22 September 2022

Member news:

Congratulations to Luna Press Publishing who have won Best Independent Press at the British Fantasy Awards 2022; winners of the Gaelic Literature Awards 2022 included titles from Acair and Luath Press; the 2022 McIlvanney Prize went to May God Forgive published by Canongate; The Biggest Footprint: Eight billion humans. One clumsy giant published by Canongate, is the winner of the Wainwright Prize for Children’s Nature & Conservation Writing 2022; the 2022 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature shortlist includes titles from Sandstone Press and Canongate.

• Cost of doing business survey - results so far, still time to complete survey
• ACME Comic Con festival
• Open Book Session: recording of Amazon Masterclass, sign up for One-to-One Sessions
• Autumn/ Winter Year of Stories Catalogue launched
• Open Book: the non-traditional market with Bookspeed, sign up for 29 September
• Open Book: pitching to Spring book festivals 2023, sign up for 3 October
• Autumn Fever Pitch Session with the BA and Independent Booksellers, sign up for 5 October
• Call-out for titles for the BA Books of the Month slots, submit by 16 October
• Year of Stories events programme continues
• Open Book Session: recording of Scottish Book Trust and Bookbug
• Top 20 bestselling Scottish books in Scotland charts
• New network member
• Translation Fund awarded for round 1
• Training news
• BooksfromScotland - Pause and submit for next issues
• Stirling Publishing Studies Alumni Roundtable: Celebrating 40 Years, 28 September
• BookSource awarded Living Wage accreditation
• Gardners trade show postponed

• News and events
• Opportunities and jobs

Best wishes,

Lucy

Lucy Feather

Membership Services Manager

Cost of doing business survey results so far – September 2022

Thanks to all who filled in our Cost of doing business survey, launched earlier this month. It remains open, so do please fill it in, if you haven’t already done so. Link here.

Q1 How are the rises in the cost of living and of doing business impacting you and your business at present? Can you quantify in % terms?

The results of the survey show a varying degree of price rises – from a minimum of 10% to 50% greater than last year. Printing/production/raw materials costs and shipping account for the largest rises, with increases in salaries and energy bills being factored in too. At the same time, due to the uncertainties of the market and consumer worries around cost of living, sales have dropped, with some publishers reporting upwards of 50% drop off. With many publishers working from home full-time, and winter approaching, the energy rises are particularly worrying. Publishers are concerned that if price rises are passed on to the consumer at this time, the market wouldn’t take it, but in some instances, publishers are raising prices.

Q2 What measures would most help from both UK and Scottish governments?

·       Fix energy market

·       Rent freezes

·       Increase Employment Allowance/ working from home measures

·       Reduce business rates, corporation tax, NI

·       Emergency grants

·       Look into the viability of a Scottish paper industry

·       Grants for equipment

·       Subsidise fuel costs for schools and colleges

·       Rejoin EU…

Q3 What would you need Publishing Scotland to focus on to assist you at this time?

·       Help with digital costs

·       Re-education of consumers on higher book prices

·       Help with finance and accounting matters

·       Advice on govt initiatives

·       Financial help through awards/grants

·       Free training

·       Remember schools and educational publishing in messaging

·       Remember freelancers

·       Keep fighting the good fight

Your answers will inform our activities going forward, so please let Marion know of anything additional you would like us to consider.

NB. We are offering specific training around funding - the first Harper Macleod session of the new series is on business funding (26 September). More.

We have some useful funding signposting and guidelines on the website too.

ACME Comic Con festival

Publishing Scotland will be at ACME Comic Con festival in Glasgow alongside members 404 Ink, BHP Comics, Floris Books, Haunt Publishing, Knight Errant Publishing, Little Door Books, Luna Press and Sandstone Press. 

Authors will be appearing across the stages 24-25 Sep too.

More.

