. I’m on Day 12.’

‘Really? Oh…’ his face fell and he shifted his weight back a step. ‘You were the only person who opened the door. All the others, I could tell they were there, but they wouldn’t even acknowledge me.’ He looked at her then, directly. ‘But we’ve seen each other, haven’t we? You’re the photographer?’

‘An amateur one, yes… I think you’ve seen me struggling on the stairs with my equipment. I’m Jess.’

‘Well Jess, nice to meet you. Sorry it had to be in these times. I shouldn’t come closer, I’ve got asthma you see. But about my gas leak…’

‘Can I ring for you? I think there’s a central number for it.’

‘That’s really kind.’

‘Do you want to give me your phone too? I can charge it for and then you can wipe the plastic off with antibacterial wipes. Would that be alright?’

He weighed the suggestion for a moment, then set the phone on the ground. With a gentle nudge from his foot, it slid across the floor to her threshold.

She went back inside, and plugged his phone in. Good thing it was a Samsung, no problem with the fit. Then she googled who to call gas leak and found the 0800 number. Once she got through it was very quick — they must be used to emergencies. She knew the post code of course, and he called out to confirm his flat number.

Before she came back to him, she quickly went to the bathroom and ran a finger over her teeth with a smear of toothpaste. Her reflection looked at her with disdain. Why did she not take better care of herself when she was alone? But that was the answer, wasn’t it?

She explained to him that they said they would be there within the hour. And they said as a precaution no one shouldn’t smoke or light candles in the meantime.

‘No chance of that,’ he laughed.

She took off her chain, and looked at him: the first human being she’d been face-to-face with in nearly two weeks. He looked nice enough for a chat. His hair was curly and in-between blonde and brown. Dishwater blonde, Mum used to call that colour. Eyes were brown and kind-looking. He slumped down and rested with his back on the opposite wall. She sat, cross-legged,  inside her doorway. They probably were two metres apart, give or take a little. In any case, it’s hard to get that far from anyone in Brixton.

There were always sirens along Brixton Hill, but after about a half hour some got closer and she heard the engine noises outside the front of the building. Heavy footsteps came up the stairs. Fully suited firefighters emerged at the landing. Richard sprung up and ran to greet them, fumbling with his keys to let them in so they didn’t have to break the door down.

She came back inside her flat, thinking he’d forget all about her.

A little while later, there was another knock. This time she didn’t have the chain on.

‘They said the leak is closed off now, but the place needs to air out. I’m going to go to Tescos, keeping the proper social distance, of course. Need anything?’

She returned his phone, now at 40%. She couldn’t think of anything in particular, so she said, ‘You know those teriyaki noodle packs on special offer? I could do with a few more of those.’

Isolation 0, Brixton 1.

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Amelia B. Kyazze is a writer and photographer based in London. She has published short stories, photographic essays and non-fiction, and her debut novel, Into the Mouth of the Lion, will be published by Unbound in 2021. She has been a member of Byte the Book since 2015 and you can find her profile here.

If you are interested in showcasing one of your short stories  please get in touch at info@bytethebook.com

Have you ever been told such a huge and dreadful lie, so all encompassing, so monstrous that it takes form and swallows you whole like the whale in Moby Dick. You are somehow still alive in the foul stench of the belly of the beast, but wishing with each passing moment that you could self-induce a coma to escape the next few days and nights of agony and torment. While awake you drink whiskey to numb the senses, eventually the blanket of sleep brings brief respite as in your feverish dreaming the one you pray to forget stands over you laughing repeating those hurtful words, “Let’s be friends”. After three days of sweating in your cocoon of misery the whale spits you out, you surface, swim to shore and try to shed the shoals of betrayal that you wear, a heavy overcoat of shame.

