Words by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, photos by Craig Simmonds

In a seaside inspired room with beach huts, oversized deck chairs, a panel on swivel chairs, and drinks and nibbles provided by Google, July’s Byte The Book at the Google Academy was the perfect stage set and playground for the exchange of alternative opportunities for writers.

Our panel from left to right: Nick Coveney, Simon Savidge, Mark Piesing (chair), Colin Harvey and Sam Rowden

The author and journalist, Mark Piesing stepped in at the last minute to chair our impressive panel: Colin Harvey, Senior Narrative Designer at Sony’s London Studio; Nick Coveney, Publisher Relations & Content Lead at Kobo UK & ANZ, formerly HarperCollins Innovation Digital Director and StoryCastle Project Lead; Simon Savidge, Vlogger and Founder of Savidge Reads; and Sam Rowden, Director of Programming at AMC Networks International UK.

Antonella Pearce and Ian Winn sitting in one of those over-sized deck chair just before the panel started

Mark began by asking the panel what opportunities each of their different mediums offered authors. Colin, who has a PhD in the interplay between storytelling and play in video game media, explained that he is currently working on a virtual reality title in which part of the challenge is to discover what the language or grammar of the virtual reality medium is. As it is so new, there is huge opportunity for exploration and innovation. He explained that there are two levels of writers working on games: narrative designers who work on the more complex narrative ecology and game writers who write the barks (character dialogue).

Attendees enjoying complimentary drinks and nibbles (Massimo Pini, just seen, Derek Albiston, Dr Mike Morgan and Barry Gibson)

Nick felt that with the growth of digital markets in publishing, such as ebooks and audiobooks, a huge range of opportunities have been opened up to writers, not only through different publication platforms like Kobo writing life, but also in terms of the kinds of content they can produce.

The panel in full flow

Sam was keen to talk about one of her projects for CBS Reality, Written in Blood, which looks at the true crime cases that have inspired writers, putting authors, crime and television together. Now on its second series, the programme has created new opportunities for crime writers. Given all the research they do, they were able to use that knowledge in a different medium. With the accompanying podcast series, which delves deeper into the background of the some of the cases, they were adding another medium, another level, and used the experience of radio executives to exploit this medium to its best.

Audience and panel in action

Simon spoke of his experience with different mediums, working in wordpress, producing a podcast, vlogging and being on booktube, and felt that all writers need to be on multiple platforms and have a decent digital platform. When Mark asked what he felt the difference was between traditional reviewing and vlogging or making a podcast, Simon felt the real difference was that you can have more fun with the digital element.

Our twitter wall was up on two huge screens so the audiences' tweets and images could be included in the discussion

Mark asked Sam if authors needed to learn new skills to work with television and again Sam spoke of her true crime series, Written in Blood. She stressed that, whilst authors did need to learn new skills for a new medium, the most important thing was to get all of the collaborators together around a table to state their goals for the project. Honesty about what you want to achieve in a project is key to helping everyone work together.

Simon and Mark keeping us all amused

Mark then turned to Colin and asked how different it was to write for virtual reality or video games as opposed to writing novels or comics. Colin reassured us that the ability to tell a good story is paramount in both mediums. He compared writing for games to writing a musical (or an opera) where there is a break in the main narrative for a song, which ideally you would like to use to move the plot on a little, before you move back to the main narrative. He compared the songs to cut scenes in video games. Virtual reality is a further challenge to this however, as you are always immersed in the narrative so it’s harder to figure out what a cut scene is in VR. Regardless, the ambition of game writing is to tell songs that progress the narrative.

Rebekah taking notes for this report

When asked whether Colin brought writers in to work on games, Colin said yes but explained that games are a very specific medium. For example you can’t do big crowd scenes (because of technical issues with frame rates and budgeting constraints). So whilst there are common skills that all writers need to apply, there are specifics to each medium too and given that virtual reality technology is moving so fast, you need to be immersed in the medium to write for it. So whilst working across different media opens up opportunities, you need to know the medium you want to write for.

Publishing industry digital hero Nick Coveney

Mark asked Nick what authors would need to do to work for his medium and Nick spoke about voice application software such as Siri, Alexa, Google Home and of course, StoryCastle etc. Writing voice application software is like creating a narrative. It starts with a name - Google refer to the requests sent to their assistant (Google Home) as ‘invocations’ - and then you need to ask does this entity have a gender, a personality? You’re creating a matrix of responses based on what the user says and though it’s term based, with the assistant searching the user’s speech for synonyms of, or recognisable commands, you are always trying to get the user back into the core narrative, pulling them into a distinct set of responses but it also has to be fun. You can’t just have one welcome message, you need five or six. Though it might help to write for these programmes if you have a better understanding of AI, Nick felt it wasn’t a requirement.

