“Publishers love affair with apps is over” – Forrester Research.

QUOTES: news from Digital Book World conference.

“Publishers need to look to how self-published authors price their e-books, improve the quality of their digital texts, and can no longer avoid selling direct to the consumer”
Shatzkin
“it is becoming harder and harder for publishers to avoid direct sales: customers are “the coin of the realm”

Forrester Reasearch: “Currently 25 million people in the US own an e-reader; 34 million have a tablet; and at least eight million homes have two tablets.  (me - 9 million more own a tablet than own an e-reader!!)

Yet McQuivey (Forrester above) pointed out that publishers' “love affair with apps is over": 51% surveyed said that the cost is too high and just 15% believe that apps represent a significant revenue opportunity.”

And from Guardian: “In record sales across nearly all product categories, Apple sold a record 15.43m iPads over the quarter, more than double a year ago. It sold 5.2m Macs during the quarter, a 26% unit increase.”

What do I take from this?

1. (Obviously) Vertical marketing more and more important. Building a direct publisher /reader feedback and participation interface (community of interest).

2. More tablets in US than e-readers – Apple’s growth phenomenal – others will follow this to compete (wide spectrum tablet devices rather than hard-core flat text e-readers, though these have a definite place for the hard-core reading community – pensioners!). Net-books are collapsing in the face of tablets.

3. Apple’s new textbook drive sold 350,00 in three days. [Suggestion. A special interest publisher (ie. weapons/war) who had a product ready right now might latch onto that feeding frenzy and find a whole new market for their not-strictly educational but fact-based product exploiting the curiosity of the young adult component of that buying group (ie. male students here) if the price is set at mouth-watering level. Who knows?]

4. (Carrying on from McQuivey’s second point, above) Publishers who, only seeing what is in front of their noses, give up on APPS as too expensive, are shutting eyes to the obvious – that others will devise open-source direct-to-market multi-media reading ‘pseudo-apps’ (based on ePub3 etc.) designed for easy access by publishers to compile without having to pay for high cost unique-to-device Apps (even Apple are here ahead of the game in tempting authors with the easy-enhancement-but-binding-to-Apple iAuthor). That the dedicated iPAD APP is only the start of the game. And yet they seem to be dismissing the whole phenomenon, leaving themselves wide open to tech-savvy games- film- and multi-media- enterprises to pull the rug from under them.

5. Reminds me (in a joking loose analogy) of a bunch of sheep (small publishers) in a field with a herd of cows (large publishers) looking across a road to a field of lush grass, saying “We professional cud-munchers are the experts in our field (curating grass).  All we gotta do (sheep) is sneak through this hedge which we can do because we’re small and nimble (we reassure each other) and can take advantage of small gaps opening up in the hedge, unlike our bovine brethren, and cross that there grey stuff and we’re made.” Off they go, catching a momentary flashing glimpse of light in the corners of their eyes as a combine harvester (novel industry) comes thundering down that road, pulverising them on its way into their field to cut their precious grass and process into novel products they never dreamed of.
(OK. Sheep not perfect, since they and cows get eaten, but if you take the wool-bearing and milk-producing aspect…)

See DBW article here… http://www.thebookseller.com/news/DBW%3A-%27publishers-should-learn-from-self-publishers-on-pricing%27.html

See Guardian on Apple piece here… http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/25/apple-annnounce-record-sales-iphones-ipads?newsfeed=true

That said, I’m not actually disagreeing with what this article says:
http://bookbrunch.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11831&Itemid=117

Since I am, above, making the (perhaps mistaken) assumption that most have not yet differentiated between the App (device-specific) and pseudo-app (open – ie Epub3 and beyond) multi-media modifications to the reading experience.
I am not taking aim at the adult fiction market in its present guise, trundling along quite nicely into simple epub.

Trending YA book news – after vampires… beasts of war.

Following the thundering successes of Warhorse (film) and Soldier Dog (book), it is reported publishers are to fight a three-corner battle for rights to the first in a bilogy of tales based on true stories of animals at war.


