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Oh yes!
posted by Emma on 06 Jul 2007
The latest prints of Monster Island and the new Monster Nation have arrived! Blood- (well, foil-) splattered wonders!
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Friday brought to you in pictures
posted by Emma on 06 Jul 2007
Snowbooks makes history! First book deal done in Second Life. We are delighted to welcome Sarah Stovell to the Snowbooks clan whose first novel Mothernight we'll publish in March 2008. It's a corker.
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Bailing out
posted by Rob on 05 Jul 2007
Click to enlarge
I just bought the thing in the picture. Well, the third that's nearest the camera, at any rate.
My old flat was made of chipboard and plasterboard and fiberboard and glue, and five years ago it was a bit of derelict ground. My new house has stone walls that are two feet thick and was built a couple of hundred years ago. Something about spending several hundred thousand pounds seems to require a bit of permanence, at least to my way of thinking.
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E4Books presentation
posted by Emma on 05 Jul 2007
So I have just done a turn at the London E4Books seminar doodad and have told everyone there to look at this blog for extras, goodies and whatnot. Read on for lots of links!
//update// you might have to download the latest Adobe reader to read the pdf linked to in this post. It's worth it!//
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Words cannot convey...
posted by Emma on 04 Jul 2007
...the horror, shock, sadness and derision I feel upon hearing that Catherine Tate is going to be the new Companion. I utterly give up. Russell T Davies, you are *ruining* Doctor Who and it's not yours to ruin. It's going to be dire. I am so mad.
Mind you, Alan Johnston was released. What a wonderful piece of news.
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Silver service
posted by Emma on 04 Jul 2007
Hey hey, we got a medal! Sort of. It means that we are Really Quite Good at getting our bibliographic data to the right people on time. We are not Ever So Good Indeed (a Gold) because I can't help changing things from time to time as the market requires - things like the occasional publication date and so forth. Still, pretty good going.
I like prizes.
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Tiny morsels of news
posted by Rob on 03 Jul 2007
Some bits and pieces:
- I just helped put my old sofa into a van. It's on its way to the Snowbooks office. For Em to sit on while she reads. For guests to relax on. For Em's cats to snooze upon if she ever brings them into work
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Not so much politics as just a rant: the Libby pardon: updated
posted by Rob on 03 Jul 2007
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Where it all began...
posted by Rob on 02 Jul 2007
I'm trying to remember back to my very first school history lessons, when I was eleven. I'm trying to recall the first event in history as far as my profoundly-English teachers were concerned. I'm pretty sure it was 1066, The Norman Conquest. Once we'd covered that, I vaguely remember trying to memorise a few features of the feudal system and being confused as to why the serfs agreed to it. Then there was something called the Corn Laws, which were later repealed. I also remember how important it was to choose the right form of crop rotation, but had no idea what end products such crops might produce. Was flax anything to do with ajax or weetabix? Was barley used for something other than the making of barley sugars?
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If you were me
posted by Emma on 01 Jul 2007
I've been wondering something. If you were me, with this lovely little publisher all set up and able to do whatever the hell we like, what would you do?
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Fopp
posted by Emma on 30 Jun 2007
I really hope that after 25 years (it will be 2028 and I'll be 54) Snowbooks doesn't end like this. What a terrible shame.
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Can't stop the edit
posted by Rob on 30 Jun 2007
You know when you're chatting to a group of people and you confess to some problem you thought was pretty common and then everyone looks at you blankly and you realise it's just you? You all know that feeling, right? No? Just me then.
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The Sound of DRMs
posted by Rob on 29 Jun 2007
It's a fraught and vexéd business: DRMs, IP and copyright. I find the idea of protecting creative work for a preposterous 75 years after the author's death to be, um, preposterous. As sharp-minded cynics have pointed out, every time Disney's earliest works are about go out of copyright, the term of protection is extended - which is why the U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act is also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Does anyone really think that work done in 1923 should still be copyrighted until 2023? I thought this sort of thing was about incentives for investment, making sure people had a chance to profit from their work; but will people really stop creating fine new things if they can't be sure that their great-grandchildren will be able to live off the royalties? I doubt it. I think the opposite situation is more likely: if you really thought that three generations down the line your family would still be sponging off what you do now, you'd be too depressed to invent anything. I mean, isn't there something quite sad about the idea that singing Happy Birthday in public requires that a fee be paid, and even though the copyright is of a 1935 arrangement of a 1893 song, it will be 2030 before it can be sung for free. That, as they say in legal circles, is utter pants.
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Amendment
posted by Emma on 28 Jun 2007
OK, so the mysterious 'Sebastian' bent my blog-ear over the fact that our revised submission guidelines said that we would rather like to see full manuscripts for non-fiction as well as fiction. Never say I don't listen to my...er, suppliers. Presto, our requirements are changed as you'll see if you visit the authors page!
Thanks for taking the time, Sebastian.
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So proud
posted by Emma on 28 Jun 2007
"Now that I've finished it I'm speechless and bereft".
Needle in the Blood has a five star review from Dovegreyreader herself! Read it here. Super duper.
(Will someone please buy a copy from my new Google checkout thing? It took ages to set up and I don't have a single order yet!)
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The trick to liking ex-P.M. Blair
posted by Rob on 28 Jun 2007
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New things
posted by Emma on 27 Jun 2007
a trumpet
I don't like to blow my own trumpet (such a lie - of course I do) but not only have I found the time to be up to date with Every Single Last Thing, I have also revamped the website. ('Up to date', by the way, does not mean 'finished': it means 'under control', which is good enough for me.) Let me show you around.
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Recommendation
posted by Emma on 26 Jun 2007
I can heartily recommend these chaps as being very worthwhile. An author who submitted her work to us, which was oh-so-nearly there, has commissioned a report from them and was kind enough to share it with me. It contains exactly what I would have said if I was more eloquent and had the time to think it through.
Well worth the modest fee.
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Strategical underpinnings and wotnot
posted by Rob on 26 Jun 2007
The Future
I thought I'd just say a little more about our strategery week. I'm covering some of the same ground as Em's earlier post, but also expanding on a few points. Personally, I always like hearing about why other companies do the things they do. It's a good way of clarifying one's own thinking. And often it's an excellent source of cheap laughs too.
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Lazy
posted by Emma on 26 Jun 2007
Em, hard at work
I am a *very* lazy person. So lazy, in fact, that I tend to just whack blog posts up there without bothering to find a picture to go with them. Rob tends to drop by and add an image he likes, because he knows that blog posts are more interesting if they have a picture to go with them, and also because he is not lazy. No. He is Good.
I wonder what image he'll choose to go with this post?
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New! The Norman invasion with music
posted by Emma on 26 Jun 2007
The Bayeux Sampler
Sarah sent me this today. Love it!
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My Lovely Computer
posted by Emma on 25 Jun 2007
Not Em's
actual computer
Tell you what: I don't half love my computer. I am just about to send City Cycling to print - it's finished, at last. But the InDesign file is over a gig large! 1,198,320 KB to be exact. And my lovely, darling, precious computer handles it without a sniff. 'One gig?' it says. 'Pah! I laugh in the face of enormous files! I scoff at your feeble attempts to overload me! I am all-powerful!'
Yes you are, computer. Yes you are.