Open Book Session: Amazon Masterclass and One-to-One Sessions

Last week we hosted Simon Pollard and Jason Cooper from PGC (Publisher Consultancy Group) for a session on how to sell more books on Amazon. The slides and the recording of the session will soon be uploaded onto the Members’ Area on the Publishing Scotland website.

At the end of the session we announced that we can offer five publishers a consultation day with Simon and Jason for a bespoke Amazon health check particular to your company with advice for next steps. If you would like to apply to be one of the five publishers to receive this one-to-one session, please email Vikki Reilly detailing where you are with your Amazon sales and where you can identify issues you’d like address. At the moment, these one-to-one sessions are only available to publishers with an Advantage Account.

Autumn / Winter (Christmas) Year of Stories Catalogue

Publishing Scotland’s Year of Stories Autumn / Winter catalogue is now printed and winging its way to bookshops and a selection of visitor locations across Scotland.

You can also view it on the Publishing Scotland website here

Open Book Session: the non-traditional market with Bookspeed, sign up for 29 September

The non-traditional book market is becoming increasingly important for publishers as more retail outlets curate book offers for their customers. Bookspeed is one of the leading wholesalers for the non-traditional book market.

Publishing Scotland, will host Jonny Gallant, Publisher Relations Director of Bookspeed, for a hybrid Open Book session on Thursday 29 September at 11.30am at the Publishing Scotland office and online to tell us more about the trends in the non-traditional market as well as sharing tips on the best way to work with Bookspeed.

Book a place by emailing Heather McDaid.

Open Book Session: pitching to Spring book festivals 2023, sign up for Monday 3 October

Book festivals around the country are opening up again after two years of the pandemic. We will be hosting a pitching day on Monday 3 October with three of Scotland’s festival programmers: Catriona Cox from Granite Noir (crime writing festival), Paula Ogilvie from Borders Book Festival (all genres and both children’s and adult events), and Heather McDaid and Sha Nazir, the new programmers for the Paisley Book Festival (all genres and both children’s and adult events)

The pitching sessions will be held on Zoom and Vikki Reilly will be there to facilitate the movement between each programmer’s break out rooms. If you would like to take part, please get in touch with Vikki Reilly and let her know who you would like to pitch to – if you want to pitch to them all, that’s fine too.

Please keep in mind your lists for Autumn 2022 and Spring 2023, and each festival’s audience when you’re putting together your pitches.

Autumn Fever Pitch Session with the BA and Independent Booksellers - sign up for 5 October

We have organised an Autumn Fever Pitch session with The Booksellers Association for their independent bookseller members. This is a great opportunity to present your key Autumn/Christmas title highlights to Scottish booksellers.

The event will take place on Zoom on Wednesday 5 October at 2pm. 

Please sign up for a slot by contacting Heather McDaid 

Each publisher will have up to 5 minutes to present key titles to the booksellers in the audience. You do not have to use the full 5 minutes and you are encouraged NOT to go over the 5 minute allocation. Please take note of the following information/ instructions and the deadline for slides if you’re intending to show them is Friday 30 September. 

Titles/Slides:

• A maximum of 5 titles per pitch to keep within the 5 minutes allotted. Less is more!

• You are welcome to show slides.

• PS will advance the slides, and you can prompt us to move on or back during your presentation.

• If you would like to show slides, these must be sent to Heather McDaid in advance. The preferred format for PPT is 16.9 (widescreen).

• It would be helpful to include an email address on one or more of the slides.

• Keep your presentation to words and visuals on the powerpoint. Audio and video content should not be included.

This is a chance for you to pitch and directly communicate your passion and investment in your publishing programme and to pass on your enthusiasm and commitment to the booksellers; why should they stock your book in their shop?

Spreadsheet with title info sent by 30 September

Complete the excel spreadsheet with titles you’re intending to pitch to Heather, including author, title, ISBN, publishing dates and send to us in advance.

Submit your titles for the BA Books of the Month slots by 16 October

The Bookseller’s Association are calling in submissions for January, February and March Fiction and Children’s Indie Book of the Month titles.