Cher Ami, the fast moving story of the plucky carrier-pigeon, in the only untold tale of the ‘Lost Battalion’, who won the Croix deGuerre with Palm. In October 1918, 194 American soldiers were trapped by Germans in the forest of Argonne, cut off behind the lines without a radio. Refusing to surrender, the trapped men fastened their co-ordinates to Cher Ami, who flew 25 miles in 25 minutes to American headquarters, despite being shot in the chest. The Americans launched a rescue mission and the soldiers were saved.

Second in this series of tales of animals in war is War Boar, the heartbreaking tale of a young Greek swineherd, Thura, and his boar, Kapros, who saved his city from certain destruction during the siege of Megara by Antigonus II Gonatas in 266BC.
Growing up together on the plains of the Isthmus of Corinth, Thura formed a unique bond with Kapros, the the one-eyed boar he saved from slaughter as a piglet. Retreating to the city as the siege got under way, Thura had his pet boar and herd of sows snatched by a group of desperate soldiers who poured pitch on them and set alight to them as they drove them out of the city gates towards the massed elephants of Antigonas’ army. The squealing of the flaming pigs terrified the elephants who run amok, creating havoc among the troops and breaking up the siege, saving the city.

(Editor’s note: before readers write to complain they have a right to complain, it should be noted both stories are essentially true.)

At the Turning of the Year...

I wish anyone reading this blog a healthy new one, a little happiness and wealth (if you insist).

After an intense round of signings in the final two weeks before Christmas (minus two days off ill thanks to freezing winds front of store and Waterstone’s new customer-centric policy of keeping wrapped up customers comfortable by turning the cold air-conditioning on full blast, freezing such as me, not forewarned to buy thermal underwear, in a double-whammy) I sold from the start of November 808 books in all. Not bad!
Hoping to have some exciting news on the iPad front in the near future (no, no one has bought me one for Christmas).

This picture, by the way is of my house taken just before Christmas last year.

CURD THE LION FEATURED IN CH.11. – FANTASY FICTION – IN TEACHERS’ GUIDE.

Margaret Mallett: Choosing Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11: A Comprehensive Guide for Teachers and Student Teachers. Published June 24th 2010 by Routledge – 392 pages. (Winner of the United Kingdom Literacy Association's Author Award 2011 for its contribution to extending children's literacy.)

At the beginning of Chapter 11 on Fantasy Fiction, she writes: “… the huge and ever-growing number of books falling within the fantasy category… How does the teacher select from so many? … In a necessarily selective account, I have been concerned to pick out some of the best writers and most memorable titles which have survived over the years and which I think are likely to continue to be read.”

(full quote):
“BOX 11.2 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF CURD THE LION (AND US!) IN THE LAND AT THE BACK OF BEYOND BY ALAN GILLILAND (RAVEN’S QUILL LTD)

Four soft toys go off on a journey to find a stolen brooch. Sounds cosy? It is not. In fact this is an exciting addition to fantasy novels for children from about age seven years, although it is also a most engrossing adventure story. The pencil drawings by the author fit the written text perfectly and add atmosphere and often energy to the story.

   It is not surprising that this story has been compared to the work of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear: riddles and word play, mysteries and surprises are wonderfully interwoven. The play on names is superb: for example, the four animals are called Curd the Lion, Pilgrim Crow, Sweeney the Heenie (a hyena) and O’Flattery the Snake.

   Dialogue is convincing too. When the mother of Henry and Henrietta, the two children in the story, wrongly accuses them of losing her brooch she threatens that if they do not find it soon she will cancel their birthday party. Worst of all she will give their beloved toy animals to the charity shop for Children in Need, adding, ‘You don’t care about them. Look at the way you were treating Curd the Lion just now. Beating him to rags!’”

Praise for Margaret Mallett’s book:

'This book is about making readers. A compact summary of its contents would not do it justice. It is the accountof a life's work and it deserves thanks and readers. *****'. - Margaret Meek, Books for Keeps on-line, Number 185, November 2010.

'This book is a cornucopia of varied pleasures, offering something for all tastes, presented with an awareness of the complexities of the field and communicated with commitment, enthusiasm and deep knowledge'. - Eve Bearne, English 4-11, the primary school journal of The English Association, Number 42, Summer 2011

And finally, this was her recent reply to an email I sent thanking her:

Dear Alan

Many thanks for getting in touch. In 'Choosing and Using' I wanted to help student teachers know about some of the very best books for children after my lifetime in teaching children and students. Your book about Curd the Lion is hugely original and imagination stretching. My grandchildren are all 4 and under, but I will be getting them each a copy to treasure in the future. I wonder what you are working on now. You deserve every success.

