Posts Tagged ‘Beside the Sea’

« Older Entries

English Summer Heat

Sunday, June 5th, 2011

 

Thanks to Peirene the British book market has been enriched over the last 18 months by the following:geography-fieldwork-photos-098

- a narrative about the dark side of motherhood

- a classic love story set in the mountain

- an analysis of war-time society told in a single sentence

- a clever, well-crafted, psychological mystery

 

All of these books are best-sellers in their own countries, and some, like No 1, Beside the Sea, and No 2, Stone in a Landslide, have become bestsellers across continental Europe.

 

But I have to admit none of them sound like the fool-proof bestseller material for the insular English market. And sure enough none of them has yet hit sales figures in the tens of thousands.

 

However this is about to change – if you trust Maddy and myself. We unanimously believe that we have a true English best-seller at our hands.

 

Or, to put it more realistically: Peirene No 5, Tomorrow Pamplona by Dutch author Jan van Mersbergen, represents our best shot yet for a best-sellerdom. The book will be released this week.

 

Here is a list of evidence to support our claim:

- suspense and tension: features a protagonist with a mysterious past

- sex: three fab sex scenes – do I need to say more?

- violence: after all one of the protagonists is a boxer

- value for money: 189 gages, it can’t get much thicker than that in the Peirene “less than 200 page” world.

 

In addition – and as a little extra so to speak -  Tomorrow Pamplona is a fantastic book about men and masculinity - their aggressions, their anxieties and their longing for intimacy.

 

And all of the above of course without compromising literary quality. The narrative rhythm and sparse style reflects and compliments the subject matter beautifully.

 

The Peirene Ladies are convinced Tomorrow Pamplona will add heat to the English summer.

 

The Nymph herself, however, has some doubts. “And what if everybody is going abroad for some sun and fun? They won’t need juicy stories to spice up their lives. They’ll experience it themselves.”

 

Peirene may be worried but I, for once, am not. “Luckily for us, we live on an island.” I calm her down. “Everyone heading south has to take a plane or ship. And there is nothing better than a two-hour book to ease the boredom of travel.”

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Publishing in the 21century | No Comments »

A Pea under the Mattress

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

 

Us poor women are yet again making headlines. We are rarely sighted in the big wide public world. Only 12.5% of blue chip board posts arepea held by women. And on the book market it ain’t looking any better: male writers and reviewers still dominate.  

 

Apparently – according to some research -  lack of ambition and self-confidence is holding women back. Frankly, I don’t buy it. Women are just as ambitious as men and a healthy portion of self-doubt is no bad thing and leads to self-improvement.

 

 In the last three months Peirene employed her first intern. One day a week Will helped Maddy and I with the marketing. Thanks to him we now have a Novella web-page and are running the “Two-Hour Book”  Facebook page. When Will applied, he was “trying to get into publishing, especially the editorial side of it.” I liked his CV and said I can offer him work experience on the marketing side. He took the opportunity.  

 

A couple of weeks ago, just as Will’s time ran out, I was approached by a young, well-qualified, woman. Again, she wanted editorial, I offered marketing. I explained that this is the most challenging part of publishing nowadays and an insight into that area will help her with any number of different career tracks. She turned the offer down.

 

Fair enough, one could of course argue that this young woman knows what she wants and has decided to go for it. Or has she? Has she taken responsibility for her ambition? I’d say, if she really wants to be in at the changing world of publishing, she’d better know the business insight out – and that includes gaining experience in areas she finds more difficult.

 

One more example: When I published Beside the Sea by Véronique Olmi a year ago, it was predominantly reviewed by men. Since I believe that this book needs to be discussed by women, I approached female reviewers directly. To no avail.  Over the last few days I followed discussions on Facebook about why men dominate our book review pages. To my surprise a number of female reviewers stressed that they only review books they like. Why? How do you know if you like a book when you haven’t even read it? And if you read it, you might as well review it. And why should only praise help enhance the name and status of the reviewer? A well written controversial article might shine an even brighter light on the reviewer than a regurgitated eulogy.

 

Us women are ambitious all right. Ça n’est pas le problème. Le problème c’est our self-image. We like to be little Princesses who only say nice things and everybody loves us and we  like to lie comfortably and hate feeling the pea under the mattress.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Life Philosophy | 1 Comment »

Hand-Selling

Monday, December 6th, 2010

 

Last Friday I got up at 4.15am to wrap Peirene gift packages. By 6am I was done. I piled them into the shopping trolley and ventured into thegeography-fieldwork-photos-076 snowy icy morning, pulling the trolley up the hill to my son’s school.

