Introducing Red Button Publishing

Today I'm delighted to welcome Caroline Goldsmith back to Strictly, talking about new publishing venture Red Button Publishing.

What exactly is Red Button Publishing?
Red Button Publishing is a brand new digital fiction imprint. We are looking for new and exciting writers to work with us. Just like a big red button, we want fiction that is irresistible. We are currently accepting submissions via our website and we hope to make our first writers’ works available this Autumn.

What services are you offering writers? We believe that it takes a team to make a book work. My business partner, Karen Ings, and I have nearly three decades' worth of experience in trade publishing and this is what we can bring to the mix. We can offer full editorial support and collaboration. We will give your book a great cover design and create imaginative marketing material. We will work to promote our titles through our website and via social media, ensuring that every Red Button book has the best chance of meeting the right reader. We also understand that many writers dream of seeing their books in paper format, and we recognise that digital publication can often be a stepping stone to a conventional publishing deal. With this in mind, we will act as literary agents for any of our writers if approached by mainstream publishing houses. We are passionate about fiction, and unlike other companies, we will not charge any upfront fees to read or publish your work.

For writers who prefer to self publish we can offer bespoke services including editorial feedback, proofreading, cover design and digital marketing material and advice on digital publishing and marketing.

What sort of books are looking for – any particular genres or types?
We are happy to consider fiction of any genre. We have already received a variety of submissions including thrillers and literary fiction. Give us a try!

What made you want to set it up? Karen and I have known each other for over ten years, having worked together previously. We are passionate about fiction and about publishing. The digital market opens up a wealth of opportunity for writers but we think there is still a real need for the skills and experience of those who have worked in the publishing industry and really understand what makes books work. We want to use our skills base to make some really great reads and get more writers to their audiences.

Tell us a little bit about your background and that of your business partner?
Karen has worked as an editor in trade publishing for fifteen years, commissioning for the last ten. Recently she has worked freelance for companies like Quercus and Penguin. My background has been in a variety of roles, including sales, marketing and publicity for companies like Aurum Press and more recently Dorling Kindersley/ Penguin Group.

How do you see the company progressing?
We want Red Button to become synonymous with great fiction and we want the writers associated with our brand to realise their full potential.

Many people see the current publishing industry as in decline – do you agree? How has the market changed since you started out and how do you think it will change in future?
We’ve seen so many changes to our industry during the span of our careers. Digital has certainly been the biggest change for some time and has already changed the way the industry functions. The direct relationship between reader and publisher is becoming more important and more open. What you should realise about the publishing industry though, is that in the most part, it is run by people with a real passion for books. It’s not the industry to join if you want to make your fortune! These people have skills, creativity and experience that are crucial to the production of quality literature. Publishing will adapt and change but as an industry, it will survive in one form or another.

What is the number one piece of advice you would give to writers who are trying to get their books out there, either through a publisher or on their own?Always, always work with an editor.

Caroline Goldsmith
@redbuttonpubs
redbuttonpublishing.net

 

Tense? Yeah, just a bit.

My name is Debs Riccio and I have a problem with the past and the future.  

I’m stuck in the present, which is a good place to be according to counsellors and psychiatrists, but NOT writers.

I can’t seem to move on no matter how I word it. 

I can set a whole sentence, paragraph, chapter in the past but I have a struggle getting it to move onto the present without feeling like I’ve cheated potential readers out of the bit ‘in between’ – you know, the parts where, okay, so nothing MUCH happens, but life has gone on enough for it to arrive at this NOW point. 

 You see the thing is Nothing happens all the time, does it?  But what if I’ve missed out pertinent parts like the arrival or departure of something, someone, somewhere and my Dear Reader is feeling like I’ve swindled them and misinformed them with smoke, mirrors, sleight of  key; they’ll think me a fraud.  Oh god… hand me a tissue*. Thanks.

too tense (and a horse)

It wasn’t always like this I’m sure.  I think I’ve written a whole book where the past moves on to become the future and the present becomes the past and we all live happily ever after, but I think that was a fluke.  I might have been drunk.  I certainly didn’t get an agent out of it that’s for sure.  I think it might even have had chapter headings like ‘October 1986’ which, come to think of it, is cheating, isn’t it?  (Adrian and Bridget excluded of course because they were just brilliant and nobody can write a diary like those guys).

