New Edition. Contemporary Publishing Magazine.

pg 5 last month’s frankfurt book fair had us asking how publishers will break out of the traditional industry way of thinking to better compete.

pg 8 should publishers be rethinking the way they exploit translation rights for their authors? translating in-house may be the way of the future.

pg 18 as publishers remain devoted to the celebrity memoir, does social media sate our desire for dirt enough to pose a threat?

NEW EDITION CONTEMPORARY

PUBLISHING

A Day in the Life What’s your book publicist doing all day to help secure you as much coverage as possible?

Authoright’s Kate Appleton tells all!

MAGAZINE

ISSUE 20, NOVEMBER 2014

NEW EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2014

This Month

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Welcome to the November issue of New Edition!

This month, Authoright’s own UK PR maven Kate Appleton is taking you inside the world of professional publicity to reveal the daily battle she wages with the media to promote her authors. Ed Roberts looks at the cult of celebrity in the book trade. We highlight two very different war stories in this special year of remembrance.

We’re also discussing what you should be looking for in a good freelance editor and whether your non-fiction story will be better served by a memoir or a novelisation of true events – all in this month’s issue.

Thanks for reading!

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Game of History

Foyles Bookshop, Bristol, England foyles.co.uk/Public/Events/Detail.aspx?eventId=2396 Inspired by the thriving popularity of Game of Thrones, a panel of acclaimed authors discusses the rise of the historical fantasy subgenre. Jack Wolf (The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones), Helen Hollick (Sea Witch Voyages), Juliet McKenna (The Tales of Einarinn) and Lucienne Boyce (To the Fair Land) ponder why blending genres has appealed to readers and how to craft a successful story within the genre. The event is free, but Foyles recommends reserving your place by emailing lucienne@lucienneboyce.com

Moby-Dick Marathon

Various, New York City mobydickmarathonnyc.org The second biennial Marathon is a three-day event of non-stop reading of Melville’s classic Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale. Over thirty-six hours and across three venues in Manhattan, more than a hundred volunteer readers will regale crowds with dynamic recitals of the text. Food, drink and merriment will be available at all three locations and listeners are welcomed to stop in at any time for free. Readers include Ophira Eisenberg, Téa Obreht and Touré.

Dinner and Booksigning | Sean Brock: Heritage

Changing Hands Bookstore, Phoenix, AZ changinghands.com/event/brock-nov2014 Just as famous for appearing on PBS’s ‘The Mind of a Chef ’ and Food Network’s ‘Iron Chef America’ as for his three restaurants in Charleston, SC, and Nashville, TN, Chef Sean Brock will be signing copies of his new cookbook Heritage, which includes recipes for Southern favourites and restaurant-quality fare. The signing is general admission and is free with the purchase of Heritage from Changing Hands Bookstore.

Afterward, Brock and Justin Beckett of Southern Rail Restaurant will be preparing a three-course prix fixe menu. Reservations for dinner can be made by calling Southern Rail, and attending the signing does not require dinner reservations.

Miami Book Fair International

Various, Miami, FL miamibookfair.com Now in its thirtieth year, the Miami Book Fair International will open on the evening of November 17 with the popular ‘Evenings With…’ programme, which features readings and discussions each of the fair’s six nights with local and international authors. The Street Fair kicks off November 18, where literature lovers are encouraged to roam the booths of publishers, booksellers and authors alike. The Festival of Authors is often the highlight of the event, with over 350 author readers and strong Spanish-language programming. Children’s Alley features kid-friendly activities and entertainment, including theatrical performances, arts and crafts and storytelling. All events are free and open to the public.

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CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

FREE for ALL Authoright’s Co-Founder Hayley Radford mulls over her week at Frankfurt and realises that publishers may still be missing the point, but that a couple of salty old writers may still offer the greatest insights.

Inevitably after Frankfurt, I collapse into an Apfelwein-induced heap, less on account of the raised cholesterol levels that are a souvenir of any good trip to Germany, but mainly due to the relentless cavalcade of publishers, authors and agents jostling for visibility inside and out of the Buchmesse’s numerous, cavernous halls. Each clamours to be heard, for their brand to be broadcast the loudest, their story to resonate the most profoundly. Business is done, gossip exchanged, new relationships built and above all, a palpable sense that the publishing world is changing beyond all recognition is keenly felt. It’s just not always acknowledged.

“This is my 20th Frankfurt,” “I met my husband at Frankfurt in 1992” and “I’ve been coming to Frankfurt since before reunification” are the kind of platitudes ebbing on the airwaves from Halle 8, the English language hall, and beyond. Frankfurt is at the absolute heart of publishing – it’s both the biggest trade show and the trade’s biggest knees up of the year – which is perhaps why the pervading change in tone feels extra specially obvious here; because everyone is carrying on as though its business as usual. But it isn’t. It’s like being at a party on the eve of the outbreak of war. All very fin de siecle. And you know what I found the most peculiar thing to accept about the Englishlanguage contribution to Frankfurt this year? The generalised politeness of it all.