Over 150 independent bookshops across the UK are signed up to support the Children’s Book of the Month campaign, and over 90 bookshops have signed up to support the Fiction Book of the Month campaign.

Each shop promotes the book through orders, POS material, social media campaigning and is supported with PR from Midas PR.

You can find the submission forms here (children’s submissions) and here (fiction submissions).

When you are choosing which titles to submit please keep in mind to submit your key frontlist titles that will have a wide readership. The BA have also asked to keep diversity and inclusivity in mind. They’re keen to see more writers of colour submitted for the Fiction Book of the Book in particular. 

The submission deadline is 16 October 2022.

Year of Stories events programme

Our programme of events to celebrate this Year of Stories continues with the following. Any enquiries please contact Heather McDaid.

24-25 Sep: Publishers showcase at ACME Comic Con

A number of Publishing Scotland members will be present at ACME Comic Con, with events including Nikky Smedley, Ely Percy, Thom James Carter and Gray Crosbie, with many more.

More.

1 Oct: Lari Don at Wigtown Book Festival

Award-winning author Lari Don presents The Tall Tale of the Giant’s Causeway. Discover the traditional Celtic folklore that inspired Lari’s witty story about two bickering giants, imagine your own magical adventures, and marvel at Emilie Gill’s playful and humorous illustrations which bring the story to life! (Ages 4-7). 

More.

8 Oct: Neil McIntyre at BookMark Festival

The red deer, majestic monarch of the glen, is Britain's largest land mammal and undisputed king of wood lands and glens. Common across the Scottish Highlands and resident elsewhere, the animal is emblematic of our wild country and a beloved icon. 

More.

Open Book Session: Scottish Book Trust and Bookbug

On Tuesday 6 September, Publishing Scotland hosted an Open Book session with Scottish Book Trust (SBT) with a focus on Bookbug, SBT’s programme for early readers. The session was recorded and is now available to watch in the Members Area of the Publishing Scotland website.  More.

Top 20 Bestselling Scottish Books in Scotland Chart

Welcome to the Scottish bestseller chart news, covering the last two weeks of book sales.

We have a new number one, Robert Galbraith’s The Ink Black Heart.

Other new entries in the charts are The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’ Farrell, The Last Girl to Die, the latest book from the bestselling Helen Fields, the paperback edition of Diana Gabaldon’s Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone, and C. S. Robertson’s The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill, which is Waterstone’s Scottish Book of the Month. There is also the first sighting of the Oor Wullie annual for 2023. Expect that to be a mainstay in the chart until Christmas...

NB. At the moment, these stats are for Publishing Scotland members only, and will only be shared via this bulletin. Please do not circulate.

See the chart 310822 – 060922

See the chart 070922 - 130922

See the chart 140922 - 200922

New network member

Andrew Nurnberg Associates International Ltd have joined us, with their Scottish representative Doug Wallace, Managing Director of the literary co-agency which

specialises in translation rights.

Translation Fund awarded for round 1

The first round of the translation fund has been awarded. Fifteen international publishers were successful with Scottish authors to be published in Spanish, Croatian, Lithuanian, French, Italian, Swedish, Galician, Brazilian Portuguese, Ukranian and Estonian. There will be a second round later in the year.

More.

Training news

Register now for Funding on Monday 26 September, the first webinar in the new series of Harper Macleod’s publishing law webinars. Booking is also open for the rest of the series.

We still have places on the Editing for Better Communications course on 3 and 6 October. It is particularly useful for those who don’t work as book editors but need editing skills. We also have a marketing course for freelance editors on 24 and 27 October. The next BookMachine course for PS members is Social Media Advertising for Beginners – in October and only £30+VAT. 

Our September introduction to proofreading course is now full. Booking is open for the November/December Introduction to proofreading and copy-editing. Before that we have Further Copy-editing and Proofreading courses which are great for improving your skills as well as a chance to question the experienced tutors on editing issues.

