Blog

We’ve been really lucky this month with coverage of our books and authors in The Big Issue in the North.

In their Shelf Space section they asked some leading authors to recommend their favourite reads. Amongst the authors are two of our very own, Benjamin Myers and Michael Stewart. Both PIG IRON and NOD get a mention in this article.

In the magazine itself there is a Q&A with our Canadian author Adrian Barnes. Why not make a vendor’s day and buy a copy?

Even if you visit this blog irregularly, you will know that I am not one to mince my words when it comes to my thoughts on publishing. I’m also not shy and don’t confine my thoughts to these pages.

Recently, Galley Beggar Press, a new and upcoming independent publisher from Norfolk asked me to write a few words about Bluemoose Books – it turned into a bit of a rant.

In July next year we will be publishing a book called A MODERN FAMILY by writer Socrates Adams Florou. We are excited about working with Socrates and started the editing process this week. I’m sure you’ll hear lots more from us about him and his book in the coming months.

Today Socrates had some amazing news about a film he has co-written with writers Joe Stretch and Chris Killen. He also has a starring role. The film called WIZARD’S WAY follows two friends who play a wizard simulator game. The great news is that the film has just won the LOCO London Discovery Award, an annual prize for a British comedy feature film that does not yet have distribution.

You can follow the action on twitter either @socratesadams or @savewizardsway.

Sorry it’s taken a while to get round to this…

A few weeks ago we packed our bags and embarked on a whirlwind tour of the bookshops of Yorkshire and Lancashire with our author Adrian Barnes to help get his debut novel NOD off to a flying start. Here is a photo to whet your appetite for a more complete write up of the tour.

Adrian Barnes recently spoke to author Stephen May about his book NOD and writing in general. You can read their conversation on The Second Best Time.

To promote NOD by Adrian Barnes we’ve put together a little film of Adrian walking through the areas of Vancouver that feature in the book.

We are getting very close to publication date for our new book NOD by Adrian Barnes. Adrian is coming to the UK to promote the book shortly after it hits the shelves. Here’s where you can catch him:

• Wednesday 7th November – Waterstones Bradford – 11am to1pm
• Wednesday 7th November – The Bookcase Hebden Bridge – 7.30 to 9pm
• Thursday 8th November – Waterstones Blackpool – 10.30am
• Thursday 8th November – Wordpool Literature Festival – 11.30am
• Thursday 8th November – Blackpool & Fylde College – 1.30 to 3.30pm
• Friday 9th November – University of Huddersfield
• Saturday 10th November – Waterstones Leeds – 11am to 1pm

Contact the venues for further details.

Finally the metropolitan press have realised that the best literary fiction titles being published emanate from small, independent presses as seen by the inclusion on The Man Booker list of three independents. SALT based in Norfolk, MYRMIDON in Newcastle and AOS in High Wycombe, nearly in London but far enough away not to be labelled a London publishing house. For years now, the significant weight of the big six corporate publishers seems to have been directed towards celebrity, generic and formulaic publishing. You see, they need to fill the coffers to generate double digit growth for their shareholders and if this means all you have to do is replicate what is successful, then Scandawegian cookery books with a vampiric twist, is what you will get. All of us readers who just want to read great stories, well written, can whistle. That’s not to say that the big six don’t publish some great fiction, they do, but the literary publishing pie is getting smaller and smaller as the sleberiture advances get bigger and bigger. This is great for independents. Our concern is for the story, storytelling and getting the best possible book in to the hands of readers.

Here at Bluemoose, we start local. Get the local bookshops and libraries interested and soon enough the book will travel across the border into Todmorden, then Manchester and Leeds and before you know it New York and Hollywood are excited. London is, and has been, somewhat blinkered to what is happening outside of its glitzy box. Just because we don’t have seven Lucindas an Aphrodite and a Cassandra in the PR department, it doesn’t mean our books are not worthy. They are, and the rest of the world is now reading Bluemoose books. If you can read Russian and Bulgarian then in the next couple of weeks you’ll be able to read GABRIEL’S ANGEL by Mark Radcliffe, KING CROW by Michael Stewart and FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS by Anna Chilvers. I won’t do a Colin Welland and say “the Moose is coming”, but watch out for NOD by Canadian author Adrian Barnes. Hollywood really is coming.

Here’s an article published by The Guardian on the rise of independents. Check out our my quotes near the end:

• Independents' day? Small presses make up 50% of Booker shortlist