 

It was the annual Christmas Fair and I had rented a stall. My first ever stall rental. I unpacked. At 7.30 the fair opened to the public. I stood between a lady selling cards and wrapping paper and another one selling tree decoration and little fairies in water bubbles. Crowds immediately gathered around the fairies in the water bubbles. Every now and again the Peirene books got a glance and a couple of people stopped for a second but then decided to go on. No one bought a book.

 

Admittedly at this point my mind was moving to other things. At 7.45am I had received a phone call. My husband. He was supposed to come back from a business trip to America that morning well in time to take our 11-eleven year old to his grade 4 piano exam. When my husband called me, he was still on the plane: “Meike,” he whispered into the phone, “I’m not suppose to speak. We’ve landed but we’re being held on the runway at Heathrow.”

 

Fortunately, I had anticipated such a turn of events. I had left money on the kitchen table and had told our son the previous evening that he might have to take a taxi if Dad’s plane were delayed. So I booked a cab and rang my son. He was incredible mature and cool about it. However, this didn’t prevent me from feeling like the worst mum on earth.

 

What exactly was I doing at this fair where clearly no one was interested in buying my books? And why was I allowing my darling boy to journey through the streets of cold London all by himself. I felt like crying. Instead, I decided to pack up.

 

“Have we sold any books yet?”

Peirene suddenly stood beside me, well rested and all rosy cheeks. I lifted my head. She handed me a hot cappuccino.

“Now, there is a surprise,” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in my voice. “You were suppose to be here at 7.30.”

She mumbled an apology.

“Anyway, “ I continued. “ You’ve just arrived in time. We’re packing up. This has all been a huge mistake.”

For a moment Peirene looked as if she wanted to reply. Then she turned to the woman who had stopped in front of our stall, briefly glanced at Portrait of the Mother  and was about to turn away again.

“This is a 117-page long single sentence,” Peirene smiled at her, “which reads like a page turner. Nick Lezard in the Guardian said this story has one of the most moving endings he has ever read.” The woman looked at the book again, while Peirene chattered away. Eventually she bought not only Portrait but also Beside the Sea and a gift pack.

 

During the next hour and a half Peirene and I sold 11 gift packs and a number of individual books. My husband made it in time to pick up our son from the piano exam. And the piano exam went well. I am pleased I stayed at the bookfair if only to prove what I suspected anyway. Peirene’s books sell by word of mouth. People love the idea of two-hour books, they love the idea of translated fiction, they love the idea of strong voices and unconventional stories but they have to be pointed in the right direction. It’s called hand-selling – but you need a nymph to do it well.

Tags: ,
Posted in Marketing Pains | 1 Comment »

Botox Thoughts

Friday, June 18th, 2010

 

I am a woman of a certain age, I might as well admit it. I have now reached the moment where I could consider Botox with a clear conscience.no-2-launch-033 Each time I look at a picture of myself I am surprised I am no longer 20. ( I am sure anybody over 40 understands what I am talking about, anybody under 40 doesn’t –yet! – have a clue.)

 

Luckily I have Peirene who keeps me young at heart.  Moreover, she compels me to keep in synch with the modern world. So, thanks to my nymph I write my little weekly blog, I am on facebook and I twitter – an achievement  since these delights weren’t programmed into the DNA of my generation.

 

Initially it felt like a duty - an obligation I had to do for the sake of the books. But now I am just so grateful that these social media forms exist. Thanks to them I have discovered the lit blogger scene. Even a year ago, I didn’t know these impressively ferocious readers existed. They’ve given Beside the Sea and Stone in a Landslide some stunning reviews.

 

But that’s not all. Because of their comments I am also learning to understand why foreign fiction has such a difficult time here in the UK. People are concerned that the author’s intention and voice has been lost in translation, that the publisher and translator might have taken liberties with the text. Valuable concerns indeed. I am just pleased that Peirene has embarked on a journey to dispel them.

 

And since we’re talking about journeys I should announce that my nymph has been backpacking in foreign places. Let me explain. A few days ago, I was asked by the London correspondent of the German newsmagazine focus, Imke Henkel, which nationalities visit my website. I shrugged. Never thought about it, as I assumed UK only. For the first time I checked the stats in my control panel. And what a surprise – most visitors come from the US, followed closely by the UK. And then – in third place – Russia! I’m intrigued. So please if you are a visitor from Russia and you’re interested in Contemporary European literature in English translation then drop me an email.