Katie John asking a question from the audience

Mark wanted to know how writers could get into working with television and Sam explained that they are always open to new ideas and new ways to look at true crime. She promised to send an email to Byte The Book explaining how to pitch to AMC. She also suggested looking into production companies that might share similar interests. Whilst you have the extremes of ABC with writers rooms, you also have the smaller factual companies like AMC who are confined by budgets. She explained that some programmes won’t have a specific scriptwriter. Sometimes the producer is also the writer. She went on to suggest that the best way to approach working with different media - and here she used The Long Way Round as an example - is to think about each medium and to exploit its specific parameters as best you can. So you tell the same story, or have the same precis in different mediums - e.g. TV series, book, film - and they can sell each other if each delivery is tweaked to exploit the best of each media.

There was plenty of time for networking as well as the chance to watch the football, we have Michael Kowalski and Clare Somerville here

Simon said that the way into vlogging, blogging and producing podcasts was just to ‘give it a whirl’. The important thing is to think about the story you are trying to tell about yourself before you start promoting something because people can spot if you’re not being genuine. ‘People are more likely to engage with you if they like your story.’ For example, it made sense for him to promote Joanna Cannon’s books when he discovered she’d written about butterscotch Angel Delight. As a huge fan of butterscotch Angel Delight, there was a personal link that sold his own story with hers and given that about 100-150 authors get in touch with vloggers in just one week, you need to think about what books have this kind of connection. He assured us that he was one of the least technological people, that he did everything using apps on his phone and encouraged us to ‘just enjoy it’.

Justine giving Chris Savidge his birthday cake with digital candle

With some pertinent questions from the audience that had Nick talking about book categorisations, Simon his software choices and Colin having to quote a non disclosure agreement before revealing new virtual reality game developments, the discussion was ended to celebrate Simon’s husband’s birthday and to watch a game of football no one now needs to mention. Another great Byte The Book event.

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 keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £36 a quarter here

More photos can be found on our Facebook Page

Words by Chris Russell, photos by Craig Simmonds.

Launching a writing career can be baffling and overwhelming, and so at June’s Byte the Book, a panel from all corners of the industry met to discuss what authors need to publish professionally. David Roche of the London Book Fair chaired the event, which brought together Canongate’s Hannah Knowles, Suresh Ariaratnam of the Sprung Sultan Agency, Marina Kemp of Ink Academy and specialist literary accountant Chris Pitsillides (of HW Fisher, who also sponsored the evening).

Our fantastic sponsors, HW Fisher with from left to right, Andrew Subramaniam, Bunty Bhudia, and Chris Pitsillides

David began by asking Marina whether a new author - with their first manuscript under their belt - ought to consider editing assistance prior to submitting to agents. “It’s very difficult to know for sure,” considered Marina, “but it’s best to assume that, as a general rule, most manuscripts benefit from more editing”. She suggested that one practical approach is to submit to a only handful of agents first, then carefully monitor the feedback. “If you get eight swift, undecorated rejections, that may mean you require more editorial help”. At the same time, explained Suresh, literary agents aren’t necessarily expecting authors to come to them entirely polished and ready to publish. “Nothing comes out of the ocean fully-formed like Venus,” he commented. “I’m not just looking for current greatness, but long-term potential too”.

Our excellent speakers relaxing in the House of St Barnabas garden before the event from left to right: Marina Kemp, David Roche, Hannah Knowles,Suresh Ariaratnam and Chris Pitsillides

Turning to Hannah, David then pondered why, in an era of ever more sophisticated self-publishing platforms, a writer might make the decision to give up around 85% of their sales revenue in a traditional publishing deal. “It always comes down to what individual authors want,” replied Hannah. “That should be your key thought as you’re writing. If all you want to do is get a book out there into the world, self-publishing will probably suit your needs”. However, she continued, if you’re seeking to build a serious career as a writer, there are many other factors to consider; and part of the reason an author would relinquish such a large percentage to a publisher is to pass on the responsibility of the many “plank costs” of producing and marketing a book (editing, proofreading, typesetting, printing, distribution, publicity and so on). “That’s what we’re giving to you,” she said. “It may not be the right route for everyone, and that’s fine”.

