Cupblog

Back in Cupblog

2011-09-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

Somehow I found myself shut out of blogger. That nightmare scenario where you have so many usernames and passwords you don't know where you are anymore happened to me. I was trying everything, scouring my address book where I'd scribbled said usernames and passwords but with no indication which was current.

Anyway I'm back inside which is quite a relief.

Wallowing in weebly

2011-09-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

I have really got to grips with the nod off website I'm putting together via weebly. The more I tinker about with it, the more fun it is to use. At last it is a website I feel in control of (as much as one can when you can't write any of the background stuff). Because I want to include tracks from the nod off cds, I am paying for a pro site. But you can make one for free. I would highly recommend it if you want to understand a bit more about how they are put together.

Website progress

2011-09-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

I have been making tiny steps on the website front. After following some instructions from some web enthusiast I stumbled across, I managed to produce a page with a yellow background, a heading and a line that ticker taped across the bottom.

So, I suppose that is something. Then I got this book from the library and read it. As one customer review states, it starts well and then makes some enormous jump into css without explaining what it is. However, it did mean I could go and copy the source of a website and begin to play about with it.

I think the problem with new technology and a slightly fossilized brain is that I need to get an understanding of terms used. I remember my father becoming infuriated with his mac because he couldn't create a document, he kept just making folder after folder. Essentially, it was a question of understanding the language. In macspeak a document was a file. At least I think it was if my memory serves me right. Obviously, in his eyes a file didn't sound anything like what he was after.

I have also been getting much better acquainted with Word 2010. I have heard so many complaints from friends who prefer the old layout. I even ended up buying a book on the subject and again it is a question of language. I think because new products keep being produced, the manufacturers feel changing the labelling is something that should also be done. But it is infuriating trying to work out what mindset they work under. For ages I couldn't find the spellcheck because it was under the review menu. It turns out that the band across the top (with all the dropdown menus) is called the ribbon. To us old enough to remember, that smacks of a typewriter. It is not the technology that foxes people, it is the language it is labelled with.

I have been trying to build a new website

2011-09-02T00:24:00.001-07:00

Everyone tells me how easy it is. I am not actually building the website from scratch, but have been doing it through weebly. The trouble is I am too impatient. I just want it to look and work properly without having to learn how to do it. And I want a great deal of control over the text.

Anyway, my first attempts can be viewed at www.nodoff.co.uk. The text reads remarkably like the home page on the Publishing Cupboard website. That is because I just copied it.

I used a wedding theme website but I don't like the block capitals of the site name. Apparently I can change theme at the drop of a bouquet, but not the chosen type style.

If anyone out there who visits websites has any advice to offer on what they like to find on one, please leave a comment. I am not even sure if websites are even such a big deal anymore.

I must apologise ...

2011-08-26T00:34:00.000-07:00

For doing the unforgivable in blogdom. Disappearing without a trace.

A lot has changed since we got back to Glasgow. I realise now that e- is the future of books. Not all books, but I rest my case on what my neighbour said.

Her husband (like most men) is a gadget kid. He gets tablets for free from his work. His wife (like most women) is a technofraid. Yet she has read more books on her ipad in the last few months than she had done the whole previous year. Her 8 year old son is licking them off the tablet. Both still claim to love physical books.

In a world of e-ase, e-books are the future. Just the cherished ones will make it onto paper.

I don't think we should weep and wail. There are too many other things to get worked up about. It is just the way it is.

This seismic shift might mean that the truly good stuff is treated with respect and books aren't treated as opportunities to discount.

Anyway, nice to be back.

Settled into the Italian groove

2011-07-14T00:47:00.000-07:00

It seems like the eurozone debt crisis has arrived in Italy but you would not know it from talking to Italians. I read it in the international edition of The Times. It is also fascinating following the Murdoch crisis. The family is definitely protecting R Wade which no doubt infuriates the ex workforce at the News of the World who were sacrificed with such apparent ease. I wonder what twists and turns will come about.

But for now ciao ciao.

L'Armadio revisited

2011-07-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

I've fallen foul of not keeping up with the blog but it's been hectic getting ready for the annual relocation to Lake Como. Anyway, the next post will be from there.

I just read about Rupert Murdoch pulling the plug on News of the World. Seems very shocking.

Clogging up the ether with rubbish

2011-06-22T03:46:00.000-07:00

Will there come a point of e-saturation? Here is an interesting article by Laura Miller about the rubbish piling up on the kindle store shelves.

It does pose an interesting question. If you have a shop full of what might be termed e-rubbish, does it make people turn to the likes of Waterstone's or The Book Depository to ensure some sort of e-quality control?

Might it be an opportunity for a proper e-book shop to carve out a niche where only quality-controlled e-books are stocked?

Plain and simple fights back

2011-06-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

Forget about Smart phones that seem to have a life of their own, why not try one of these?

There are too many geeks out there showing us how clever they are and forgetting what the customer actually wants.

More and more it looks like what we want are the pros of technology but in its most pared down form. Our minds are going into overload with all the gizmos, passwords, passwords for passwords and new tweaks.

Is John's phone the technological equivalent to a pencil?

Is Facebook Yesterdaybook?

2011-06-20T02:53:00.000-07:00

The other day my daughter told me that my niece was deactivating her facebook. The reason? She was fed up of reading about other people's wonderful lives. I can empathise with this. The social media existence of today makes out that everyone else is having a ball. For those of us who are not, it can be stressful.

And since I heard that bit of news, I keep coming across other people switching off their facebook pages. As I have never understood mine, I am feeling rather relieved that I might never bother having to get to grips with it.

Another friend told me about her grandson and his attempts to get into college. As soon as he had been accepted he twittered the news. No doubt is 3,000 followers were as relieved as his grandma.

Now call me a cynic but how does a 16-year old boy find 3,000 followers? Is twitter playing the facebook game? Just substitute 'followers' for 'friends'. A design to bolster the twitterer and keep them twittering even more to their invisible band of followers?

The internet can do scary stuff with your mind and well-being. Let's get back to having coffee and climbing trees (if you are under a certain age of course).

The gaps in blogging

2011-06-15T00:50:00.000-07:00

If you are like me, you have quite a tight knit blogging circuit that you drop in on. And when someone goes quiet on the blogging front it can be a slight source of exasperation if you have had no prior warning. Or if you don't arrange cover as does the frighteningly efficient blogger Scott Pack who seems to be the only man I know who can apply womanly juggling skills to his working life. If he is going offblog, he marshals a series of guest bloggers to plug the gap.

And yet it is often what is said in passing that is often the most telling part of the blog. I was pleased to see the Fidra blog back after a gap of 6 months. But what happened to the previously feted Andrew? Why has he gone when not long ago he was painting the windows and walls with wonderful characters from books? Whilst not actually saying anything other than he had gone and how the best people to run the bookshop are the owners, it left me wondering. Perhaps under blogging etiquette this is something that shouldn't be allowed. Remember, the internet can be a very unforgiving place and one should strive not to do harm to anyone either in thought, word or deed. The yogi in me thinks that we should add 'or online'.

This seems to be the curse of the blog. One moment we are sharing a blogger's knitting skills and pictures of a blissful family life. Then it goes ominously quiet. When the blogger resurfaces several months down the line we find out in passing about the divorce and custody battle. The difference is that visitors get to share the good times (often ad nauseum) but are pretty much shut out of the darker times.

Now me, I'm just a negative bastard all of the time. Never fear, visitors, things usually can only get worse.

Go, Waterstone's, go

2011-06-07T00:19:00.001-07:00

Well, HMV has managed to successfully refinance which means the Waterstone's sale is secure and James Daunt will take the helm in a few weeks time. This is a great opportunity for W to really muscle its presence back on the high street and make terrestrial book buying cool.

All it needs is power to the staff in the shops. They are the ones on the firing line and know what is at stake.

Yoga in Partick, Glasgow

2011-06-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

Today I have my yoga hat on. If anyone is around in Glasgow on Saturday 11th June (10am to 12.30pm), I am teaching a yoga session in St Peter's Hall, Partick. It is just round the corner from St Peter's Church. The entrance is in Chancellor St.

Discover how a few simple sequences can:

keep your joints healthy
build core strength for good posture
calm an overworked mind

The morning includes a short introduction to yoga and the benefits it can bring. It ends with a 20-minute relaxation session. There will be 15 minutes afterwards for any questions.

Suitable for all levels and all bodies

Cost: £11

Equipment: Please bring a mat or towel to lie on and something to keep you warm for the relaxation session (socks, fleece, blanket, etc)

Contact: To book a place or find out more, phone Caroline on 0141 248 4780 or email caroline@publishingcupboard.co.uk

Let's hope HMV are in good enough shape

2011-05-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Still rather unsettling times on the Waterstone's front. Everybody is hugely positive about the sale to Mamut with James Daunt at the helm. However the deal still needs to be done. The most telling sentence in a recent article in the bookseller was this:

'The HMV Group said banks were supportive of the disposal but warned that if it could not renegotiate its debt, the sale would not go ahead.'

Perhaps publishers should encourage their staff to buy some cds from HMV to boost their coffers.

