BOOK OF THE MONTH

FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS is the 'Must read book of the month,' on the New Books etc website which is launched on Monday.You can go to www.Booksetc.co.uk.

One of the problems of having a book on the internet, is driving your potential readers through the zillions of titles that are on there. However, as Anna's book is in one of the major promotions, MUST READ BOOK OF THE MONTH, the discerning browser will come across her book, the great jacket and superb recommendation from award winning author Lesley Glaister, and then, purchase said title. Hopefully. Yesterday afternoon I met the 23 Reader Development Officers from the North West of England at The Hornby library, in Liverpool Central Library. It was an opportunity to tell them what we're trying to do here at Bluemoose, publish great writing that engages and inspires the reader.
As you may have read here in the not too distant, I have a problem with Martin Amis and the acres of print the supposed literati in the Metropolis give him. Well, in the letters pages of The Grauniad today is a riposte from Anna Ford. Music to my ears. She has a right go at his persistent whingeing at the press and tasks him to take at look at himself. Apparently he lacks 'empathy,' 'is a narcissist,' and is altogether a numpty of mammoth proportions. Ha ha, ha. And these days he can't write either. Marty, me old chuffer, get thee to Uruguay, spend your wifes millions and don't write another thing. Please.

GABRIEL'S ANGEL

The final edit has been donme to the next Bluemoose title, GABRIEL'S ANGEL by Mark A Radcliffe....We haven't gone all American on you by adding an intial between his first and second name, but there's a certain Radio 2 DJ with the same name. The book will now go off to be typesetted and then returned looking like a real book. We will then get it back and have a further chance to re-read it, check it for typos , send it off again and then have one last chance to proof it before it goes to the printers. Our designers in Canada, now have the brief and we look forward to getting some images back in the next two weeks. It will be published on July 24th 2010 and is an absolutely stunning book. Great story, beautifully written by an writer who has the capacity to make you laugh and cry in equal measure and for all the right reasons.
Gabriel's Angel is a comic love story set just beneath heaven.

Gabriel Bell was a web journalist with a low sperm count. He was 44, grumpy, sarcastic and irritated by the accumulating disappointments in life. Described by his girlfriend Ellie as ' a man who used to clap like a bloody seal when he saw a beautiful sunrise,' Now the only thing that would make him clap more is more sperm. He keeps checking but to no avail, so IVF it is. So it was bad enough when he lost his job but getting run over and waking up to find himself in a therapy group run by Angels just below heaven, really pisses him off.

It's unique and I know that every reader with a soul will be touched by this book. Grand statement, but a one of the best books I've read in the past ten years. I liked it so much I sold my life insurance!

Falling through clouds

Moose Mania abounds....Well, a bit. Anna Chilvers, author of Falling through clouds did a reading at Blackburn Central library on Wednesday evening. It was well attended and we managed to get the Moose message across. Great books that engage and inspire the reader. We have a few weeks off before we start on the road again. Sales are great, reprinting soon. Anna's book has been chosen as The Must Read Book of the month for the new BOOKS ETC Website which will be up and running next week......You can go to www.Booksetc.co.uk and there you'll see the book in all its glory....Week three of all the newspapers going overboard about our man with new teeth, Mr Amis......Madness......I'm now in therapy.....
I am doing two visits to Wakefield Prison in March to talk about my book ANTHILLS AND STARS and then I'm to be interviewed for the prison magazine...Then it is back on the world tour for Falling through clouds....And I haven't even told you about the new addition to Moose Towrs...Eric, the labrador puppy.....

The GOOGLE Con

The boys at GOOGLE are at it again. It's all to do with them wanting to get their hands on every book that has ever been written, and the new ones too. And then they put them online for everyone to download for free. The call it free advertising. I call intellectual land grab. The intellectual copyright belongs to the person who created the work. Period. The wholesale acquisition of books has nothing to do with the promotion of literature and everything to do with the Googlemoths attempt to control the tinterweb. Pay per click makes Google billions of dollars per year. They market themselves as some kind of philanthropic virtual free public library. Far from it. They want control. They want creative control too. The Google boys may wander round in T's and Sneakers, but underneath they are chasing the dollar like any other Wall Street Banker. And we know what bankers are.

The linen suit brigade

Anna Chilvers, author of Falling through clouds, has been invited to The Lincoln Literary Festival in May. Thursday 13th of May has been pencilled in. I may have to buy a linen suit and wander round with a Moleskin and pen waiting for the muse to descend. It will not happen, the muse may descend but I will never, ever buy a linen suit. I was told a great anecdote about two of our 'favourite' authors, lets call them Jules and Seb, who used to be the best of friends but 'allegedly' fell out because one thought he spoke better 'French,' than the other. You couldn't make up stuff like that, could you?

Provincial, but better than most

Anna and myself were at the first event to publicize The Huddersfield Literature Festival on Wednesday night. Anna read from her novel, FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS and I ranted on about the plight of the independent publisher. Great night had by all and cheaper than therapy, for me that is. I have just sent off Anna's book to all the Lit Eds in London , again. The first hurdle we have to get over is the one labelled 'PROVINCIAL'. Yes, I know it sounds like the opening line from a Jane Austen novel, but one of the worst things you can be called in publishing is 'Provincial.' So, what we are doing at Bluemoose is publishing top stories, beautifully written that engage and inspire the reader. None of this, 'Writers writing about writing,' styley stuff. Dull, dull, dull. The British public don't buy it. Mr Amis's book will sell, but it won't sell enough to earn the massive advance he was given and all the other poor old sods who have books out at the same Publishing House will suffer at the hands of the marketing department who will be going full out to make Marty's book a bestseller. It won't be. But you can bet in another ten years ,if the orthodontally challenged writer of restricted growth publishes another book, the fawning will commence.
Invest in new writers. It's the future don't you know.

AMAGOOGLE

Amazon have capitulated over the pricing of Macmillan ebook titles. They will accept Macmillan's pricing structure of their ebooks. We must never forget that any company wishing to sell a book, in whatever fashion, must always ask permission from the intellectual copyright holder, or those holding the rights, before they unilaterally sell 'the work.' The work belongs to the creator, the author. It does not belong to any company. Google and Amazon are massive organisations, but they create nothing. They are delivery systems. The artists should always be in charge of their own work. If it ever changes, we're in trouble. But don't think that this will be the end of it. Amazon used the word 'monopoly' in their statement. And American courts don't like that word. But if the creator of a book can't have a monopoly over what they have produced, who Can?

Authornazia

I am retiring underground for a couple of weeks. I cannot stand it anymore. Kingsley Junior, our man with the new dentures and largest forehead in literature, is everywhere. He has a new book out and the lit eds are laying down their garlands of approval with hectares of Martinprint. He wrote a good book once but that was 26 years ago. Please take all writing implements away from him. Now. Put him out of his misery. Authornazia is the only decent way to end the interminable agony of waiting for Martin's Mojo to return.