Oh how I envy and hate the able writer who can take a reader seamlessly through a childhood, skip gaily through a coming-of-age-experience and end up turning death into myriad of exciting possibilities.  

Yes, thanks, this *one’s a bit wet.

I mean is this why War and Peace is so long – because the author wasn’t sure how to skip the boring bits and included every trip to the loo and cup of coffee?  Sometimes I  worry about ending one chapter with the night falling (quick – duck!) and the next one beginning with the dawn of a brand new day because, surely MC would’ve dreamt? Something must’ve happened during the night? Why aren’t you telling me this?  It could be important.  MC may have had a protein-rich wee and be on a slippery slope to Diabetes – THIS would matter.  Well, wouldn’t it?

Oh god, I’ll be doing a Gillian McKeith soon and shifting through the…. Oh cheers*.

One ‘criticism’ that an agent made with my last book (the one that they had for AGES and loved – no, seriously, they did.  Just “not enough” – you know those… yep them’s the ones) was that the entire book happened over the course of 4-5 days and she found it a little far-fetched.  I remember feeling like my wrist had been slapped a bit and it still smarts if I’m honest.  Because this MC had a ghost in her house and you can’t tell me that Nothing Happens during the night when you’re living with a GHOST.  Surely?  Really?  A LOT of stuff happened at night – every night. For oh... 4-5 days. Anyway….. like I said, I have trouble moving on.  As did my ghost, actually.

I’ve read books that cover a weekend and I’ve read books that span a lifetime so maybe mine was too Ordinary.  Too photographic; a snapshot of Something Happening, but I thought that’s what stories are supposed to do?  Isn’t it?

Maybe I should have stuck with painting.  At least with a painting you don’t have to worry what happened before the picture took shape – or what’s going to happen to the central theme afterwards. 

Maybe I should write the world’s first one-word book.  I’d probably call it PRESENT (by ‘anonymous’) and let everybody make of it what they will.  They could read between lines (okay, letters) and embellish according to their beliefs and add their own back story and interpret it however they chose.

It wouldn’t be any less strange than Tracey Emin’s unmade bed, would it?

*No tissues were harmed in the production of this post.  All characters and scenes are fictitious and are the result of the writer’s ridiculously overactive imagination and desire to be published in whatever form it takes.

Writing Drama with Oliver Emanuel

Photograph by Paul Harkin.

There are many pluses to being a member of the Strictly Writing blog team. Of course, there's the endless supply of luxury chocolates. And who could forget the Christmas gathering in Avignon? Or my endless capacity to make things up and commit them to the screen.

For me, though, one of the biggest bonuses is having a mandate to get out there and talk to writers. I was recently listening to a five-part Radio 4 production of The Other One, and was so impressed that I immediately tracked down the dramatist, Oliver Emanuel. As writing drama isn't something I've ever tried, I wanted to find out what I've been missing.

Oliver, as well as The Other One, you recently had a play, Ancient Greek, broadcast on Radio 4. Can you talk us through the commissioning process please?

Ooh. It’s a mystery.

I’m kidding. But in all seriousness I find it very hard to describe. Here’s what I can say…

It starts with an idea. In the first instance, I try out the idea on my director (most frequently Kirsty Williams at BBC Radio Drama Scotland) and see what she says. We chat a bit and then I put the idea on paper. No more than a page. There might be a few drafts of the idea. Then it disappears into the BBC machine for a couple of months and I forget about it.

If I’m very very lucky I get a call from Kirsty to tell me we’re on.

We will often have notes from Jeremy Howe (commissioning editor Radio Drama) at this point. Although you are only one of hundreds of commissioned writers, the BBC are incredibly invested in each and every play.

I have written about ten plays and stories for the BBC radio but I still have more of my ideas rejected rather than accepted.

I don’t mind.

It should be difficult to get a commission.

When it happens, it means that the idea has real potential.