Exam stress on the increase

2011-05-24T03:47:00.000-07:00

The mind can be a very cruel place. Worry can seep into all its dark recesses and make your life a living hell if you don't get a grip on it. That is where yoga is a very useful tool. Often it is the 'mind-view' of something that makes the reality worse. On a pathetic level, it is what I experienced with the Kilimanjaro of ironing that lived in our home. In effect it took a couple of evenings to clear but what a difference it made to my mind. I was virtually skipping today.

If that is what ironing can do to my life, imagine the horrors of a teenage mind riddled with exam angst? Breathing and a good night's sleep are paramount in the fight for mind control. And to help in the fight we have all the Nod offs discounted for the rest of the month. Yes, I need to sell these wonderful products to clear some mind space for myself.

They really are good to relax you. P&p is free within the UK.

A sporting chance for Waterstone's

2011-05-21T00:18:00.000-07:00

At last the welcome news that Waterstone's has been sold to Mr Mamut and is to be run by James Daunt of Daunt Books. According to Mr Daunt, Mr Mamut is a book lover. As to Mr Daunt's book selling credentials, just click here. Note the emphasis he puts on having good employees who know the business.

It is amazing how much a company is worth. Waterstone's was bought this week for £53 million.

The original Waterstone's was set up in 1982 by Tim Waterstone. He sold it to WH Smith in 1989 for around £50 million. WH Smith sold it to HMV in 1998 for £300million. From 2001 to 2005 Tim Waterstone attempted to buy Waterstone's back with bids ranging from £180 million to £280 million. He was unsuccessful.

In 2006 HMV/Waterstone's successfully took over Ottakers with a takeover bid reputed to be about £63 million.

Scroll forward to this week and Waterstone's is sold for £53 million. And some say that Mr Mamut paid over the odds.

Given that Waterstone's has obviously expanded with the extra Ottaker shops (and also Dillons in London), and it is practically the last bookshop chain standing in the high street, where did all its value go? Is value just confidence from the money market?

Still, it is great news for Waterstone's and the appointment of James Daunt gives it a sporting chance. Last month it was reported that Amazon profits tumbled 33%:

'Hugely successful internet company reports solid quarterly sales numbers, but because it is investing heavily in people and infrastructure, Wall Street slaps them down for missing Street earnings expectations.'

As soon as people and premises come into the equation, the internet model doesn't work so well. Let's hope it means that Amazon have to put their prices up and the future could look even more rosy for Waterstone's.

A twice read book

2011-05-18T04:15:00.000-07:00

It was my mother's 87th birthday the other day so I went to keep her company for the duration. As usual she declared it to be 'the last one I'll probably have'. Anyway, I picked up from her shelves a book I really did enjoy. So much so that although I had read it in the last 6 months, I read it again. It is about a female private investigator, Maisie Dobbs, set about 10 years after the first world war who operates with yogic undertones. I am now going to track down the other books in the series. The author, Jacqueline Winspear, sounds like a thoroughly good egg.

Still no news on waterstones

2011-05-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

I bet this sentiment is being felt across a fair few publishers. It is as though the small w is in limbo.

By Concerned Publisher

Meanwhile, has anyone been into a Waterstones branch recently?

They haven't bought anything outside the top 1000 titles and customers orders for over a month now, and every store - or at least those that I have been into - have almost everything face out to give some illusion that they have some stock.

Our sales the chain have slumped from 10% of our monthly turnover to, well, near enough zero in 4 weeks.

Unless the sale goes through in some form, and the new management give some clear direction on where they see the chain going pretty fast, god knows what will happen, but it won't be pretty!

Mon, 09/05/2011 - 13:46

Mystic Meg

2011-05-03T15:19:00.001-07:00

I reckon that we are going to hear that waterstone's has been sold very soon. I would like to say that I feel it in my waters, but the truth is that I feel it in our monthly sales account from Gardners for the practically non-existent sales in April. It is what happened when orders from Grant & Cutler suddenly dried up. Next thing, they had been bought over by Foyles.

The cynics among you would say that perhaps the Nod offs don't cut the mustard, but I reckon it is a major shift in the bookselling tables.

Let's see.

If you think there's money in them there books

2011-04-21T01:39:00.001-07:00

Making a living from publishing books is hard work. The trick is (both if you are a publisher and a writer) producing quite a number of books that backlist. For those of you not familiar with the word backlist, it means that they continue selling well after their publication date. Good examples of backlisting books are: The Bible, Annabel Karmel's book for feeding babies and toddlers (there's always a constantly rolling market of new mothers), Collins Gem SAS Survival Guide. If these were books in your publishing company, these would be cash cows, reliable producers of dosh. Every three year or four years you could bring out a new edition with a different cover that would draw in new readers.

Frontlist titles (which means that they have just been published and have an exposure life of 6 months if you are very lucky), will hopefully include a bestseller. Bestsellers cannot be predicted, they just happen. If you are a good publisher, your gut feeling might lead you to believe that you have hit the publishing jackpot. If you are a bad publisher, you will be aping the publishing jackpot but it will be too late. That is bandwagon or copycat publishing.

The jackpot frontlist title brings in lots of dosh which can be a bad thing for a publisher. They then hire more people, publish more books along the lines of 'Let's throw it at the wall and see what sticks.' Never a good idea.

At least that is my take on mainstream publishing. For small fry like me and Linen Press, it is unlikely we will make vast sums of money (if any at all). Unless we work hard to haul in readers from the web. There are just not enough terrestrial bookshops for all our wares to be displayed.

So if you are thinking of setting up as a publisher, think long and hard about what you will charge. Here is an interesting article from the Guardian written by the director of Linen Press who bemoans selling through Amazon. However, for most small publishers, Amazon is a godsend.

The tipping point or the tide

2011-04-19T02:28:00.000-07:00

There was much news coverage yesterday on how ebooks sales had overtaken printed book sales in the States. Presumably this is inevitable as we live a more elife than ever.

A few blogs ago I was talking about how covers are so important with physical books but maybe not so with ebooks.

Then I went back to my mother's house where there were shelves of the books I grew up with (inherited from grandparents). All the usual suspects: Dickens, Austen, Trollope, Bronte, Hugo, even Zola.

I remember reading Zola's Germinal in my teens and being spellbound by it.

And then I noted, none of these books have illustrated covers.

People read what is there. Once the words draw you in, it doesn't really matter how they are presented.

I think I will go for tide. Tides come in and go out. I am sure that is how it will be with formats.

Just an observation

2011-04-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

For many years (and I mean this), I watched a beautiful stainless steel saucepan become more and more grimy around the base. I could post a picture of it but I would be too ashamed. I couldn't ever work out why I seemed to be the only one with such an unspeakable saucepan. Nor did I ever think to ask anyone about it.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I noticed my mother had a stainless steel scouring pad by the sink. I also noticed that she had awfully clean saucepans. She also has a very efficient cleaning lady.

So when I got back to Glasgow I decided to try it out. Imagine my surprise when, with much elbow grease, it made inroads to my 20-odd years layer of grime (yes, that long).

My point is that unless one is told about such basic stuff, you live blithely in squalor, with the occasional self questioning about why other people seem to live in such sparkling kitchens.

It's not that they have some particular magic, they obviously know or have been told about such things. And as more and more people live separate lives, who is going to fill us in on all this important stuff?

An interesting day

2011-04-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

Today I feel is a very interesting day. At least that is what I understand from my copy of The Herald.

1452 Leonardo da Vinci was born.

1755 Dr Samuel Johnson's dictionary was published, containing 40,000 words.

1793 £5 notes were first issued by the Bank of England.

1912 The Titanic sank.

1942 The Island of Malta was awarded the George Cross.

1955 The first McDonald's franchise was opened in Illinois.

1989 The Hillsborough football disaster

I remember with horrible clarity the events of the Hillsborough disaster. I remember with even more distaste the shocking coverage by The Sun the following day. I, like most of Liverpool (even now), vowed never to read that newspaper again.

It is also Emma Thompson's birthday. It turns out we were both born in the same year.

The Nod off approach

2011-04-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

It is funny how people ask what definite proof I can give them that the Nod off approach works. I can't really offer them anything hugely substantial for my own part (though much research has been done), but when I ask them 'Did you learn French from all those years at school?', they don't have much of a jambe to stand on.

Now and again I hear snippets that bolster the theory that sleep time is a fertile period to learn things in. I was chatting to a doctor who told me that they were advised as students not to chat during surgery. The patient may be under general anaesthetic but they can still hear what is being said around them. If the doctors believe it, then that's good enough for me.

Am just reading Eat, Pray and Love. I very much enjoyed the Eat part in Rome. Elizabeth Gilbert is pretty sharp at defining what it is to be Italian.

Meeting an order

2011-04-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

Last night I met an order. Or I should say customer. This month we are selling Nod off in French at £5. With exam season looming, it is the kind of revision tool that is ideal for students.

This week I had sent off a copy to someone in Glasgow. Imagine my surprise when she made herself known at the yoga class I was teaching. Not a native speaker of English, but someone who had been learning French for a while, she told me that already she had learnt a couple of new things.

That is the type of feedback we like to get.

The Nod offs don't just list rules, they try to show you why there is a rule.

