The World Premier of my Radio Play

My short Radio Play Words Worth Hearing will be broadcast on local radio on Thursday 23rd December between 9.30 and 9.50 am, 6.00 and 7.00 pm, and on the late evening show between 10.00 pm and 1.00 am. It is one of five plays accepted for broadcast by Radio Cumbria, and written by North Cumbria Script Writers. We had great fun recording them with some talented local actors and directors. The five plays were  produced, recorded and edited by Belinda Artingstoll. You can hear Radio Cumbria streamed live or listen again.

The Launch of Trifolium Books

This is one of those inevitable things- a decision which just about made itself. The publishing industry seems to be going the way of the music industry, and all our efforts to get Kathleen Herbert's stunning fourth novel published in the traditional way have come to naught. So, inevitably, we have said "A plague on all your publishing houses".... and set up our own.
Some notes on the reasons for this:

Publishers are very reluctant to take on new books for good reasons. Here is how the money paid for a book divides up between the parties:

Publisher’s net profit               5%

Publisher’s overheads             9%

Distribution/marketing    8%

Manufacturing                15%

Author’s share                8%

Retailers’ share              55%

Figures from The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook Guide to Getting Published: The Essential Guide for Authors (Writers & Artists Yearbook Gde) Harry Bingham

• Because there is now so little profit in publishing, publishers and agents are taking very few risks. (Agents make their money by charging authors 15% of their royalties: given that an author makes 80p per nominal £10 book sold, it’s not surprising that agents are even more reluctant than publishers to take on new writers. (And publishers usually only take on authors who have already persuaded an agent to represent them)
• My perception is that there are now many more people writing novels than perhaps 10-15 years ago
• Adult fiction constitutes only 26% of book sales
• Despite what looks like a huge profit margin for retailers, most of that is eaten up by overheads, discounts to overseas buyers, discounts to customers, and the fact that they take up shelf and storage space etc.
• For all the above reasons, books by celebrities and by already well-known authors are snapped up, and quality is hardly considered either by agent or publisher; saleability is what matters (see Kate Mosse, and dare I say it, Dan Brown)

Parallel to the problems with mainscale publishing, there has been a huge growth in self publishing/indie publishing (interestingly reflecting what has been happening in the music industry)

People are still buying huge numbers of books, but I have the impression that they are written by a dwindling number of authors.

I have had both support and interest through various historical blogs, and through researching the books and authors mentioned, I have come to realise that there is a community of independent authors and very small, often specialist publishers- or rather there is a plethora of communities mostly interlinked. 

Trifolium Books will join that community in 2011; please support Kathleen and Trifolium by checking Get it Written for dates and places, tell your friends, and buy a copy of Moon in Leo when it's published.

Is grey the new black? Musings on the colour of underwear

Do you feel like this when you wear white underwear? No, neither do I, but it does look nice- at least for a handful of wearings. How long before it goes the way of all underwear and ends up the colour Ben Elton calls "thousand wash grey"? It all gets there in the end, but white has a head start, and black usually ends up round the ankles, all stretch gone, before it reaches the Nirvana of TWG.
While I'm on the subject, can we rename the sort of neutral colour that I often buy from M&S in the hopes of postponing the advent of TWG? Too many people still think of it as "flesh colour" (the actual colour of flesh is red- look in the butcher's window) I also like the story of a class of kids from a London primary school whose protest at the name of some coloured pencils consisted of them sending a large sheet of paper to the pencil manufacturers with dozens of colours which they had mixed: their message was, "These are our flesh colours"

Anyway, back to the name of the colour; I suggest Surgical Appliance Pink, as that's what it's nearest to. I wish they would do more of the sort of nice pinky grey colour I used to call mink. Perhaps I should just buy grey in the first plac?