Was radio drama your first port of call as a writer, or did you start out somewhere else? 

I am a theatre person.

My mum was a drama teacher and my dad is an excellent amateur actor. I was in loads of plays when I was a kid so that’s my natural habitat.

Saying that, the radio was always on in our house.

I love radio drama.

When I saw an opportunity to submit ideas to the BBC Writersroom for a short commission, I jumped at the chance.

As it happened, it was at roughly the same time as my first big theatre commission.

So I’m lucky in that I have parallel careers. I have always written both.

Has the increase in digital and Internet radio stations opened up opportunities for dramatists?

Hmm. I would so yes and no.

In the first instance there is potential for downloads and the iPlayer has revolutionised how most of us listen to the radio.

You can listen to my play live, in the car or the week after broadcast. Radio is a popular medium so the more people it can reach, the better. It’s brilliant that you can experience a play at any time in any place.

But there’s really only one place that makes radio drama and that’s the BBC.

There aren’t any other channels that do it.

I would love it if there was the equivalent of a Channel 4 or an HBO but there aren’t. Not yet at least.

In your own writing process, do you generally start with a voice, a character or a plot?

Sometimes I read a news article that interests me. (This is true of my recent play The Other One which was based on a news article from Russia). Sometimes a picture appears in my mind. Other times I just sit down and see who’s talking.

I never know the ending to what I’m writing. I just launch myself into it and see what happens. I know a lot of writers who plan meticulously but I’m not one of them. I wish I could but I can’t.

My work is often about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. I like to have a sense that this person could be me or you but then I like to jam them up and make trouble. So I’ll have a character and then I’ll give them something impossible to get out of and see what comes out of my head.

With The Other One, there is a twelve-year old girl called Laura who comes home from school only to be told that the people who she thought were her parents are not her parents. I didn’t know what she was going to do next but I wanted to find out. And the tougher I make the situation, the more charged the drama will be.

Which writers (dramatists, novelists, short stories writers and others) inspire you and why?

I get inspired by lots of people. Not just writers but musicians, artists and people I meet in the course of my research.

I’ve done a couple of writing projects with vulnerable young people. Two projects in a Young Offenders Institute and one with runaways. The children I met had lived incredible lives and they were generous enough to share their stories with me. Their openness has inspired a whole raft of work about young people in contemporary Britain.

But you asked about writers.

I live in Scotland and we have some amazing playwrights up here. David Greig, David Harrower, Linda McLean, Rob Evans, Lewis Hetherington, Davey Anderson, David Ireland and Robert Forrest.

I read a lot and almost every book I read inspires me. Too many to mention here.

My big three are Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill and Anton Chekov.

But Elvis Presley is the king of most things to my mind.

I was once advised, if I was serious about writing comedy, that I ought to move to London, Glasgow or Manchester.* Do you think the location of a writer is a factor in getting work commissioned?

Good question. If I were you I’d move to Manchester or Glasgow. London has too many of everything. I think it won’t be too long until it explodes!

I think you can write anywhere but it is difficult to be a writer without a base.

Glasgow is the place I became a grown-up writer.

I don’t honestly know how it is in other places. I know that as a playwright I have a lot of meetings, rehearsals and events that are part and parcel of being a writer. Could I live somewhere else? Probably. Do I want to? No.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am currently writing a play called Dragon for a theatre company called Vox Motus in a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland. It’s about a twelve-year old boy whose mum dies and then he discovers a dragon in his bedroom. It opens in October 2013.

What other writing have you had published / performed / broadcast?

I’ve had about ten plays and short stories on BBC Radio 4.

I’ve also written theatre pieces for the National Theatre of Scotland, Dundee Rep, Visible Fictions, Oran Mor, Tron, Traverse, Macrobert, and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

I write quickly. I have to. I’m rubbish with money.

What advice would you give to anyone contemplating writing for radio?

Listen.

Just listen to what is out there and decide what you like and what you don’t like. Get an opinion. Develop a taste for it.

And find a story that you need to tell or you will explode.

And then start writing words.

How many dramatists does it take to change a lightbulb?