Continuing on a yogic theme

2011-04-01T00:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had a phone call from my Uncle Jack and Aunt Liz in Australia. Jack is 91 and had a hip replacement just before Christmas. Despite it being a success, he is disappointed that it won't render him fit enough to return to one of his great loves, bush walking.

He is also a great cricket fan and we talked about the match India had won the day before when they beat Pakistan. Which then took him on a meander about Sikhs he had met and Punjab.

"You know what 'Punjab' means?" he asked. I had to confess not.

"Well it comes from "pan" the word for 5 and "jab" the word for "water" and refers to the 5 rivers in the Punjab region. People usually pronounce it wrongly when they say poonjab, it should be panjab." Blimey, I hope I get to his age and meander so interestingly.

Which today somehow made me think of Rudyard Kipling and the poem If. It turns out he was also named after water, Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire where his parents had canoodled. I had always wondered if he wasn't a secret yogi, given how the poem encapsulates all that I have learnt from yoga and it was no surprise to see this reference in the Wikipedia entry for Rudyard Kipling.

Well-known Indian historian and writer Khushwant Singh wrote in 2001 that he considers Kipling's If— "the essence of the message of The Gita in English".^[60] The text Singh refers to is the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Indian scripture.

Just in case you are not familiar with this poetic slice of Wisdom, here it is. (you can find out lots more stuff at the Kipling Society.

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Prison Phoenix Trust

2011-03-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, yoga is part of the fabric of my life. I do it, I teach it, I learn about it.

The Prison Phoenix Trust supports prisoners in their spiritual lives through meditation, yoga, silence and the breath. When I went for a day to learn about their work last year I was very moved by what they do and the people involved in the Trust. I receive a newsletter several times a year.

I was really struck by one prisoner's letter. He uses his breath as the lynch pin for meditation. What he wrote is simple, true and very, very wise.

"In spite of there being a multitude or hundreds of beliefs/religions in the world today, most people want peace without war and good health without loss, hurt or pain. Well-being, peace, is what we all would like, not material items."

The future of Waterstones

2011-03-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

There was I thinking about a month ago that I had hit the terrestrial jackpot because we were getting repeat orders from Waterstone's, than it all ground to a halt and our stock levels with Gardners Books remained stubbornly the same.

Well, it seems like we are caught up in a groundhog situation as described here. Perhaps when great turmoil is bubbling beneath the surface, stock ordering is put on hold.

If this is the case, it must be hurting an awful lot of publishers. Especially the smaller ones. Hopefully the whole Waterstone's situation will soon be resolved.

Una giornata bellissima

2011-03-24T05:20:00.001-07:00

No, it is not The Publishing Cupboard, but a free picture I got when I reinstalled Adobe Creative Suite. It's almost as beautiful a day as this in Glasgow.

Today I am happy because I have back Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop which had all gone down the swanny with my melted down hard drive.

Everything is back up and running but without the clutter (which also went down the swanny).

For those studying Italian, check out the BBC La Mappa Misteriosa. You can follow it via the clips. You are part of the action and it is just like being in Italy. Very clever.

Even the big boys can't find customers

2011-03-22T04:57:00.001-07:00

On BBC Breakfast today there was a piece on HMV and its woes. Apparently it just isn't getting customers. Their customers are probably the savvy sort of people who go online for everything. And the older generation are quite happy to pick up bits and bobs at the supermarket.

It is a cruel, cruel world out there and the sooner the bosses take action (using the expertise of their staff), the better. Which is what Waterstone's will have to do to do to stop them getting dragged down with HMV. Perhaps Waterstone's should adopt the John Lewis Partnership model and let the employees run the ship using all the resources of a centralised business. I bet it could work.

The terrestrial market for music and books will probably always be there (how many times have I heard people bemoan the loss of Woolworths?), but unless someone stops the rot, customers will have to go to where there are still the shops (back to the supermarkets).

So that is why ...

2011-03-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

I was getting no orders from Grant & Cutler, the dependable foreign language bookshop based in Great Marlborough St in London.

It turns out that Foyles have bought them and they have moved to the new site.

Dearie me, the book retailing business is in churning times. I had such a smooth relationship with G & C. I do hope it continues in their new venue. And the best of luck to them.

We need some serious Waterstone's Window dressing

2011-03-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

When Dominic Myers took over Waterstone's, I thought one of the first things he would do would be to get rid of those boring old posters that fill all the W's windows. So far, there's been no sign of it when I cycle along Argyle St in Glasgow. I think this month's fare is something pink and to do with Mother's Day.

Why, when such a lot of money and thought is spent on jacket design, are books not displayed in all their glory in the W's shop windows? Plus it would probably be a fun job for someone.

There could even be a bit lateral in what goes into the window. Maybe one week books with blue covers. One week it could be cookery books. One week it could be funny books. One week it could be monsters. Not paid for, of course, or else it looses its fun and independence.

The windows are what people look at and which should entice them in. The posters have always smacked of a corporate cop out. Waterstones, bring out your brightest and best window dressers and bring back a bit of wow factor.

Meno si spende, piu' si spende

2011-03-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

As I am staying with mamma, I thought I would share one of her wise old sayings. Translated it means 'The less you spend, the more you spend'. It is probably on a par with false economy.

The trouble is, one doesn't always have enough dosh to buy into the more expensive option.

Out of The Cupboard

2011-03-14T04:16:00.000-07:00

This week I'm out of The Cupboard in my home stomping ground, Lancaster. This is where my mother lives and I am staying with her for a week . My mother is 86 and Italian.

I happened to be reading the newspaper and she saw the headline featuring the word Google. The article was about relaxing UK copyright laws.

"What eez google? Eeez it something ee-legal?" She asked.

It is so refreshing to find there are still folk blissfully uaware of the internet.

Hoorah for Amazon!

2011-03-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

Now and again I write to Amazon to point out the rather strange behaviour attached to a number of reviews of the Nod offs - Nod off in Portuguese in particular. Anyway, they responded immediately and must have agreed with my assessment and the dodgy reviews have been removed.

Which means that Nod off in Portuguese is now back to 5-stars.

Presumably they have developed the tool for identifying negative behaviour.

For such a massive organisation, they were wonderfully efficient. I had a reply to my email the same day.

So many thanks to Amazon.

What is the way forward?

2011-03-03T00:16:00.001-08:00

I watched BBC's Question Time a few weeks ago and Michael Heseltine was on the panel. One of the subjects they discussed was the state of the UK economy and levels of unemployment. As most people know, British manufacturing has all but disappeared. Not the skills involved, just the industry itself. This is because employing people is expensive, it's cheaper to go elsewhere in the world where pay is lower.

The general consensus is that if Britain starts to manufacture things again, then this will be the making of the UK economy once more. Michael Heseltine agreed, but then went on to add that it won't be people making things, it will be robots. So how is that going to help the unemployment situation? I found it rather chilling.

When I went home to visit my mum, I had to catch a taxi the 10 miles to her house and I had a long chat with the driver. When I grew up in Lancaster in the 70s and 80s, Lancaster was the home of a number of light industries: it was a great manufacturer of lino for much of the 20th century. Now all the factories are closed.

Which means many men had to find a different way of earning money. Taxi driving being one of the most popular. Lancaster has too many taxis now. Throw into the equation the eyewatering cost of petrol and taxi drivers could be at crisis point.

I don't know what the answer is. Probably getting people to consume less in general. But the UK economy is now based on people buying things. With no money left over from petrol, food and the like, consumerism is not going to be the way forward. As St Augustine said 'It is better to need less than to have more.' This is something we should all take to heart while we come up with a solution.

ps The pic is of St Augustine, not Michael Heseltine. But I am sure you knew that.

Ho comprato il mio libro!

2011-03-01T05:10:00.000-08:00

Nicola Morgan posted a really neat idea for World Book Night, and one where everyone is a winner. Today I duly cycled up to The Hyndland Bookshop and bought this book to give away. I like Adriana Trigiani. Her books are warm and funny with an Italian link spun through them and I am hoping that my recipient will enjoy it too.

I also had a nice chat with David Kinnear of The Hyndland Bookshop about publishing in general. Although not a huge shop, the books are obviously ones that appeal given the number of browsers that were in there.

It is amazing to think that the 3rd largest city in Britain (after London and Birmingham) has only one independent bookshop. Even more amazing, it had just what I wanted.

How a mobile made me fall off my bicycle

2011-02-27T07:32:00.001-08:00

Before I regail (just joking, H) with the story of the unfortunate event today, I would like to thank Harry and Catdownunder for pointing out the errors of my previous blog. Due, no doubt, to the stresses and strains of living with chargers. I wonder whether there is a name for mixing up an acronym, something similar to a malapropism? If so, I am sure Harry will let us know. If not, maybe it is time to plant a word in the ether and see how long it takes to catch on.

Today's unfortunate incident came about because of the need of my youngest daughter's to sign up for a new phone contract. The only good thing about today was that she agreed to cycle into Glasgow with me. Now, call me old-fashioned, but if you sign up for a £15 a month SIM card, wouldn't you assume that after the allocated allowance was used up (300 mins calls, unlimited texts), the wretched thing would cut off? That is what I had naively assumed when I signed up for one. It also meant there would be no danger of someone else running up a huge bill if she lost it. Ha! How wrong could I be when a couple of months ago I received a bill for £45 (instead of £15). Obviously this is how mobile companies make their money. When I complained, they just pointed out (as though I were some deranged old bat) that my daughter could always check how much time she had left. My question is, why can't they provide a cut-off service once the limit is reached? How difficult could that be?

