MARR'D by MEREDITH WHITFORD in AUSTRALIA

Shakespeare had a line for it. "A young man married is a man that's marr'd." (I hope his wife, older than he, hit him upsides the head with a frying pan.) But although I'm neither a man nor young, I've been marr'd. Marred, as we'd say.

Neil Marred.

You see, Neil Marr is Bewrite Books' editor in chief, and he's just edited my latest novel Shakespeare's Will, and, probably like his other editees, I can strip my sleeve and show my scars …

He's too good. Scarily good. Of course he spent a previous lifetime in journalism – oh, sorry, once upon a time that would've been a compliment, meaning he can both read and write, unlike too many of today's journalists who use 'reticent' when they mean 'reluctant' because they are victims of a modern education. But Neil and I are both of a certain age – he's 3 days short of being 13 months my senior – and this means that we went to school back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and children were taught to read, write, spell, punctuate, parse a sentence and understand the subjunctive and the correct use of apostrophes (or, in modern usage, under'stand the correct use of apostrophe's).

He's a damn good editor. So am I. It's been part of my job for years. And when an editor edits an editor's book, then the editor edits the editor's edits and so on, there may just be the occasional difference of opinion. I'm always right, you see, but, quaintly, Neil thinks he is. The fool. But of course he can always pull out the ultimate weapon and threat: house style.

Bastard.

But he can recognise a pun when he sees one; unlike some 'editors' who shall remain nameless. And he edited my first novel, Treason, with only one query; again unlike other editors who shall remain nameless (unless anyone sends me money to name them).

And he's Scottish, you see, so in our gritted-teeth exchange of emails about dashes v. ellipses, he can lapse into some dialect comprehensible only to his own kind. For all I know he's giving me the recipe for haggis rather than a proofreading correction, but I end up saying, "Yes, Neil."

And of course he affects not to understand the simplest, plainest Australian English – for instance, when after The Disagreement About The Quotation Marks I expressed the hope that all his chooks would turn into emus and kick his dunny down – the mildest remonstrance, as I'm sure you'll agree – he responded really quite oddly. The fact that all my pot plants died next day is, I am sure, pure coincidence. Nothing to do with that quotation from Macbeth he sent.

But we both survived the editing experience (the facial tic will go soon, I'm sure) and so did Shakespeare. We didn't misspell the book's title. Our merry jest about bringing the story up to date by changing Shakespeare's twins' names to Chandler and Chardonnay didn't make it into print by mistake. We didn't put 'trumpet' for 'strumpet'. And Tony Szmuk's ingenious cover is a triumph.

And, because I review a lot of proof copies for my local bookshop (shout out: the excellent Mostly Books at Mitcham in Adelaide) I can say that Bewrite Books and their Mr Marr (and, I'll bet, their other editors) can give most bigger publishers lessons in editing. Probably no publishers never let a mistake through – even I did, once – but if more had their books Marr'd it'd be a better world for readers. Though perhaps not as funny ... who doesn't love a really galactic, titanic misprint, as when Jeffery Deaver's publishers printed "brian" for "brain" in a quotation from Hippocrates? And who isn't giggling at the Jonathon Franzen's 'editing' troubles with his new book?

Also, Neil's the only person in the world who's allowed to call me Merry. So when he calls me Meredith I'm back on the headmistress's carpet again, hanging my head and saying, "I dunno," and "Wasn't me." And if there are any mistakes in Shakespeare's Will, it wasn't me. It was Neil Marr. So there. Och aye. Too right.

Meredith Whitford

THREE NIGHTMARES AND A REUNION

We’ve just made three moves that are just a tad scary ... and one that gave me great personal pleasure. ‘Three Nightmares and a Reunion’ will be the title of the film version of this blog yarn.

Scary A: We’re about to run with our first ever ebook-only project. We will now see if an ebook really can stand on its own feet without support from paperback and hardback sales. Regular readers and old friends know our passion for the future of the ebook presentation of work, so now let’s find out if our enthusiasm has run away with us or if we’ve been on track so far this century.

