So excited to hear this news from two of our members (Abbie Headon and Chris McCrudden) go you two!!!!!

Abbie Headon (pictured), Commissioning Editor at Prelude Books, has made her first acquisitions for the publisher, signing up three new series to the Farrago humorous fiction imprint.

Farrago has established itself over the past two years as one of the new breed of publishers looking beyond traditional bookshelf categories and using current online marketing techniques to establish direct connections with readers. As well as promoting ebooks and audio, Farrago also makes its titles available in print to the book trade, via Macmillan Distribution.

Pete Duncan, Publisher at Prelude, started Farrago (‘fiction to make you smile’) to bring humorous fiction directly into readers’ lives. The imprint has already seen great success with the republication of classic series including the Miss Seeton mysteries by Heron Carvic and Hamilton Crane, the Flaxborough novels by Colin Watson and The Bandy Papers by Donald Jack.

Headon, who has been working for Prelude since April 2017, is developing a programme of fresh new fiction voices for the Farrago list, and has acquired world rights for three series, each starting with two titles.

06 06 16 Mandy Morton, Radio Cambridgeshire presenter-turned-author. Picture: Keith Heppell

Magical Mystery Paws (July 2018) by Mandy Morton continues the adventures of Hettie Bagshot and the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency, following five previous titles in this cosy mystery series published by Allison and Busby. In this latest addition to a series described by P. D. James as ‘Original and intriguing... a world without people which cat lovers will enter and enjoy’, punk star Patty Sniff, a troupe of Irish dancers and would-be magician Magical Mystery Paws set off on the Summer of Fluff tour – but their set list includes murders alongside the magic and music.

Chris McCrudden’s Battlestar Suburbia (Sep 2018) is the first in a series of comic science fiction adventures, set in a dystopian space future in which humans have become an underclass of cleaners for a society of sentient machines. As AI begins to play an ever-greater role in our own daily lives, this tale of a power-crazed smartphone, a brave breadmaker with an unexpected secret in her proving drawer and a disaster-prone battery top-up salesman called Darren is an adventure for our times.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The third new signing for Farrago is a mathematical mystery series by Jonathan Pinnock, author of Mrs Darcy Vs the Aliens and prize-winning short story collection Dot Dash. In The Truth About Archie and Pye (Sep 2018), Tom Winscombe, a junior PR executive with a severely blotted copybook, finds himself investigating the mysterious deaths of mathematical geniuses the Vavasor twins, in a tale involving the Belorussian mafia, internet conspiracy theorists and a cat called μ.

The opening titles in all three series will be published in ebook, paperback and audio, and promoted through the book trade and direct to the Farrago mailing list of humorous fiction lovers. For more information, contact Abbie Headon on abbie@preludebooks.co.uk or Pete Duncan on pete@preludebooks.co.uk.

Follow @farragobooks on Twitter and see our full range of current titles at www.farragobooks.com.

One of our members, Paula Clarke Bain tells us about this important event

The Society of Indexers (SI) is celebrating the art of book indexing with its second annual National Indexing Day on Thursday 29 March, which this year includes an event for publishers at London’s Foundling Museum. The inaugural National Indexing Day was held in March 2017 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of SI and it featured celebrations online and in the press, including articles by Sam Leith in The Guardian and Dennis Duncan in the Times Literary Supplement (TLS). Indexers, authors and publishers joined in enthusiastically on social media using the hashtag #indexday to salute these ‘unsung heroes of the publishing world’, in Sam Leith’s words.

Byte the Book Member Paula Clarke Bain

The Society of Indexers currently has around 400 members across the UK, working for authors and publishers in more than 100 subjects from accountancy to zoology. SI runs a distance-learning course in indexing and maintains a searchable online directory of its accredited professional indexers. We also have local group meetings and an annual conference, which are enjoyable and helpful for those of us who work at home as freelance book indexers.

For National Indexing Day 2018, we are running a half-day event in London. Aimed at publishers, editors and commissioners of book indexes, this will be held at the Foundling Museum, Brunswick Square, from 12 noon to 4 pm on 29 March. Following a welcome from our honorary president, Sam Leith, a series of presentations will focus on current indexing practices, how to evaluate good and bad indexes, and digital developments regarding embedded and linked indexes for ebooks. There will be an ‘ask the indexers’ Q&A panel session and break times for publishers and indexers to meet and mingle. The event will provide a useful opportunity for indexers and publishers to learn from each other so that together we can create better indexes and give added value to almost any non-fiction book. I will be attending as a session presenter and a member of the Q&A panel. It would be wonderful to see some of my fellow Byte the Book members there.