That’s not a lightbulb, that’s magic.

* Leave Cornwall? You must be joking. 

Guest post: Justine Solomons of Byte The Book

Justine Solomons of Byte the Book kindly agreed to answer some of my questions... take it away, Justine!

Tell us a little about Byte the Book…Byte the Book is a writing and publishing collective with authors at its core. We champion quality writing and embrace opportunities to connect writers with readers in the digital age. Our website seeks to raise the profile of new and established writers and illustrators, while connecting with readers through reviews and discussion forums. Offline, we run networking events for publishers, writers, agents and developers, and book clubs for readers.

The Byte the Book community also encompasses a wide range of complementary services to support its members, including consultancy, PR & marketing, sales partnerships, courses, and editing.

What’s your own background and how did you get started with BTB? I have always had a passion for books; both writing and reading and, more recently, I developed an interest in publishing. I spent nine years working in business development for an IT company, during which time I indulged my passion by writing, enrolling in various writing courses and groups, and co-founding a company set-up to publish shorter fiction, www.apisbooks.com.

In writing groups I was often impressed by the quality of my classmates’ work, yet unimpressed by the lack of opportunities for them to make money. I felt that there must be a way for the writer to profit directly, rather than through existing routes, and thought that I could use my understanding of how technology has disrupted other industries’ business models to help make that happen. So I came up with the concept of a collective for writers who support each other, both online and offline, to publish their writing. I quickly realised that I also needed to bring in readers to balance this ecosystem. 

In 2011 I quit my job, registered Byte the Book as a company and started building the website. I also took various consultancy roles in the publishing industry to help build my knowledge of the business. I launched the website, networking events and book clubs in April 2012, and it’s grown from there.

Who do you envision as your target audience?
Essentially Byte the Book consists of two overlapping audiences: readers and creators.

The latter forms the nucleus of the Byte the Book membership - those that come to the networking events and take an active part in the community. This is mainly made up of aspiring and established writers, publishing professionals, agents, editors, developers, illustrators, entrepreneurs and investors who want to understand more about new digital opportunities.

The website reaches both audiences. There are book reviews and impartial recommendations for readers as well as information on how to find or set up one of our book clubs. The site is also a place for writers and illustrators to showcase their work and for agents to discover new talent.

Our book clubs are free and open to anyone who wants to chat about books. I’m also working on creating a more specialised book club for writers.

How do people get involved?Byte the Book is an active community that welcomes new members. Anyone who is interested can book to come to a networking event or book club here.

Writers can send in a short story or excerpt and we’ll consider it for the writers’ showcase. Writers interested in reviewing books should also get in touch.

We’re looking to add editors, illustrators and other publishing freelancers to our network, so they should get in touch and, ideally, attend a networking event.

What has the reaction been so far – has anything surprised you?

Overwhelmingly positive. I’ve been amazed how quickly our name has spread in the industry and how well-attended our events are. Writers have found agents, people have found work, and the attendees have been very positive about the calibre of speakers, topics and networking opportunities. We’ve had over 3,000 unique visitors to the website since it went live and we are now starting to generate revenue through membership subscriptions, sponsorship and tickets for the networking events. My biggest surprise is how quickly it has all grown.

Have there been any learning curves on the way – anything you’d do differently?It has all been a very steep learning curve but it also feels as though I’m incorporating all my past experience. Sometimes I wish I’d started BtB earlier, but then I realise that I probably wouldn’t have been ready to do it then. 

Many people think mainstream publishing is in crisis – do you think it will survive the digital revolution?
It’s in flux, not crisis. An evolution more than a revolution: not unlike the Guttenberg press automating production, which meant monks were no longer required to handwrite manuscripts; and not unlike Allen Lane taking books to the common man with the first Penguin paperbacks. New technology and social media allow more access to more content and connect readers more closely with writers. These advances broaden the publishing landscape and present huge opportunities for writers to earn more from their work. As Joanna Penn said at a Future Human event recently,  ‘The readers, not the publishers, are now the gatekeepers’.