Scary B: Again for the first time, without the usual support of Ingram’s – the biggest book distributor on the planet – we’re faced with building an ebook retail base ourselves ... from scratch. No mean trick, is that. But we’ve carefully prepared (even to the extent of registering BeWrite Books LLC in the USA to get into the massive new ebook retail stores that exclude publishers without an official US presence) and have high hopes.

Scary C: We’re publishing our first non-fiction book with this release. Until now, it’s been strictly Novels-я-Us. And poetry collections, of course.

Pleasure A-Z: I’ve been working along with an author who’s an old buddy from mid-seventies newspaper days in Fleet Street. We’ve not worked together or even set eyes on each other since we shared an office thirty-five years ago when we were both still in our roaring twenties and Fleet Street was much, much more than just an address in London EC4. And – wow – it’s been a breeze.

A bit scary for author Irene Thompson, too, because 1) she hadn’t a clue about ebooks and had never even read one when we snared her 2) the subject matter of her A-Z of Punishment and Torture seems to clash with her gentle persona as a popular human interest journalist and former ballet dancer.

The story of this reunion is pretty simple. Irene’s husband, John, is European editor of a major US newspaper group and, over the decades, we’ve touched base on international stories many times. So when Irene drifted from newspapers and magazines into books, I read what she wrote with interest and admiration. When I bought The A-Z of Punishment and Torture, though, it suddenly struck me that the mainstream UK publisher of the hardback version had not yet moved in the direction of ebooks. I dropped Irene a line about it. she thought once, then twice, talked it over with John, then contacted her publisher for the go-ahead, and decided to sign with BeWrite Books to run the ebook version.

We had a lot of fun along the way because the ebook is a significant revision of the hardback.  And it was such a whizz of a job because Irene – a thorough pro – understood all the editorial twists and turns without the batting of an eye and was so happy to learn about ebooks and technology as we progressed through the months of editing.

There was another wee bonus. Although her publisher had handed Irene ebook rights, they couldn’t (for contractual reasons) release rights to the original illustrations in her book. So we pulled in brilliant UK artist Catherine Edmunds, who is also an author, was part of the old BeWrite Community way back when and has always kept in warm touch. Cathy, Irene and I worked together to make the book fully illustrated with twenty-six drawings, one for each letter of the alphabet, as chapter-openers. (Cathy, by the way, also covered and illustrated BB's ALLAKAZZAM! by Daniel Abelman.)

Then partner, close colleague and pal, Tony Szmuk, who also handled inside text design and all matters technical, added the finishing touch of a striking cover that works magnificently in both colour and in the black-and-white used by e-ink ebook-dedicated reading devices like Kindle, Sony, Kobo et al. (B&N’s Nook, like Apple’s iPad, can give it the full colour treatment.)

We’ll see release of The A-Z of Punishment and Torture next month. Meantime, if you go back to the BB website (just click on the open book icon and the top right of this page) and enter the bookstore section, you can read about Irene’s new ebook in the ‘coming soon’ column in the right margin, about Irene herself, and also read a sample chapter from The A-Z of Punishment and Torture and see one of Cathy’s illustrations.

Irene has even made the brave new move – without any help from us or anyone else – of kicking off a blog. Her first foray into online interaction with readers. It’s lovely. And very personal. You’ll find it here: www.irenethompsonbooks.blogspot.com. Do pay a visit and leave an encouraging note because it’s so new (Oct 13) that Irene only has two followers so far – husband John and me. I predict that her followers list will soon be bustin’ at the seams.

Cathy also has a blog. She’s on http://catherineedmunds.blogspot.com/ where she talks about her own new novel, Small Poisons, and poetry collection, wormwood, earth and honey. And you can see many examples of her art by Googling.

So that’s Three Nightmares and a Reunion ... from A-Z, folks.

Slainte ba. Neil

THE DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN EXCUSES AND REASONS

Gosh, I'm way behind in updating the blog. Sorry, chaps and chappettes. But ... the weak excuse is also good reason, I think. Hope you'll understand. Those who've been involved recently certainly will.  (And I'll even tell you an anti-Scottish joke at the end to help make up for it.)

You'd hardly believe how busy we've been behind the scenes here. It's been 17X7 all summer, and there's no let-up in sight. So here are the reasons you might excuse the excuse ...