Whether it was the CEO of HarperCollins, Brian Murray, discussing his firm’s move into the German market and how to manage working in Brazil, or Headline’s Ben Willis giving a presentation on the blogger forum, Bookbridgr, that he’s built for the publisher to enable them to engage with reviewers more efficiently, things and ideas felt timid, apologetic even. Everyone was trying to compete in the new digital, consumer-controlled landscape but with one hand tied behind their backs and the collective enthusiasm of wet sand. The engaging Jason Allen Ashlock from the US-based digital consultancy Frontier Project seemed positively affronted that Hachette, owner of Headline and so in turn, Bookbridgr, didn’t have – naturally – more wildly ambitious aims for the platform. Why couldn’t it get bigger?

Why couldn’t they charge other publishers to use it? Why couldn’t they use it to leverage a more substantial part of the market? Ben Willis’ response was to say that the publisher didn’t think it ought to tread on anyone else’s toes with the project.

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Come again? When a senior digital publisher from HarperCollins said, out loud, that it wasn’t her job to know about eReaders, I wanted to leap on the stage and shake her. Because this kind of parochial thinking, this inability to bury yourself into the mindset of your enemies, your competitors or even just your own audience, in order to know how they operate and how you can learn and adapt in order to stay vital, feels recklessly negligent in today’s rapidly evolving publishing space.

A friend of mine who works as an orthopaedic surgeon says he always wants his patients to be able to walk, run or play tennis even better than before he has treated them. The publishing industry as a whole seems satisfied if everyone in it is limping around listlessly, as long as they’re not using crutches from Seattle. As the always thought-provoking Crystal Mahey-Morgan – formerly of Penguin Random House and now a freelance consultant – said to The Bookseller recently, publishing is just not an industry that’s particularly capable of, or inclined towards, innovation. It’s not in the nature of the vast majority of people who’ve been attracted to work in it. For many of them, the very idea of business seems anathema to their natural proclivities. Profit is ugly. Consumerism is bad. Internet, digital, social media, PR, networking, new markets, big ideas, dissintermediation, democratisation, monopolisation…how do any of these things fit into the minds of people who’ve been allowed to just read?!

Stalking around on the periphery were Apple and Samsung, a pack of hungry wolves straight in from Tech Country, licking their lips. I doubt their eventual assault on the industry will be anything as wellmannered as their traditional publishing counterparts might hope. Publishers seem, for now, intent to look for ‘partnerships’ with tech firms who offer greater and more diverse insight into technologies and markets.

This would seem to me to leave publishers in a rather vulnerable position.

None of this is to patronise publishing and the people who work in it. They are in a bind. For many, many years they’ve done a thoroughly good job and been comfortably successful doing things they believe in whole-heartedly. The game has been great, and it’s been good to them. Now, suddenly they’ve realised that someone else has sneakily moved the goal posts and their own feet have been simultaneously cemented to the floor. All of their effort is being taken up just to break free, let alone chase after – and possibly race past – that goalpost-shifting menace. Amazon weren’t even at Frankfurt. Well, they were, but their representatives tend to function like sleeper agents, assessing the lay of the land remotely, yet somehow managing to call all of the shots. The point here is that they don’t even need to engage with the publishing industry because,

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Frankfurt Book Fair’s Juergen Boos discussed the state of the publishing industry with international bestselling author Pablo Coelho at last month’s fair.

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in the words of the remarkable ‘deep data’ expert Viktor Meyer-Schonberger, they have already won. The tragedy is that there is so much outstanding quality, so many brilliant books and rightly acclaimed champions working in publishing today, that it’s an industry that we must fight to save and protect. But if we’re not to completely waste our energies, it really does need to man up and start fighting back on its own terms.

There were, of course, stand out contributors who evoked confidence, excitement and passion for publishing and the people working in it. MeyerSchonberger electrified Halle 4 with the promise of what might be possible in publishing if we all got high on data and consumer insight the way that Amazon and others do, and applied it to how we operate. Learning to anticipate the tastes and designs of readers and authors and incorporating them into how we service them, which is ultimately what we do; hearing publishers talking about their houses as providing services gave some hope for change. MeyerSchonberger gave a brilliant example of how publishers don’t currently use data and information effectively.

Having been advised by his publisher to spend a particularly long time in one city during a book tour they were arranging for him, the academic wanted a specific reason for such a lay over. The publisher couldn’t give one. Meyer-Schonberger went off and did his own research and discovered, to his horror, that he hadn’t sold a single copy of his latest book in the city his publisher was so adamant to entertain.

When questioned, the publisher, again, couldn’t answer why. Meyer-Schonberger cancelled, made his own plans, and instead focused heavily on the cities where he already had a good following and a related new audience ripe for the picking. He had showed his publisher how best to use data, effectively, creatively and efficiently and ultimately, was rewarded for it.

I was lucky enough to attend an ‘in conversation’ between Frankfurt’s silky smooth Director, Juergen Boos, a man so controversial to some in his celebration and support of outsider voices and encouraging new markets to attend Frankfurt, that he is constantly followed by a security detail, and the legendary Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. Boos prefaced Frankfurt 2014 as leading a “new pioneering age in international publishing,” which demonstrates just how keen he and his ilk are to drive change and support innovation whilst keeping what publishing does best in tact. The two men each individually represented publishing new and old. Coelho has tasted all the fruits which successful publishing has to offer; he enjoys a secure, convivial rapport with his literary agent, his publisher and the myriad professionals who have helped him to create and to sell his books. He clearly craves their affection, their validation and the attention of his readers. He deserves all of these things

too, as do thousands of writers who do without such cosseting.