 

If however you are interested in selling me beauty aids or anti-aging pills ( I am not joking, I had a substantial increase in emails offers recently) then please wait for a few years. I want to retain the illusion of looking as beautiful as Peirene.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Life Philosophy | 6 Comments »

Spring is in the Air

Friday, March 26th, 2010

 

… and I am newly in love. With a vampire, actually. Edward Cullen to be precise. I’ve had enough of Heidegger. I think deep down I am a webite-home-124woman who needs something less intellectual, more straight forward. With Edward Cullen it’s serious. No teenage infatuation. I loved him in Twilight and love him even more in New Moon. It’s out on DVD and I got it, watched it and now I can’t forget him. I want to become a Vampire to be happy forever after.

 

Luckily I was able to go a bit easier with Peirene this week. Last weekend I realized that it’s time to let go of my first book-baby, Beside the Sea. I’ve brought it up well, I’ve given it all I could. Now it’s out there and needs to find it’s own way. My other books crave my attention. But before I devote my energy to Peirene No 2, I decided to take a breather or in other words, a holiday at work. I still went to some meetings, answered e-mails, followed up on pending matters. But my lunch breaks were longer. I dealt with unrelated Peirene paper work. I went for a couple of more runs.

 

And good job I did. It allowed me to think through my heart throbs before acting unwisely and in a way that I might regret the morning after. My conclusion: I truly love Edward and if he wants me, I’m his. Yes, the allure of eternal love and someone to protect me (from bad Vampires and Werewolves) and cherish me for the rest of my Vampire existence – all this takes some beating.

 

One small issue: he isn’t yet aware of my human existence. If he were, I am sure he’d desire me just as much as I desire him. So what can I do? I guess I should drown my heart rendering sorrow in Peirene. And who knows, Edward might one day pick up a Peirene book, take it into his lovely pale hands, wonder who has published such beautiful, interesting work – and find me.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Life Philosophy | No Comments »

My Life with Marmite

Friday, March 19th, 2010

 

I hate Marmite. It’s horrible. It’s a joke not a spread, and the smell is most off-putting. When my husband eats it I don’t get near him. I also webite-home-122blame him and his Marmite obsession for the failing taste buds of our children. He force fed them the stuff at an early tender age and now they think they love it. But they can’t – they are half German after all. However I fear the damage has been done. My poor darling children are scarred for life.

 

A friend of mine leads a reading group. It consists of seven women, all mothers with children between 6 and 20 years old, some working full time, some part time. They read Beside the Sea and kindly invited me along to their discussion. My friend and one other woman could see the good in the book, the others I think would have preferred not to have read it. Bad writing, bad translation, bad blurb on the back and too expensive. That was their verdict.

 

My husband believes in Marmite. He even claims that it saved his life when he was eighteen cycling across the Continent. My mother-in-law, too, loves to sing its praises, especially its versatility – spread it on toast in the morning, turn it into a nice hot drink in the evening.

 

I am acutely aware that the reviewers of Beside the Sea – either newspapers or bloggers – have been predominantly men. They can see what I see in the text, namely a mesmerizing portrayal of a mind totally wrapped up in itself. I would even go a step further: Beside the Sea shows us how difficult it can be for a mother to understand that her perception of reality is very different to that of her children. Furthermore if she ever loses that understanding, her love becomes destructive.

 

When I read Beside the Sea for the first time, I felt an excitement at having discovered a writer who managed – successfully – to draw attention to the dark side of motherhood. I assumed other mothers would too. On Monday evening I understood that my assumption was wrong. Some would rather not have encountered the book.

 

Just like Marmite and me. In fact, it was Adriana, the translator of Beside the Sea, mother-of–three and total believer in the text, who had the brilliant Marmite idea when I told her about the reading group. “How strange”, she pondered, “that the people who like this book feel so passionate… and those that don’t are equally vehement in the other direction. You could run a whole campaign along the lines of the Marmite ads (you either love it or hate it).”

 

Fabulous publicity stunt! It might make me also reconsider the virtues of Marmite.

Tags: ,
Posted in Marketing Pains | 1 Comment »

On Conquering the USA

Friday, March 5th, 2010

 

I think I sometimes fancy myself as the head of an international conglomerate, conquering the entire publishing world. I say “I think” becausewebite-home-1142 deep down I know that this is not the name of my game, but every now and again I fall into a trap behaving like a huge CEO. Do you get my drift? Let me explain.

