Anthony Horowitz on Why We Need Publishers

Interestingly what Anthony Horowitz says in the piece from the Guardian seems to be a continuation of Ian Rankin's speech at the Orion 20th Birthday party. He said that authors "really need publishers", especially "as more content floods the market, of varying quality".
Horowitz' piece opens with - "The title of this talk is, "Do We Need Publishers Any More?". I was going to call it "Thank Christ We Don't Need Bloody Publishers Any More" – but I felt that sounded too partisan. Relationships between writers and publishers are of course very strange and change all the time, rather like a see-saw."
Read the full article here
Roger Jon Ellory who shares Rankin's publisher, commented on the piece....

"E-books, wonderful though they are, will take the place of paperbacks the same way that photography took the place of painting, the same way that recorded music utterly supplanted live performances.  Basically, they won't.  There are certain aspects to e-books that are great, and some that are not.  When you travel a great deal, you are very much aware of the frustration occasioned by passengers who have to 'turn off all electronic devices' a good three-quarters of an hour before landing.  You can't share an e-book the way you can a paperback.  You don't have the wonderfully familiar tactile quality that comes from a paperback.  You can't give your e-books to hospitals, charity stores, libraries.  You can't get an e-book signed.  Giving an e-book as a gift to someone just isn't the same.  It's like sending someone an e-card at Christmas.  You tell them you're being ecologically responsible.  In truth the recipient knows that you forgot to buy one and post it.  Books feel good.  They smell good.  You can use them to interior design a room.  A bookcase says a great deal about a person.  When I met my wife and went to her flat for the first time, what did I do?  I looked at her bookcase (not a euphemism!).  She had Hesse, Kafka, Orwell, Tolkien, Stephen Donaldson, and the complete works of Charles Schulz.  That's the girl for me, no doubt about it.  Everyone is concerned about e-books taking over.  Taking over from what?  E-books are still books.  Someone who reads is going to read, regardless of format.  Someone who doesn't read isn't going to start reading just because you've given them a gadget.  Apparently over a million e-readers were given as gifts this past Xmas.  It has also been reported that in excess of thirty percent of those e-readers have not yet been switched on.  Seems to me that if we spent as much time as we do talking about e-books actually addressing the fact that the education system in this country (and worldwide) has gone to Hell in a handbasket, we might solve the problem of whether or not the publishing industry is going down the pan by fixing the fact that we have just graduated the third or fourth generation of teenagers who 'don't read'.  That seems to be the issue for me - how do we get people reading again, not what format they are going to read in."

Bouchercon here we come!!

This is the first of what will hopefully be my blog about Bouchercon. How frequent it is going to be I do not know.

Bouchercon does not exactly start until tomorrow but pre-Bouchercon stuff has been fun already. Thanks to Jon Jordan so far I have managed to go to a baseball game and saw the St Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves along with the ever delightful Ruth Jordan (Mrs Crimespree), Kirstie Long and Paul Jordan. At the same time the St Louis Rams were playing the Philadelphia Eagles and I have to say that despite the fact that I was at the baseball game I was also keeping my eye on the football results. Why you may ask? That is because I support Philadelphia Eagles so it was nice to see the results and realised that they beat the Rams! I have had a trip round the City Garden and have seen the wonderful sculptures and the pink flamingos! If you have chance to go to the City Garden then one should do so as it is a delight.

Since mid-morning Monday people have already started to turn up. I finally got to meet the wonderfully delightful Jen Forbus. Hi Jen! Adrian Magson and his wife Ann were amongst the first Brits to arrive (aside from myself and Kirstie long) who have been in St Louis since Saturday. Also renewed my acquaintance with Ann McNulty whom I last saw at Baltimore and also B G Ritts. Also met Kat Tromp again, John Purcell and Emily Bronstein (whom I last saw at Crimefest last year!). It was also lovely to see again after such a long time McKenna Jordan who owns Murder by the Book in Houston and Crimespree’s comic and film extraordinaire Jeremy Lynch along with his lovely wife Jill and his mother. Of course the place to be is the bar!

Pictures © Ayo Onatade

Yesterday evening (Tuesday) a lot more Brits started to arrive. My fellow Shotsmag colleagues Mike Stotter and Ali Karim flew in with Roger Ellory, Lauren Henderson, CWA Chairman Peter James, and Guest of Honour Val McDermid and rather later on Tuesday night (sans luggage) Russel McLean. Even though things have not really started today (Wednesday) is going to be rather busy. Trucks to unload with all the book bags and the stuff for registration, which should start @3pm this afternoon. The book bags are stuffed full of wonderful books and I dare anyone to complain! There will also be a swap table set up so if people want to leave books and or swap them there. It will be interesting to see how the hotel manage to cope with the large influx of people that are no doubt due to turn up today. I am sure that they will be fine as they have been excellent so far. So, if you see me wandering around the hotel at some stage during Bouchercon please do come up and say hello, give me a hug as I am sure that I may not remember to do so or I might be distracted and I would not want anyone to think that I was ignoring them on purpose.

There are also a lot of pre-Bouchercon activities taking place as well today. Noir at the Bar will be starting at eight PM, will be held at Meshuggah Café 6269 Delmar Boulevard Saint Louis, MO 63130 (314) 726-56626269. Admission is free, but bring money for drinks and books. Food is also available. Subterranean Books and Bouchercon present Charlaine Harris and Laurell K. Hamilton in an intimate Q&A to benefit the St. Louis Public Library, at Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust Street (across from Central Library, two blocks from convention hotel), Wednesday, Sept 14 6pm (Doors at 5pm). This is a ticketed event and your ticket price gains you admittance to the one-hour event and gets you a signed copy of Harris' SOOKIE STACKHOUSE COMPANION or Hamilton's HIT LIST.