Prone as I am to dismiss authors like Coelho simply because their publishing lives have been so rarified, so precious, and increasingly the preserve of a dwindling handful of writers, that I anticipated he’d have a pretty distant view as to the reality of the trade today, and even less of an understanding of what might lie in wait for us tomorrow. But I was wrong. Coelho spoke candidly of how in the 1990s he was struggling to get his books published in Russia, despite knowing there was a market for them. Endless negotiations for translation rights for Veronicka Decides To Die with publishers ended in vain, despite his offers to support the book in any way he could.

Then, through his own research into the tentative Russian internet, he discovered a translated version of one of his books, freely available on a website. In terms of copyright, most authors would have been horrified; Coelho saw it as an opportunity to reach the market he’d been trying to access, from within. So he advertised the pirated copy on his own website, driving as much traffic as he could towards this illegitimate source. His publishers thought he was mad, but finally, after years of pushing and using the high download figures of his books as a justification that he should be sold in Russia, he secured a translation deal and the book was published legitimately. His publishers had felt all along that the book wouldn’t sell because a free illegal copy was already available. But within a matter of weeks, Coelho had sold 100,000 copies. Russian readers, so impressed by his advocacy of their ability to read his work, even at personal cost at the time, bought the official version in their droves. He’s sold phenomenally in Russia ever since.

Understanding how the market is evolving, anticipating change before it happens and learning not to be afraid to do the opposite of what’s expected of you, charging outside of your comfort zone in order to gain new perspectives, will be critical in Publishing 2.0. Whether the industry has enough time left to research, revise and renew its methods before the new world order has been established, remains to be seen. But one thing seems certain to me; we need to stop thinking like publishers.

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The Frankfurt Book Fair is all about translation rights – thousands of publishers and agents speaking hundreds of languages getting together to buy and sell manuscripts.

Last month the fair was abuzz with the idea that maybe instead of parting with these rights, publishers should keep them closer to home. Jordan Koluch weighs the pros and cons of exploiting translation rights in-house.

It’s interesting to me how good ideas grow – one person says something deemed revolutionary, another person repeats it, and suddenly, everyone is asking themselves, ‘How didn’t we think of this sooner?’ During the flurry of press surrounding the Frankfurt Book Fair, I read a news story that felt very much to me like the bud of a good idea. At the Frankfurt 2014 International Rights Directors Meeting, Richard Charkin, Executive Director of Bloomsbury Publishing (and incoming President of the International Publishers Association) said something about the future of publishing that stirred the room: “I would cease selling English-language translations because it’s more trouble than it’s worth; I would offer all my relevant authors English-language publication from the onset.”

What struck me most about this was that I’d heard it before, in a slightly different context – namely, the BEA 2014 panel called Discoverability: Finding Readers for Translated Works with Digital Marketing Innovations. Javier Celaya, the CEO of dosdoce.com, said of the US book market, “If your books do well in English, why sell translation rights? Translate to Spanish and sell through US channels.” Citing the fact that Spanish is the second most-used

language in the United States, Celaya posited that English-language publishers could use their existing distribution channels to reach a whole new market at home.

Traditionally, translation rights have been subsidiary, for selling to houses that specialise in translation. But is what Charkin and Celaya are suggesting – exploiting translation rights – the wave of the future?

When an English-language publisher buys a manuscript, they usually buy either world English rights (the rights to sell the book in English anywhere in the world) or English rights by territory (US, Commonwealth [which includes the UK, Canada and Australia], or those countries individually). This is done, from the agent’s perspective, because the author is more likely to make more money from several publishers over several countries and languages than from one publisher buying exclusive world rights. From the publisher’s perspective, while there may be revenue in buying world rights and selling off the translation rights to other publishers, it is often not worth the risk with a debut author, whose English sales numbers may not be impressive enough to garner overseas deals.

Translation itself is also quite expensive.

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NEW EDITION, NOVEMBER 2014

Do both publishers and authors benefit when publishers exploit translation rights rather than selling them? With an increased ease in distributing globally, can publishers overcome the logistical hurdles of translation?

Not only are translators at least bilingual, but they must read and write in both languages.

They must also have the skill to translate not only words but the semantics of an author’s sentiment, often substituting just one word in one language for whole phrases of another language. That sort of skill doesn’t come cheap.

Additionally, it’s quite difficult for an editor to check a translator’s work, since that editor likely only reads in their native language. Thus, the trust between an editor and translator is an invaluable asset that comes based on personal recommendation or years of working together.

Most publishing houses are not currently set up to deal with these considerations.

Potentially all of these problems could be solved by an English-language publisher absorbing a smaller translation-focused house.

The initial investment would be steep, but if the likes of Penguin Random House acquired a Europa Editions, they would be acquiring the expertise of a team of people who do translation work every day. The translation house would come with translator contacts and rapport.