Tickets and a provisional programme are available now on the SI website at www.indexers.org.uk/news/national-indexing-day-2018. The ticket price of £30 includes all sessions, lunch and afternoon refreshments, and complimentary access to the museum. For further information, you can contact me at marketing@indexers.org.uk or follow SI on Twitter @indexers.

We are looking forward to celebrating National Indexing Day online at #indexday and live in London. Whether you work with indexers, want to learn more about indexing, or just appreciate the value of a good index as a reader, we hope you will join in with us on the day.

Paula Clarke Bain is a freelance book indexer and editor. She is an Advanced Professional Member and current Marketing Director of the Society of Indexers. You can see her website at baindex.org or find her on Twitter @PC_Bain.

Join author Lisa Dickenson's Strong Women Squad for RUN THE WORLD, a night of Beyonce, empowerment and inspiration, on Thursday 15th March, at the Dead Dolls House in Islington. The night begins with a Beyonce Diva Dance workshop and continues with lightning talks and performances from amazing women across industries. In support of Women's Aid. Tickets from £8 (£16 with workshop). Exclusive £5 discount for Byte the Book subscribers - use code BEYONCEBYTE.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/strong-women-squad-presents-run-the-world-a-night-of-beyonce-empowerment-and-inspiration-tickets-43305538030

Our friends at The Literary Consultancy, are running an excellent course to help all those interested in breaking into the world of books. Here are some more details:

The Literary Consultancy is hosting a 2-day course for aspiring publishers over the weekend of April 21-22 at the Free Word Centre, London. 'Get a Job in Publishing', designed by the Book Skills Collective, offers detailed insight into the behind the scenes of publishing, focusing on practical detail and take-away skills to help you understand where best you might fit into the jobs landscape. The course will cover everything from company structure and roles to practical tips on interviews, CVs, and internships. No degree is required to take part and career-changers are welcome.

Guest speakers include Drummond Moir (Publisher, Sceptre), Yassine Belkacemi (Senior Publicity Manager, John Murray), Joanna Seaton (Production Director, Hodder & Stoughton), and New York Times bestseller and award-winning novelist Chris Cleave. Travel and accommodation support is available for those travelling from outside London.

Come prepared both to learn - about the structure of modernday publishing, and important issues facing the industry today - but also to do, with an inspiring Publishing Simulator to round off the weekend.  

TLC is offering 10 places at 10% to Byte the Book subscribers. First come, first served. Use code TLCPubBtB when booking online.

Tickets £150+VAT for the full weekend. Book Now.

We're so excited to have the brand new publishing company, Sapare Books as company members. Here's a bit more about them from their Editorial Director, Amy Durant:

Sapere Books is a new digital and print-on-demand publisher, specialising in historical fiction, crime fiction, thrillers, women’s fiction and popular history.

Sapere launched officially on March 1^st with seven titles, and so far has nearly 100 titles scheduled for publication. Our authors include Vice-Chair of the CWA, Linda Stratmann, award-winner Cora Harrison and acclaimed photographer, Cecil Beaton. For more information on the authors we are working with and the books we have published see https://saperebooks.com.

Sapere Books offers authors 50% of net receipts on all copies sold, including 50% of Amazon borrowing revenue. We place a lot of emphasis on ‘author branding’ and we work with all our authors to create author websites, author Facebook pages, and other social media sites if authors are interested in them. We offer extensive editorial support from the submission stage right through to publication and work with authors’ ideas to create beautiful, eye-catching covers.

We are looking for both new submissions and backlist or out-of-print titles in the genres mentioned above. We accept submissions directly from authors, as well as from agents, and are always keen to hear from new writers. There is more information on the Submissions Page on the website or get in touch with Amy Durant, the editorial director on amy@saperebooks.com for more information.

We're really excited to introduce you all to one our newest company members, Storiad,  Their  founder Ramzi Hajj  tells us a bit more about their Storiad and has a special offer to help our members sell more books.

