The Rooker

As I've said previously here before. For small independent publishers like Bluemoose, it is essential to get coverage in the local press. To this end, today in the Halifax Courier and Next week in The Yorkshire Post, there will be a two page feature on Bluemoose books and what we have achieved in the past two and a half years. Of course the nationals won't give a hoot, but with the Bluemoose family of writers , what is essential, is building a regional fan base first and then you see your books eventually get onto the national stage. This is how Tindall Street in Birmingham have done it over the past ten years and it has been incredibly successful. The London Houses speak disparagingly about the regions, however, it is the regional presses that are producing some fantastic books by great writers. I might start the Rooker, a regional Booker, but then everyone will think it is a second class prize. So I won't. The books stand out in their own right and eventually everyone in the UK will realise what we're doing, the tills will be popping and we can publish more new writers. Sweet.

Same old

The Booker long list is out. Nothing new to shout about. Oh well, there's always next year. And the year after that, and that, and that.

Red Carpet

I now have a film agent. Scary stuff. Now the hard work starts trying to find the production company with enough money and foresight to make the film. I spent an hour and half talking about options, percentages, clawbacks, back end and renewals. It won't happen over night but it is another huge step forward and to be perfectly honest if it means more money in the Bluemoose pot, its all well and good because we can publish more great stories from great new writers . In our conversation we talked about the rarified world of publishing and agents. I was told about a very senior CEO of a UK publishing company who had it written in her PA's contract that she had to take her pooch walking and clean up after it. Nice.

Special Day

It's a special day. Off to see the Queen and two film agents. Have deloused and ironed my T shirt. So far so good. Will let you know what hoops those gatekeepers for Hollywood try and get me to jump through. My aim is to speak to ten people on the tube. Looking forward to the banner headline. A Northerner from the Terrorist group Al Whippet arrested for engaging Londoners in conversation. The appeal fund will start tomorrow. Toodlepip.

Selling your soul

Off to the Smurk tomorrow to see some film agents. Getting excited but won't be putting on the Tux just yet for the Oscars. These things take time and I've had my expectations raised before. However, there is a chance that Anthills and Stars will be made into a film. After the meeting with the bods from the same agency that brought us Slumdog Millionaire, I am meeting our foreign agent, Jill Hughes, who is pitching three of our titles to foreign publishers prior to Frankfurt. Jill has already read Falling through clouds, by Anna Chilvers and thinks it is a great read, which of course it is. I have asked two of our authors to write a synopsis of their work. 250 words which get across the story, spirit and character of their novel. They found it hard but have come up with the goods. Writing a book nowadays is more than just putting down a great story. You have to sell your work. How can you expect the public to shell out monies if you can't , in a few words, encapsulate what your story is about. It's all abut selling. The story and you.

Rail Hell

Hetha, my wife and the leagl department of Bluemoose has returned form working in London. Due to the fact that the British Rail system isn't working, a journey that normally takes three hourse, took five and half. You buy a rail ticket and spend the best part of Saturday sat on a coach. Thank you Gordon and all your PFI nonsense.

DJ Honoured

Steven Gerrard, footballer and possessor of a haircut only a mum could love has been acquitted of affray at a nightclub in Southport. Apparently he hit the DJ three times because he thought he was going to be hit. Its the Tony Blair defence. We bomb the shit out of you because we think you've got weapons of mass destruction defence. What is more alarming is that Stevy G, as he is known on the terraces, went into battle because he wanted to change the music and put some Phil Collins on. Now, pass me the black hat whilst I deliver my verdict. Surely if only for crimes against music and humanity he should have been found guilty and sent down for at least ten years. Perhaps if we'd have piped Mr Collin's 'No jacket required,' into Iraq, Saddam and his mates would have surrendered without anybody dying. The DJ might have lost the case but he deserves a medal for standing up to footballers who should never, ever, be allowed to choose the music at any given function. Mr G you stand guilty as charged.

Esoteric Bookselling

Spies have been coming out of the woodwork recently and I think I have discovered a way of finding out who is, and who isn't selling state secrets to the enemy. Anybody who wears a tie and went to Public School and studied The History of Art at Oxbridge is a spy. Can I now collect my £100 spy finding fee?

Off to see how the Waterstones staff are baring up. Not a week goes by without some new earth shattering technique is used to deceive the book buyer. Recently they were using the esoteric arts of that well known avatar, Dan Brown. White witches and sales dust are sprinkled from jets positioned at each entrance in a well known store in the North. The results have been phenomenal and each sales assistant is now required to have the sign of the beast tattooed on the nape of the neck.

Sizzling summer reads

Wel that's it. Sainsbury's have decided they want their customers to read, so they are promoting their 'Sizzling summer reads,' at the end of July. Two great reads for £5. Fantastic bargains for the shopper but perhaps not so for the independent bookshops. Well, I think those bookshops that specialise, cater for their customers needs, have quirky, different and local stock will survive. There are hundreds of indies up and down the country making a difference. When the high street and supermarkets seem only to be promoting the mass market paperback , there are now gaps in the market. Yes, independents will lose out in the sale of the top ten but can gain sales by becoming a central part of the reading community in their area. Bookshops can be become great centres for reading and writing. Meeting places for the like minded. Author and writing events. When schools won't let writers in because they deem them a sexual threat to their students, bookshops can become the oasis of literature that schools once where.

John Siddique

I had a coffee and a chat with John Siddique on Monday in Hebden. John is a writer and poet. You can catch his latest offerings in a book of poems called Recital. It is published by Salt. Go buy a copy and help a great indy publisher and keep John in bacon butties. John has just returned form LA where he was the writer in residence there, a position sponsored by the British Council. He was telling me about a unique and very successful reading group which helps gang members in prison move away from violence and to try and turn their lives around. Run and organised by a previous gang leader, they are only allowed to read books, short stories or poems that don't glorify their positions. It has reduced recidivism from 85% to 30% which doesn't even go to show the turnaround in the lives of individuals, but to keep their funding, stats like this have to be trailed out for politicians to spout about. He's on a world tour of schools and libraries this Autumn. If you get a chance go and see him. He's got me interested in the short story writer and poet Raymond Carver, and for that I thank him.