It would come with the understanding of building translation cost into the P&L. And then maybe acquiring world rights (or world English/Spanish rights, or even US rights in all languages) would seem like less of a financial risk.

Another hurdle is distribution. As Celaya mentions, the US is a particular case because the sheer number of native Spanish speakers is a potentially profitable market that most publishers leave untapped. US publishers already have deep-rooted distribution networks across the country to give them easy access to this market. But in Charkin’s example, a German publisher wishing to exploit Englishlanguage rights for their titles would either need to establish new US and UK distribution channels or partner with publishers already

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distributing in those territories. That’s not to say there is no English market in Germany; English-language titles are often the secondbestselling titles in European markets, but by orders of magnitude less than the native language.

This is quickly becoming inconsequential, however, due to the success of eBooks. Kobo has been at the forefront of international eBook distribution for authors, and even self published authors have translated their books and moved into several different language markets as of late. Joanna Penn is one such author who is very vocal about her success in German, Spanish and Italian, among others.

For a large publishing house with contacts established within e-tailers, it would be easy enough to upload a translated edition of the book.

Then comes the question of marketing. For Celaya’s example of different language markets within the US, it would merely be a matter of translating materials you’ve already created and targeting domestic press in that language. (How many people in the PR department of Penguin Random House speak Spanish? Again, it’s the second most-spoken language in the country.)

For Charkin’s example of publishers breaking into foreign territories, it may be worthwhile to have a domestic partner in each country.

Though it may just be an issue of tapping resources the publisher doesn’t know they have – who in the PR department speaks English?

Spanish? French? You never know until you ask.

Maybe this idea has a way to go before it reaches the point of common knowledge.

But the potential is interesting. After all, a publishing house’s goal is and has always been to reach more readers with every single title.

And with an economy that is more global than ever before, why should we let language be a barrier to that goal?

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

A Day in the Life Kate Appleton, an Authoright’s PR and marketing executive, shares her inside scoop on how book publicity works and why the unknown world of journalists and reviewers shouldn’t be scary at all when you have a professional on your side.

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NEW EDITION, NOVEMBER 2014

A regular working day for a PR professional is pretty systematic and broken up into straightforward time segments (do not judge me; I am organised). During my commute to work I often catch up on the day’s news headlines and review social media for any useful or opportune stories to latch onto for any one of my authors.

On arrival at the office I check and respond to my emails and shriek in joy if someone has responded to my carefully structured pitch, before swiftly deleting Google updates. After which, from around 10.30am until mid-afternoon, I actively contact various journalists via email, phone and social media to pitch a story and secure coverage for each of my authors. I do my pitching at this specific time because it is the optimum opportunity to catch journalists on their downtime before deadlines loom. The afternoon is then occupied by scheduled marketing meetings, the writing of press releases and pitches to go out the following day, and the generation of well-researched media lists.

Working with the media is complicated. And that’s an understatement.

As a book publicist, I’ve gained some extremely useful insight into the inner workings of newsrooms and some top tips on how to contact the media and obtain positive results. However, I’m also aware of the glaring and rife inconsistencies.

My role is often a bit like learning a foreign language – you happily learn the endings to ‘er’ verbs and then your teacher gleefully presents you with a wad of paper listing the exceptions to that rule. So I reiterate: it’s complicated.

Over the course of my day, the most common questions I receive from my authors are: • What’s happening?

• Is [insert media or journalist] still interested in my story?

• When will the coverage be published?

All of which are extremely understandable and valid questions and ones which your publicist is (or should be) endeavouring to answer on your behalf.

But sometimes even the best PR professionals are hit with a proverbial wall of silence from journalists, and patience on all sides is key. Here are a few things to understand about what your publicist is up against: Nature of news: Journalists – whoever they write for – receive

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over 300 emails a day on average. The majority of these are from PR executives trying to pitch stories on behalf of their clients. That’s competition number one. Add to the mix: breaking news, seasonal trends and topical issues. On any given day, many journalists will be writing about a mix of these things.

Now brace yourself, as this is going to sound unduly harsh. A journalist does not care about you.

Sorry, don’t shoot the messenger. If it helps, they don’t care about me either; journalists want a story, one which is suited to the publication they write for and one which their readers will enjoy. Therefore, sometimes what you’re offering might just not be suited to them. But when this is the case, they often won’t tell the publicist; they just won’t respond, full stop. Other times, the story needs to be discussed with the editorial or features teams, which takes a few days of back and forth, reworking an angle and providing more information. Then, the holy grail, when there will be a straightforward “Yes” and everything will move quickly. So although it’s understandable to ask “What’s happening?”, it’s often more important to leave matters to your publicist and trust that they will be in touch with details of any interest. I promise we’re not hiding anything!

