8 December 2022

Member news:

Scotland’s National Book Awards 2022 have announced the shortlists for Publisher of the Year, Emerging Publisher of the Year, and Book Cover Design of the Year. The shortlisted publishers are: 404 Ink, BHP Comics, Birlinn, Canongate Books, Charco Press and Edinburgh University Press; the shortlisted Emerging Publishers are Deziree Wilson, Editor at Scottish Mountaineering Press, Hannah McGeechan, Production and Metadata Controller at Canongate Books, Harley Griffiths, Senior Commissioning Editor, Times Books at HarperCollins Publishers, Peter Burnett, Publisher at Leamington Books and Robert Lovell, General Manager at Scottish Mountaineering Press; and shortlisted for the 2022 Book Cover Design of the Year are: Robert Dalrymple for Alison Watt: A Portrait Without Likeness published by National Galleries of Scotland, Luke Bird for Blind Spot: Exploring and Educating on Blindness published by 404 Ink and Mark Mechan for The Sweetness of Dreams published by Vagabond Voices. The award ceremony is 8 December.

Annie McDermott, the translator of Brickmakers published by Charco Press has been shortlisted for the Premio Valle Inclán award; 404 Ink won a FutureBook award in the Team category for their 404 In(k)ternship scheme; Fledgling Press' title Too Near the Dead has won the 2022 Dracula Society Children of the Night award (one of our more unusual awards); Canongate's Caitriona Horne has won a Book Marketing Society Award for her work on title More Fiya; and we spotted DC Thomson collecting some accolades for their magazine publishing at the recent PPA Scotland awards; 404 Ink's title Carrie Kills a Man is featured as one of Damian Barr's Books of the Week on his Literary Podcast; Whittles' title At the Very End of the Road made it into Mark Avery (writer, blogger and environmental campaigner)'s best books of 2022; and finally it was super to see Saraband's title Case Study featured on the New York Times' 100 notable books of 2022.

• Notice of AGM - RSVP for meeting on 14 December
• Between the Covers TV book club - submit fiction titles until end of 9 December
• Members Christmas drinks, 12 December - RSVP to attend now
• Gardners January promotion - submit titles by 16 December
• A guide to the publishing life cycle - recording and checklist
• Books Are My Bag indie book campaigns - submit titles for Childrens and Adult fiction book of the month by 16 January
• Launching the Audiobook project - submit your titles for 6 January
• Looking back at the Year of Stories 2022
• Our 2023 International Publishing Fellowship - open now for applications until 31 January
• Nielsen BookData Christmas Offer - 25% discount for publishers
• Top 20 bestselling Scottish books in Scotland chart
• Trade and Marketing committee minutes
• Greening the industry - climate podcasts from Scottish Enterprise
• Translation fund - open for applications now until 23 January
• Training news
• BooksfromScotland festive issue - A Cup O' Kindness & Bookshop.org 2022 review
• BooksfromScotland Themes for 2023 - submit titles for next year
• News and events
• Opportunities
• Jobs

Best wishes,

Lucy

Lucy Feather

Membership Services Manager

Notice of AGM - meeting 14 December

Notice of our Annual General Meeting 2022

Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Company (Publishing Scotland) for 2022 will take place on Wednesday 14 December 2022, 1.30pm for the purpose of transacting the following business:



1. Minutes

To receive and approve the Minutes of the previous AGM held 25 November 2021. (Resolution 1)

2. To receive and adopt the Financial Statements, including the trustees’ report for the year ended 31 March 2022. (Resolution 2)

3. To re-appoint the auditors, Wylie and Bissett of 168 Bath St, Glasgow, G4 2TP and to authorise their remuneration. (Resolution 3)

4. To approve the appointment and co-option of trustees. (Resolution 4)

5. Other Business

To transact such other business as may be properly transacted at an AGM.

The meeting will be hybrid. When you register you will be sent a zoom link if you don’t want to attend in person. RSVP ESSENTIAL, please rsvp to [email protected].

For more details on our governance see here.

Between the Covers TV book club - submit fiction titles until end of 9 December

Between the Covers TV book club with Sara Cox has been confirmed for a sixth series on BBC2 - they are open now for fiction submissions until end of 9 December.

You can submit as many titles as you like in a variety of genres.

More.

Members Christmas drinks reception, 12 December - RSVP to attend

We are hosting our annual drinks reception for Publishing Scotland members and colleagues at the New Library, Royal College of Physicians, Queen Street in Edinburgh, on 12 December at 6.30pm.

We would be delighted to see you there.

Please RSVP to Patrick.

Submit titles to the Gardners January promotion by 16 December

Gardners are currently accepting submissions for their January 2023 promotions. The themes of the month are Valentine’s Day, Historical Fiction, Historical Factual/Educational and Crafting.