I don’t give my heart easily but when that dashing ‘Indiana Jones’ adventurer leapt aboard our boat on a stormy afternoon in February he scooped out my heart like an oyster chucker. He promised me the moon and stars, we looked at houses, I thought this is the one, I will never be alone again. Not once did I hear the voice of reason screaming ‘This is too good to be true, make some enquiries, where has your pragmatic self gone?’I give such sensible advice to my friends, it’s a shame I don’t listen to it myself. I am not one to wallow in my misery though and after a few months of nightly boozing and daily trips to the gym kick boxing, spinning, rowing and other various exercises to work out the putrid anger that I felt towards myself, how could I be so stupid? I’m old enough to know better, what the fuck was I thinking? I convinced myself I was over it, I would buy some new clothes, get a haircut and reinvent myself.

“Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more” as Shakespeare said. So I left the south of France and came home to England to see old friends and have a good laugh. A few weeks after landing at Heathrow I am dining at one of my favourite pubs in Marlowe with my dear friend Ronnie, he is from Detroit but has lived in the UK for 20 years so hardly American at all, but like most yanks loves to talk to anyone and everyone. He strikes up conversation with the charming gentleman at the next table, his name is Paul and we talk for hours, we converse and laugh with such ease I get the feeling I have known him for years, we swap numbers and as we say goodbye I kiss him gently on his cheek, an electric current dances down my spine and I know we will see each other again. He calls and we go on a few enjoyable dates and then like a dark portentous sky Coronavirus descends upon the world and within a fortnight everyone’s lives are dramatically altered. No more work, no going out, unless absolutely necessary, but who can make the decision on what is essential to one’s physical and mental well- being? Paul decides we have to see each other and I agree, he lives in Berkshire and I in London so he drives to pick me up and I spend the weekend in his aesthetically pleasing apartment. We go for long walks by the river and I feel the early symptoms of romance, a troop of fairies tap dancing on my belly as he takes my hand, I can almost hear “One singular sensation, every move that he makes!” from ‘A Chorus Line’. The way he looks at me makes my heart beat faster and my knees are weak, as if I have just sang my heart out on ‘The Voice’ and all three judges have spun round to face me. The love sickness is taking hold!

We lay in bed neither one of us wanting to leave, I hear my phone ping so I reach for it and read a text from my roommate: My elderly parents can’t cope on their own, so they are moving in on Wednesday, I am so sorry to make you leave at this awful time but you know only too well the devastating effects of dementia and I know you will understand that they need my help now more than ever. Your friend always M X

My father suffered from dementia and I watched the most vibrant, witty man I  have ever known robbed of his mind by a brutal thief, as if cutting a Rembrandt from it’s frame, so of course I understand. My mind starts racing, I am trying to imagine the various friends I can impose upon but these are unprecedented conditions and in every imagined scenario the conversation does not end well. My usual bolthole is my brother’s in France but with all travel suspended that is not an option. My brow furrowed, gazing at my phone like a crystal ball, Paul asks if I’m alright, I consider putting on the ‘brave face’ and lying but it’s pointless so I read him the text. He says, “Move in with me” and just as quickly I reply, “I’d love to”

Ten days later and all is good, no, much better than good, f***ing fantastic! We may have eventually moved in together and grown into a deep and loving relationship but these enforced conditions have exponentially speeded up the process and we are completely, madly in love! We spend a lot of time together, we make love at least twice a day, I feel like a teenager. Anyone that says, “You can’t rely on another person for your happiness” has obviously never been in love. I am Baryshnikov flying through the air in Romeo and Juliet, I am Yehudi Menuin playing Albinoni’s Adagio to eight thousand tearful people at the Hollywood Bowl, I am Dr. Fitzpatrick the supervet watching the once crippled ‘Fluffy’ run like a champ after I performed the miracle stem cell operation. Virus what virus?

I am deliriously oblivious to what is happening in the outside world but I know this isn’t real life and my bubble may burst any day, but right now I am so happy and grateful to be healthy and alive as soon as we can get tested I will volunteer to help those less fortunate in any way that I can, but until then I thought this story may lift someone’s spirits.

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If you are interested in showcasing one of your short stories  please get in touch at info@bytethebook.com

Perri Lister is a Dancer, Choreographer, Singer, Actress, Writer.