 

Over the last few days I once again got terribly worried about sales figures. Yes, I am in second print run with my first Peirene baby but still a few hundred copies away from breaking even. So I became obsessed with sales figures. Why isn’t the book selling more? Look at this or that book. It’s selling heaps although it’s totally crap. Worry about sales figures was starting to do my head in. Added to the loo roll stress of last week, life wasn’t looking great at Peirene Headquarters. I then topped it all by deciding to break into the American market NOW and started talking to a US distributor who indeed listened to me. I was terribly flattered and felt that perhaps I was after all the head of a great conglomerate. So I rang up a colleague who actually runs a bit of a big firm, at least compared to Peirene, and suggested we two together should take on the US market. Baldrick couldn’t have made a more cunning plan, my colleague most subtly hinted. Then she mentioned the costs and the work involved.

 

I put down the phone and went for a run on the Heath.

 

I can’t remember if I had any deep thoughts on the run. I doubt it as I felt terribly unfit (because of all my anger and stress I hadn’t gone for a  run in a while) and was busy just keeping going. Back in front of my computer, I clicked on a lit blog I had come across two weeks ago. I had contacted the blogger to send him a review copy of Beside the Sea. From his profile I knew that he is a 24-year-old doctorate student at Oxford and sure enough his first reaction when I told him about the book was “I’m not convinced, a book about a mother killing her two children is my cup of tea” To his credit, however, he agreed to receive a copy. To my credit, I sent him the book, although I knew it was a shot into the dark. And then I clicked on his blog. And read a fantastic review (scroll down to March 2nd). The best of the lot so far. The blogger was totally honest, describing how, for the first two or three pages, he was taken aback, not liking it, but then had to completely change his mind. Reading this review made me incredibly happy. I pondered on that for a while. Then I realized why. Someone had given this text, a text I adore, a chance and the benefit of the doubt.

 

Had I been busy conquering the USA, I wouldn’t have had time for the initial email exchange with this blogger. And he probably would never have read the book and I would have never had the pleasure of reading his blog. And on the risk of sounding cheesy, I say it nevertheless. I realized then and there that happiness - and success - lies close to home and not in the USA.

 

P.S. But don’t get me wrong – my plan is still to make it onto the Elle cover.

Tags: ,
Posted in Life Philosophy | 1 Comment »

Never-Ending Loo Roll Bliss

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

 

So it has worked. I mean, the dirty weekend story. It got me publicity AND sales. I am sure that’s what did the trick. On Tuesday I received a webite-home-112smallmessage from the distributor: “We are invoicing the last copies of Beside the Sea!” On Thursday morning  The Independent congratulated Peirene “for choosing this gem of a novel”. And on Thursday afternoon my nymph and I featured on the Elle magazine cover – ok, nearly. But we did make it onto the Elle blog.

 

Actually it’s quite good we didn’t make the Elle cover. I don’t feel the part at all. I should be in seventh heaven, walking on air, head in the clouds. Also, I had that infamous break (this is the last time I mention it -  I promise) only two weeks ago. So I should be happy. Instead I am exhausted, every task is a mountain, I hate my to-do list, which just seems to get longer and never shorter, and I am once again at the point where I will give it all up. This time for real. The juggling act between Peirene, house and family has anyway been heading for total collapse, so I might as well count me blessing while I am still sane and leave with my dignity intact. And since I can’t give up so easily house and family, it has to be Peirene. I am not making a drama out of nothing. I am dead serious.

 

Last night I went out to a reading. Before I left the house I had cooked for my children some food – to be precise, rice with pesto, since this was the only food I had handy. I had had no time to shop. So I left the house feeling guilty and a bad mother. After the reading  I went out for a drink with some colleagues (the networking bit – has to be done) and arrived home when children and husband were fast asleep. In the bathroom I realized we had run out of loo paper. I went to the kitchen to get kitchen paper – that had gone too. So I decided – wise me – to make myself a cup of tea to calm down. And guess what, we had run out of milk too. I went to bed with a burning sense that I couldn’t cope any more and decided at four o’clock in the morning that something had to give: Peirene. 

 

Of course giving up Peirene won’t make me happy. It probably won’t even guarantee an uninterrupted flow of loo paper in our household. And as for bad-mother-feeling and guilt ?– I had them before Peirene too so no change there either. I am therefore dead serious. I want to give up Peirene, but I won’t. I will however go now and make myself a nice cup of tea ( I bought loo paper and milk this morning – really no big deal and no one had come to harm in the meantime ) and sit on the sofa and read the reviews -  just one more time – and pat myself on the shoulder. Well done me.  