Anyway, Luisa decided to opt for the same network as her best friend so they could talk trivialities ad infinitum. The problem being her phone was Orange and therefore needed to be unlocked. The unlocking shop was closed (it being Sunday) and Luisa gave me earache about how she couldn't wait another day without a mobile. I remembered the adage that successful people are the ones who are prepared to wait for something and felt I should instill this attitude in her. The feeling that my head was about to explode with the whole wretched business coincided with my my need to mount the pavement. And rather than do it straight on, I attempted it from the side. All cyclists know this is a mistake. I could feel myself falling and just went with the flow as my head and body bounced off the pavement. A kindly couple scraped me off the floor, picked up my scattered specs and asked if I was ok. Which I was sort of. Luisa keenly felt the shame of seeing me fall and asked if I wasn't embarrassed by it.

Well, reader, the outcome was positive. Luisa kept shtum about her lack of mobile.

Chargers

2011-02-25T04:53:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time a charger was something a handsome knight rode into battle on. Now it is the bain of my life. Once upon a time the only mystery in a home was why one ended up with so many single socks. Now I have a jungle of chargers springing out of drawers (rather like the spun sugar you see on MasterChef puddings). And we are not talking horses here.

They seem to multiply, they seem to tangle together, they seem never to be the right one for the thing it has to plug into. Why is that? I spend hours looking for one, give into moaning offspring, buy a replacement, only to find the one I was looking for the very next day. Why is that?

I believe a pancharger is coming into being. About bloody time too. Why is it that the mobile/ipod/camera/game industries contrive to torment us with all these different types of charger?

No wonder our lives our stressful. As well as having DAD (Deficit Attention Disorder) produced from all these gadgets, we also have CFC (Can't Find Charger) to contend with.

Synchronicity or what?

2011-02-24T02:04:00.000-08:00

As often happens, I had to google the word to be able to spell it. Which means I learnt a great deal on synchronicity from Wikipedia.

The synchronicity in this case is a follow-up from my last post because no sooner had I mentioned the name Harry Bingham, then there he was being signed up by Orion for his crime series.

So you want to be a writer?

2011-02-17T03:02:00.001-08:00

Take a look at this. Harry (of The Writers' Workshop) led me to it. It is very funny. Here is a link to Harry's blog.

Time to accentuate the e-positive

2011-02-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

If you didn't catch this post which was posted in retrospect, please do have a read.

The missing mobile

2011-02-06T08:59:00.001-08:00

Last week my youngest daughter lost her mobile phone. She was distraught. I was uptight. Even though she only has a SIM contract, I found out to my cost last month that if she went over the allotted monthly time (300 minutes in her case) we got charged a hefty bill. There was me naively assuming her phone would cut off once those minutes were up.

Already I imagined someone finding her phone and calling and calling and calling. But lucky us, she had dropped it in Waterstones and someone had handed it in. Wouldn't it be nice to say that it must have fallen as she handed over the dosh for Little Women or The Phoenix and the Carpet. Alas no, dear reader, she had been buying a frightfully expenisve Gruffalo water bottle (to add to her slightly odd collection) .
To cut a long story shorter, Waterstones kindly phoned me to say it had been handed in. Poor Luisa had to extricate herself from the Argos Catalogue where she was blithely selecting her replacement model of phone.

When I went to pick up the phone, I happened to be looking at the shelf where Nod off in French lay stubbornly unbought on its side. I wondered whether it was destined for a return. After thanking the Waterstones man for the phone, I nonchalantly mentioned. 'I publish that book that is on its side. Are you planning to return it?' Anyway he kindly offered to check the system to see if any had been sold. (Sadly not). And then went on to explain how it worked. If one or two got sold from the store then this triggered the computerised system to automatically replace it. No human intervention needed.

Given that having your book selected by a central buyer is pretty much impossible, even for the big publishers, if you are confident that your book can be sold then the best approach is to make sure that you contact each Waterstone's individually and try to convince the buyer to stock it. However you probably still need to get it stocked by a wholesaler such as Gardners Books or Bertrams (even that can be quite a haul in itself). I eventually managed to get Gardners to take me on on formal trade terms (in my case 57.5% discount).

That is if you want to be in the terrestrial bookshops. Amazon, of course, have oodles of shelf space.

But just recently I have been getting the impression that ebooks are going to be the main way forward for would be authors. And even though I am usually slagging off the whole ebook thing, I fear I am going to have to eat my ewords.

So see you soon for the next instalment.

Save Our Libraries

2011-02-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

Here in Glasgow we have one of the best libraries in the world, the Mitchell Library. It has one of the best collections on the history of puppet theatre. Do make a visit.

Time to accentuate the e-positive?

2011-02-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

I wonder whether I am wrong about the whole e-book thing. I like books, I was brought up on books but maybe it is time to look at the upside of Kindles and e-books rather than always homing in on the negative.

And I am going to look at it from a writer's point of view and all the pluses it has to offer. A little while ago Catdownunder blogged about a rather unpleasant encounter of the publishing kind. Basically she was being told she didn't stand a hope in hell of getting her writing published.

That is the trouble with many terrestrial publishers. They are often staffed by people:
a) Who don't have enough time to do their jobs, never mind look at uncharted authors. Therefore unless you are already a popular established (probably genre) author, a celebrity or someone who stands out in some way trailing their own audience (blog, website, etc), then you haven't much hope of being taken on.
b) Marketing-led decision makers. These ones want to replicate the bestseller that has just earned another publishing house squillions.
c) People who don't listen and dismiss out of hand hard thought out proposals taken to publishing meetings. These people can wreak the most damage with just one throw away remark. Once a thought has been vocalised, it can kill an idea stone dead.

Say you even do manage to get your work published, more often than not publishers only market the popular titles leaving little resources for the outsiders. Increasingly it's getting difficult to get the outsiders into bookshops at all. They probably have a 3-month selling gasp and then get returned (that's if they ever left the warehouse in the first place).

So maybe the whole terrestrial route into publishing is one to leave to last. Let them come to you if you manage to find your own audience in the e-sphere. I say this because I have noticed a couple of interesting articles about writers who have found their e-audience on the increase. May be we have reached a tipping point as is suggested.

Once article is about Catherine Ryan Howard and her e-book describing her time working at Disney. Make sure you read the comment to the article by Victoria Twead. Clicking on her name will take you to her blog and her own book about moving to Spain. It looks like she is another e-success. The other is a blog by Susan O'Leary and her experiences. I would say that these authors are all finding an audience through Kindle.

May be it is worth going this route and seeing what happens. It obviously works well with humourous accounts of personal experiences. I suspect a price of £2.99 works in its favour.

You just need to look at ways of taking a manuscript to e-book form (with a good cover). It needn't be expensive and if you can find your market it won't be long before you recoup your investment. You won't end up with hundreds (if not thousands) of books unsold under your bed, in your cupboards, in the loft, etc, like many who are drawn to self publishing. I'll try to find out who offers a reasonable service if you feel you aren't able to do it yourself.

A positive result on the Stalking Front

2011-02-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

Readers of my blog will be aware that it is my perception that I have the odd stalking reviewer on Amazon. Although I failed to get Amazon to remove them completely, they did remove someone who claimed never to have bought or listened to a Nod Off but proceeded to rubbish it.

The reason I believe my perception to be correct is the fact that there are a high number of people who click on the bad reviews to render them most helpful. This is odd behaviour and therefore I rest my perception.

Anyway, I think the bad reviews have scared people off. I have sold hardly anything off Amazon recently and have therefore lost the discount earned from being relatively well bought. In the meantime my sales through a terrestrial chain I perceive to be Waterstones have increased. Hoorah, this is exactly what I aimed for in those far off optimistic days. The Nod Offs were priced for an impulse terrestrial purchase. The slightly quirky approach to learning grammar, coupled with stunning covers (designed by the wonderful Fi Steel), were designed to appeal to disheartened language learners.

The problem has been getting onto their radars. You will be glad to know I have a slightly upbeat perception that the tide is turning. I will keep you posted.

The King's Speech

2011-01-26T11:24:00.000-08:00

What a film! If this doesn't sweep the Oscar table I will eat 52 Nod offs in Portuguese. The script is crystal cut and the acting splendiferous. I particularly liked the close ups of the craggy Geoffrey Rush. What an expressive face. Needless to say I was blubbering for much of the time.

Are websites so yesterday?

2011-01-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

It is funny, websites that I like to visit seem to be stagnating. And they are usually run by computer savvy folk who have no problems updating.

The websites I refer to are ones belonging to small publishers. Does this mean that a website isn't such an important tool in the great scheme of things? Does anyone buy a book off a publisher's website or do they automatically turn to Amazon? Or are websites being ditched in favour of twitter as a means of keeping people updated?

Questions, questions, questions. But a stagnant website must mean that energies are being spent elsewhere. It would be interesting to know where and why.