For details of all our courses, see the Publishing Scotland website. See also Events.

BooksfromScotland Pause - and submit for the next issues

After a lovely summer and a busy festival season, BooksfromScotland are now taking Pause with the new BfS issue. Thank you for your submissions; all these titles are included on the BFS website and in regular newsletters to subscribers.

Read the issue.

Submit for future Issues:

• October – Beyond borders: Books that have an international outlook

• November/December – Festive Reading and Gifts

To submit or for any enquiries please contact Vikki Reilly.

Stirling Publishing Studies Alumni Roundtable: Celebrating 40 Years, 28 September

Wednesday 28 September 2022, 5-6.30pm (BST) 

Eventbrite registration link

Publishing Studies at Stirling turns 40! They are hosting a celebratory, online roundtable with several Publishing Studies alumni discussing their time at Stirling and their subsequent careers.

The first degree in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling was offered in 1982, and since then students have come from around the world to study at the university, and to further their careers in publishing and associated areas. 

To kick off anniversary celebrations, join a distinguished panel of Stirling publishing studies alumni from across the decades and around the world to celebrate 40 years of the programme. 

Speakers include: 

• Simon Bell (graduated 1999), Institutional Sales Manager, Bristol University Press. 

• Federica Fiorillo (graduated 2018), Rights and Licensing Executive, Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society  

• Louise Cameron (graduated 1987), Group Production Director, Bloomsbury Publishing plc 

• Daniel Chebutuk Rotich (graduated 1995), Professor of Publishing Studies, Moi University 

• Elaina Ryan (graduated 2009), CEO of Children’s Books Ireland 

• Chair: Claire Squires, Professor of Publishing Studies, University of Stirling 

There will be the opportunity to ask questions and share your own experiences.

BookSource awarded Living Wage accreditation

BookSource has been accredited as a Living Wage employer. The Living Wage commitment will see everyone working at BookSource receive a minimum hourly wage of £9.90 per hour. This Living Wage rate was announced on Monday 15th November 2021 as part of Living Wage Week. This rate is significantly higher than the government minimum for over 23s, which currently stands at £9.50 per hour (from 1 April 2022).

In Scotland, more than 14% of all jobs pay less than the real Living Wage – around 330,000 jobs. Despite this, BookSource has committed to pay the real Living Wage and deliver a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.

More.

Gardners Trade Show and BA conference - postponed

The Gardners Trade Show and BA Conference has been postponed from Sunday 18 and Monday 19 September, and will now be held on Sunday 30 and Monday 31 October. We’re still holding the samples and sales materials from participating publishers and will be attending in the same capacity on the new dates.

News and events

Major international literary conference announced for Edinburgh

Edinburgh cements its place as a world leading literary city with the announcement that the UNESCO Cities of Literature Network Conference will be held in Scotland’s capital in 2024. Celebrating twenty years since the creation of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network when Edinburgh received its designation as the very first UNESCO City of Literature, representatives from over 40 Literary Cities around the world will come to Edinburgh in October 2024 to mark the achievements of the past two decades and plan for the next two.

More.

UK Government outlines plans to help cut energy bills for businesses

The UK Government has unveiled support for households, businesses and public sector organisations facing rising energy bills. Through a new government Energy Bill Relief Scheme, the government will provide a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices for all non-domestic customers.

More.

Wigtown Book Festival 2022, 23 September - 2 October

Another fantastic line-up from this small town in the south-west of Scotland. With more than 200 events for adults and children. Publishing Scotland are supporting our member publishers 404 Ink with Arun Sood's event, New Skin For The Old Ceremony: A Kirtan.

More.

The Bookseller Children’s Conference

After two years of conferencing virtually, The Bookseller Children’s Conference will be returning to County Hall, Waterloo, London, on Monday 26 September 2022, alongside a full livestream for those joining online. The Conference will centre on Conversations: whether that’s the creative conversations within author and illustrator collaborations, the conversations necessary to reach across a divide or simply the conversations we are and should be having with our readers.