Securing the right angle: In order to optimise the opportunity for publicity, you need to have an open and honest relationship with your publicist in which you divulge all potential angles for publicity. I cannot stress enough the importance of squeezing out every last angle or storyline for each and every client and exhausting all avenues in which to pursue for coverage. On average 25,000 books are published each week in the UK and US alone, so book reviews are often hard to secure, and – especially with bloggers – coverage can take upwards of six months to appear. Therefore, your publicist needs the equivalent of your CV in order to cast the net far and wide and establish threads, however tenuous, across all media. Because regardless of how strong a story is, it needs to cut though the masses and reveal itself like a beacon of light to journalists. Are you a third-degree black belt? Do you garden in your free time? Have you fostered more than twenty stray kittens in search of homes? No angle is too obscure or unrelated to your book. And even though you may think “What about my book?”, once an

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

interview or feature is secured, your publicist can guide you on how to turn it to your own advantage and also ensure your book is credited within any piece of publicity. Plus, the more angles there are to work with, usually the greater the longevity of a publicity campaign, because once a story has been covered, other journalists are unlikely to repeat the coverage.

Sidelined by a deadline: Unless your story is time sensitive or an exclusive, do not expect coverage to be immediate, especially if it’s in print. (Digital formats, of course, have a speedier turnover of content.) It should be noted that even if a journalist conducts an interview with an author and everything is moving on swimmingly, it can still hit a bump for many varied reasons. Royal babies can be announced, Scotland can be in the grip of a referendum or David Beckham might have launched another line of male underwear. Or, more annoyingly, the editor of the publication might for no particular reason take a dislike to the story and cancel its appearance. The journalist in question might not be permitted to communicate all the detail back to your publicist, which is as frustrating for us as it is for the author.

But too much inquiry from us can risk damaging media relations, so we have to strike a fine balance between being aggressive and learning to interpret media signals deftly. It’s the nature of the beast. As a publicist I continually follow up for confirmed publication dates, links, and PDF or print copies of any coverage for each client and duly inform them of the details and feedback I receive.

And at Authoright we practise what we preach because, overall, over 95% of our authors receive publicity coverage for their book, ranging from book reviews on independent blogs to an exclusive splash in the Daily Mail, with its 175 million monthly readers. The outlook is positive for all authors, but managing expectations is a publicist priority and when we do not have an immediate answer it isn’t because we’re hiding Authoright’s Kate Appleton’s authors have been anything. It’s that we are also playing the patience featured on ITV’s This Morning, the Mail Online, game with you!

REVEAL and BBC Radio 4, among others.

Kate Appleton can be found tweeting @AuthorightUKPR and @kateapple87

Previous page: Kate (right) with author Gabriella Gillespie on the set of ITV’s This Morning promoting Gillespie’s Amazon-bestselling memoir A Father’s Betrayal.

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From the Editor’s Desk All authors are at least aware of what having their manuscript edited means, whether they have experience with writing groups, beta readers or editing professionals. That said, the importance of a good edit – and the contrast between the different levels of the process – can often be overlooked. Chris Sansom explains why each step of the editorial process is one step toward making your book the best it can be.

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Thanks to the proliferation of eBooks and print-ondemand, anyone with an internet connection and computer can publish their books free of charge.

But with this freedom of publication has come a critical lowering of standards. A beautiful cover, slick marketing and a strong social media presence can be enough to raise the first-time author’s profile, driving sales for a book. But if the reader opens said book to find a mess of errors, confusing tenses and a story with no cohesion, the reviews are likely to tell the real story, and it will not be pretty.

Though oft overlooked as an important element of writing your first book, an edit is absolutely fundamental, but it can be just as confusing as it is important. Many working in self publishing will note that there are a few distinct types of authors when it comes to the understanding of an edit. There’s the author who is absolutely adamant their work is error-free, perhaps because they’re an English teacher, and this inherently means that they have an unfaltering grasp of the language.

They can’t possibly make ridiculous grammatical errors, can they? The issue here, of course, is that despite even the best spell-checker and innumerable re-reads, the brain eventually starts reading the words it expects to be there, not necessarily what’s actually on the page. There are still likely to be mistakes in the text, whether the author sees them or not.

Other authors can be harder to convince, because their “friend Jeff has taken a look at the book, and he did Sociology at university with a literature module”.

Indeed, two pairs of eyes are better than one, but a cursory proofreading by a friend really only serves as an ego padding, and the fact remains that people are less likely to do a good job of something if they’re not doing it for a living. Editors are specially trained not only in grammar and mechanics, but most importantly, also in patience and attention-to-detail. These are invaluable skills when it comes to ensuring such things as continuity in a story, which is just as important to a manuscript as correct spelling.

Then there are those authors who are very open to having their work edited but just don’t know where to start. Even the most professionally produced book can contain anomalies, and it isn’t uncommon to open even a traditionally published hundredth edition of a literary classic and then find one or two hiccups on reading through. Human nature, if you will. A good proofreader is there to spot such errors, but a wider edit should always be the first port of call for new authors.

A structural edit refers to a very in-depth readthrough of a manuscript, and in some cases may be done on a story not necessarily deemed ‘complete’. This integral editing process looks at the wider, overarching narrative of the story (or argument, in the case of nonfiction), and the editor makes suggestions that could well change the direction of the manuscript completely.

As with most things in the world of self publishing, these editorial suggestions are just that, suggestions – and what an author chooses to do with these ideas is up to them. But ignore these suggestions at your peril, for

many editors specialising in this field often have years or even decades of experience, and after reading a thousand books or more, their eye for what makes a good yarn great is more than well informed. A good structural editor will never seek to change the author’s vision, but to make sure that vision shines through for the reader.