20 years in Glasgow

2011-01-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

Today it is 20 years since I moved to Glasgow. I had only meant to come for a couple of years and then head back to London (and civilisation as I probably viewed it then). After working in publishing in London for several years I wanted to see if I could do the same thing outside of London and I landed up working for HarperCollins in Glasgow for 15 years.

I fear that the answer to this experiment is that publishing per se is becoming increasingly difficult, wherever you are.

Libraries are very important

2011-01-20T01:36:00.000-08:00

Here in the Uk the swingeing council cuts are starting with announcements last week of 2000 council jobs to go in Manchester and 1200 announced yesterday from Hampshire County Council. Indeed the BBC reckon that over 25,000 council jobs will go from England alone.

In Scotland the situation will be even more dire as the public sector accounts for approximately 1 in 4 jobs of total employment.

The ripple effect of large swathes of people losing well paid secure employment will, I believe, be catastrophic and one that is totally unpredictable.

The UK government certainly knows how to make everyone's lives a misery. In order to get the UK fiscal house in order, ordinary families are going to have to suffer. Whilst we all pay for the country's deficit, who pays for each indvidual's household deficit? Weren't we all encouraged to spend more than we had in those heady days of 100% mortgages and cheap loans? Who is going to help bearing the debt burden that many families struggle with? The government cannot point the finger at them and say they should have been more prudent when that is exactly what the government (even if it was the previous one) did itself.

And the soft target of closing libraries is even more despicable. This is where the young, old and unemployed can at least spend their days surrounded by warmth, books, computers and some sense of community. For the commuity is where help for those many people suffering from anxiety and depression, caused by the situation we find ourselves in, will be forthcoming.

Tough times

2011-01-18T00:18:00.000-08:00

The closure of 20 branches of Waterstones and British Bookshops entering in administration are evidence of the tough times. Stephen Batemen has written an interesting blog on how publishers could approach these tough times.

He uses the term 'rightsize'. I had never heard it before but it is very neat.

Our Australian friends

2011-01-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

I haven't managed to get to the cinema to see The King's Speech but I have read some rave reviews. If you want to see what our Australian friends think of it, go visit Catdownunder and read her thoughtful blog.

Still one day to go

2011-01-04T01:52:00.000-08:00

Until life resumes as normal in Scotland after the Christmas and New Year frenzy. It will be interesting to see how things go here in the UK with the big spending cuts making their presence felt. Today the rise in VAT (now 20%) takes place. With the growth of our economy firmy reliant on consumerism, it is difficult to see how the government thinks things are going to improve. On the one hand government departments are demanding huge cuts in expenditure, and on the other they are asking university students to fork out up to £9K in university fees. It doesn't make sense. Of course the university fees are borrowed in most cases and not required to be paid back until the student is earning 20K per annum. But it is still a huge debt burden for both students (mentally) and the government (to actually shoulder) to bear. It would be interesting to see what percentage of the money already lent to students has been paid back.

Buon Anno

2011-01-01T09:48:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year, folks! I hope this finds you all hearty and well and looking forward to what 2011 holds.

We have had a quiet Christmas and New Year in Glasgow and Lancaster. Scotland finishes celebrating tomorrow: then life resumes as normal. Hoorah.

The Library of Lost Books

2010-11-23T04:03:00.000-08:00

Hoorah! Something interesting to blog about. Over at Me and my big mouth Scott Pack is revealing his brilliant new venture. Never having ordered a print-0n-demand (POD) book, I am going to order Krabat and read it to my daughters (or perhaps I'll just keep it to myself). It will be interesting to see how a POD compares to a normal paperback and it will give me something to report back on.

I am suffering from GAT (sorry for all these acronyms!) - guilty all the time. Apparently it is something we are becoming overburdened with, especially women. I discovered the syndrome in the free magazine Stylist which is a really good read. I fear blogging (or not blogging) is a great cause of GAT for me.

Fingers and toes

2010-11-11T01:06:00.000-08:00

In Italian a number of words associated with the body have irregular plurals. I am not quite sure why and it probably merits a bit of investigation.

Language learners are often thrown when one word is used for two distinct items. In this case, fingers and toes (il dito). However, remember that language is not words in isolation, they are used against a backdrop and this backdrop is known as context. If you are talking to someone or reading something you will know immediately whether dito is referring to a finger or toe.

And Italian is very logical when you think about it. Your fingers, which are your basic tool for counting, are very much bound up with the number 10 dieci (ten). And ten applies to both fingers and toes. Look at all the English "ten" words that can be connected to this: digit, decimal, decibel, decathlon, decade and so on.

Non ho l'età

2010-11-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

The posting before from YouTube is Gigliola Cinquetti singing the song that won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964. She was only 16 so the title (I'm not old enough - literally 'I don't have the age') is apt.

Listen to it a few times and then read the words. The vocab is really useful and her voice is so clear.

Non ho l'età
Non ho l'età per amarti
Non ho l'età per uscire sola con te

E non avrei
Non avrei
Nulla da dirti
Perché, tu sai
Molte più cose di me

Lascia che io viva
Un amore romantico
Nell' attesa
Che venga quel giorno
Ma ora no

Non ho l'età
Non ho l'età per amarti
Non ho l'età per uscire sola con te

Se tu vorrai
Se tu vorrai
Aspettarmi
Quel giorno avrai
Tutto il mio amore per te

Lascia che io viva
Un amore romantico
Nell' attesa
Che venga quel giorno
Ma ora no

Non ho l'età
Non ho l'età per amarti
Non ho l'età per uscire sola con te

Se tu vorrai
Se tu vorrai
Aspettarmi
Quel giorno avrai
Tutto il mio amore per te

Written by Mario Panzeri / Nicola Salerno

A beautiful Italian song from 1964 - more info on next blog

2010-11-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

facebook

2010-11-05T02:05:00.000-07:00

Proably lots of you are already on facebook but yesterday I signed up properly. Before you could say PublishingCupboard a good friend from University days had put up pictures of us from about 1981 and there I was staring at my thin young self.

Once I had gotten over that shock I went onto a niece's page to find myself displayed in a picture from last summer wearing a swimsuit and looking remarkably like Michelin woman.

That, my friends, is why I find facebook rather scary.

Reconnected with Susan Hill

2010-10-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

There was me thinking that Susan Hill had stoppped blogging. I have refound her blogging at The Spectator - hurrah! I really enjoy her blog.

New words to learn

2010-10-28T02:42:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Harry for his interesting comments. I am going to go with his Proto-Indo-European view of language as he went from siege to Upanishad and the Upanishads are part of the yoga tradition.

The new words for this week are now up. Formal Italian can be strikingly different to the local dialect. In the dialect of Tremezzina (on Lake Como) una sedia (chair) is una cadrega.

Now, Harry, your challenge is to find out why.

Wherever you leave your bottom

2010-10-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

Last week's Italian words featured sedersi (to sit). It comes directly from Latin and if you look at English you can see how it has become seated in the language. Here are a few examples and thanks to the Online Etymology Dictionary which provided the examples. Take my descriptions with a pinch of salt:

saddle - seat for a rider.
sediment - what you find at the bottom of a bottle of wine or a pond/river to describe the stuff that has settled on the bottom.
residence - where your bottom keeps returning to, your home.
sedentary - remaining on your bottom in one place.
obsess - literally 'to sit opposite to'. In other words never moving the bottom of your mind from one fixed spot.
Eisteddfod - 'annual assembly of Welsh bards'. They obviously sat together on their bahookeys.

Cynthia Harnett - an author to be revisited

2010-10-21T03:35:00.000-07:00

I have just come back from a few days in Italy where I read The Load of Unicorn as recommended by Catdownunder. It is a story about William Caxton and his attempts to print books and the scriveners attempts to block him doing so.

It was brilliantay. It even had line drawings by the author, Cynthia Harnett. It was a great insight into the beginnings of printing. It also reminded me of another of her books that I had read as a child and which left a distinct bookmark in my mind. It is The Wool Pack. I am now going to order it and re-read it.

Many thanks, Catdownunder, for leading me back to it.

An interesting observation

2010-10-06T04:03:00.000-07:00

In the quest for the holy grail of where publishing needs to be, there was this interesting comment on the Bookseller website.

By Mary Tod

As you point out, the publishing industry is undergoing severe trauma. I remember my father daying to me many years ago that the telephone industry needed to stop thinking of themselves as in the telephone business and start thinking of themselves as being in the communication business, a comment that seems obvious now but wasn't thirty or more years ago. A possible parallel for publishing is to think of themselves in (a) the content business, (b) the entertainment business, (c) the reading business, (d) the writing business. I'm sure there are more alternatives. Nothing less than a total change of perspective will do. My humble opinion :)

Blogger's block

2010-09-29T05:17:00.000-07:00

Some people/companies are very successful bloggers. Some get you hooked and then abandon you to weeks of clicking forlornly on their site until you really believe that they aren't coming back (Susan Hill's blog was one in case).

Some homebloggers update you with endless details/photos of their children and make you feel inadequate that you are not able to do the same.

Some bloggers relive their love lives (usually unsuccessful) in such detail that you wonder they are not using the blog as a notepad for their next novel.

Some bloggers moan about their field without offering many solutions. Unfortunately this is the camp I fall into. Mind you, a friend recently gave me a keyring with Caroline on it listing the qualities that the name embodies. I was most pleased to see "makes positive out of negative".