If you have titles you wish to submit, please complete the submission spreadsheet. Once completed return back to Emma Hylands.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 16 December 2022. 

Please note, submissions are subject to approval, inclusion will be based on relevance, previous sales performance and availability. If your submissions do not match these criteria, they may not be included. You must be prepared to offer +5% discount on top of your base terms. The promotional period for all of these offers will be:1 January 2023 - 14 February 2023. 

A guide to the publishing life cycle: recording and checklist

Harper Macleod’s webinar on the Publishing Lifecyle in October looked at the legal issues involved in the publishing life cycle

Watch the recording here.

This useful Excel checklist follows on from that and goes through the legal issues in sequence, from setting up a publishing imprint, through funding, negotiating with authors and agents, arranging print and e-book production and release, promotion and marketing of works, optioning rights for film and TV, releasing new editions of works, merchandising, and through to the ending of author contracts, reversion of rights, and residual obligations.

Books Are My Bag - submit your titles for Childrens and Adult Fiction books of the month by 16 January

The Bookseller's Association are now calling for Indie Book of the Month submissions for publication between April-June 2023. Please find the submission forms below.

Publishers are invited to submit new titles on a quarterly basis. Publishers can submit up to 6 titles in total per quarter. First format publication of any submitted titles should fall between 1 April to 30 June 2023 and should be available to participating shops at the start of the published month.

When you are choosing which titles to submit keep inclusivity in mind. They are keen to see more writers of colour submitted for the Fiction Book of the Month in particular.

The titles for each month are chosen by a panel of independent booksellers from the publisher submissions.

The deadline is 16 January 2023.

Childrens book of the month submission form

Adult fiction of the month submission form

Launching the Audiobook project - submit titles for consideration by 6 January 2023

We hosted an Open Book Audiobook session with Laurence Howell on last week. You can watch the session here and download the powerpoint here or from the members area on our website.

After Laurence's presentation, we launched our Audiobook project. Publishing Scotland has been given budget to fund the production of 5 audiobooks by our members with Offbeat Studio here in Edinburgh. We would like our members to submit titles they would like to see in the audiobook market. To submit get in touch with Vikki to give her the following details on the book you'd like to see produced:

• Title and Author
• Word Count and Page Extent
• Marketing plan

Please also send a copy of the physical book, or the pre-publication PDF to go along with your submission. The deadline to submit is Friday 6 January 2023.

Looking back at the Year of Stories

As 2022 draws to a close, so too does the Year of Stories. You can have a look back at what we’ve been doing at Publishing Scotland and get to know some other members’ stories at the publishing Scotland website: Publisher Spotlights, Features and Interviews, Events calendar, Catalogues. Thanks to all who were part of the year.

2023 International Publishing Fellowship Programme - open for applications until 31 January 2023

Publishing Scotland’s 2023 International Publishing Fellowship Programme is now open for applications. Since its inaugural launch in 2015, the Programme has brought together 54 publishers from 19 countries worldwide.

The Fellowship takes place during a week in August to coincide with the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. All travel and accommodation costs are paid.

Part-funded by Creative Scotland, the Fellowship Programme aims to broaden the reach and influence of books coming out of Scotland, through developing relationships between the international publishing community and the Scottish sector.

Sarah Cantin, Executive Editor at St. Martin’s Press and 2022 Fellow, said: ‘Robust, diverse, committed, innovative, creative, collaborative – I felt a clear sense of collegiality between agents, publishers, and authors. I came away from the Fellowship with a clear idea of what the Scottish literary sensibility is, and a more nuanced picture of what original and inspiring publishing is occurring within Scotland.’

Publishing Scotland invites applications from interested international publishers until Tuesday 31 January 2023. Please share with your international counterparts.

More.

Nielsen BookData Christmas Offer - 25% discount

This Christmas get an extra 25% off special Publisher Packs from Nielsen.

The Publisher Plus pack includes 10 ISBNs and Barcodes, 5 Book2Look ‘Look Inside’ biblets and enriched metadata on their database for up to 10 titles, for £430.

More.

Top 20 bestselling Scottish books in Scotland chart

Welcome to this week's Top 20 Bestselling Scottish Books in Scotland chart. Oor Wullie continues his stay at the top spot.

No real changes to the titles in the Top 20 this week, though nice to see a re-entry into the chart of the Hebridean Baker’s My Scottish Island Kitchen. Last month we stated that both quantity and value sales are down in Scotland, and that has continued in the run up to Christmas. In comparison to November and the first week of December’s sales in 2021, with quantity sales down by 11% in the Top 250, and value sales down by 19% in the Top 250. But we have 3 weeks of Christmas shopping left, so we may see those percentage decreases reduce.