Publishing Scotland offered free tickets to members who publish children’s books. The following members received online tickets to attend:

Anne Glennie – Cranachan Books

Frances O’Neill – Sainted Media

James Clement – Moonlight Publishing

Jane Walker – Barrington Stoke

Libby Hamilton – Rocket Bird Books

Suzanne Kennedy – Floris Books

More.

Braemar Literary Festival 2022

A new book festival - the inaugural Braemar Literary Festival is taking place from

7-9 October 2022.

Visit our events page for more.

Opportunities

Author International Travel Fund

There is no deadline, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis while there is an available budget for the quarter. With support from Creative Scotland, this fund has been established by Scottish Books International to support writers who have been invited overseas to promote their work.

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023 open for submissions

Closing date: 30 September, 2022.

The submissions must be submitted by publishers and must have been published during the calendar year 2022. For the purposes of this prize, ‘historical’ means that the majority of the book, ie more than 50%, must be set at least 60 years before its publication date. You can find the rules and criteria and the submission form on the Walter Scott Prize website.

International Booker Prize 2023 open for submissions

Closing date: 30 September, 2022.

The International Booker Prize 2023 is open to publishers for submissions. Please note, only publishers can submit entries to the prizes; authors and agents are not permitted to enter the prizes directly. For the rules and entry form, see the Booker Prizes website.

SYP: Scotland Opportunities

Apply for these opportunities by Sunday 2 October.

The Society of Young Publishers have opened applications for its mentorship scheme, conference committee and Saltire Awards Shadow Judging Panels.

Comedy Women in Print Prize 2022/23 open for submissions

The closing date for submissions is Friday 14 October 2022. Now in its fourth year, The Comedy Women in Print prize (CWIP) is seeking the best comedy writing by women from the UK and Ireland in its mission to celebrate witty diverse female voices and kick-start comedy writing careers.

Visit our opportunities page for more.

Jobs

Royal Society of Literature: Freelance Fundraiser

Apply by Friday 23 September for this freelance temporary position. 

John Murray Press: Publicity Manager

Apply by Friday 23 September for this full-time, permanent position which can be based in Edinburgh, London or any of Hachette's regional offices.

Headline: Editorial Director/Publisher

Apply by Sunday 25 September for this full-time, permanent position which can be based in Edinburgh, London or any of Hachette’s regional offices.

Hodder Education Group: Commissioning Editor

Apply by Sunday 25 September for this full-time, permanent position which can be based in Edinburgh, London or one of Hachette’s regional offices.

StAnza poetry festival: part-time Communications Officer

Apply by Monday 26 September.

HarperCollins: The Traineeship 2023

Individuals from Black, Asian and ethnic minority background are invited to apply by Sunday 25 September for this publishing traineeship. 

Little, Brown: Publishing Director (12 month FTC)

Apply by Thursday 29 September for this full-time, fixed-term (12 months) position which can be based in Edinburgh, London or a regional office.

Leamington Books: Assistant Publisher

Apply by 5pm on Wednesday 28 September for this publishing role based in Edinburgh.

Little, Brown: Junior Editor/Editor (12 month FTC)

Apply by Sunday 2 October for this full-time, fixed-term (12 months) position which can be based in Edinburgh, London or a regional office.

Bookouture: Commissioning Editor/Associate Publisher

Apply by Friday 7 October for these full-time, permanent positions that can be based in Edinburgh, London or any of Hachette’s regional offices.

Barrington Stoke: Sales Administrative Assistant

Apply by Wednesday 5 October 2022

Glasgow Women’s Library: Engagement and Outreach Development Worker

Applications will be accepted until 12 noon on Monday 10 October for this part-time position based in Glasgow and outreach locations.

Visit our jobs page for more.