This is always the way I have operated. I look at all the downsides of a project and then try to figure out a positive solution. But it doesn't put me in a good light. I end up sounding like a lugubrious Clement Freud instead of a happy positive Davina McCall.

Still, one can't change one's nature and I have strayed from my blogpoint.

Some bloggers have a hook on which to hang their outlook. It might be spreading the word about books they have read; it might be interviewing authors to illuminate ways into publishing.

It is time to get out of my negative groove and find me a hook. As a publisher of languages, I am inclined to ramble down some word paths and see where they take me. I'll probably focus on Italian and I hope my visitors want to join me.

Eliminate the negative

2010-09-23T10:43:00.001-07:00

I fear I have been rather negative over the state of publishing and I apologise for this.

However, this interview with Tim Waterstone is a potted history of how we have ended up where we are. Reading this I realised why noone will be able to replicate what he did setting up the Waterstone's bookshops.

The answer is in this section of the interview

Books, we're constantly being told, have no future. Waterstone disagrees. Certainly, the abolition of the Net Book Agreement, which ensured books had to sell at cover price and could not be discounted in supermarkets, has made trading challenging. Waterstone was strongly in favour of the agreement and doubts he could have got his shops off the ground without it.

"WH Smith had by far the biggest market share. We could open a store right beside them and they couldn't cut prices against us. They had to compete on stock and staff and everything else. And I knew they couldn't. We were very good booksellers and people not being able to cut prices against us meant we were able to triumph because we were better at it than everybody else.

"Would the industry like the agreement back? None of them would say yes publicly but there wouldn't be a single person in publishing or bookselling who wouldn't say yes please. It was a safer, easier industry and I think the consumer was better served too."

Anyone out there got any good ideas?

The Fry effect

2010-09-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

This week saw the publication of The Fry Chronicles on a number of "platforms". Stephen Fry is a real e-man so it is fitting that his work is launched this way and no doubt he provided invaluable input on how to acheive it.

How, I wonder, are lesser endowed authors, editors and publishers going to cope with keeping up with the Frys? It will probably make working in publishing very stressful for "traditional" editors (let's say ones over 45) who may be good with words and manuscripts but not so up-to-date with using Facebook, Twitter and the like. Dearie me, I've just painted a picture of myself.

It will also require lots of team patience between editors, marketers and the techie end of things to ensure that all are working from the same e-sheet. As most publishing houses have streamlined the editorial staff to the bones, I don't think the great new e-revolution is going to be that fun to work in from an editorial point of view.

I may be wrong, but let's see.

Most telling comment

2010-09-10T04:21:00.000-07:00

Following on from the discounting question, particularly of Tony B's autobiography, this comment in the bookseller has to be the most telling:

By Bored Bookseller

I'm quite bored of havign to move the Blair book from our crime section... if you ARE going to try and make that kind of statement, at least have the common sense tp move it to the 'True Crime' section rather than into crime fiction. Tsk. Anyway, our most frequent conversation is trying to explain why the book is ALREADY half-price.

10 Sep 10 09:56

Unsuitable?

If you want to read the article the comment is on, here it is.

Publishers are doing no one (not even the consumer) any favours by selling books half price just as they come onto the market. It makes people suspect it's not worth full price. And it certainly doesn't help people trying to make a living out of selling books.

Need to knock publishing heads together

2010-09-06T05:43:00.001-07:00

Following on from last week's blog about selling Tony B's autobiography for half price and Harry and Cat's comments, I think the real problem lies with publishers and how they themselves devalue what they produce.

There was also an interesting article and comments in the Bookseller regarding Tesco having esclusivity to the next Robbie Williams' autobiography.

I put the blame entirely with the publishers, by the way. They don't seem capable of joined up thinking. I mean, what bookseller would then want to stock this book? And the result will be that it will put them in a bad light in customers' eyes through no real fault of their own. They will only be getting a 30% discount from the publisher so they can't offer it at half price.

Anyway, there will be a bit more to add later on.

Why half price?

2010-09-02T00:04:00.001-07:00

Coverage of Tony Blair's autobiography was all over the TV yesterday. You could see it on sale in what was obviously a Waterstone's. Imagine my surprise when I saw the sticker "half price".

Now here is a hotly anticipated book. It cost a massive advance. It has been widely reported that Tony B's revenue from this book will be going to charity, so why are they selling it at half price? Talk about making the public suspicious of a book that is sold at full price. And how about all that lost revenue to the charity? I'm not going to buy the argument that more copies are going to be sold at half price. Not for this book. All the sellers (supermarkets and Amazon included) should have agreed amongst themselves not to sell it below the rrp.

No wonder the publishing industry is wallowing about not knowing how to save itself.

A treasure trove of reading

2010-08-30T07:03:00.001-07:00

The good thing about my mother's house in Italy is that it is stuffed full of books - mainly detective stories. And they span a good 30 years. This year I came across a couple of books by someone I had never heard of before - Lawrence Sanders. Both books I read were very entertaining.

I see that Mr Sanders was very prolific and popular in his day but now it looks as though his books are out of print. Why don't publishers breathe new life into books that still have great appeal?

Makes marketing sense

2010-08-28T03:23:00.001-07:00

There was an interesting article in The Bookseller about an author, Kit Berry, winning a six-figure sum for rights to her self-published series.

After receiving quite a number of rejections (including one from the publisher that have made the offer) she self-published and I think there are now 4 or 5 books in the series.

Why did Gollanz/Orion want her now? Because she has built up a loyal following through her own home-grown social network site. She brings to the publisher this loyal band of readers.

Imagine they had published her first book 5 years ago? It would have probably received minimal marketing and exposure. It may have not sold many copies. The publishers would probably not have bothered with the next book and poor Kit Berry might have felt that her books weren't good enough.

But going down the route that she has has proved that wrong and she has ended up with the best of both worlds.

Publishers often publish too many books and give them too few resources to succeed. If you really believe in your book and you don't get a publishing deal, this may be a route to explore. The article gives you some tips on how Kit Berry made it work for her.

Don't think it is an easy option, I don't wonder that building up a community like this takes a lot of determination and hard work. Perhaps more than writing the book.

Hoorah for the Amazon Police

2010-08-26T00:42:00.000-07:00

Long time visitors might be aware of my suspicions that a stalking Amazon reviewer had burrowed their way into The Cupboard leaving one star reviews for the Nod offs that left a bad taste in the mouth and a suspicious feeling in the gut.

It all began when the last Nod off title was published and it transpired that the author came in a wake of similar reviews. When a bad review appeared and it appeared largely unfounded I have always alerted Amazon. Up til now they were unable to do much.

Last week a review appeared for Nod off in Italian stating that the reviewer didn't have a copy of the Nod off, nor did he ever intend to, followed by some scathing remarks about the approach.

Like a ferret up a drainpipe, I contacted Amazon and lo and behold they removed the review (and all traces of the reviewer) within an hour.

I was amazed. It was the first time it had happened. It looks like Amazon are determined to stamp out any negative behaviour on the reviewing front. And as the publisher, it made me feel a little less powerless.

Sicilian style

2010-08-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

While we were in Italy a friend of mine bought the latest Andrea Camilleri novel about the Sicilian detective Montalbano. You can see a picture of it here. It is 12cm x 17cm..

This series of books has to be won of the most beautifully produced that I have seen.

The paper is cream and the typeface clear. The book is bound so that it is easy to read. All in all (like my bicycle) a thing of perfection.

And it cost her 14 euros which is over £10. My friend didn't begrudge one cent of it. I don't know how the state of Italian publishing is at the moment but this publishing house in Sicily certainly knows how to produce a work of art.

Why UK publishers publish so many sized paperbacks, especially the huge ones you buy in airports, is a mystery to me. I really like the size of Montalbano.

Tooth brushing

2010-08-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

I know it is not book related, but I found this most interesting.

Last week we went en famille for a dental check up. The girls went first and were declared ok though Jessica wasn't brushing her molars enough around the gums. Anyway I asked our dentist for a bit of advice on the toothbrushing front and what he said has completeley revolutionised our toothbrushing.

1. Use a brush with a small head. It gets to the back bits better.

2. Have 2 toothbrushes - one for the morning and one for the evening. They have to be dry when you place the toothpaste on them. So after you have brushed in the morning, wash the brush and leave it for 24 hours to dry out (hence the evening toothbrush).

3. Do not wet your toothbrush at any point. There is enough saliva in your mouth for the job. Which means no longer do we leave the tap running throughout the toothbrushing time. I had always felt guilty at how wasteful this was. And it is true, you don't need any water (which only dilutes and washes away the toothpaste). Your mouth ends up producing copious amounts of saliva.

4. Do not rinse your mouth out, leave it as it is to let the toothpaste carry on working on teeth and gums. Again it makes sense.

5. Make sure you brush for 2 minutes (probably twice as long as we had been doing).

Anyway, we've been doing it and it cleans your teeth a treat. With no water wasted.

As with my washing machine experience, it is always good to find out these things.

Tomorrow we will return to more bookish things. Maybe ...

Screen fatigue

2010-08-19T10:33:00.002-07:00

I wonder if pure and simple screen fatigue will ensure the future of the printed book.