The panel in full flow in the chapel

Moving on to the sticky topic of tax, David asked Chris at what point an author should consult the advice of an accountant, or financial advisor. Chris’ response was unwavering: “Ideally authors should come to us before they’re earning; before they even sign a deal, even. If the horse has already bolted, it becomes more difficult for us to use the tips and tricks of the trade to save them money”. He went on to point out that, by the time they receive an advance, most writers have already invested a great deal of time in their work, so avoiding serious tax leakage is paramount. “You should be claiming your allowable expenses right from the very start, for instance, and maybe using averaging for larger advances. The earlier you get in and speak to someone, the better”.

As well as the talk Byte The Book events are also about making useful connections (here's Andrew Subramaniam of HW Fisher talking to author Amanda Dewinter)

Ultimately, it was agreed that all authors, whether traditionally or self-published, need to surround themselves with a competent team (“Success is never a solo operation,” commented Suresh). At the same time, writers shouldn’t be afraid to follow their guts: “Listen to advice,” concluded Marina, “but don’t decimate your own work simply to please everyone else”. 

In other words, in a complex, fragmented marketplace, the conclusion was unanimous: every author needs to find the path that’s right for them.

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 keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £36 a quarter here

More photos can be found on our Facebook Page

Book marketing is at the heart of our business, so we were delighted to hear that Byte the Book member and independently published children’s author, Karen Inglis, has seen her time travel adventure for ages 8-11The Secret Lake hit Amazon UK’s children’s bestseller lists in recent weeks – at one stage ranking at 236 in the whole of the Amazon UK print store.

What’s especially interesting is that this isn’t a new book – in fact it was the first story that Karen self-published back in late 2011. We were naturally keen to find out more!

Karen says that before The Secret Lake started to rise through the Amazon ranks it had already sold over 7,000 copies – of which around half were at school events and 600 on Amazon in the USA. It had also sold several hundred copies in Waterstones around southwest London following signings she held there soon after it came out – her local branches were hugely supportive of it.

“All of these sales had been achieved by painstaking traditional marketing and PR efforts – contacting local schools and bookshops, researching bloggers, engaging with local press and having a social media presence. However, without the muscle of a national sales team I had struggled to make it more widely known in the UK,” she said.

So what changed?

Karen says that digital advertising has been the game changer. “Self-published authors can now compete on a level playing field with all publishers in the quest to find new readers and this can be especially effective on sites where book buyers already congregate, notably Amazon and BookBub. The author has full control of targeting and the means to stop, start and test to see what works.

“If your book has a strong cover and a proven track record then I think you have a good chance of doing well. Few readers know or care who published the books they buy. The Secret Lake had built over 40 good reviews on Amazon through organic sales over the years and I’m sure these helped it stand out once it became more visible through advertising. The hard work I put in through traditional marketing over the years – achieving close to 11,000 across all my titles by the turn of this year – has paid off in more ways than I had expected. And thanks to the halo effect I’ve seen a jump in overall online sales of all of my books.”

This is a story of old meets new in more ways than one. In The Secret Lake Stella (age 11) and Tom (age 8) discover a time tunnel and secret lake that take them to their home and the children living there 100 years in the past. The story was partly inspired by the communal gardens of Notting Hill and partly by Isabella Plantation, a beautiful woodland in London’s Richmond Park.

If you have an 8-11 year old in you life who’s in need of a summer read check out The Secret Lake on Amazon here  – or you can order it from your local bookshop.

Karen is bringing out a comprehensive non-fiction book How to self-publish and market a children’s book in late June/early July– sign up here if you’d like to be notified when it’s released.

You can find Karen at kareninglisauthor.com and selfpublishingadventures.com

Are you interested in publishing? Are you an author, editor, designer, illustrator or bookseller who would like to chat with like-minded people who live or work in the Pompey area? 

If so, the inaugural Portsmouth Book Bash is for you. Come and meet us between 6pm-8pm on Thursday 26th June 2018 at the friendly Hunter Gatherer, Southsea on Albert Road. There will be no speeches, no agenda... just come and chat books.

Author and editor Abbie Headon will be launching her book, The Power of YES, and you can meet her and buy a copy. Book PR, design and promotion agency Bookollective will be there to help you network.

Everyone there will be able to talk ALL THINGS BOOKS! There is no pressure, bring business cards if you want, if not, just pop in for a chat with the Pompey book crowd.

RSVP abbie@abbieheadon.com or esther@bookollective.com

Hunter Gatherer, 249 Albert Road, Southsea PO4 0JR

https://www.huntergatherer.coffee/

We worked with the TLC and Rebecca Swift on the Summer Digital Party back in 2015. She as a remarkable woman, and hearing that she had died last year was absolutely devastating, we still miss her greatly. Aki Shilz who now runs the TLC is doing an amazing job, and this foundation is just another thing she has done to continue Rebecca's legacy. Here's some more information:

The Literary Consultancy (TLC), founded by the late Rebecca Swift, has set up the Rebecca Swift Foundation in her memory. The foundation, a registered charity, will run the Women Poets' Prize, a biennial award and mentorship programme.