At the moment there is still a stigma to digital-only publishing; do you think that will change?Yes, I do. I think it is a mistake for people to separate “Digital” from “Traditional”. Technology adds new and alternative routes to market and any successful author or publisher should be embracing the most relevant combination of routes for them. Personally, I prefer to read digitally, but it’s the ideas in books that are important to me, not the format of those books, and I’m keen for those ideas to be delivered efficiently to as wide an audience as possible.

How do you see Byte the Book progressing?I’d like it to become a one-stop-shop for writers to realise their writing ambitions: the place to get support and professional advice on their work, to learn how to embrace new technologies, to find an agent or publisher, or advice on self publishing. And we envisage both readers and writers coming to Byte the Book to find out about new books and to connect with like-minded readers.

It would be great if, in years to come, people view Byte the Book as a company that has broken down barriers in publishing and contributed to the democratisation of the book in the digital age.

 

Justine Solomons, Founder of Byte the Book

justine@bytethebook.com
@justinesolomons
@bytethebook
#bytethebook
http://www.linkedin.com/in/justinesolomons

On sockpuppetry

So, another day, another woeful tale of authors behaving badly, as a couple of crime writers have been unearthed as creating ‘sock puppet’ accounts to write good reviews for themselves and, even more dubiously, slag off their rivals’ books on Amazon, while apparently on an author discussion panel the writer Steven Leather cheerfully admitted to creating fake accounts to go on discussion forums to create ‘buzz’ about his books. (I must admit it took me a while to pick up on this story, as I thought the headlines on Twitter about ‘vicious sockpuppets’ were a joke, or a news item about a children’s party gone terribly awry).

Obviously – obviously – this is morally reprehensible behaviour, undermines the whole value of reviews and the honour system, etc, etc. But what boggles me about the whole thing is: where the hell do they find the time? Seriously, people: I want me some of that. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Goodreads, and 3 different blogs, as well as contributing to 3 different websites and, y’know, working for a living. I can barely keep up with all the things I have to do as myself, never mind create fake personas who have to go writing reviews on Amazon. I spend half of my life having to reset passwords: imagine the hassle of having to maintain accounts where the actual bloody name needs to be remembered, too. And thinking up new names! One of the things I hate most about writing it having to name characters (it’s no coincidence that in both of my novels there is a character with virtually the same name, just spelled differently). If I had to create fictional reviewers as well, I think I’d have a nervous breakdown.

It does make you wonder, if they applied that energy to actually writing their books, they might turn out so good that they don’t need fake reviews, or they could at least come up with more original ways to promote them. Still, disapprove as I might, part of me is impressed by all that effort. I might even give it a go. How about: “Tracey Sinclair transformed my life: this is not only a Booker-worthy effort that should be made into a movie at once, but it’s clear from the writing that the author is generous, attractive and spectacularly good in bed.” Whaddaya think? Too much?

 



Authors! Need a reviewer? Make your own!

Sock puppet kit available, ironically, from Amazon.



A stab in the back-link

"Rudimentary, my dear reader..."

Here's the thing. 

This is a post I never expected to write. 

Okay, I've had what you might call a chequered path as a writer. 

Along the way, I've experienced:

- The tragic case of the deceased editor.

- The depressing case of the bankrupt editor.

- The alarming cases of editors wanting four-figure sums to publish my book, as it's too risky for their money (but, clearly, not for mine).

I even had my entire blog stolen by someone overseas, who liked my work so much that they wanted to make it their own. Although appropriation, as any good student of Charles Caleb Colton will tell you, is definitely not the sincerest form of flattery.

But despite all the above, and the pub stories* they have since been immortalised in, I've never yet had a piece of work used by a magazine, without agreement or payment. 

Until now...

Three months ago, I approached a magazine that was on the hunt for columnists.

Naturally, they wanted to see a sample of work and I chose a quirky piece about being green. One shouldn't have favourites, but it was one of those pieces that came together without undue stress or difficulty. And I've always had such a soft spot for it that I've never sold it on. I know, somewhat counter-intuitive for a freelance writer.   

'Great,' said the magazine's marketing manager, 'I'll get this to the editorial team and let you know what they think.'