I was listening to a radio programme live from the Edinburgh Book fair discussing the issue with punters. One girl sagely said that she liked ebooks for study and research but preferred the printed form for leisure. I think that makes perfect sense.

There is room for both.

I appreciate the scope of a car but I love the perfection of my bicycle which needs nothing but my effort to power it. Likewise I appreciate the scope of ebooks but I love the perfection of a book which needs nothing but my eyesight to bring it to life.

Screen fatique]]

2010-08-19T10:33:00.001-07:00

Cufflinks

2010-08-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

It is clear that the UK political scene is lacking in women. I wonder whether it is because they just can't be arsed - their children and family usually take priority in their lives so they end up taking work that suits their situation rather than their potential.

Of course I may be wrong. But many of the women I know are great organisers of the lives of their nearest and dearest. Sometimes I find that I have left the house without looking in a mirror to check what I look like, never mind sprucing myself up.

Yet when I look at the leaders of the political parties and those around them, I am struck by one, well actually two things. Cufflinks. I know it is rather petty but I rather resent the fact that not only do these guys have time to faff about with cufflinks they also run the country.

I think all is not quite right with the world. But how do you rectify it?

By the way, it is good to be back, and nice to hear from Catdownunder.

Back in Scotland

2010-08-17T02:30:00.001-07:00

Hi there, visitors. The Publishing Cupboard is back on Scottish soil after a very hot lazy summer in Italy. In an attempt to make a few changes I have done something to the background of the blog. Not sure if it is an improvement but I will leave it for now.

Here in Scotland schools went back yesterday. It feels like we are slipping into Autumn.

I really enjoyed stepping off the information superhighway for our stay in Italy, I rarely looked at my email and just enjoyed living in a real world. You soon realise that life goes on without you.

However, I am going to try and be more regular with the blogging as I know how frustrating it is to visit a site and find no signs of life.

The book world has trundled on. Still the debate over discounts and e-books goes on. My advice to anyone entering publishing with a view to working on paper books should think long and hard about it. The idea of pouring over text with a pencil to weed out bad grammar and misplaced commas is fast disappearing. But perhaps there are not many people still interested in doing that.

I think the problem with books is the discounting. Nobody wants to pay full price and the publishers went along with this. My daughter is desperate to buy a pair of Ugg boots and she knows she is going to have to fork out an inordinate amount of money for them. Yet she accepts this. It is pity we can't do the same with books. Just a consonant apart but a world of difference.

Anyway, I am back and I hope to be a bit more online.

A whole month has passed

2010-06-27T16:00:00.001-07:00

Since I last blogged and although I have stepped back into The Cupboard, it's time to head off to Lake Como until August. So it's l'Armadio from now until then.

I have also had to suffer the blow of both Italy and England being ejected from the World Cup.

Still a month on the lake should restore my spirits. I will blog intermittently between bathes in the lake.

I hope you are all well out there in the ether.

Sorry for the silence

2010-05-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to be so sparse with posts but I have had to step out of The Cupboard to work on another project. Unfortunately it is leaving me no time to do anything else apart from sleep.

Hope all is well out there and I look forward to returning to the blog in a couple of weeks.

The new order

2010-05-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

So here we are with a shiny new coalition government. I think this is where things are going to get really tough. It feels as though people were holding off action until the general election and now they realise there is no time left and they have to start taking the unavoidable painful measures.

I happened to be walking past a few pubs in Glasgow last night and they were like ghost venues populated only by staff. People are obviously tightening their belts and the money is not flowing in the bars.

The Dave/Nick partnership is going to have to come up with a brave new order of things. I don't think trying to get the masses to spend more to get the economy's wheels turning is the answer. So if consumerism is not the answer, I wonder what is?

Namaste

2010-05-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

Today I taught an early morning Salute to the Sun class at BBC Scotland. They happen to be just over the river (Clyde) from me and have a great gym facility. This was the first class out of a session of 10 and was most enjoyable.

Richard Hittleman set me on my yogic path in about 1977. He had a TV programme on each week. I bought his book, the 28-day exercise plan and followed it for the next 28 days. Even now I come across people (of a certain age) who did just that.

That was 33 years ago. As I taught the class today, I summed up the goal of yoga which it has taken me this long to understand.

It is very simple.

It is stillness of mind.

And I realise as the teacher I am not so much teaching them poses as opening up their minds to this possibility.

Have a good day.

Flash Fiction

2010-05-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

It's funny how you may never have heard of something one day and then when you do it keeps flashing up.

Which is what has happened with a new literary form called Flash Fiction. Apparently the ideal piece of flash fiction tells a complete story in as few words as possible.

A while back I had entered a short story competition at Mslexia. I didn't win but among the non-winning letter bumph were opportunities to send in other forms of writing. To find out more about flash fiction visit their guidelines.

Then blow me if I didn't come across an invitation to a flash fiction competition at Nicola Morgan's Wasted website. For any aspiring writers, Nicola has a very informative blog called Help! I need a publisher (soon to be transfromed into a book published by Snowbooks).

Which neatly brings me back to phrases and the last blog. When you compile a phrase book it is almost a compilation of flash fiction. You have to imagine the scenario a traveller might find themself in and produce a short pithy phrase or question.

And phrases change with the times. When I first worked on phrase books in the early 90s, still lurking amongst the "Where is the nearest post office?" was "Will this cheese travel well?". And I was always inordinately fond of "Can I have a legless chair?" for the visitor to Japan whose back muscles might not be up to par for sitting on the floor.

So maybe I will have a crack at flash fiction.

Volcanic phrases

2010-04-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

When I worked on phrasebooks I don't think we even included the word volcano in the dictionary section of our phrasebooks.

And whilst emergencies might have included the rather wordy and pretty useless:
'Please stop the bus my child is going to be sick'

They certainly didn't include:
'The volcanic ash has grounded my flight'.

Phrasebook publishers amongst you. It's time to think about a European VolcApp phrasebook for the next eruption.

The planet fights back

2010-04-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

There was an interesting programme on BBC the other day about James Lovelock and the Gaia Theory. For those who can't access the BBC, you can see this snippet on YouTube.

Masses of people have campaigned to cut flying to reduce carbon emissions. It took one erupting volcano to effectively do that.

Our gadgets may be impressive but in the face of nature they are shown to be completely useless.

I am all in favour of believing that all living thing contain an intelligence. Even dead ones. I used to put my shoes together at night in case they got lonely!

When things aren't going as they should be, they tend to fight back. Take IBS. You might not think your intestines are intelligent but treat them badly by starving, stuffing and eating spasmodically and they will let you know that they are not happy.

Falling off the blogosphere

2010-04-14T05:14:00.000-07:00

My browsing world seems to be shrinking. There are a few blogs that I visit regularly and I always feel bereft when they go ablog and stop writing. One of these is another tiny publishing company that was based up near Ullapool, Two Ravens Press. They are heading to even more remote parts and have decided to stop blogging (at least on publishing). But if you want to read about the trials and tribulations of setting up a small publishing company, you should work backwards through their blog. It will show you how difficult it really is.

Hits the nail on the head

2010-04-10T04:47:00.001-07:00

I'm a great fan of Saturday's guardian. I usually begin with the magazine and every week I turn to Oliver Burkeman's (pictured above) column about changing your life (I am a sucker for self-help stuff). Anyway after months of skimming what he says, he wrote a piece that hits the nail on the head. If you could apply what he says about self-discipline to all aspects of your life, then it's probably all the advice you'll ever need.

Not a good thing

2010-04-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

According to my yogi friends, you get about 20 per cent of your engergy from food, 50 per cent from air and 30 per cent from nature.

I have always been slightly hostile to wind turbines. I couldn't put my finger on why. I think it is because they are an eyesore. They interfere with the beauty of nature.

My best friend died of cancer a few years ago. During her final months she told me that she got the most pleasure from going on walks around her home. I realise now that she must have derived some source of energy from the beauty around her.

Rather than build massive wind farms, shouldn't we focus on using less energy and leave nature alone. She is, after all, one of our major sources of energy.

apologies for going blogawol

2010-04-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

As there is nothing more frustrating than blog silence. Mine is a result of suddenly becoming very busy (but outside the Cupboard). Add to that an Easter visit to my Italian mamma (who lives near Lancaster). My father was all soft edges. My mother is all hard corners. They evened each other out. The only mistake my father made was dying too young. My mother's edges have become distinctively sharp as she totters into her late 80s. The frustrating thing is that she is often right in her acerbic comments.

Comments like 'I haven't seen your daughters with a book in their hands' as Luisa sat glued to Hanna Montana from dawn to dusk. I always mumble something ineffectual about how they read in Glasgow.

Now, I know she is right and I should be a bit more assertive on the book front but her talking about how she read anything she could lay her hands on shouldn't really be used as an argument. In her day the only other activity was embroidering white linen so I reckon reading was the equivalent of her watching TV. No doubt her old grandmother Carolina (whom I was named after) was probably making the same acerbic comments to my mother's mother.

Anyway, I am back in the blogworld so look out for some distinctly flaky future blogs.

Hope you all had a happy Easter!