First some info on Storiad: Storiad is a book tech company based in Pasadena, California. Storiad offers an integrated suite of platforms designed to help authors sell more books. Imagine all the resources of a digital book marketing & publicity department at your fingertips. At a fraction of the cost. That's Storiad. They have some info on their site on how to launch a book marketing campaign using their platform in just 30 minutes, take a look via this link.

Special offer to Byte the Book members: We want authors to succeed. And by succeed we mean sell more books. Storiad is an author-friendly technology company - you know your book, we know technology. Let’s work together. To help Byte the Book members find their success using a Storiad digital book marketing campaign, Storiad will 1) work with BtB authors via Skype to quickly set-up their campaigns and start marketing, 2) promote their campaigns via our various marketing & PR outlets, and 3) offer a full refund if not 100% satisfied after one month. 

If you are interested in taking advantage of this offer please get in touch via:
email at ramzi@storiad.com,
the Storiad website at storiad.com
Twitter at @storiad 
Linkedin at linkedin.com/in/ramzihajj

One of our members, Tot Taylor has just had his book published by Unbound and we were intrigued not only about the book but also his launch event during London Book Fair week, here are some more details:

The Book: The Story of John Nightly by Tot Taylor, launch event.  

Where: Swiss Cottage Library - Atrium, 88 Avenue Road, NW3 3HA

Date: Thursday 12th April

Time: 7pm-9pm 

Tickets: this event is free to attend but places are limited, if you want to come along please email info@johnnightly.com 

About the event: author Tot Taylor  will  read  live excerpts and  play examples at the piano to look at the music featured in his just-published novel The Story of John Nightly  - one of The 'Guardian’s Best Books of 2017’. He'll be asking “Where do songs come from? Are all songs actually the same song?" from a broad musical range from Burt Bacharach and Aretha to Ed Sheeran and Adele. Tot's  960-page novelThe Story of John Nightly  (Unbound) explores both the creative and destructive nature of genius. Moving from 1970 back to AD300 then forward to 2016 the book uses the ‘condition of music’ rather than language to tell its story.

Buy the Book: you can buy his book from Unbound here

Words by Chris Russell, photos by Annie Poe

Back in the impressive surroundings of the House Of St Barnabus chapel, February’s Byte The Book explored how creators in the publishing industry can go about building communities around their content. Digital content creator Lysanne Currie chaired the conversation, with the panel comprising children’s author Piers Torday, YouTuber Leena Normington and Lonely Planet’s Laura Lindsay.

Our panel from left to right: Laura Lindsay, Leena Normington, Lysanne Currie (chair) and Piers Torday

Social media can be an intimidating place for the uninitiated, began Lysanne, so what would the panellists’ advice be to those just getting started? “Don’t try and master all the platforms,” counselled Leena, to open the floor. “Find a channel you can relate to and feel comfortable on, and grow organically from there”. Piers echoed this advice, adding that building an online community isn’t actually that different from building a real-life one. “The tools may be abstract and invisible,” he commented, “but the desire for interaction and connection is the same”. Laura, meanwhile, advised users to “listen” to the various platforms that they’ve joined, and understand the subtle ways in which they differ from each other. “However,” she added, "don’t be schizophrenic. Recognise that each community is different, but keep your brand and personality consistent across the board”. 

Our February frow from right to left: our sponsor, Simon Appleby of Bookswarm  and his guests, Paula Scott, Cynthia Hamilton and Kelly Weekes

The discussion then moved on to the everyday mechanics of building an online community. Once you’ve settled on the social media platforms that best fit your needs, how can you maximise your success? “Remember that, as an author, you are never selling a product,” said Piers. “People want to connect with you as a person; they want to understand why you became an author. They don’t want you telling them that your book is 99p on Amazon every five minutes!”. Laura agreed, adding that, even for a global brand like Lonely Planet, authenticity is key. LP’s central ethos - of giving travellers the opportunity to connect with one another and share their stories - shoots through every campaign they run, large or small. They were one of the first major brands on Twitter, for instance, and launched their feed by retweeting travelling anecdotes from users, rather than by sending out corporate marketing messages.