Only, he didn't. And he also didn't response to my follow-up email a month later.

What's a writer to do? On the basis of this experience, my fellow writers: be wary. 

I filed it under missing-in-action and, had it not been for my trusty spreadsheet, I'd never have thought about it again. But I was doing a little file housekeeping recently and wondered if, perchance, the mag had already added me as a columnist. 

Zoot alors, they might be waiting for me to get back to them with content.

I checked the site and you could have knocked me down with a quill pen. They'd posted my sample piece - the one I hadn't agreed they could use yet - and they'd had it on their site for three months.

Now, I know that we're professionals and I appreciate that mistakes happen and messages get mislaid and delayed. But how crap must an organisation be to forget to speak to the writer whose work they've used?

Never mind the matter of payment, which we'll come to shortly.

I emailed my original contact and got an auto-response that the email had been delayed. I know, nothing if not consistent. So I left a phone message.

Fair play to the marketing manager. e emailed me a day later to say:

1. Their columnist positions are unpaid.

2. Instead, they offer an author back-link at the end of articles to promote the writer.

3. This is their standard position for columns.

I telephoned him as soon as his email reply pinged in. He sounded like a really nice guy. 

I said, in reply to his points:

1. Had they told me that all columnist positions were unpaid, I would not have sent in a sample, or wasted their time and mine.

2. You can't eat a back-link and, I noted, they'd used my piece for three months (I think it's worth underlining again) without giving me a fabled back-link!

3. I write for a living. I don't give away work to commercial ventures for free.

4. I doubted that their magazine's celebrity columnists were unpaid and did it for the back-links. (No, he replied, but their columns were sponsored.)

They have now taken the piece down. So the only record of this happening is the PDF copy I took off the web. To be filed under, 'Would you believe it?'

So, come on then, what are your horror stories with agents, editors and the people who sign the cheques?

The self-published

Why should we celebrate the self-published? What have they really done? Submitted a flawed, error ridden manuscript for a company to print out and bind together? Perhaps they've put years of work into the novel but haven't been able to secure a publisher or agent, so they've headed down the self-pub route. Should we talk about them in the same sentence as Marcel Proust or Fyodor Dostoyevsky?

Self-publishing really only used to be for those who wanted to write about themselves, bind memories into book form, or create a collection of short stories for a niche market or for their children to enjoy, but now, or so it seems, everyone's at it. It's really bucking the trend as the New York Times recently highlighted. The newspaper recently reported that four self-published authors had taken up seven slots on the New York Times e-book bestseller list. Furthermore, the article suggests that this trend will continue in the years to come. The authors include Colleen Hoover - Slammed and Point of Retreat, R.L. Mathewson with Playing For Keeps, Lyla Sinclair with Training Tessa and Bella Andre with If You Were Mine, Can't Help Falling In Love and I Only Have Eyes For You.

Are they any good?

Take our wannabee author, Arthur Reid for example - his book has been rejected by every agent and publisher this side of Texas, so he wants to proclaim to the world that he is 'an author.' So he self-publishes. He contacts the local newspaper, The Bugle, and he tells them he's a published author. The editor, not knowing the difference between mainstream and self-publishing, runs the story. Arthur enjoys a few Amazon sales and word gets around that 'Fifty Shapes of Stetson Hats' is actually really, really good. The cowboys all rush out and buy it.

Then there's 18-year-old Ann Books who secured a six figure sum via Riches and Tops Literary Agency, and ended up in all the papers. 'Bright young literary thing,' was the headline, except the hype died a slow death and she made a handful of sales. She put her tail in her pocket and became a recluse, penning Book Two. But...but...but...she has an agent and has been published by the big men.

Who's the author here? Arthur or Ann? Or both?

Are readers more intent in seeking out a good story, regardless of where it has been published? Do they gloss over the mistakes - there, they're, their etc - and shout about how wonderful the boy meets girl story is? Now that Arthur has self-published, becoming an overnight sensation, will he change his name, nationality and undergo plastic surgery to remove his moustache and re-invent himself as an author proper?

So many questions.

Discuss.