A member of Hot Gossip from 1979 - 1984 performing on the popular Kenny Everett Show.

Choreographer for numerous worldwide headlining bands such as, Duran Duran, XTC, Sparks, YES, The Stranglers, Def Leppard to name but a few.

A member of hit groups of the 1980's Visage, Kid Creole and The Coconuts, and Boomerang

Currently working on her upcoming auto-biography "Kiss Me Deadly" Her life before, during and after Billy Idol,

You can get in touch with Perri via her website here.

This month we hear from Chris Harris, Head of Project Delivery at bespoke software development house, Softwire, on how to ensure your team are able to weather these uncertain times.

Building resilience into your technical team,
Five key things your team should be considering

The current outbreak of COVID-19 has caused disruption and uncertainty to a large number of industries globally, meaning an agile, flexible approach to operation has transitioned from being a nicety to a necessity within days. Businesses of all sizes in every sector have adopted a remote way of working - many are balancing the fluctuating, unpredictable demand of consumers with unreliable supply chains and/or workforce availability.

There’s no doubt that this macro-economic crisis will have an immeasurable impact on businesses. At Softwire, we’ve built our support team to provide maximum resilience and flexibility to enable us to spin up new workstreams as quickly as possible in response to customer demand. This, as it turns out, has ensured that we are well-equipped to tackle the various challenges that come with a global pandemic.

We have established our internal processes to have a very high “bus factor” meaning nothing is ever dependent on one person. In addition, we have long-since been set-up for remote working, meaning we can make use of whoever is free and wherever they’re based to maximise efficiency at all times. We’ve been exploring how we can best support our clients during this time, working with agility and flexibility to continue to deliver to demand. We’ve created a few top tips for those struggling to adjust to this new way of working.

Measure your bus factor

Keep your internal teams running smoothly by keeping track of the various tasks your team are working on. Be vigilant with communication and ensure project management tools are kept up to date with who’s working on X and who’s running Y to ensure all deadlines can continue to be met in the usual manner. Keep track of who is proficient at each activity, who’s already learning it and who wants to learn it to ensure you have enough internal resource in the event of staff unavailability.

Make delegation a priority

If you’re the best placed person to perform a task, that probably means you shouldn’t be doing it. Consult your list from the tip above and see who needs to learn how to complete this activity. You can then ask them to do it under your guidance, watch you do it or act as a second pair of eyes via a virtual screenshare. Equip your workforce with the skills and knowledge they need to keep basic operations going.

Abhor ramp up costs

Document important processes thoroughly to ensure that the most important things are always at the top of the to-do list. This may mean that lengthy setup activities are reduced so as to allocate your resource in accordance to business needs.

Delegate (again)

Delegation is vital to maintaining business as usual – or as much as it can be. If you’re doing it right, you’ll find that instead of senior staff flat out on critical tasks and junior staff twiddling thumbs, waiting to be unblocked, you’ll have the less senior members of your team driving the day-to-day business forward. This gives senior team members the time to drop into where they’re needed whilst focusing on next steps and strategy.

Be flexible with staff

If you’re asking your staff to be super-flexible, ensure that you are prepared to be super flexible in return. If they need to take annual leave at short notice, regard it not as a blocker but a test of your team’s resilience. If everything collapses because one member is away from the office for one day, how will you cope with a real emergency, like a nationwide quarantine?

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Chris Harris has extensive experience supporting and delivering projects for top tier companies including the BBC, Channel 5 and the Telegraph Media Group. His passion has always been around supporting existing systems and driving excellent customer success.

He can be contacted via chris.harris@softwire.com

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In this month's Byte Experts, we hear from Kelly Weekes as she shares her advice on what to think about when advertising on Facebook. She'll also be running a free webinar with us on 29th January 2020 on this topic and you can sign up for it here.