*We have five new titles ready to roll, eight more almost ready to go, a dozen in edit, another two dozen in assessment. New submissions are arriving by the barrow-load.

*We've been frantically (but carefully) converting the entire current catalogue of more than 120 titles to ePub and Mobi on a title-by title basis (no shoddy auto-conversion here at BB).

*Now that we're now fully and additionally registered in the USA as BeWrite Books LLC as of this month, we're busy signing contracts and uploading titles in specific formats to all the massive new ebook retail sites that exclude pubhlishers without that vital US 'official' presence. And, golly, do some of these folks make us jump through technical, legal and admin hoops! Gone are the days of dropping a box of paperbacks on the local bookshop's doorstep.

*We've signed a new rep/agent for the US and Latin America. A brilliant man. We struck lucky with Petru.

*We've been moving heavily on promotion for individual authors and titles.

*We've overcome a major accountancy hiccup that has delayed royalty payments by almost a month. From here in, we annually retain professional accountancy and book-keeping services. So far, no author has complained of the wee delay. Please don't. We're on top of it.

*We've overcome a major Lightning Source print-dispatch-order hitch that has caused sticky problems with paperbacks and are now, additionally, assured of a Lightning Source/Ingram's print and distribution service in Australasia in June 2011.

*We're working out a sale-or-return deal with our printers to make BB titles in paperback more attractive to high street brick-and-mortar bookshops. Good news for authors and readers.

*We've sealed deals for half a dozen BeWrite Books titles for translation and mass-run publication on Mainland China and exclusively pitched another seventy titles at the huge Beijing International Book Fair last month. Watch this space for news. (If your an included author, watch this month's royalties cheque.)

*We've overcome merchant problems at our own site and all is now running smoothly.

*We've signed six new authors this month alone.

*We've been helping a major new retailer (a serious Amazon challenger?) set up.

*We've been busy assessing and buying in new hardware and software to keep ahead of new industry demands. Bang goes Christmas for Tony and me -- we're always at the tail end of the wages queue.

*We've joined several professional bodies and entered BB titles and authors for many awards.

*We've juggled all our usual Indian clubs without dropping a single one. We even picked up a few and they're spinning in the air right now.

*And we're jiggered.

A million thanks to Tony Szmuk, Hugh McCracken,  Sam Smith, Alex Marr and Meredith Whitford for their tireless and selfless input recently and to all authors and readers for their support and word-of-mouth recommendation.

Latest figures show that BB sales in 2010 have increased severalfold. That's good news for everyone.

We must be doing something right, eh?

A more interesting blog post will follow as soon as I come up for air.

Promise. Neil

And my favourite Scots joke of the week:

Library patron in Glasgow: "Any books aboot suicide?"

Librarian: "Aye. But ye cannae hae yin."

Patron: "Why"

Libnrarian: "Folks nivver bring 'em back."

N

A PROMISE TO OUR EBOOK BUYERS

We keep very close tabs on discussions among ebook reading folks in various  international forums and websites, large and small, to stay abreast of  ever-developing reading trends, hardware and software technology, etc, and to be aware of problems encountered ... especially problems we can help fix for readers.  (I highly recommend www.mobileread.com, by the way.)

Two of the most common complaints are geographical restrictions placed on titles by  the huge new  online ebook stores (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple, Kobo et al) that put some books out of reach to readers in some countries, and Digital Rights Management (DRM) padlocks that tremendously and, we believe unfairly,  restrict a buyer's rights of personal use.

Although BeWrite Books holds international rights to all its titles, whereas some publishers' deals with authors and agents are country-specific, the major stores lump BB in with the rest for their own  admin convenience and sometimes there arises the ridiculous situation where someone in the very same town as a BB author can't buy his neighbour's book from a big online ebookshop. This is especially critical in Europe and Down Under.

We have no control over this and can only encourage browsers to buy from our own store where there are ZERO geographical restrictions.

And, although we utterly deplore and fight tooth and nail against DRM, the big stores slap on their own software locks regardless and, we believe, for nefarious reasons. Again we are powerless, although we guarantee that ebooks from our own store are DRM-free.