Three winners of the prize will receive a programme of support and creative professional development opportunities in collaboration with seven partner organisations: Faber, Bath Spa University, the Literary Consultancy, RADA, City Lit, Verve Festival, and the Poetry School. The support involves poetry mentoring as well as pastoral coaching. There is also a cash prize of £1,000.

The foundation and the prize will be formally announced on 9 June at the Second Home Poetry Festival. Prize applications will open then.

Victoria Adukwei Bulley is project manager of the Rebecca Swift Foundation, and there is a board of trustees.

Rebecca Swift died in April 2017, at the age of 53.

www.rebeccaswiftfoundation.org

(This story first appeared in BookBrunch on 21st May 2018 and is repeated here with TLC's permission)

Words by Chris Russell, photos by Craig Simmonds.

May’s Byte The Book asked one very big question: what is the nature of tomorrow’s publisher? Tasked with providing the answers were chair Nicholas Clee (Book Brunch), Bibliocloud’s Emma Barnes, Daniel Crewe of Viking / Penguin Random House and Bonnier Publishing COO Sharon Parker.

Our fabulous sponsors, Alex Hippisley Cox and Ines Bachor of Frankfurt Book Fair.

“You can’t publish good books if you’re a lousy employer,” began Nicholas, “so let’s start by talking about recruitment”. He turned first to Sharon, who in her time at Bonnier has seen the company’s annual turnover grow from £5million to £120million. “Publishing is no longer seen by the younger generations as an industry they’re desperate to go into,” she revealed, adding that aspiring professionals are more likely to turn to companies like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google and Apple - the quintuple threat otherwise known as FANGA - as these brands boast an irresistible caché. “Our challenge,” she asserted, “is to try and make publishing ‘sexy’ to a broader range of young people”.

Our speakers from L-R: Nicholas Clee (Chair), Daniel Crewe, Sharon Parker and Emma Barnes.

Emma Barnes, however, baulked at this suggestion. “I’m really troubled by the idea that we have to make publishing sexy”, she said. “I feel we should be honest, and not over-promise”. She advocated a plain-speaking approach, where new employees are told that the job will be fantastic in some ways and awful in others; but that, ultimately, they will have the opportunity to quite literally change the world. “The sell,” she continued, “is this: we want to put out books into the world that have a chance to stop the madness. The more good books we can get out there - the more decent, reasoned arguments - the more matter there is to throw at Trump”.

Panel, sponsors and attendees networking in the garden at The House of St Barnabas before the talk.

Nicholas then turned to Daniel Crewe to dig down into the recruitment process at Penguin Random House. What are PRH doing, he asked, to diversify their workforce and help make the industry accessible to applicants from all backgrounds? “We don’t demand that applicants have a degree, for a start,” Daniel replied. “We run programs that involve going into schools and talking to young people about what publishing actually is; we organise paid work experience; we provide our staff with unconscious bias training”. He also referenced the company’s flexible working policies, which are currently being examined to ensure that female employees are able to climb the ranks as readily as their male counterparts. Sharon agreed that this sort of approach is key to cultivating gender equality across the industry. “There’s more work we can do to retain women throughout their careers,” she argued. “We need to make it easier for mothers to come back to work after having children; we need to facilitate job shares, healthy work-life balances, holidays and so on. We need to make it easier for women to stay”.

An audience from across the industry.

The discussion closed with a spiky comment from an audience member that suggested publishers need to pay their authors more, lest they squeeze out the very people who make their businesses possible. Daniel defended the margins offered by Penguin Random House and others, stating that, quite simply, “the publisher’s first responsibility is to remain solvent”. Emma picked up this thread, suggesting that the only real fix to the problem of writers’ diminishing revenues is for the industry to publish fewer books. She added that publishers should never oversell the promise of what’s to come to their potential new authors: “We need to make it clear that no one will get rich from this. We need to say to them: ‘we won’t pay you much, so don’t give up your day job’. That might not solve the problem, but at least it’s the truth.”

Leena Normington and Justine Solomons - Byte The Book is about learning and debate but also having fun and networking.

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 keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £36 a quarter here

More photos can be found on our Facebook Page

Words by Chris Russell, photos by Craig Simmonds.

