July 12th, 2011 09:18pm
billmarshall
… and becoming increasingly irrelevant.
I’m lucky to be able to keep in touch with my old profession of books by having a couple of excellent authors as web design clients.
Theresa Breslin is one of the best children’s authors in the world and recently just missed out on a second prestigious Carnegie Medal for her latest novel – though she did win the nod from the children who were shadowing the official judges.
Linda Gillard is a writer who is a little harder to pin down – “intelligent romantic fiction” is maybe the nearest you could get to a short snappy description but really she has a lot more depth than that conveys. She started with the independent publisher Transita for her first two novels, the innovative Emotional Geology which took the brave step of having a heroine who was middle aged and was recovering from mental illness and which was set in South Uist, and the dark and challenging A Lifetime Burning, then moved on to Piatkus for the third, Star Gazing, a slightly more mainstream romance except that the heroine has been blind from birth while the male interest is from Skye and has the second sight. Translated into a number of different languages it has proved a popular and award winning book, but here things started to go wrong when the publisher demanded more of exactly the same and rejected the book she actually wrote next. Like most real writers she was not one to churn out formulaic stuff and wrote the ideas that came to her, and she was forced to part from them and seek alternative publishing.
In the meantime her popularity amongst the online book discussions and bloggers was really taking off – something that could have been easily researched by any publisher – but astonishingly her subsequent books have been consistently turned down by all the publishers they have been submitted to. As a result she decided to publish her most recent book – House of Silence – as an ebook. In that form it has done very well, and despite setting a low price she has done better from the sales so far than she would have done from a full price paperback.
Despite all this, a proven author who has lots of enthusiastic readers and online fans who are waiting impatiently for anything she writes, her latest book has again been turned down by a swathe of publishers. What on earth are they thinking??? A number of them praise the book but say they wouldn’t be able to market it – it seems it’s just not easily classifiable in to their standard categories. As an ex-bookseller my response is that most publishers couldn’t market free beer!
The fact is that many publishers even 30 years ago when I joined the trade had little idea of what readers wanted or how to market to them; it was the booksellers, mainly independent booksellers, that knew how to do that. Now the independents are all gone – forced out of business by the supermarkets and Amazon – and most books that don’t make the supermarket’s top 20, usually riddled with celebrity’s memoirs or the latest semi-literate Dan Brown imitator, have only Waterstones left to promote them, at a cost, or Amazon, at a large discount.
Such is the state of bookselling now that any publisher who wants to have their books succeed must be aware of online support and then make the most of it. Otherwise no-one is going to do their marketing for them and many good authors are going to be ignored. Since most of them don’t seem to have the required understanding it’s inevitable that many more authors will take the path that Linda has and publish themselves, and eventually publishers will become obsolete. And it’ll serve them right!
Last week I had the privilege of reading Linda’s latest book pre-publication so I can design a new page for it on her website, and as usual I found it a compelling read. It’s called Untying the Knot and will be coming out in September and if Linda ok’s it I’ll do a review of it here shortly.
July 8th, 2011 01:07am
billmarshall
Wimbledon is over for another year, lots of good tennis if maybe not a classic year, but thank heavens we can get a rest from the endless build-him-up, knock-him-down media frenzy about Andy Murray. When will we ever learn? When will we tell the media that they should get a life and be realistic about him, and for that matter about any of our other sportsmen and women, instead of following them like sheep and splitting into love/hate camps.
Some countries support their sports stars, nurture them, encourage them, help them to be better. Champions don’t spring forth fully formed, they have to learn, develop their skills, work on minimising their weaknesses, building their confidence and mental strength. We seem to demand instant results.
Did Seb Coe (still the most electrifying athlete I’ve ever seen, despite his politics) arrive on the scene winning senior medals from the word go? Of course not, he worked his way through the junior and student ranks and built up through early performances before blossoming into a wonderful runner. Did Stephen Hendry sweep all before him immediately? No, he was wonderfully good but he had to learn how to handle the pressures of the Crucible, and then how to beat Steve Davis before he started to dominate the snooker world. Did even as precocious a talent as Seve Ballesteros win straight away? No. Yet I recall listening with astonishment to a Radio 5 discussion when Andy Murray was about 19 that slagged him off for not having the right physique and basically writing him off before he’d hardly started his career. They compared his build unfavourably to Nadal, who was a very early developer physically and is now running into problems with ankles and knees because of the strain he puts on them. And of course Nadal is now talked about by many as being one of the all-time greats.
