Friday 30 December 2011

Tidying up


Well, most of the Christmas cake has been eaten and the few crumbs remaining are proof of its goodness. I'm trying to ignore the rain lashing against the windows and concentrating on clearing space on the floor and on the shelves, though the two are merging together in a few areas of the house. Five Farthings will arrive from the printer very soon and I need space for the boxes and also a bit of space for the production line of postage and packing.

I'm also sorting out things like library books and trying to remember when they're due back as I'm worriedly aware that it's soon and that fines threaten. This is why one library book has concealed itself in the house and is probably waiting for me to count to one hundred before searching for it. I try and use the library regularly on the way home from work as it keeps me in the habit of reading and browsing, always nice if you need some peace after work. The range of stock is particularly good, from the main publishers to smaller people like Persephone and Fidra Books. That's why I still use libraries - I may want to read a light novel on the train, but I may not want to buy my own copy just yet. I may want to try out a new author - that's Guillaume Musso for the moment - and I can't (sadly) afford to buy every book that looks interesting. Then again, I'm lucky to have a branch library that is open later in the evening and is on the way home. I'm still furious that my local library got rid of so much of its rare stacks and that many of those books never made it into the library booksale. The time has passed since I last took out as many books as my ticket would allow - perhaps I've grown up and balanced by enthusiasm, but there is a limit as to the number of books you can comfortably carry home.

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Time and Space

I like this peaceful interlude between Christmas and New Year - the online shop is still open and orders are coming in, but it's more gentle than the pre-festivities frenzy of shopping that characterises December. Now, though, the book-collectors are returning and buying their own books again. Whether they've been given a nice cheque for Christmas or their families ignored their hints and the ever-useful Amazon wishlists, the book-buying habit is very hard to break, no matter how many books you have shelved, on the floor or 'somewhere safe' ready to be read. I've spent the last day or so reviewing books, making notes for future blog posts and just enjoying reading uncritically. It's always useful to have a break from reading for business, just to regain perspective and find out if your first impression was correct or not.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Five Farthings now available for pre-order



Goodness, that's an exciting thing to write and even better to add a link to. I've just finished updating the website and testing all the links and (fingers crossed) everything will keep working. Chapter One of Five Farthings is also there for you to read, if you'd like to.... Buyers are all adored and very welcome.

Now to catch up on some blog reading and admire the craft work as well as people's reading. I'm coveting cardigangirlverity's stocking at the top of her site. It has pockets for books on the outside and (I suspect) plenty of room for small presents like clementines and chocolate coins inside.

Saturday 3 December 2011

Beautiful books

Why am I a publisher? Well, aside from wanting to run a business doing what I love, I also wanted to reprint beautiful books and, hopefully, enhance them with lovely new cover art. Monica Redlich's Five Farthings is with the printer and should be delivered to me very shortly, so I can now take advance orders via the website. It's rather exciting typing that. I'm very pleased with it and the new art that I've arranged. Tomorrow's task is to add a preview of Chapter One of Five Farthings to the website - always good to have a sample chapter.

Tonight, though, I'm having a look at twitter where I'm @MarginPublisher.