Book prizes went under the spotlight at Byte the Book’s third April event, which brought together Dr Tim Parnell of the Goldsmiths Prize, author and critic Catherine Taylor and Amelia Fairney of Penguin Random House. The event was chaired by Neil Griffiths, founder of the Republic Of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses.

New and old friends: TV producer and author Kate Ansell with publisher and author Kay Hutchinson

The floor opened with a two-part question: why do people found prizes, and what impact do they have? “As advances and book sales dwindle,” began Neil, “prizes can function as bursaries for authors, buying them much-needed writing time”. Meanwhile, from a reader’s point-of-view, in an industry that publishes a huge volume of novels every year, “prizes are one of the filters you need”. Catherine echoed this point, arguing that, in light of shrinking review coverage, book prizes are now more significant than ever.

A slice of the frow enjoying the panel: author Hannah Renier, vlogger and PR guru  Leena Normington, Byte The Book's, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and Justine Solomons and our Writer-in-Residence the YA author Chris Russell.

Tim, who founded the Goldsmiths Prize in 2013, explained that his motivation was to cast sunlight on modernist novels that he had taught and loved, but felt were being ignored by existing panels. He cited the Turner Prize as an influence, reflecting on how it had brought once vilified artists into the mainstream, changing the art world forever. Amelia agreed that the bigger prizes can have a very significant effect on book sales, but also added that, from a publisher’s perspective, inclusion on award lists - which in many cases requires significant investment from the publisher - isn’t always a no-brainer. “We have a certain number of books to promote, and a finite marketing pot,” she explained. “Many prizes charge substantial levies for shortlisted or longlisted novels, and in some cases this can be the entire marketing budget for that book”. In other words, publishers are faced with a million-dollar question: will the publicity from the prize generate more readers than any other kind of marketing, or could that money be better spent elsewhere?

The panel in full flow from left to right: Neil Griffiths, Catherine Taylor, Amelia Fairney and Dr Tim Parnell

The discussion moved on to how the landscape for publishing prizes has changed in recent years, and Tim pointed out that social media has enabled many more to flourish, especially that those cater to specific niches. “Mainstream media only has so much space,” he reflected, “but social media can help you find an audience”. The flip side of this, of course, is that the market is now saturated, and as Catherine phrased it, “you need a very distinctive USP, otherwise you’ll disappear”. In the end, she said, it often comes down to money. “Unless you stand out, you’ll struggle to get sponsorship; and without sponsorship, you’ll sink”.

Author, Felicia Yap and TLS journalist and author Michael Caines

Looking forward, concluded Neil, how can prizes work with publishers to achieve more for writers? “It boils down to resources,” responded Amelia. “If your prize is high-profile enough to have a full-time publicist, then they need to be creating book tours around the country, keeping press attention, pitching angles to journalists”. In other words, book prizes need to hustle for their foothold in the crowded publishing marketplace - just like the authors themselves.

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 keep yourself posted by visiting our events page here. You can join us from £36 a quarter here

More photos can be found on our Facebook Page

Love this idea from Helen Bagnall and our friends at the ALSO Festival.

We wanted to create a free community event, which allowed those in a Book Club to celebrate with others. In our work as Salon London we’ve learnt that regularly meeting with the same group of people has invaluable benefits for our long-term mental health. Being book lovers ourselves we understand how joining a Book Club is an inexpensive and accessible way of getting together with others.

So this Thursday June 28th in the Midlands we are launching the UK’s first ever BookClub.LIVE and we’re inviting anyone in a Book Club to hold their June Book Club or to have their summer social in our truly spectacular setting.

We’ve got 50 acres of landscaped parkland by the side of a lake, local concessions serving beautiful food and a dining room to eat in, a pop-up bar with literary themed drinks, and pre bookable picnics. We will also be creating our own Book Club for the night so anyone who’s not in a Book Club can join ours for the night.

Author Lucy Mangan will talk us through her hilarious and fun memoir of childhood reading, 'Bookworm' - an essential book for anyone who - like us - fell in love with books early, and the Cotswold’s Book Shop Jaffe and Neale who are setting up a book shop on the banks of the lake.

More info at bookclub.live

Byte The Book member Peter Fullagar’s edited book ‘Virginia Woolf in Richmond’ will be published in autumn 2018 and will be launched at Richmond Literature Festival in November. This is in collaboration with Aurora Metro Books and the Virginia Woolf Statue Campaign. This campaign, which now has planning permission, is to erect a life-size bronze statue of Woolf in Richmond, where she lived for ten years. More information and a campaign video can be found at https://www.aurorametro.org/virginia-woolf-statue.