The fact is that Murray is a very good tennis player who has developed his game and skills over the last few years and has had great success. He’s won many tournaments and has reached the final of majors. He reached the semis at Wimbledon, which was exactly where his seeding and world ranking suggested he would reach. That’s not failure, that’s being beaten in the latter stages of a tournament by a player who is supposed to beat you as current form stands. If that was the Olympics he’d have got a medal and we’d be celebrating it, not bemoaning his loss and declaring he’ll never win a gold. Give him some encouragement and maybe he’ll win one.
This attitude runs throughout British sport these days, if you’re not the greatest ever then you’re a failure. It takes a seriously strong mental attitude to survive the pressures the media puts on our sports stars. We expect them to be winning machines instead of human beings, forgetting that the real glory of sport is often in dealing with our human weaknesses and overcoming seemingly impossible problems. Think of Danny McGrain who came back from a career-threatening fractured skull to be one of the best full-backs in the world, of the battles against depression of Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree or a couple of England test cricketers. Of Bob Champion and Aldaniti. Sport isn’t a black and white contrast of champs and chumps, it’s a continual striving to be the best you can be and any media pundit who forgets that does sportsmen and us all a great disservice.
May 20th, 2011 02:07pm
billmarshall
Yesterday I heard that an old friend had died.
I first met Johnny Marr when I was about 14, at the Edinburgh Chess Club which would be his second home for most of his life. A friendly affable man he was popular at the club and always had an encouraging word for the many juniors who were members back in the late 60s and early 70s. I knew his son Donald who at 15 was already a very strong player although he took time out from the game to study for exams. I remember a school trip to the Edinburgh Crystal Glass Works which was then down in Leith. Johnny worked there and recognizing me gave me a shot at blowing glass. He later came into the club with a hand made glass chess set which he had built which was absolutely gorgeous.
Johnny simply adored chess and, although he never pushed on to be a top player, through constant playing he developed a wily and imaginative style that could occasionally trip up the very best. Geoff Chandler probably played Johnny more times than anyone else and has written affectionately about him here and here. He was always around the club in the days when it was busy nearly every night and Geoff, who was caretaker for a few years, would often play him into the early hours.
I took 17 years away from the game then decided to go back to the club and see if I could still play. First person I saw when I walked in was Johnny! We shared some interesting games and he was always a tough nut to crack even when age started to reduce his playing standards. Even in his 80s he used to cycle up to the club from his home near Easter Road, and in his 90s he was still there, still playing remarkably well, and often winning tournaments only a little below his former standard. Whenever a team captain was short of a player Johnny would be happy to step in if it was legal to do so. Whenever a new player or a visitor to the city came into the club it was always Johnny that offered to play them first. He loved showing the bright young juniors that old folk could play a damn good game too, but always encouraged them to improve.
Some years ago I had the honour of proposing he be made an honorary member of the club (passed unanimously and with acclamation) and more recently I presented the prizes at the Allegro Tournament we held in celebration of his 90th birthday.
He simply was a fixture at the club and a large part of its character. He was a gentleman and a sportsman and I count myself fortunate to have known him. We’ll all miss him dreadfully and he certainly won’t be forgotten. Farewell Johnny, and thank you.
Update
Dave Hewitt has written an article about Johnny’s passing for the Caledonian Mercury.
Today was the funeral and there was a very large turnout, which showed perfectly how wide a circle of people had known and loved him. Far more than most such occasions the atmosphere was of a celebration of a life well lived and full, and we all had only good memories of him. I hope that was a comfort to his family.
He was mentioned again at the Chess Edinburgh AGM this evening - everyone there had known him and most had played him. The next time any of us play a match I’m certain he’ll be in our thoughts.
May 13th, 2011 11:24pm
billmarshall
This last week, in between my SEO work, I’ve been converting and editing some wonderful videos from the career of my dear friend John Sampson. John has spent his whole life playing virtuoso early woodwind instruments and trumpets, and acting in mostly comic theatre. His performances at Cafe Graffiti and with the Natural Theatre Company are legendary.
John has a great collection of photos from his musical and theatrical work and we’ve added many of them since I first built a site for him about 8 years ago but only recently have I had the facility to edit some of his videos to a quality I thought acceptable.