NB. At the moment, these spreadsheets are for Publishing Scotland members only, and will only be shared via this bulletin. Please do not circulate. You can, however, use the information in them for marketing purposes.

Chart Criteria Reminder: Publishing Scotland receive the Top 250 bestselling titles across Scotland. We then curate the chart to feature Scottish interest books by Scottish authors, or authors based in Scotland, books of Scottish setting and/or subject, and books published by publishers based in Scotland.

See the chart.

Trade and Marketing committee

The Trade and Marketing Committee met on 11 October 2022 to review trade and marketing issues in 2022 and look forward to 2023. Topics included issues with Amazon and Waterstones, keeping each other up to date on this Year of Scotland’s Stories and feedback on EIBF. Looking ahead Publishing Scotland will be offering more sales training and consultancy, look to host more publicity networking and will refresh the committee as many of the current members will be stepping down.

If you would like to join the Trade & Marketing Committee for 2023, please get in touch with Vikki Reilly, letting her know what issues in sales, marketing and publicity that you have concerns on.

Minutes here.

Greening the industry - climate podcasts from Scottish Enterprise

Scottish Enterprise have a series of short and really useful podcasts on climate change challenges, solutions and the opportunities for your business to grow sustainably.

The latest episode: One year on from COP26, this is a bonus episode in the series of climate podcasts, head of marketing, Alyson Smith catches up with Adrian Gillespie, CEO of Scottish Enterprise. In the episode, Adrian reflects on why there's never been a more important time for businesses to prioritise net zero actions, the tremendous amount of work that's been delivered over the last year and how we can support businesses to do even more in the year ahead.

More.

Translation fund - round two open for applications

This fund is administered by Publishing Scotland on behalf of Creative Scotland. The purpose of the fund is to support publishers based outside the United Kingdom with the payment of translation fees to translate Scottish writers. Funding will be offered in the form of a grant and it is for translation costs only. 

The next round is open with a deadline of 23 January 2023, please share this with your international counterparts.

More.

Training news and committee

The final free Harper Macleod session of the year is Books and Borders (on selling books outside the UK) on 13 December.

We’ll share the link for Factual Publishing (November’s webinar) when we have it. 

Looking ahead, the next BookMachine course for PS members is Meta Essentials on 25 January and 2 February. It’s only £35+VAT and covers Facebook and Instagram. It will demystify the advertising capabilities within Meta by taking you through the set-up processes and empowering you to create structured campaigns with confidence. Whether you’re looking for tips for your very first Meta campaign or are hoping to brush up on the latest updates, this course is for you. Book now on Ticket Tailor.

Next year’s editorial courses are also open for booking. The 6-hour courses are now split over two days rather than four, and the Further Proofreading and Further Copy-editing courses in June are in-person. 

We are also working on some new courses for 2023 and will release details soon. As always, get in touch if you have ideas for, or comments on, the training programme.

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

BooksfromScotland issue - A Cup O' Kindness and our Bookshop.org yearly review

2022 is the Year of Stories, and now we come to a time of celebration, gathering together and enjoying the shared pleasure of gift giving and stories.

In this bumper festive issue we have many reading and gifting recommendations. We raise a glass to you all and wish you happy reading! Thank you for your submissions.

Read the issue.

Books from Scotland has a Bookshop.org page with a fantastic summary of all our Scottish reading recommendations from the past year.

BooksfromScotland Themes for 2023

We have been planning ahead for the BooksfromScotland website, with work already beginning on the January 2023 issue. You still have time to submit to be part of the first issue of the year.

Here are our themes for 2023’s BooksfromScotland issues.

• January issue: The Myth Makers – covering books that feature iconic moments, iconic stories, new writers, motivation, self-creation
• February issue: Letting Go – covering books that feature starting again, celebration, good health, brightness, lightness
• March issue: Courage – covering books that feature bold thinking, bravery, achievement, strength, vulnerability
• April issue: Open Up – covering books that feature imagination, new ideas, regeneration, rejuvenation
• May issue: Bloom – covering books that feature nature, adventure, success, wellbeing, comfort
• June issue: Press Play – covering books that feature joy, hobbies, food, music, love, dance, games
• Summer issue: Let the Sun Shine – covering books that feature summer reading, travel, outdoors, climate
• September issue: Shake it Up – covering books that feature sport, history, politics, inspiration, experiment
• October issue: Do You Believe in Magic? – covering books that feature magic, surprise, tricks, mystery, supernatural
• Festive issue: Revel, Revel – covering books that feature festive gifts, party, indulgence, friendship

To submit email Vikki Reilly.