 

I am feeling better already, just talking about it. So perhaps, after the cup of tea, I might start plotting on how to get on to this Elle magazine cover after all.

Tags: , ,
Posted in one-woman-show | No Comments »

Sex, Vodka and Bad Press

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

 

A dirty weekend – five days – Thursday to Monday that’s what I had. Yep! And I am a married woman. I spill the beans right here on the blog,webite-home-108small for family, friends and strangers to see. It has to be, I have no choice. It’s called a marketing strategy. Starlets sleep with directors, wanna-be writers with agents. And I bare my soul to you. For the sake of my books.

 

Last week’s book sales went really well – so well that “Beside the Sea” was heading for sell-out. And I ordered a reprint. This week sales have slowed down dramatically and in fact I now worry that I have ordered the reprint too early.

 

So, here comes my juicy story. On Thursday morning, at five o’clock in the morning,  I took my suitcase and called a cab and went to the airport where I met my companion. We boarded a plane and flew to St Petersburg, and went to a hotel room and drank Russian Champagne and Siberian Vodka and ate red Caviar. We did some kissing too. Then on the last day we walked hand and hand across the frozen Neva and boarded a plane and flew back. At Heathrow I took the exit to passport control while he rode the escalator to Flight Connections…out of the country and out of sight. It still feels like a dream.

 

Did I promise too much? I hope I have your attention now and you won’t forget my little story or Peirene and her books ever again. Bad publicity is better than none, right? Or at least that’s what I am learning. Because a dirty weekend is not my only shady news. Peirene Title No 1 has a bad publicity story too. A reviewer in the  FT didn’t like the book at all, and made that utterly clear in a tiny article. When I first saw it, it felt like being hit unexpectedly from behind and I wanted to ask, why did you need to publish this, if you didn’t like the book, couldn’t you just have ignored it? I am new small publisher, please, don’t immediately smash me to pieces. The interesting thing is, however, that I had almost as many people e-mailing me congratulations and wows and well dones responding to the FT article  as for the wonderful Guardian review. Only yesterday I received a message: “Just read the review in the FT. Congratulation. Well done. Will now go and read the book!”

 

So I guess I prefer bad publicity rather than none. Nothing can be worse than total silence. That’s one way of looking at it. Another way: Perhaps most people understand that bad publicity contains many half truths. If a reviewer tears up a book this says more about the reviewer than the book. Furthermore readers will be intrigued why the text arouse such strong reactions in the first place.

 

And finally, to underline my point about bad publicity not telling the whole truth: I admit, the companion was in fact my husband. I know … lame joke and sorry to disappoint. We did however meet at the airport and parted there again too. My husband likes flying around. That at least is true!

Tags: , ,
Posted in Marketing Pains | No Comments »

When shall we four meet again?

Monday, February 8th, 2010

 

Peirene “is a class act”. Yes, it says so. In the papers, The Guardian actually. On Saturday. Review page 14, Paperback choice of the week – in webite-home-106smallcase you missed it! However, being called a “class act” carries risk. A single indiscretion or unprofessional pronouncement and the reputation comes tumbling down.

 

But first let me ask you a question: What do you get when you put together the following four ambitious women: a serious French writer, a gifted Irish actress, an articulate English translator and an enthusiastic German publisher? Choose from the answers below:

 a.) a public cat fight due to professional and personal envy and jealousy

 b.) an outwardly composed picture but marred with dangerous undercurrent of competitiveness and individual over-control drive

 c.) a class act difficult to beat

 

One could imagine any one of these three outcomes, right? Well, perhaps not a.) as for that the four women in question might just be too clever. But b.) is a contender. I guess we could agree on that. Especially, if  for each one there is a lot at stake. The author is translated for the first time in English. The actress reads for the first time a text she is hoping to stage later on. The translator has never chaired such an event before and the publisher is putting on her first ever launch party.

 

A  lot of “first times”, rich fertile ground for blame and angst. They have a show to perform, the guests will arrive at 7.30. At six o’clock they meet. Outside it might as well be thunder and lightening. They gather in the kitchen. They brew the tea and eat the chocolate. They compare notes, hair and heel, draw the demarcation lines. They trade some compliments but also clear the air. And when the guests arrive they have the witchcraft working.

 

P.S. In fact the guests were so bewitched, they ate everything this time – including my potato salad – the lot of it! I am now thinking of challenging them with some new stuff at the next Salon, perhaps Germanic Nudelsalat.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Peirene's Literary Salons | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries