Archive for November, 2010

The Myth of the Big Fat Baddy

Monday, November 29th, 2010

 

Books consists of words. And words are symbols. And symbols, put in a narrative order, make myth. So no wonder then that the book world isgeography-fieldwork-photos-075 infested by myth. And one of the them asserts that Waterstone’s is a big fat baddy.

 

Last week I met two lovely French ladies. Hélène Fiamma and Josephine Seblon. They are the new crew in charge of literature at the Insitut Français. They arrived in this country a couple of months ago and realized that they need to understand the British book market before they can promote the cause of French Literature. So they are interviewing UK publishers.

 

Last week came Peirene’s turn. Soon the conversation turned to the difficulties of selling foreign fiction. I told them about my two discoveries of this year, one disillusioning, the other a wonderful surprise. The disillusion first: Independent bookshops. When I started with Peirene I assumed that the Indys would be our backbone, they would love the Nymph and sell her books. Some do – and indeed do it fantastically – but with a lot of shops we struggle. They don’t stock us, and if they stock us, they don’t reorder. They think we’re too risky. They prefer the safe bets, such as the Booker Shortlist. Moreover, most Indys nowadays order from the wholesaler, to whom I have to sell the books at a large discount.

 

Waterstone’s on the other hand, has emerged as a glorious surprise. Flagship shops stock, reorder and put us on display tables. And we heard recently that  a couple of them might sell the first three Peirene books together as a special Christmas gift bundle -  for the adventurous reader short of time. What’s more we don’t pay a penny for these promotions.  

 

My visitors expressed amazement. You are the first publisher to say this, they replied. All others point to Waterstone’s as the big baddy. I shrugged my shoulders: I know. But I really can’t agree.

 

So, who is deluded – me or the rest of the publishing world? Well – I can’t speak for the others – but let me be clear, it’s not me. I am relating facts.

 

I even got so enthusiastic about Waterstone’s that I invited their MD to the next Peirene Salon on the 11th of December. He can’t make it but I did receive a prompt, nice reply.

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Speech Day

Monday, November 15th, 2010

 

A few weeks ago I was asked to give a speech about Peirene. I was delighted. Why wouldn’t I be! The Nymph is my favourite topic. In addition itimg_30781 was the Authors’ Club, where I am a committee member, who asked me, so I would give the speech in front of a mainly familiar audience. Easy, I thought, this talk doesn’t even need preparation.  

 

Speech day was last Friday. On the Monday before, as I was thinking about the week ahead, it suddenly dawned on me that I’ve never given a speech about Peirene before. Yes, I introduced Salons and book launches but I never stood in front of an audience and talked for 20 minutes without interruption. Of course I know that a speech, like a book, needs focus and a narrative otherwise the listener becomes bored.  And I didn’t want my Nymph to leave such an impression behind.

 

But still I was under the illusion I could knock off the preparation of this speech in an hour. I put it on my to-do-list for Wednesday among getting No 4 off to the setter and proofreader, revising the edits of No 5 and reading a Hungarian novel, which could fit the bill for 2012.

 

It didn’t take me an hour. It took me a full four hours to write and structure and then another one  to choose extracts to read from the books. That done I realized, however, that this wasn’t the end. For a speech to have full impact it ought to be spoken not read from a piece of paper. So I memorized it on Thursday and performed it in front of my husband late Thursday evening three times and twice Friday morning before breakfast and then stood in front of the mirror and entertained myself with a few more rehearsals. By 10am I was fully prepared. I took a shower, blow dried my hair, put on a nice frock and lipstick and earrings. Peirene and I should have left the house at leisure and well in time to arrive at the Authors’ Club for the 13.00  lunch followed by the speech.  

 

“Meike, it’s 12.15, we need to go.” Peirene was standing in front of me in coat and a little matching hat and a shopping trolley in hand. She had been busy all morning wrapping our subscription gift parcels which we had started to sell on the website . We had decided to take some with us in the hope of selling them after the speech.

“I don’t want to go.” I said and knew full well that my stage fright made me sound like a stubborn toddler rather than a grown up woman. For a moment Peirene was puzzled. Then she said:

“Don’t make a fuss. You’ve prepared a beautiful speech about me. You need to deliver it now.”

She took my hand and put me into my coat and pulled me out of the door and dragged me along the road and into the underground. We didn’t speak a word to each other, but we arrived just on time.  

 

Of course, as soon as we got there both of us were all smiles. While I delivered my speech Peirene threw me supportive glances and afterwards she sold more of our gift wrapped parcels then we had ever sold before.

 

Now the nymph is dead keen to repeat this little show. She thinks my speech did her justice. She’d be happy to take bookings. And I’d be delighted to oblige. Because truth to tell, I rather enjoy giving speeches. It’s just the stage fright before I could do without.

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A Nymph’s Beetroot Idea

Monday, November 8th, 2010

 

The nymph never ceases to surprise me. geography-fieldwork-photos

 

“I have a brilliant idea for a new campaign.” She was in a frenetic mood. “We should hand out free organic beetroot to a million people.“

I looked up from my desk in astonishment. ”Why?”

“Because in that way we can persuade people to like beetroot. And from then on they will buy it every Saturday from their local organic farmer and live healthily ever after.”

“Peirene, are you feeling ok? We sell books not food.”

 

The nymph settled at her desk and took out from her handbag a copy of a recent Bookseller magazine.

“I am perfectly fine” she had opened The Bookseller  magazine and pushed it in my direction. “I am sure you’ve read this idea that 25 publishers will give away one million books on World Book Night?”

Of course I had heard about it. As usual Peirene was a bit behind with her Bookseller read. I nodded.

“And do you think it is a good idea?” she asked.

“I have very mixed feelings. Firstly it will only include mainstream books, secondly, it can only include big publishers because no one else can afford to print 40 000 free copies…”

Peirene interrupted me “And thirdly it won’t really encourage people to read who don’t already have the habit. And fourthly, and worst of all, it will perpetuate this modern notion that books – or lets say cultural products – should be available for free.” She jumped up from her chair. “And as you and I know, to produce a good text costs money. Writer, original publisher, translator, editor, copy-editor, proofreader, type-setter, another proofreader, cover-designer, printer, paper producer, all of these people need payment, the publisher has somehow to earn that money, but if no one wants to pay for a book …!”

She took a deep breather. “Culture is essential to human survival – it’s food for our imagination, our brain. And like food, we should pay for it.”

 

The nymph left the room in agitation. I heard her put on the kettle in the kitchen and I followed her.

“The problem with books in this country,” she continued, as soon as she realized I stood in the doorway, “is not that people don’t read. Everyone in the tube seems to be reading. No, the problem is that they are all reading the same crappy books. The market is not diversified enough. And a give away campaign like World Book Night is not going to help.”

Tears rolled down her cheek.

“Peirene, what’s the matter? It’s not this campaign alone, is it? There must be something else.”

She sniffed. “I am so worried you will send me back to ancient Greece because a nymph like me can’t survive in the modern culture-for-nothing climate.”

 I put my arm consolingly around her shoulders. “I won’t send you back. We will make it work somehow. I am sure there are readers out there who understand you have to pay for good books.”

I stroked her head, poured her a cup of coffee and sent her back to her desk.

 

I am still smiling about her organic beetroot idea, mind. Even there she went for quality. If food were to be given away en masse, it would surely be wine gums or sugary sweets – mass produced food with plenty of chemicals – not life enhancing nourishment. For that there is always a price.

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Halloween Greetings from Peirene

Monday, November 1st, 2010

 

Writers wrestle with writer’s block, publishers succumb to publisher’s block. At least I do. I want to publish books but I can’t. I read novella aftergeography-fieldwork-photos-072 novella – German, French, Hungarian, Finnish, Polish, Italian – but I don’t like them. Or if I like them I won’t be able to sell them.

 

The only good news: I’ve got a scapegoat for my suffering. I blame Stieg Larsson.

 

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy is cooked with the most common ingredients – a modern maiden-in-distress (young, androgenous, computer geek, self-harming but not totally self-destructive), a knight who aims for her pants (excuse my crudeness) under the guise of trying to save her and a couple of psychopaths who indulge in gruesome murders. And, yes, one or two innocent victims. Idea-free escapism. This Trilogy offers nothing in terms of intellectual provocation and might as well have been written by Dan Brown. I guess we need the comfort of the familiar as we delve into suspense and gore.  

 

I haven’t read the books myself. But I watched  No 1 on DVD. I also have my 15-year-old daughter’s judgement– “It was cool. I read it in a week”. Of course, the fact that the Trilogy has sold millions in the English speaking world, does not help me deliver compliments. I am outright jealous.  I would love my nymph’s texts to scale similar sales heights.

 

So, as I am at the moment searching the European lit scene for the 2012 titles I try to keep in mind what readers would like.

 

And I have indeed found a book that seems to fit the bill beautifully, nail-biting suspense and hair raising gore. Except – it isn’t cosy and definitely not mindless. Take only its French title – Pharricide (first published in 1998). The word does not exist, it’s an amalgam of phare (lighthouse) and parricide(killer of parents). The story: a psychopath who lives in a lighthouse and can’t help but kill a few people and eventually himself. It’s Hanibal Lecter – from Hanibal Lecter’s point of view. If the novella is taken at face value, it is- admittedly – a very disturbing, gruesome read. Beside the Sea, in comparison, appears like a holiday postcard. However, if Pharricideis read on a symbolic level (and as such it should be – hence the title)  it’s an incredible piece of literature, showing us the workings of a psychopath’s mind and forcing us to ponder the importance of sound social structures. Not surprisingly, the book was awarded the Prix Charles Brisset by the association of French Psychiatrists.

 

I won’t publish it. It won’t sell in this country. If it had just been a little less clever, less literary, I might have found a competitor to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. As it is I must keep on searching and resign myself that the next Peirene books may not sell in the millions – but they will be excellent for all that.

 

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