Campaign

thanks Lol for reminding me how fun "e" was to read and fwiw I did not know that Matt Beaumont had another book. Will go to amazon asap and buy that and your books too, which sound way fun.

Thanks Candace. Matt's written a few since then - 'the book, the film, the t-shirt' was one, which I didn't think was anywhere near as good/funny as 'E'. And since moving publishers I think he's written another one but I've not read it yet... It's funny how many of the above list are all set in advertising though (my own included, although it was written before I worked in an agency so may not be 100% accurate...). I guess it's true we write what we know. Or we're just lazy - one of the two.

Did you see my letter in Campaign this week (see below)? Self publishing is defintely a way forward:

Through my contribution to the concept development and market launch of Lovereading.co.uk, I have learnt that your article ‘Go to work on an oeuvre’ (Campaign, 5 September) was spot on. If you have a book in you, it is increasingly difficult to get it published and promoted.

The collapse of the Net Book Agreement in 1995 led to the arrival of in the market of the major multiples who offer a low range of newly published books at significant discounts and sometimes, ridiculously, at a loss. This, in turn, has eroded publisher margins and lessened the risk publishers are prepared to take on new authors. It is safer for them to focus their attention on established literary giants like Gordon Ramsay and Katie Price.

And readers, who can buy virtually every book that has ever been published on the internet, will have little chance of finding your book at all (which is where Lovereading comes in - but that is another story).

Where your article may have been wrong was its contention that you need a friendly agent and publisher. You have one small alternative to consider, which is to publish and promote your book yourself. Self-publishing is one of the rare sectors in the book market that is growing (according to the Bookseller, up 36% since 2006). And ‘print-on-demand’ (POD), where your book is printed only once it has been ordered and paid for by a reader, is becoming more and more affordable. This is where Lovereading’s sister site, Lovewriting.co.uk comes in - but, again, that is another story.

By self-publishing through POD, at least you have the chance to tell your mates about your book.  And if it's any good, they will tell their mates and they will tell their mates and you may just become a best seller.  It is called word-of-mouth, the most powerful marketing tool there is.

I'd also like to mention 'Pepper' by the late Tristan Hawkins, a cracking novel by a copywriter about a copywriter.  Chris Wilkins has written a couple of novels and copywriter Rhidian Brook actually won a Somerset Maugham award for his first novel - that puts him in the company of ian McEwan and Martin Amis as previous winners.

Thanks for that Anthony. I hadn't heard of Pepper, sounds interesting. Another one I've just been told about is Zane Radcliffe (when he was at HHCL) – his novel ‘London Irish’ – not about copywriting, but about being Irish in London. I think.

Hugh, thanks for your note/letter. I've heard great things about lovereading.co.uk - I hadn't heard of lovewriting though; that sounds like a brilliant idea. Self-publishing is definitely an interesting area. I know Ralph Little and a friend of mine Stephen Morris recently published a novel purely online, for a charity. It's called www.thegoldengeneration.co.uk and that seems to have done well. They were sensible and made sure they got themselves a freelance editor though. I don't know how many people do publish unedited work but I think it's risky - most work is always much improved after a bit of cutting and editing (mine included).

You're definitely right about it all being down to word-of-mouth. Even though i've not self-published, I have found myself doing a lot of my own marketing and PR via a couple of book trailers online (youtube is the great leveller - even those with no budget can try and do their bit to promote their work), which has been a great experience but really time-consuming. And you need to be pretty persistent/thick-skinned to try and promote your own work and try to get reviews and things (It can be horrible having to harass journalists about your own stuff!). So the thought of doing everything else with it - jacket design etc sounds a little daunting, but I imagine self-publishing probably makes up for all of this with its financial perks...

Lovereading has been an interesting journey. The Salmon Agency had the Hodder Headline account (when it was a subsidiary of WH Smith). Shortly after the Marketing Director Louise Weir left Hodder, I met Peter Crawshaw in a pub. He used to work for Book Club Associates. So we all got together and really thought the market through. Lovereading has been the result and we all sit in the same offices. (There's more about us all on the 'About Us' tab on the Lovereading site).

I thought it would be an original approach for a creative agency to help create its own client!

One of the most striking learnings out of the Lovereading project has been the sheer number of books that arrive in our offices every day. I now say to budding authors that the best place to start is to come to our offices and see for themselves the unbelievable number of books that are published. It is an incredibly crowded market.

I feel so sorry for authors (and illustrators) who put so much time and effort, and heart and soul, into writing and producing their book just to find they are just one of literally hundreds of thousands of other titles and that no one else is really very interested in their oeuvre.

I know this for myself because Anthony Stileman, former creative director at The Salmon Agency and ex-Lowe and Y&R art director, and I self-published a book for our kids called 'Do As You Would Be Done By''. Its on Amazon and, of course, Lovereading4kids and whenever we show it to people, they love it but we've got over a thousand copies spare in the room next door to me now! I wish we had gone down the POD route......

You may be interested to read my EXCLUSIVE FAY WELDON INTERVIEW on the subject of copywriting vs. novel writing. It's only three paras long and could easily be pasted in here to be honest but I'm pretty desperate for blog traffic so stuck it here:

realmenwritelongcopy.blogspot.com/.../fay-weldon-on-copywriting-vs-novel.html

Cheers