Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Monday, 6 July 2009

New Bee-Keeper for BeWrite Books

BeWrite Books is delighted to break the exiting news that a new keeper will be tending the buzzing beehive when BB publisher Cait Myers leaves the company after ten years at the end of July for new adventures in far-flung places.

Geoff Nelder – based in Chester, England – is already working along with Cait as she helps smooth the transition to be sure that BeWrite Books doesn’t falter in its established commitment to stability and reliability. And she’ll remain informally on call for several months to help keep the house in order while Geoff gets into his stride.

But Geoff – an award-winning author in his own right – is already well versed in many of the considerable duties Cait so expertly covered over the years. Qualified to handle accountancy and admin and with a firm grasp of modern technology and publishing practice, Geoff is also dynamic and innovative in the promotion and marketing of books, and a top-notch networker at important publishing events.

He accepted early retirement from his lifetime job as a senior educator recently so is now free to dedicate to his new position the time and energy it requires.

Geoff said: “I’m thrilled to be taking over – It’s a challenge to become the new Cait Myers. I’ve been involved with, and have closely watched BeWrite’s development over the past ten years. Cait’s input and expertise has been impressive ... and so modestly behind-the-scenes.
“We’re all old friends now. In fact, Editor Neil Marr is my daily online Scrabble opponent (it’s our coffee break from work). And, no, he doesn’t always win ... he generously allows me success now and then.
“My first job, of course, is – with Cait’s kind help – to make sure there’s solid continuity so that the internal change-over at BB doesn’t adversely affect anyone, especially authors and readers. Later, when my learning curve levels, I’m sure I’ll brainstorm with the others and we’ll talk over new ideas to enhance the house. Maybe trying short-run, maybe opening the door to new genres and imprints. We’ll see.
“For now, I’m just happy to be here. BeWrite has always seemed more like a nuclear family than a business, so I feel a bit like I’ve been adopted. Others in the extended family are the authors and readers. I’ll try hard to be as welcoming to them as Cait has always been. She laid out the red carpet to them; I just have to keep it swept.”

BeWrite Books Editor, Neil Marr, said: “Sad as I am that Cait is moving on, I’m tickled pink to now be working with Geoff at the helm. We’ve been friends for years and – not only because he often beats me in online Scrabble – I have unbounded confidence in him as a wordsmith and administrator. Cait is leaving the house she helped create in capable hands.
“We’ll share an interesting future. And I know our warm stable of authors and editors will very quickly take Geoff to heart. Apart from being so darned efficient that it’s frightening, he’s one of the nicest chaps on this third rock from the sun.”

Cait, who is leaving her BB Munich desk for new, international adventures, said: “It’s sad to be leaving BeWrite Books after all this time, it has really felt like a family. I wish everyone the best of luck with their projects and look forward to reading lots more excellent books from BeWrite.”

A Brief Biography of Geoff Nelder
Geoff Nelder lives in the ancient and quaint English city of Chester. Born in Germany to British parents, he has lived all but four years of his life in England.

A former high school teacher of geography and information technology, Geoff has had non-fiction books on microclimates in the UK published along with several articles in academic journals such as Weather, Geographical Magazine and the Times Educational Supplement. Geoff is a part-time journalist contributing humorous travel accounts to Cycling World.

His love of teaching and the environment is reflected in his Bachelor of Education degree and Master of Science for climatology, research for which he was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Meteorological Society. More important to him is his family. His physicist wife is invaluable for her love but also helps in the technical aspects of Geoff’s science fiction writing. They have two grown children, whose intelligence and warmth go beyond Geoff’s expectations. Now they’ve started to collect grandchildren, too.

Geoff has had many short stories widely published and won a commendation for a story in the Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Competition. Besides his 2005 released humour novel, Escaping Reality, published by Brambling Books, he won a Prix d’Argent in 2007 and the Prix d’Or in 2009 for mystery thriller, Hot Air, to be published by a Dutch Arts Academy in 2009, and a Science Fiction novel, Left Luggage, is in the hands of an agent. Double Dragon Publishing published Geoff’s Exit, Pursued by a Bee science fiction mystery in 2008.

Geoff is a co-editor for Adventure Books of Seattle, working mainly on Escape Velocity, a print and ezine magazine of science fact and fiction. He has been a freelance editor of novels and short stories for several years. He is also the 2009 short-fiction judge for the Whittaker Prize.

Friday, 26 June 2009

Publisher Caitlin Myers to leave BeWrite Books

BeWrite Books Publisher Caitlin Myers will be leaving the company at the end of July to start a new life in the UK.

Cait, 35, was one of a trio that brought in the first day of the millennium with a promise to somehow help new authors find their place. She kept the promise ... and then some.

Within weeks, she – along with writer/editor Neil Marr and his IT expert son, Alex – launched BeWrite.net, a non-commercial writers’ site that edited, showcased and promoted struggling authors. The site attracted a membership of over 3,000 and its lively forum became one of the busiest on the net under her guidance.

Just a couple of years later Cait, Neil and Alex launched BeWrite Books paperback and eBook publishing house. With Neil concentrating entirely on editorial matters and Alex on the technical side of things, Cait became Publisher. But she was much more than that. A list of the jobs she so expertly took upon her own shoulders would fill pages. They included: technical work, proof reading, cover design, accounts – including chasing retailers for payment and making sure author royalty cheques were accurate and arrived on time – maintaining the BeWrite.net website and blog, dealing with printers, handling author and reader mail, first-screening submissions, proof reading, overseeing distribution and promotion, supervising legal work ... and a score of other unsung but vital tasks.

And she always found time to network with the giants of publishing at international book fairs in London and Frankfurt ... and even to attend every year the smaller but thriving book fair she and BeWrite Books helped establish five years ago in the northern English towns of Wigan and Leigh.

She happily met BB authors whenever an opportunity arose. And her winning smile and unstinting generosity in time and effort earned her an international group of appreciative literary friends.

Working mainly, though, by personal email and phone (even when undergoing the suffering and heartache of radio- and chemotherapy for cancer recently), her time with BeWrite saw her based in England, France, Switzerland and Germany. Her motto has always been: Have laptop, will travel.

UK-born Cait took BeWrite from a vague idea over New Year midnight drinks nearly ten years ago to its position as a well respected, internationally known small independent press with, already, over 120 fine titles under its belt. Along the way, she signed new professional editors like Hugh McCracken in Canada, John Grant in the USA, poetry editors Heather Grace Stewart in Canada, Heather Bryant in the USA and Sam Smith in the UK.

When she leaves her desk for the last time, it could take an office full of new staff to cover everything she put into the company in terms of expertise, accuracy, reliability, fair-mindedness, enthusiasm, energy ... and that always-present personal touch so rare in modern publishing.

Cait’s reasons for leaving her Munich-based BeWrite Books desk and moving to the UK on July 24 are personal.

She said: “It’s sad to be leaving BeWrite Books after all this time, it has really felt like a family. I wish everyone the best of luck with their projects and look forward to reading lots more excellent books from BeWrite.”

BeWrite Books Editor Neil Marr said: “It’s difficult to imagine BB without Cait. Her hard work, enthusiasm, professional approach to every aspect of the job, her constant desire and ability to stay on top of a drastically changing publishing industry, and her natural flare, imagination and sheer good taste helped shape the whole thing. I’m very sorry to see her go, but I’m certainly glad she was here at all. Without her, there would not be a BeWrite Books.”