So even suggestions to cut whole chapters or more are always in the service of helping the author say what they want to say.

After a structural review that the author and the editor agree represents the best possible story (or argument structure, in the case of a non-fiction book), it’s advisable for you to consider a copy edit. The manuscript is approached in this way when it is far closer to completion than might be the case with the aforementioned edit. The editor will look at sentence structure, and address chapter length and other global issues, such as tense, to ensure that your book flows correctly. This edit will also look at the more minute details, and should iron out any grammatical errors, glaring or otherwise.

It’s important to note that if you as the author sign up for only one of these edits as part of a service or as a standalone agreement for your book, it will often be read only once by the editor. Each individual reading and subsequent changes to your work are done on a ‘one and done’ basis, so it’s often a good idea to have either a structural or a copy edit teamed with a final proofread. Some authors assume that an edit involves a collaborative, back and forth narrative with their respective editor, and though not completely out of the question, this is far more expensive, and thus is rarely the opted-for approach. With any edit that has prompted large scale changes to the manuscript, it’s a good idea to consider one last sweep-through by a professional.

That final look is a proofread. This step should always be done on what the author considers to be the finished version of a book. The proofreader will comb through the manuscript looking for any outstanding grammatical or mechanical errors. While it’s advisable that the author always do a final read-through of the proofreader’s work, any additions by the author after the point of proofreading stand the risk of introducing errors to the text.

Though it’s certainly easy to publish a book, it can become very troublesome should you need to revisit a finished book if it’s already been fully distributed, and uploading a fully edited version of your book in the first place is by far the best way to avoid unfavourable reviews prompted by minor errors.

The editorial process boils down to the significant fact that engaging a professional to implement one or more of the above techniques will give your story the best chance of shining, and drastically reduce the chance of your labour of love bombing due to small errors. As a result, understanding the value of the editorial element represents another feather in the cap for a thoughtful, entrepreneurial, self published author.

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NEW EDITION, NOVEMBER 2014

War Stories

War has always served as a fertile landscape for writers and poets, none more so than the two World Wars of the twentieth century. Diana Rissetto reviews two new historical fiction novels written from very different perspectives - one from the wretched trenches of the Western front during the First World War, the other from an annexed Poland in the grip of World War II. 16

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I’ve been fortunate to work with two books in recent months, both of which afford terrific insight into the world at war, examining the international conflict through the lives of individuals and their very personal experiences.

What Passing Bells by Julian Moss, a British author now living in California, follows Dai Bowen, a young Welsh banker who joins the army thinking that the Great War will be over before he is called to fight – but he soon finds himself in the trenches, where he comes face to face with a young Austrian soldier named Adolf Hitler. But the young recruit can’t know what we do now about the course of world history, and Bowen’s interactions with young Adolf only hint at the horror yet to come. What Passing Bells is not just a compelling and dramatic story of a restless young man with World War I as a backdrop, but also a heart wrenching view of a war that transcends generations.

When readers first meet Dai Bowen, he is an innocent young man, unaffected by the outside world, but when peer pressure and economics drive him to join the army he soon discovers the horrors of war and just how brutal the world can be. What Passing Bells skilfully weaves in the young Hitler’s perspective of the conflict and the world at large, providing readers with insight into his uneasy relationship with his fellow soldiers in the List Regiment.

Fast forward and we meet Ian Darsky, the flawed hero of Michael Rudnicki’s Darsky’s Resistance. When Rudnicki uncovered the secret diaries of his grandfather, his family were rocked by the revelations within.

Throughout the Second World War, the young Polish teacher had served his country as an undercover agent for the resistance; his speciality was underground court-order executions. This extraordinary history of his grandfather inspired Rudnicki to research what might have motivated his grandfather’s actions and his journey during World War II, using his research as a canvas for what might have been. The result is a seductive blend of intrigue, romance and dark humour, combined with a rousing and unflinching depiction of the realities of life as a spy in the grip of war. Rudnicki’s first novel is an excellent tribute, not only to his idiosyncratic grandfather, but to the bravery, the resilience and the legacy of Poland and its people. Rudnicki is an ambassador for his beloved Poland, and with Darsky’s Resistance pays tribute to its complicated history and continued relevance to world history.

Two very different books, their narratives inspired by wars separated by a generation, Moss and Rudnicki are united in their desire to preserve and to honour the lives of those who endured the unimaginable cost of conflict.

What Passing Bells by Julian Moss (published by Camilian Publishing, RRP £13.50 paperback, £3.50 eBook) and Darsky’s Resistance by Michael Rudnicki (published by Hoxton Books, RRP £6.99 paperback, £1.99 eBook) are available online at retailers including amazon.com and can be ordered from all good bookstores.

Find Julian online at julianmoss.com. Find Michael Rudnicki online at darskylegacy.com and on Twitter @darskylegacy

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Has social media allowed us to know too much about our favourite celebrities? Or is there still a vibrant market for the celebrity autobiography?

Ed Roberts explores how much is too much in the tell-alls of the rich and famous.