Tickets available here

St Louis County Library presents “Suspense Night 2011” on Wednesday, September 14, at 7 p.m. at Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. The free event brings together seven suspense authors from across the country. The authors are Megan Abbott, Reed Farrell Coleman, S J Rozan, Peter Spiegleman, Steve Hamilton, Lisa Lutz and Christa Faust.

Peter Guttridge Reports on Quais Du Polar 2011

So anyway I’m smiling at this beautiful young woman and she’s kind of half-smiling back in that way that says, “I haven’t a clue who you are but you look vaguely familiar and I hope you’re just being friendly and don’t misinterpret my half-smile.” Well, okay, maybe I’m reading too much into what is, after all, only a half-smile. But I’m smiling at her because in fact I do know exactly who she is and she, in theory, knows who I am. We’ve done a couple of events together, after all.

However the context is unusual. We’re in an ornate reception room in the Beaux-Arts Museum in Lyon, France to celebrate the opening of Quais de Polar, the biggest crime fiction and film festival in continental Europe. John Harvey is over in the corner with his French publisher, Roger Ellory is somewhere around, though I can’t see him in the scrum of people in here. David Peace and Peter Robinson are arriving late.

They’re about to award the prize for best crime novel of the year. Declan Hughes wins – go, Declan! – but he’s not here to collect it. Always a disappointment when that happens, especially as whoever it is who collects it on his behalf is a bit gabby. Which in a language you only understand in part translates into very gabby.

I’m here for an event about international crime festivals on behalf of Bristol Crimefest. On my panel there are people from Liege, Belgium and a place in Italy I can’t spell without looking it up. There is simultaneous translation through earphones for us. This is discombobulating, especially as my set goes haywire - I think because the Italian guy sitting next to me is texting and checking his phone messages throughout the event, hiding his phone behind his name-card.

So I lose about ten minutes of the conversation. But that doesn’t matter because we’re all being pretty boring and the chairwoman does most of the talking anyway – don’t get me started about chairing at festivals – and anyway there are more people on the panel, if you include the translators, than there are in the audience.

Still, it’s a sunny day and we have a nice lunch whilst planning a way of working together and talking movies. The Italian guy and I agree on The Spider Stratagem as Bertolucci’s best thriller – why can’t you get it on DVD? (That’s a rhetorical question, pop-pickers.)

Turns out the Italian guy (I can’t remember his name, if you think me calling him that is a bit rude – although as I can’t remember the name of his festival either it probably is very rude) works on his festival with our own Maxim Jakubowski and Adrian Wootton.

Peter Robinson does his thing at two; John Harvey is done and dusted. Roger Ellory has two events lined up so he’s still working hard. There’s a big dinner tonight. I’m in two minds. My French isn’t good enough to handle any kind of intelligent conversation and I feel bad, therefore, that people out of politeness need to tire their brains speaking English to me. Plus, Lyon is such a great city to wander around in the evening. Roman remains to die for. Which people probably did.

It was S J Parris, in case you’re wondering.

Galaxy Book of the Year Awards 2010 Announced

London, Wednesday 10th November—The winners of the Galaxy National Book Awards 2010, a celebration of the best of British publishing, were tonight revealed at a star-studded awards ceremony at London's prestigious BBC Studios.

Literary veterans Terry Pratchett and Martin Amis took home awards for Outstanding Achievement, in recognition of their unrivalled contribution to the publishing industry.

"I'm delighted," said Martin Amis. "And I take this is as a boost for the so called comic novel. I say so called, because in fact nearly all novels are comic novels."

Terry Pratchett said:

"I'm amazed, you find something that you like doing and do well and keep on doing it and suddenly they give you an award, when all I was really doing was having a lot of fun."

Stephen Fry beat off big competition in the hotly contested Biography category, claiming victory over rival authors who included Tony Blair (booed by one member of the audience) and Lord Alan Sugar. Fry's autobiography The Fry Chronicles was named Tesco Biography of the Year on an evening which saw ten awards presented.

The gala ceremony, recorded at the BBC Television Centre and presented by comedian David Baddiel, has shifted an enhanced focus onto UK writers in a theatre-style venue.

This year there was no separate Crime and Thriller Award, Peter James (Dead Like You) and Lee Child (Worth Dying For) were nominees for Sainsbury’s Popular Fiction Book of the Year. Which was won David Nichols for One Day (Hodder & Stoughton). Roger Jon Ellory also attended and was excited (even though this picture doesn't suggest it!) about his new book SAINTS OF NEW YORK.

The public are now invited to vote online for the Galaxy Book of the Year, the nominees of which comprise winners of all eight categories. Votes can be registered at http://www.galaxynationalbookawards.com/ and the final result will be announced on 13th December.

The Galaxy National Book Awards 2010 and the Booked series are Cactus TV productions (Executive Produced by Amanda Ross) for More4.

For full details of the shortlist please see below:
TESCO BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry (Penguin Group)
TESCO FOOD & DRINK BOOK OF THE YEAR
Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi (Random House)
NATIONAL BOOK TOKENS NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR
The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (Random House)
MORE4 NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Making Of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr (Pan Macmillan)
SAINSBURY'S POPULAR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
One Day by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
WATERSTONE'S UK AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Harper Collins)
GALAXY INTERNATIONAL AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (Harper Collins)
WH SMITH CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE YEAR
Zog by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (Scholastic)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Terry Pratchett
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Martin Amis