Eight things to consider before you start advertising on Facebook

Facebook is by far the largest of the social media channels with 2.41 billion monthly active users. 74% of Facebook users log in every day with 51% of users logging in multiple times a day. Users spend an average of 38 minutes per day on the platform.*

All this adds up to show what an important and powerful marketing channel Facebook is.

However, did you know that for organic posts the average reach is 5.5% meaning that if you post on your Facebook page you are likely to only reach 5.5% of the people who like your page.

To really reach people effectively through Facebook you need to consider Facebook advertising.

Facebook advertising offers huge opportunities in terms of reaching your audience with very targeted messages and driving them to particular actions. Plus don’t forget that Facebook advertising also enables you to reach your audience on instagram too as Facebook own Instagram.

Facebook advertising can also be very complex so before you leap straight into running ads consider these factors.

What are your objectives?

Facebook has a number of objectives you can use in your advertising to enable Facebook to identify exactly the best people to reach because it knows they are the people most likely to perform the action you want. Be clear on your objectives. Do you want to drive traffic to your website or a retailer? Do you want to build your follower numbers? Do you want to generate leads that you can pull into an email nurture sequence? Do you have a video that you want to drive views of? Do you want to drive people to purchase from your site?

Do you know who your audience is?

Facebook’s audience targeting is a very appealing aspect of Facebook advertising as you can be laser targeted in who you are trying to reach. In order to build audiences to reach, it is essential that you thoroughly understand who your target customer is. Consider creating user profiles to bring to life your target customer. This is an excellent exercise anyway for all of your social media and marketing activity, as knowing exactly who you want to reach can only make it easier to target and communicate with them.

What budget do you have?

Facebook advertising can be much more cost effective than some other marketing activity but it is not necessarily a cheaper option.  it is a competitive environment and you still need to spend to ensure your ads are seen, I would recommend budgeting an absolute minimum of £10 a day, and ideally considerably more than that if you want to reach more than one audience or run sales funnels. Busy periods of the year such as q4 will also need bigger budgets.

Do you have scroll stopping ads?

Facebook is a busy platform with a huge amount of content vying for readers’ focus. Your ads need to grab attention and stop people from scrolling past. Think about ways you can make your images really stand out, trial different formats like videos and carousels and use copy that speaks directly to your target user and really drives them to click on your ad.

How active are you on Facebook already?

One of the factors that contributes to the success of your Facebook ads is how active and engaged you are on your Facebook page. First of all you will need a business Facebook page as it is not possible to run advertising without it. It is also important to post engaging content that resonates with your followers regularly and consistently.

How fast and user friendly is your website?

Another major factor which determines the success of your ads is your website. Your site should be quick, especially on mobile, which is how the vast majority of your traffic from Facebook ads will visit your site. It should be very user friendly and easy to navigate. It is also important that the content of your site is congruent with the content of your ads.

Do you have a pixel installed?

The Facebook pixel can take your advertising to a new level. This piece of code on your website allows Facebook to track visitors to your site as long as they are still logged into Facebook. It then enables you to target people based on their behaviour on your site.

Do you have time for testing?

Facebook advertising is all about testing - testing creative, testing audiences, testing campaign objectives. It takes time to hone your activity through learning what does and doesn’t work for your audience. If you have a very big launch, or key campaign moment, it is sensible to start using Facebook ads in plenty of time to really learn which audiences and approach will work best for you.

*Stats from Hootsuite

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Kelly Weekes is a social media and Facebook ads specialist working with authors, publishers and book related businesses.

kelly@kellyweekes.co.uk

www.kellyweekes.co.uk

In this month's Byte Experts, we hear from Lucy Brydon and how to navigate the world of writing for screen.

I’m a writer/director and I’m just finishing my debut feature film, Body of Water, which was commissioned by Film London. A drama, it follows a woman with an eating disorder tries to balance her relationship with her mother and her teenage daughter. It features a stellar central performance by Siân Brooke (Good Omens, Doctor Foster) and we’re very excited about the film’s future.