The panel in action in the beautiful chapel at House of St Barnabas

One major concern for new users is budget. Do you need to invest money in social media to achieve a worthwhile return? “If you’re a company,” said Leena, “then yes, because Facebook’s algorithms mean businesses now need to pay to reach their own customers. But if you’re just a person, and you’re growing your communities organically, you don’t necessarily need money. You just need to be willing to start conversations”. Piers agreed, concluding that “the biggest cost is time”, and Laura underlined the importance of using that time smartly and wisely. Lonely Planet have an enormous output of social media posts, but it’s all scheduled in advance and in such a way that the people consuming the media know what to expect, and when. Consistency, she stressed, is critical.

Excellent networking from all as always in the Garden Room at the House of St Barnabas before and after the talk

To close the discussion, Lysanne asked the panellists to offer one final piece of advice to aspiring content creators. “Be creative,” offered Piers. “Don’t underestimate your audience,” advised Leena. “They can tell when you’re being inauthentic, but when you are authentic, they get very excited!”. Finally, Laura advised creators to “listen as much as you talk”, reminding us all that success on social media is about much more than simply broadcasting your opinions to the world. It’s about being part of a conversation.

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

Byte the Book's Justine Solomons was delighted to be invited to attend the JQ Wingate Literary Prize this year..

Here's their report on the prize.

Michael Frank’s family memoir The Mighty Franks has been named winner of the 2018 JQ Wingate Literary Prize.

His portrait of life with his eccentric LA family was chosen from a short list which also included The Dark Circle by Linda Grant; The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel’s New Others by Mya Guarnieri Jaradat; Small Pieces: A Book of Lamentations by Joanne Limburg; Stranger in a Strange Land: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem by George Prochnik and The Holocaust by Laurence Rees.

The judges described Frank’s winning book as “dazzlingly vivid… hilarious, uncomfortable and tender”.

Now in its 41^st year, the JQ Wingate Literary prize, worth £4,000 and run in association with JW3, is awarded to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general reader.

The judges and the winner! From left to right: Bidisha (judge), Micheal Frank (winner), Amanda Craig (judge), and Toby Lichtig (judge) - unfortunately Maureen wasn't able to attend the award evening due to ill health.

This year’s judging panel comprised TLS fiction and politics editor Toby Lichtig; journalist, broadcaster and Booker Prize Foundation trustee Bidisha; author and critic Amanda Craig and London School of Jewish Studies Teaching Fellow Maureen Kendler.

Chair of judges Toby Lichtig said: “Michael Frank's memoir is a dazzlingly vivid portrait of an eccentric Los Angeles family. Frank’s paternal aunt and maternal uncle were married; his grandmothers shared a flat. The whole clan lived within minutes of one another. Presiding over this claustrophobic set up was the domineering presence of the author’s aunt: a successful and vivacious Hollywood screenwriter who demanded total devotion and availability from those on whom she showered her affections.

“The book is beautifully written, perfectly paced, uncomfortable, tender and surprising. Although it wears its Jewishness lightly, the background culture pulses unmistakably throughout: in the pull of the old world of Mitteleuropa, in the growing pains of American assimilation, in the vexed and complex domestic dynamics at its heart.

“This is both a book about a very specific Jewish family and in some sense about all families. As such it should be read, reread and enjoyed by everyone. “

Speaking in response to winning the prize, Michael Frank said: “I am delighted that The Mighty Franks has been awarded this year's JQ Wingate Prize and am especially honoured that it has been chosen from a group of such distinguished books.

“The fact that the memoir has been read for its implicit, rather than explicit, depiction of Jewish identity seems to affirm my own feeling that there are as many ways to convey Jewishness as there are Jews.  Mine is a very personal portrait of a very particular family, one I set out to draw with as much candour and clarity as I could command.  Jewishness was everywhere and nowhere at the same time, both in the lived experience and the summoning of it from memory.”

This year’s winner was announced at JW3, following a discussion evening, with the 2018 judging panel, looking at the significance of a specifically Jewish prize and the joys, challenges and considerations of judging it. The BBC’s Emily Kasriel chaired the event.

The Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize is the only UK literary prize of its kind and attracts nominations from all over the globe. Previous winners include Amos Oz, Zadie Smith, Oliver Sacks, Otto Dov Kulka and David Grossman.