News

Edinburgh International Book Festival to reduce its operation for the 2023 festival

See below a statement from Director Nick Barley regarding plans for the 2023 festival.

In light of the unpredictable nature of the external environment, Edinburgh International Book Festival has taken the difficult but necessary decision to revise its strategy for the 2023 Book Festival.The changes in audience booking behaviour since the start of the pandemic and the continuing hesitancy around Covid amongst some of the Book Festival’s core audiences, has been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. The result is people are attending fewer events and spending less money – just as costs are continually rising. All evidence suggests this situation will continue into 2023 and beyond.

We have prepared a prudent strategy to weather this highly challenging period. For the Book Festival Charity to deliver an economically sustainable Book Festival in 2023, the scale of the operation will be reduced, including cutting expenditure across all areas of the organisation and revising the delivery of the Festival itself. This has required some tough decisions, most heartbreakingly the resizing of the incredibly talented team behind the Festival and Charity’s work, and pausing our streaming activity, which has been such a success in opening up the Festival but costs a significant amount and is unaffordable in the current climate.

Full details of next year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival will be revealed at the programme launch in mid-June, but it will take place as planned from 12–28 August at Edinburgh College of Art. There will remain a varied programme of events for adults, children and schools, and as usual it will feature a large range of author talks, creative workshops and discussions with Scottish, UK and international authors. Meanwhile, the Book Festival Charity continues to bring free events and books to all school children via its vibrant Baillie Gifford Schools Programme and the Baillie Gifford Transport Fund which offers support toward travel costs, and the Communities Programme continues to connect creatively with people in their own communities. Work will also continue to prepare for the planned move from to the Book Festival’s new permanent home at the Edinburgh Future’s Institute in 2024.

Scottish Book Trust Christmas campaign - gift books through food banks

SBT has launched its campaign seeking donations so it can gift books through food banks this Christmas. They are fundraising to ensure everyone in Scotland has access to books and the many benefits reading brings. They will use the money raised to give books to families visiting food banks and support year-round work with children, families and adults in Scotland. Please get in touch to donate.

More.

Scottish Book Trust have published their annual review and accounts

Their programmes benefit hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland every year, from babies to adults. Scottish Book Trust's mission is to ensure people living in Scotland have equal access to books. Discover some of the highlights work in the Annual Review 2021–22.

More.

The Scottish Library & Information Council (SLIC) leads new campaign

SLIC wants to encourage more parents across Scotland to enrol and introduce their children to the benefits of reading and library membership. The Every Child a Library Member (ECALM) campaign has backing from the Scottish government and will highlight the benefits of library use from as early an age as possible to support improved language, literacy and social skills across the country.

More.

Ullapool Book Festival announces last festival for 2023

The 19th Ullapool Book Festival will take place on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 May 2023 for the last time. It is with sadness that the committee made this announcement, but also with pride in what has been achieved since the first UBF in 2005.

More.

British Council International Publishing Fellowship

The group recently visited Edinburgh and met with Canongate colleagues as well as some of the Publishing Scotland team. The U.K. study tour of the British Council International Publishing Fellowship spent time in Edinburgh, Newcastle and London and saw publishers and organisations supporting the literature sector, as well as booksellers/shops.

More.

Events

Creative Freelancing - 17 February 2023 - Glasgow

How do you operate as a creative freelancer? What are your rights, and how do you protect them? What happens when things go wrong, like late payment or a dispute with an employer? How do you do your taxes?

Join Heather Parry, the co-creator of the Illustrated Freelancer’s Guide, for a practical and supportive workshop on navigating your career in the creative arts as a sole trader. With a focus on easily understandable help and simple guidance, this workshop will cover:

1) the basics of operating as a creative freelancer

2) maintaining your sanity + advocating for your rights

3) a Q&A to discuss anything at all

More.

Opportunities

Historic Environment Scotland: Board Membership

Apply by 5pm on 16 December 2022 to be considered for the Board of Historic Environment Scotland. 

More.

London Book Fair Trailblazer Awards - apply by 30 January

Applications are now open for this year’s Trailblazer Awards. Created to celebrate the next generation of the UK publishing industry, those blazing a trail, you can now enter or nominate someone.

More.

Author International Travel Fund - applications ongoing

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.

Visit our opportunities page for more.

Jobs

Festival Intern - Granite Noir

Apply by 9 December for this paid internship at Aberdeen's crime writing festival.

Hodder Education: Sales Consultant

Apply by 9 December for this full-time permanent position based across Scotland.

Lex Academic: Chief Copy Editor

Apply by 31 January 2023 for this remote part-time role.

Visit our jobs page for more.