I’m also about to embark upon a new year teaching fresh-faced undergraduates at the University of Warwick where I lecture in Screenwriting. Each year, I am aware that I will inevitably break a few hearts - usually those who are convinced they will be the new Lynne Ramsay before they hit twenty-five – but I will also be privileged to discover outstanding new writing talents. Some of them will go on to great things. It’s part of my job, and the job of the Writing Programme at Warwick, to prepare them for that journey.

Most paths into the film and television industries are far from linear. I know people who have worked as bus drivers and posties, either before, during or after successful careers in screenwriting and production.

Invariably, I’m asked for advice about the ‘best way’ to break into screenwriting. The reality is, there’s no ‘best’ way. There’s only the path you will find, or that finds you. But there are things you can do to enhance your chances of success, however you might want to measure it. So here are my two cents worth, as it stands now.

1 – Read, read, read.

It might sound like a given, but you’d be surprised by how many people like to avoid the fact that great writers are usually great readers. Read widely and voraciously. Read one script for every three films you watch.  Try not to confine yourself to one genre – remember to challenge yourself. Some of the most interesting work comes out of melding and blending genres – don’t be afraid to experiment. And don’t just read scripts. Read the classic books on screenwriting and tear them apart (Syd Field etc). Read books on writing. But most of all read poetry. I find this is the form that most helps with doing anything innovative with film language.

2 - Network

As with most creative work, networking is hugely important. Building your network by attending labs such as those run by Sundance, Torino and London Film Festivals can really enhance your contact list and provide you with strong connections to build on. Attending a lab at the Edinburgh Film Festival was how I met the producer of Body of Water, Dan Cleland.

3 – Find the right collaborators

Creating strong collaborative relationships with like-minded creatives is also a key to enhancing your opportunities as a screenwriter. This can be with production companies, independent producers or your agent (if you have one). Really taking the time to understand the other person’s tastes ensures that you’re both aligned and want to make the same types of things.

4 – Find an agent (but only when you need one)

On agents; the general wisdom is that when you need one, it won’t be a problem to get one. Entering competitions and getting some credits on short films can really help attract the right sort of attention – but you only really need someone to negotiate for you (and take their percentage) when you’re doing enough to warrant it. A lot of film schools make students feel like they’re only legit if they have an agent – but I would say that in an increasingly democratised world, this isn’t the case any more. And if you’re truly passionate about your work – get someone to direct it and put it online. Get people to share it. It’s more important that it’s seen and talked about than hidden in a drawer for years.

5 – Be kind to yourself

Be aware that everything happens differently for everyone. It might sound obvious, but it’s easy to get caught up in measuring your success against others. Even Mick Jagger probably does it. If you’re any good at anything, chances are you probably feel competitive about it, and that’s ok. But also know it’s fine to go at your own pace. And you’re amazing for even trying to do something that most people only dream/talk about.

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From Edinburgh, Lucy graduated from the University of Warwick with a BA in Creative Writing in 2005 before moving to Shanghai. She lived there until 2010, writing, directing, and producing short films, commercials and television dramas as well as learning Mandarin. She then studied Film Directing at Columbia University's MFA Programme in New York.  Her short films have screened at numerous international festivals and her debut novel, Shanghai Passenger, was published by Blue Mark Books in 2015. Lucy currently leads the Screenwriting course on the University of Warwick’s Creative Writing Programme, blogs for Little White Lies about filmmaking and is in active development on a number of feature and television projects. Her debut feature film, Body of Water, has recently been completed pending festival release.

You can contact Lucy at lucy.brydon@gmail.com  or via twitter @brydon_lucy

When it comes to tax and what you can and can’t claim as an expense, it can get confusing.  In this month's Byte Experts, HW Fisher’s Barry Kernon takes us through what counts as an allowable expense.

One of the most common questions that comes up when speaking to clients is what you can and cannot claim as an expense. There are numerous allowable expenses, but it is often the case that people do not take advantage of them.

To help, we’ve put together a checklist below to guide you through what counts as an allowable expense, and what doesn’t. If you’re not sure, it is worth double checking with a chartered accountant or HMRC publish a good list, here too.