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Whether it be at Barnes & Noble in the mall, while you are browsing Amazon online, your local Costco or Walmart or even just scrolling through social media, you cannot avoid the celebrity autobiography. It seems like every week a new tell-all memoir from a musician, movie star, sports personality or chef is hitting the shelves and everyone is calling it an absolute mustread. It’s an inexplicable cultural addiction – the desire to know the intimate details of a life that is not our own but we wish could be.

That’s why these autobiographies tend to be front and centre when account managers in publishing houses are presenting their new seasonal titles to distributers, wholesalers and booksellers alike.

Celebrity autobiographies tend to become instant bestsellers; even if the author isn’t a great writer, their stardom is enough to draw in readers. (Though numerous talented ghostwriters often miss out on all the glory they deserve in this regard.) And as the industry sees it, books that go flying off the shelves are the most valuable books of all.

Some of the most successful books in the genre of late have been autobiographies of sports stars – see sales numbers for Alex Ferguson’s My Autobiography,

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which garnered a rumoured £2 million advance and sold over 115,000 copies in the first week. Often more elusive than their actor or pop star brethren, sports personalities have readers jumping at the chance to follow into the proverbial changing room. One star many people are waiting to hear from is the famously mute Derek Jeter, who – after a twenty-season career with the New York Yankees – retired last month.

His fans have been hoping that leaving professional baseball would open Jeter up to a tell-all, and they may not have to wait as long as they thought. On October 1, Jeter launched The Players’ Tribune, a website curated

by Jeter and written and edited by some of the biggest names in sports, sharing their personal stories for the whole internet to see.

If the draw of celebrity autobiographies is the knowing of the unknowable about someone famous, what’s left to find out in this day and age? Before the dawn of social media, there were only tabloids and word of mouth, which made the autobiographies that much more marketable – “You may think you know Britney Spears in People but you don’t know her like this!” Now? Celebrities are all over social media, sharing their most intimate thoughts with you at

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

Cult of Celebrity The banner for Derek Jeter’s inaugeral essay for The Players’ Tribune. The site is just another of the many ways for famous faces to share their intimate thoughts with fans.

a moment’s notice. Lena Dunham is eating cereal?

One Direction are flying from Dublin to Miami with legions of adoring fans in tow? You don’t need to buy a book to know about that any more.

The beauty of the internet is that it makes our idols feel immediate to us; we can share in their lives via Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. Even in instances where a celebrity’s PR team may be responsible for their social media, it still feels intimate to be part of the inner circle. But does that make the autobiography lose its edge? Do we still crave the same sort of intimacy from a book if we get the same information – if not more – for free on our computer and iPhone screens?

The answer seems to be yes. Mindy Kaling, Chelsea Handler and, yes, even the fellows of One Direction have had impressive success with autobiographies in the past few years, despite having active social media presences. Any bookseller will tell you that those titles are considered sure bets, which is arguably why Kim Kardashian can make a book of photos she’s already posted on Instagram and expect every one of her loyal fans to pay for content they’ve already seen. Perhaps in the culture of oversharing, you can never share too

much – there will always be fans who want to know more and will cull those pages for any titbit they hadn’t yet discovered through other channels.

Perhaps instead of being a distraction from a potential memoir, social media actually helps celebrities publicise their eventual books. Russell Brand’s Twitter feed really just entices readers to pick up a new copy of his latest publication: If you like what you see here, wait until you see what’s in my book.

As we’ve seen with the recent blog-to-book craze, consumers have a demonstrable desire to own physical copies of content that would otherwise be lost to time; while the internet is ephemeral, print lasts forever.

And if bestseller lists are any indication, this trend isn’t going away any time soon.

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Fact or

Fiction?

Do you have a personal story that’s just waiting to be told? But are you afraid that writing a memoir would be too personal? Diana Rissetto explains why working up the courage to tell the true story is often the best choice, especially from a publicity perspective.

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

W When The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger was published in 2003, everybody knew that the villainous boss was based on Anna Wintour, the longtime editor of Vogue.

It was a thinly veiled expose, ending with the exasperated, abused and overworked young assistant yelling, “Eff you!” to her boss, storming out and embarking on a writing career on her own. The movie adaptation would change that ending, humanising the boss as she helped the protagonist with a rave reference. Wintour actually attended the movie premiere and was “very very cordial” to Meryl Streep, who portrayed her alter ego.

Had this novel not had such a juicy backstory (the fictionalisation was so thinly veiled that everyone assumed they knew the real story), it likely never would have become the bestseller and hit movie that it was. In Weisberger’s case, the “based on a true story” quality was an asset, but had she written the book as non-fiction, she would have been met with a lawsuit (and what 27-year-old can really afford to take down Vogue?). Taking the route she did allowed her the best of both worlds: exposing the true nature of being an underling at one of the most prestigious publications in fashion while giving herself the ability to deny, deny, deny.

So when an unknown author is writing about personal matters, is it more beneficial for them to be upfront and say it’s all true, or to fictionalise their experiences like Weisberger did?

I have worked with authors who have written fictionalised versions of certain periods of their lives.

Often they write under pen names and are very clear that their books are reinterpretations of real-life events. In many of these cases, I feel that the books would have been better received by the media and readers if they had been straight memoirs. On the whole, authors who talk freely about their experiences first-hand, presenting journalists with interview opportunities, make for more engaging media stories.

