And that’s a wrap – another IPG Spring Conference over. I was there less than 24 hours but feel like I’ve eaten, drunk, laughed, learned and chatted at least a week’s worth, maybe more. There are now over 600 members of the IPG, from huge players like Bloomsbury down to tiny one-man operations publishing just […]
Continue readingAnother publishing startup bites the dust. Shelfie, the app that allowed you to upload pictures of your bookshelf and get discounted or even free ebook and audiobook versions of the books you own in print, has closed down. Formerly known as BitLit, the company was one of the most promising publishing startups of recent years, with […]
Continue readingToday’s blog is over at BookMachine – Draw me a picture: Why books are becoming more visual. ‘We’re wired for pictures. Most of the information our brain processes is visual and we’re good at processing it really fast because we’ve been doing it for millions of years and our survival has historically depended upon it: […]
Continue readingMy online bootcamp for graduates of the proposal challenge begins tomorrow, and you can almost taste the anxiety and excitement in the group. Suddenly it’s just got real: having crystallised their vision for their book in the proposal, now it’s time to step up and start writing. One of the comments that participants in […]
Continue readingCompetition is a wonderful motivator, but it truly sucks when you announce the winner and you KNOW that while one person is dancing around the room (or, as happened today, spilling soup down her front) 22 others are gritting their teeth and silently hating you, just a little. It was SUCH a hard job, choosing […]
Continue readingVery proud of Practical Inspiration Publishing author Glenda Shawley who has an article in Female First today: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/books/glenda-shawley-founded-after-forty-1029140.html She points out that there are many women who start their successful business after the age of 40, including fashion designer Vera Wang! Read it and be inspired…
Continue readingI spent 13 years working with Macmillan Publishers on an industrial estate in Basingstoke. It was something of a standing joke within the company – a brutalist office block with a portakabin training room, opposite a Sainsburys depot, just up the road from the Fyffes banana factory. And people think publishing is glamorous. Why Basingstoke? […]
Continue readingThe 10-day business book proposal challenge is nearly over – today is Day 9 and we’re talking about features and benefits and back cover copy. Writing your own book’s back cover copy has got to be one of the highlights of this challenge – while most of the proposal document is aimed at convincing the […]
Continue readingToday’s blog is a guest post over at BookMachine, on building the platform before writing the book, with observations from both author (Kelly Pietrangeli) and publisher (Adrian Zackheim). While you’re there, why not take a moment to cast your vote in their blogging award?
Continue readingI did. And I stumbled on this sumptuous Pinterest board from Non Fiction Books – a gallery of gorgeous covers, new and old. Most of the design accolades out there for book covers seem to be focused on fiction, so this is a refreshing and inspiring treat for a NoFi girl like me. https://uk.pinterest.com/martaborrell/non-fiction-books/ Here’s […]
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