With warmest regards

Margaret.

How nice is that? Thank you, Margaret.

Half-term and Halloween

I ventured forth to Cambridge, commandeering the house of my dear friend Roger, once again, for a week’s signing tour in the flatlands.

In an up and down week, such one expects in East Anglia, I sold a total of 253 books, with Curd the Lion racing ahead at 160 to 91 of The Flight of Birds, a reverse of the summer where the Birds took Flight and easily outpaced the groundly Lion.

True to form, in Cambridge again my, now nearly five year old, Peugeot 207GT turbo’s exhaust nearly fell off, all brackets broken but one, discovered on Saturday evening as I was about to set off home from St Albans  and I had to rig a ‘non-corroding’ (unlike the exhaust main bracket – designed to rust through)
loop to hold it up as I nursed the car home. On the previous occasion my rear offside computer tyre-valve blew, costing me £240 at the nice Peugeot dealership there.
This metal strap holding the rear exhaust box up was cunning welded at one point and pointlessly to the box itself, necessitating the replacement of the perfectly fine entire exhaust system from front to rear at a (non-dealership) cost of £190 (from Peugeot just the replacement rear box is well over £200 not including fitting let alone the obligatory ‘diagnostics’ that must be performed and charged for before any work is carried out).

I returned to the grisly task of taxes and an automatic rifle cutaway for Osprey to be done by Tuesday, missing Halloween and only just remembering our wedding anniversary before the day’s end (Halloween chosen for that express purpose).


We had a muted celebration on the 31st and another on the 1st to make up where I cooked – sort of – I was still trussed up in taxes so I, on and with the one hand, only managed the fillet steak while Pauline on the other managed the rest while I had one.

Summer signing tour – record broken – but the pain, the pain…

I forgot to mention in my previous summer tour round up post that Basingstoke broke my previous day record of 49 at 52 on a Friday. 27 Curd the Lion and 25 Flight of Birds. I had to go back to the car park twice after selling out of each of their existing stock.
Sold 1,103 total. Curd 488. FoB 615. Av. 34.5 per day. (Curd 15.25. FoB 19.22) Both maxed at 27 in a day. Only sold under 30 books twice.

Downside? My missing spinal disc grated harshly heaving tents around (I camped and cooked all my own meals throughout, succumbing to a restaurant only once) and by the end of the tour of five and a half weeks standing, my plantar fasciitis (torn tendon sheath under heel) underwent an excruciating renascence.

NB. Warning to all sporty types – never, never, play without doing those achilles stretches first – I tore mine (see above) over three days and five matches of real tennis in winning my first ever club (doubles) championship.
My name is now depicted in letters of gold on the great boards at Petworth House Real Tennis Court for my children and grandchildren to see, should they ever dream of venturing into that church-like enclosure.
But the cost of that reckless enthusiasm for sporting achievement?
I count, at sixty, the following price: a hole in my skull, one by half-inch (rock climbing at 13 without a helmet – consequence: no cricket or high-diving); torn meniscus cartilage in my right knee, operated on four times (Irish jigging and then squash – consequence: transfer from squash to real tennis and racketball); basal spinal disc loss (A totally unsporting bacterial infection that nearly killed me and ‘ate’ the disc – consequence: no leaping and back-stretching at badminton); plantar fasciitis under right heel (Real tennis – consequence: there’s only swimming and cycling left, really).

And they say self-published books have all the best typos!

Susan Anderson publicly apologised for a typo in her erotic thriller (Avon): 'I apologise to anyone who bought my onsale ebook of Baby I'm Yours and read on pg 293: "He stiffened for a moment but then she felt his muscles loosen as he shitted on the ground." Shifted! He Shifted!'

And Penguin's sales for their Australian cookbook The Pasta Bible quadrupled after word spread that one recipe called for "salt and freshly ground black people". Oops... 

(Quotes courtesy of Cornerstones Literary Consultancy)