But where there's a will there's a way, and Tony and I have dreamed up a solution, with a little  help from an anti-DRM-campaigning indie author. You will now see the following prominent notice at the top of our bookstore's front page ...

A PROMISE TO OUR EBOOK BUYERS

Should you buy a BeWrite Books ebook from a third party-retailer rather than from our own site, you might find (through no fault or desire on our part) that it is locked by store-imposed Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. We feel this restricts your legitimate owner's rights. So if you ever encounter this problem, simply let us know and we will freely send you the DRM-free version of that title in the format of your choice. (Evidence of original purchase would help us identify the errant store, but isn't strictly necessary for this offer to be fulfilled.) BeWrite Books and its authors want you to be able to share their ebooks with friends and family as you might share  their paperbacks. We want you to be able to easily convert ebooks to any format you like, to read them on whichever device you like, wherever you like, whenever you like. We trust you not to make a business of it, but to fairly use a BB ebook as you would a BB treebook. BB reckons you own the ebook you bought – you've not merely licensed it with strings attached. DRM is not only an inconvenience to you but a downright insult. We'll put it right. That's a promise. And those who know us will attest to the fact that BB never breaks its promises.

And if our third-party retailers don't like that, they can take Kurt Vonnegut's famous flying you-know-what at the mooooon!

Cheers folks. Neil

IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HEAD WHILE ALL OTHERS ...

I've heard it said by men wiser than I'll ever be that if you can keep your head while all around you are losing theirs ... then you simply don't understand the problem.

Well, I guess Tony Szmuk and I don't understand the problem, or the current panic in the publishing industry; especially at the small independent houses.

Let's see: What don't we understand? Why are we keeping our heads? Why are we making all the wrong moves as a result?

*Wise men say: The end of traditional publishing is nigh because of the threat posed by the mushrooming ebook culture. Publishers simply aren't geared up for such drastic change. It's taken them by complete surprise. No fair ... no fair!

BeWrite Books says: We've been covering all titles with ebooks from the very start. We invested  early this year in new hardware and software and are well into converting every title in our cataloge into various formats that can be read on ALL digital reading platforms from PCs to dedicated-ebook-reading devices to smart phones.

*Wise men say: Smaller publishers without an official US presence must use a third-party US 'publisher' to place their ebooks in the massive new US online ebook stores for Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook, Sony's PRS series, Apple's iPad, etc, etc, and pay IRS tax at source, or wrap up the digital side of their houses.

BeWrite Books says: We've been onto this for six months, and with the expert  advice and assistance of specialised US lawyers, our additional official registration as a US publishing house came through last week. We can now deal direct with ALL online ebook stores.

*Wise men say: Latin America and China are out of reach to smaller independent publishing houses.

BeWrite Books says: So far this year, our agent in China has placed six BeWrite Books titles with major publishers for translation and mass-run paperback on the Chinese mainland and BB had over seventy titles exclusively represented at last week's massive Beijing International Book Fair. Our own BeWrite Books English/Spanish agency for Latin America opens later this year.

*Wise men say: Publishing Down Under is dying. Publishers are pulling out or simply expiring in droves. It's On  the Beach. It's the end of days. Run away ... run away!

BeWrite Books says: Our fully-staffed Australian bureau opens in Adelaide in October/November to cover Oz, New Zealand and Pacific Rim countries. We closed a deal for print and distribution there in August.

*Wise men say: Especially for 'unknown authors' self-publishing is the only option now. Publishing houses can no longer afford to take the risk.

BeWrite Books says: The number of submissions by 'unknown authors' to our house has more than doubled. this year. Our editorial and release schedules for the rest of 2010 and most of 2011 are full of books by debut novelists.

*Wise men say: Things will never be the same in publishing.

BeWrite Books says: You only just noticed?

*Wise men say: Only fools rush in.

BeWrite Books says: Right on. But the late Sir Robert Baden-Powel told his scouts ... be prepared!

So that's it in a nut shell. See why we're keeping our heads? It's not because we don't understand the problem. It's because there is no problem. We foresaw the change ten years ago and got ready to embrace it, not to be taken by surprise and be reduced to panic.

Cheers, chums. Neil