Barring any violation of the law, a willingness to share

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first-hand experiences with an audience is more engaging than covering those experiences in a mask of fiction.

Fictionalisation can also be harder on the author than one might assume. Just because readers don’t know who’s who in the book doesn’t mean the author is equally removed.

So when reviews come out for fictionalised memoirs in which the reviewer criticises the narrator, authors often become deeply insulted, feeling personally attacked. But the reviewer has no way of knowing that a fictional narrator is actually the author in disguise and will likely not act with the same tact they would apply to a memoir.

When the story is simply novelised, the journalist can easily write off the story as being a figment of somebody’s imagination.

But when it is presented as a memoir full of “you just cannot make this stuff up (and I didn’t)” type stories, journalists and readers alike tend to be much more interested in the book and in the author. “This all actually

In The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger fictionalizes her time at Vogue under Anna Wintour. Fictionalizing her memoir helped her maintain her reputation and avoid legal troubles, but this is one of the few cases in which it’s more effective to write a novel than a work of nonfiction.

“This all actually happened to me” is much more intriguing than “I made this up.” happened to me” is much more intriguing than “I made this up”.

Many writers also feel more comfortable writing a story as non-fiction. Fiction can be overwhelming to some writers! While many do love the aspect of “playing God” as a writer, others enjoy sticking with the facts.

If you have a sharp memory and have kept detailed journals through the years, a nonfiction book just might already be in you, begging to be told.

And if you’re looking for legions of adoring fans, writing in memoir form also allows the writer to really connect with their audiences in a way that a fiction novel never could. So many writers today have become well-known and beloved through books of personal essays. Jen Lancaster has written many bestsellers about her life – struggles with unemployment, weight and relationships. Beloved playwright Wendy Wasserstein wrote plays hugely inspired by her own life, taking verbatim

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conversations she had had and being very open about her inspirations. She also released two books of very personal essays, which gave her the chance to connect with her fans as a person instead of just a thinly veiled character in a play. I feel that was a perfect approach.

There is, however, a notable exception to this rule.

If an author is writing about a real person in their life, it may be most diplomatic – and healthiest for the relationship – to either fictionalise events or leave that person and their plot points out entirely. The author must weigh the value of the relationship against its importance to the story.

As for me, I do fully admit to writing my own Devil Wears Prada-type play based on my own office experiences several years ago. I know that when the play is produced, everybody in the New York City theatre community will know exactly who it’s about… and I’m really looking forward to all the buzz and controversy. And for the shot of the subject’s face when I accept the Tony.

Extra! Extra!

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authoright.com

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014

50p

Here at Authoright, we’re at the forefront of the publishing industry, which means we need to be abreast of all the daily developments. But that doesn’t mean we’re always so serious; sometimes we check up on the fun stuff, too. Here are some of the places we look for our publishing news; time to brush up!

Justin

If you haven’t heard of Book Riot yet, you’re definitely missing out. In the short six months since I first discovered them, they’ve become my goto source for virtually all things bookish. Think of BuzzFeed, but filter out the excessive trash and tripe.

Then toss in some brilliant visuals and an easy-to-

navigate user interface, and the end result is Book Riot. What’s more, they strike a perfect balance between fluffy nerd fare and thoughtful articles on the industry, so you don’t have to be embarrassed about the inordinate amounts of time that you’re bound to spend on the site.

Do yourself a favour and

check it out as soon as you possibly can! You won’t regret it.

Visit bookriot.com and Twitter @BookRiot

Kate

Ed I get all of my book news from the wonderful world of Twitter. Being the sports fanatic that I am, I joined Twitter many years ago to follow my favourite sports stars. Eventually, every

My daily commute to work consists of reading book-related headlines direct from the social medium that is Twitter (I am a sitting cliché but I don’t care). It’s convenient and arms me with the knowledge of what’s trending for the day and what coverage has come out for my authors. other industry followed and I made sure to follow all relevant publishing industry insiders: publishers and service providers, authors, and journalists and commentators. The great thing about Twitter is the up-to-the-minute updates throughout the day. You’ll be sure to get a stream of

news on the book world within seconds. If you are looking for something very specific, you can just enter the term into the search bar or use the appropriate hashtag and everything is right there for the reading.

Visit twitter.com and, ironically, @Twitter

Jordan

I am admittedly (unabashedly, really) a BuzzFeed addict. All of the criticisms people lob against them are all of the reasons I love them – clickbait headlines, vapid subject matter, GIFs. I’m a sucker for GIFs. BuzzFeed Books is all of these things. But under the keen editorial eye of Isaac Fitzgerald (coowner of The Rumpus and formerly of McSweeney’s), the site has begun doing in-depth author interviews and covering breaking book news. It embraces genre, cult classics and fandoms of all kinds. And who doesn’t love a good list of literary couples’ costumes? So when something happens in the book world, I want to learn about it from BuzzFeed.

In list form. With an “OMG Did You Know…?” headline. And GIFs.

Visit buzzfeed.com and Twitter @BuzzFeedBooks

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PUBLISHING NOVEMBER

MAGAZINE

2014