You are never too old to learn

2010-03-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

Now and again I trot out the statement:
'There are 4 classes in Britain: the upper class, the middle class, the lower class and the evening class.' Alas it was not my turn of phrase, I read it in a newspaper many years ago.

I love the evening class brigade. They are indomitable, optimistic and open to learning. Age poses no barrier in their quest to learn.

It turns out that Adult Learners Week is the 15th-21st May this year. Why not celebrate it at work by teaching colleagues something you are good at? Or ask your employees to organise some taster classes. May be it is time to dust down those origami skills.

Another Caroline

2010-03-19T02:06:00.000-07:00

I had meant to get back to my theme of evolving into a luddite, but things have been hectic. And if you are a regular visitor, an not updated blog can be a source of irritation.

So I am handing you over to another Caroline to have a peruse of her website. She does a blog on weightloss and IBS. IBS seems to becoming more prevalent, especially amongst young women. A doctor friend says it is because their eating lives are all over the place. The poor old stomach wants a bit of order in its life. It wants to know when the next meal is likely to come and that it won't be starved one day and then deluged the next in alcopops. It may be a stomach but it has its needs and habits.

Happy wandering!

Bring back the Steamie

2010-03-15T05:43:00.000-07:00

I think I have reached my tipping point with technology. Poor Harry will despair. I know that technology is a great thing but there's too much and it's moving too fast for my brain to cope with.

Today I had another visit from my washing machine man and again we discussed the advances in washing machines and actual customer behaviour. It turns out his wife even adds extra water to her machine because she doesn't believe that the amount used is enough to get the clothes clean! So while the washing machine companies tell us that you need less water, less detergent and less temperature; customers are actually adding water, putting more soap in than they are advised and washing at much higher temperatures.

I know I am in danger of being labelled a luddite, but why don't we step backwards but take with us hindsight and a bit more comfort. My first proposition would be to bring back the steamie and public washhouses. You can see a great photo of a steamie here. To be continued ...

Worrying time for non-fiction

2010-03-11T00:29:00.001-08:00

The report in The Bookseller about more job losses at non-fiction publisher New Holland is symptomatic of the book publishing climate. Non-fiction (in other words information books which cover interests such as gardening, cookery, nature, dictionaries, maps, guides to language, etc, etc) is losing out to information on the internet. Browsing online comes much more naturally to the new generations than finding the information in a book.

The only trouble is that students probably just skim the surface of a subject and tend to home in on the information they need without being drawn into the webpage and the hinterland of the subject they are researching. If the average visit to a site is 60 seconds there is a lot of wasted time hopping from place to place and then retracing clicks to note what they found on a website many clicks before.

Hopefully this is just a glitch in the history of non-fiction publishing and somehow people will rediscover how useful a book with real rather than virtual pages is.

I even had a book published by New Holland. One that should be recommended to all screen slaves!

Washing machines

2010-03-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

The long silence is in part caused by my washing machine. After less than 2 years it decided to conk out and I had to call in the washing machine engineer. After 2 sessions with him and another one later this week I feel there is nothing I don't know about washing machines.

In the world of washing machines you may think you can step off the technological super highway, but I am afraid it is not so. If you are like me, you bung your dirty clothes in the washing machine, put in the detergent and press a button. Hopefully they will emerge clean and whites will remain white. Now and again you might look at the gunge on the soap dispenser and give it a clean. And that would be the end of keeping your relationship fresh.

Well, dear reader, according to my friendly engineer we should be cleansing the wretched things. Now wouldn't you think clothes being cleaned would automatically cleanse the machine itself? Advances in washing machine technology means that washing machines have been built to use less water and run at much lower temperatures. The result is that a lot more gunk builds up within the machine and its parts so you need to cleanse them every month or so. Well, I had never heard about this and nor did any other members of my family.

So along with ebooks, ipods, podcasts and the like, we need to keep abreast of our domestic appliances. It won't be long now before a plain old paperback and a bar of soap will be revered for their simplicity and ease of use.

Sleep revision

2010-03-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

Regular readers will know that our Nod off series is the equivalent of a multi-tasking revision aid. It does all the following:

Relaxes you and your brain
Allows you to take in information during your brain's down time (during sleep)
Breaks down old barriers to learning something you always considered boring or beyond your brain's level of comprehension - grammar
Shows you how to move your tongue and your mouth to get the right foreign sounds
Condenses all the audio element into a 48-page booklet of pure information
Gives you a booklet for those non-listening moments
Gets you to sleep in no time

Of course, there are sceptics among you, but scientists are only just now catching up with the secret in The Cupboard. Read about it here.

ps Don't forget to buy Nod off in French for anyone you know about to study for exams.

Cassettes rear their heads

2010-02-25T15:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks Harry for your interesting comments. I would still argue that cassettes were bumped off a bit too soon. And here you can read about their modest come back.

Brains are a-changing

2010-02-25T01:30:00.000-08:00

If you missed the programme on BBC 2 last Saturday on The Virtual Revolution: Homo Interneticus, you have 3 more days to catch it. It is well worth watching as it shows how the web is changing our brains.

Especially interesting was the comment from a lecturer who said that 10 years ago when he presented a reading list to first year students they didn't bat an eyelid. When he does it now, the response is groans, moans and 'not books'.

Following on from the previous blog, publishers should engage themselves in the struggle for the human brain. They need to champion the physical book and all the benefits that go with it.

Otherwise the market will be dictated indirectly by the web and the grasshopper brains it has evolved in mankind.

You think I am kidding? Look at your kids.

Remembering your loyal market

2010-02-25T00:46:00.000-08:00

Here is Orion CEO Peter Roche's measured opinion on the ebook debate from The Bookseller. I reckon he has it spot on. While ebooks are something to be abreast of, they shouldn't take publishers' eyes from the core market they already have, human readers.

I saw this happen with the move from cassettes to CDs where publishers effectively decided to stop issuing audiobooks on cassettes and only produce them on CD. By focusing on what was more cost effective for themselves, publishers lost a large slice of the market who were used to cassettes and had not gotten to grips with CDs or upgraded their radio cassettes to CD players. They didn't go elsewhere, they just disappeared into a black hole.

The result was that because CD audiobooks didn't sell as well as cassette versions, then bookshops stopped stocking them and it was deemed that this was a product that the public didn't want. It also put cassette producing companies out of business.

There are still people out there who still have cassette players and would like to be able to buy audiobooks on tape. But publishers effectively turned their back on them in the quest for new technology. It would be interesting for some of the big publishers of audiobooks (such as HarperCollins) to compare sales of them say 10 years ago compared with today. And then think about why (given that we are so technologically aware).

Those people who bought audiobooks 10 years ago were probably quite happy to pay the full price. Publishers should focus on improving their revenue streams from loyal customers that they already have rather than distract themselves with potential e-revenue from an unknown e-market. After all, that is what all the books on business bang on about.

Interesting reading

2010-02-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting article in The Telegraph. From all accounts, the publishing industry is shooting itself in the foot by focusing on what it wants out of e-publishing rather than what the consumer wants.

And one gets the impression it just can't really be bothered. Perhaps Google and its digitisation of all books is the answer. Here is another article.

In fact, perhaps Google cares more about books and the public than the publishers do.

Cupblog

Back in Cupblog

Wallowing in weebly

Website progress

I have been trying to build a new website

I must apologise ...

Settled into the Italian groove

L'Armadio revisited

Clogging up the ether with rubbish

Plain and simple fights back

Is Facebook Yesterdaybook?

The gaps in blogging

Go, Waterstone's, go

Yoga in Partick, Glasgow

Let's hope HMV are in good enough shape

Exam stress on the increase

A sporting chance for Waterstone's

A twice read book

Still no news on waterstones

Mystic Meg

If you think there's money in them there books

The tipping point or the tide

Just an observation

An interesting day

The Nod off approach

Meeting an order

Continuing on a yogic theme

Prison Phoenix Trust

The future of Waterstones

Una giornata bellissima

Even the big boys can't find customers

So that is why ...

We need some serious Waterstone's Window dressing

Meno si spende, piu' si spende

Out of The Cupboard

Hoorah for Amazon!

What is the way forward?

Ho comprato il mio libro!

How a mobile made me fall off my bicycle

Chargers

Synchronicity or what?

So you want to be a writer?

Time to accentuate the e-positive

The missing mobile

Save Our Libraries

Time to accentuate the e-positive?

A positive result on the Stalking Front

The King's Speech

Are websites so yesterday?

20 years in Glasgow

Libraries are very important

Tough times

Our Australian friends

Still one day to go

Buon Anno

The Library of Lost Books

Fingers and toes

Non ho l'età

Non ho l'età Non ho l'età per amarti Non ho l'età per uscire sola con te

A beautiful Italian song from 1964 - more info on next blog

facebook

Reconnected with Susan Hill

New words to learn

Wherever you leave your bottom

Cynthia Harnett - an author to be revisited

An interesting observation

Blogger's block

Eliminate the negative

The Fry effect

Most telling comment

Need to knock publishing heads together

Why half price?

A treasure trove of reading

Makes marketing sense

Hoorah for the Amazon Police

Sicilian style

Tooth brushing

Screen fatigue

Screen fatique]]

Cufflinks

Non ho l'età
Non ho l'età per amarti
Non ho l'età per uscire sola con te