Working from home

If you work from home, which many of you may do, you can claim a proportion of home expenses. For example, if you have a room which is furnished as an office (i.e. a computer, desk, professional records etc.) then expenses relating to that room can be claimed for 365 days per year. This would include expenses such as:

• Mortgage interest or rent
• Council tax
• Buildings insurance
• Contents insurance
• Service charges
• Ground rent
• Lighting and heating (calculated according to the number of hours the room is used)
• Repairs and decorating

It is worth bearing in mind that if HMRC is notified that the room is set aside for exclusive business use, it will expect to raise a capital gains tax assessment when the property is disposed of. This can be avoided by ensuring that the room is not exclusively set aside. As long as there are private items in the room too — for example, a wardrobe, spare bed or children’s toys — no capital gains tax assessment can be raised.

Where there is no separate room, it is still possible to make a claim based on the amount of time spent at home, the amount of time working, and the amount of space generally devoted to the author’s business use. As long as there is a reasonable rationale for the claim, HMRC will accept it.

The rules are stricter where the writer is an employee, for example, of their own company, but it is still possible to obtain tax relief if structured correctly.

Professional subscriptions

If you have a professional subscription, such as a membership with the Society of Authors, London Library, Writers’ Guild, NUJ etc., you can claim this as an expense.

Telephone, mobile and broadband

If you use broadband as a research tool (which I imagine most of you do), this can be claimed as an expense. Although, if there is also private use of the broadband involving additional costs only a reasonable apportionment of the cost should be claimed.

If you have a business mobile and stay within the tariff, then you can claim 100% of the costs. Where this is not the case and there is mixed use, the costs need to be apportioned to exclude private use. Landline costs should also be apportioned in the same way.

Again, the rules are different where a company is used, so more detailed advice is needed in those cases.

Travelling for work

If you travel for work, then this is an allowable cost, but there are some rules that are worth remembering.

• If an overseas trip is undertaken to carry out book research and then a few days’ holiday are enjoyed at the end of the trip, the travelling cost is allowable in full, but the accommodation costs need to be apportioned to exclude the private element.
• If you go on holiday and book ideas and book research crop up, no part of the travelling and accommodation expenditure can be claimed, except for incidental local costs incurred on the book project.
• Food and drink costs while you are away from home (in the UK or abroad) has to be reasonable and cannot include entertaining expenses.

Driving expenses

There are two ways of calculating driving expenses. Firstly, the actual running costs can be calculated to include fuel, repairs, servicing, insurance, road tax, financing or leasing costs, and these can then be apportioned according to the business mileage as a percentage of the total mileage. A claim can be added for items such as parking, road tolls and depreciation (capital allowances).

Secondly, it’s possible to claim a mileage allowance. Business mileage needs to be logged and then claimed at 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter. It is also possible to claim finance charges, parking and road tolls.

Use of the mileage allowance is not available to if your turnover exceeds the VAT registration limit in the year the car is purchased. Once the method to be used has been chosen, this must be used each year until the car is changed.

Clothing and appearance

Not a great deal can be claimed under this heading, particularly as clothes are generally not allowable, except for unusual items such as uniforms, protective clothing etc. However, claims for makeup and hairdressing for television appearances etc. are generally acceptable.

Routine expenses

There are number of more routine expenses that are usually allowable, including:

• Postage
• Stationery
• Computer expenses
• Theatre and cinema tickets
• Reference books, CDs, journals, newspapers
• Courses and conferences
• Repairs and maintenance
• Accountancy and other professional fees
• Capital allowances

Don’t forget that record keeping is important

HMRC asks that records are kept of all expenses. Receipts are not a legal requirement, but it is advisable to keep as many as possible. Annotated bank statements and credit card statements are acceptable. I often suggest to clients that it is helpful to keep a diary as a non-financial confirmation of professional activities during the year. This is often particularly useful in supporting expenses being queried in HMRC enquiries.