Most of these videos also feature Pat O’Connell, either with the Naturals or as a duo. We’ve now got five of them in place on my Youtube channel and embedded in the Video page on John’s site. If you know John or like brilliantly played music then go take a look.
May 13th, 2011 10:20pm
billmarshall
Good to see the various moves to permanently commemorate the life of Seve Ballesteros – his death a few days ago saddened everyone who remembers his golden period when you didn’t have to know anything about golf to be aware of him. He was such a dynamic and charismatic figure and turned the game into something dramatic that people wanted to watch for the passion and personality as well as the skill.
Even after his deteriorating back made his driver something of a hit and hope implement his short game was still wonderful to watch – at the height of his powers it was pure sorcery with touch so delicate and an imagination so tuned that other top golfers could only marvel.
Tom Watson, who I’ve extolled here before, would undoubtedly have won at St Andrews if he’d been up against anyone but Seve and would have been an immensely popular winner, but all eyes were magnetically drawn to the Spaniard and his reactions on the last two holes have become indelible images. It’s immensely sad that he didn’t have the chance to return to the scene and walk up the 18th one last time and hear the roars of acclaim that would certainly have rung around that ancient course
His will to win and his infectious determination inspired his Ryder Cup team members to a degree that’s almost impossible to appreciate and his captaincy took that inspiration to new heights. Other Spanish sportsmen such as Nadal have risen to the top using his example and he was in every sense a national treasure.
His performances should be compulsory viewing for every young golfer who goes through the tour school, but there’ll never be another quite like Seve. We who saw him in action were privileged and will never forget him.
May 6th, 2011 09:14pm
billmarshall
Well that’s set the pundits chattering – I’m referring of course to the results of the Scottish parliamentary elections in which the SNP have just swept the boards, relegating Labour to a poor second place and almost wiping out the Liberals completely.
As usual the post-election interviews see more useless comments from most of the parties who seem not to have noticed that the election is over and no-one believed what they said – it never ceases to amaze me that they don’t understand that people won’t remember what they said by the time the next one come along but they might well remember how they said it.
Those who know me know that I don’t trust politicians as a breed, but I do support Scottish independence and am therefore glad to see the SNP victory.In the main I’ve been impressed at the way they’ve got on with governing and actually doing most of what they promised despite being a minority government in the last parliament. That suggests a level of ability to cooperate that seems very different to the attitudes of the old-school politicians, who just seem to spend all their time trying to score political points. They really don’t seem to get the idea that many of the electorate actually want cooperation, that that was supposed to be the whole point of the Scottish Parliament, and that many commentators talked about that and how people wanted it to be different from the endless Westminster confrontation politics and heckling.
I will of course be watching the SNP closely to see whether they change their approach now that they have a full majority and can push through anything they want.
And what of the Labour party, who in my youth I supported. Will they grow up and leave behind the old hectoring approach that has seemed such a fixture of their style and also demonstrated how the electorate had left them behind. The party seems to have moved in different directions in Scotland and England – the English party under Blair (despite being dominated by Scots) moved not just into the centre ground (some would say the right) but also into the middle classes and away from its traditional core vote, but has done so by giving up any idea of a core philosophy that anyone can believe in. In Scotland they seem to have tried to hang on to old attitudes and ideas that were relevant in the old industrial working landscape but which now seem out of touch with modern aspirations and which seem merely empty of direction and equally lacking in meaning and conviction. It will require a complete rethink of considerable intellectual quality, not least in economics but certainly in political and social understanding, for them to rediscover their direction and recover from this debacle.
As for the Liberals it must be wondered if they can survive at all. Their coalition with the Tories and their acquiescence to the simple mantra of cuts and more cuts has marked them as being prepared to give up their principles for power, and that is one thing the electorate will not stand from a party that for most of the last 70 years only had its principles to fall back on. It seems that Clegg has fallen headlong into Cameron’s long term trap – if he can wipe out the Liberals in England then the Tories could have a long-term grip there, and with Labour weakened in Scotland then we could be looking at 20 years or more of a Conservative Westminster.
As for the independence question, if the Scottish electorate realise the above situation then they might just decide that a breakup really is beneficial for them if the alternative is a permanent conflict between opposing parliaments. My guess is that Salmond will hold off on the referendum to give that idea time to sink in.
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