About HW Fisher

HW Fisher is a top 25 UK chartered accountancy firm. We are proud to work with a wide variety of creatives, including authors, journalists, playwrights, actors, vloggers, film directors, comedians, poets, record companies, concert organisers, composers, agents, publishers, advertising agents and PR consultants.

Whatever stage you are at in your career, we can offer specialist advice to help reduce your tax burden and meet your financial goals.

If you have any questions on the above, we are always happy to offer a free consultation. Please get in touch – mediahelpline@hwfisher.co.uk

Mia Bays, Editor at Large for Reclaim The Frame, is speaking at Byte The Book's Picture This: How Can We Write and Adapt For Screen? on 23rd September. So we asked for some more information on the Reclaim The Frame initiative. Here's what they told us:

Reclaim The Frame is a mission to bring ever-greater audiences to films by women to widen and enrich cinema’s perspective of the world. We define films by women as directed or written (screenplay, source book or autobiography) by a woman.

The Reclaim The Frame initiative is backed by the British Film Institute’s Audience Fund and run by charity Birds’ Eye View, the London-based charity whose 16 year focus has been lifting up the profile of films by women, first as a festival, and now as a year-round agent for change with a UK-wide focus to get more films by women seen in cinemas and at home. 

RTF exclusive cinema screenings in London, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Plymouth, Brighton, Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield, and Exeter are followed by a curated post-screening talk, featuring special guests such as filmmakers and experts from a range of disciplines. We ask the audience questions – it’s active not passive, and we usually end with an activity related to the themes of the film.

Birds’ Eye View Director at Large, Mia Bays, said: “The up-swell of energy, anger and passion-for-change following the revelations of widespread sexual harassment and misconduct in Hollywood and beyond has strengthened our resolve to tackle gender inequality and the power imbalance in film. The time for change is now, and we see this unique programme as fitting squarely into this aspiration.” 

To join the #ReclaimTheFrame mission and receive free cinema tickets, discount codes and other film goodies go to Bit.ly/BEVRTF. 

For a full list of all upcoming Reclaim The Frame screenings and events go to www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/events 

Sign up. Show up.  Spread the word. All welcome.

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Tickets for Picture This: How Can you Write and Adapt for Screen? Can be booked here.

Our friends at the New Media Writing Awards are celebrating 10 years of the prize and this year have five awards, Please do read on for more information.

TEN YEARS of Innovative, Interactive, Immersive ‘writing’!

Bournemouth University in association with if: book UK announces the tenth annual New Media Writing Prize, now open for entries.

This international competition encourages writers working with digital media to showcase their skills. It also aims to provoke discussion and raise awareness of new-media storytelling.

THE PRIZES ARE:

• The if:book New Media Writing Prize: £1000 donated by if:book UK.
• The Unicorn Student Prize: £750 donated by Unicorn Training, Bournemouth.
• The Dot Award: £500 to develop a new project. Donated by if:book UK.
• The Future Digital Journalism Award. £750 for the winner.
• NEW! The Skylab Innovation Award for the best piece made using the Genarrator writing platform. £500 donated by Skylab and Bournemouth University.

The judging panels are looking for great storytelling written specifically for delivery and reading/viewing on a PC or Mac, or a hand-held device such as an iPad or mobile phone. It could be a short story, novel, documentary, or poem, using words, images, film, or animation, game elements, with audience interactivity.

Whether you’re a student, a professional, or simply an enthusiast, anyone can apply. It's an international competition, open to all outside the UK. Entries must be in English.

The deadline is Friday November 22nd 2019, 12 noon GMT

Closing date for students is Friday 13th December 2019, 12 noon GMT. 

Shortlisted entrants will be invited to the awards ceremony on 15^th January 2020 where the winners will be announced. There will be substantial media coverage for the awards, and winners will be given full acknowledgement in all press releases and related material.

An esteemed panel of judges will select winning entries, which will be showcased at the Awards Ceremony at Bournemouth University in January 2020.

For full details on what we are looking for, and how to enter, please visit the New Media Writing Prize website.