IT'S OUT!!!

The April issue of Words with JAM is out now. Subscribers will receive their copy by email any time now. Non-subscribers only have themselves to blame for missing out.

60 Seconds with Toby Litt

Toby Litt will feature alongside Tracy Chevalier in one of our 60 Second Interviews in the next issue of Words with JAM ...

Toby published his first book, a collection of short stories entitled Adventures in Capitalism, in 1996.
He is the author of the novels: Beatniks: An English Road Movie (1997), a modern On the Road transposed to middle-England; Corpsing (2000), a thriller set in London's Soho; and Deadkidsongs (2001), a dark tale of childhood. Exhibitionism (2002), is a collection of short stories that explore the boundaries of sex and sexuality. Finding Myself (2003) is the story of what happens when budding author Victoria About gathers together ten friends for a holiday in Southwold in order to write up the ensuing events. His latest novels are Hospital (2007) and Journey into Space (2009).

In 2003 Toby was nominated by Granta magazine as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'. A new collection of short stories, I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay, was published in 2008. He lives in London.

http://www.tobylitt.com

Fourteen Years of Mild Irritation

Pets. What’s the fucking point, eh? The dog, for example. Fourteen years of mild irritation terminated by an ephemeral burst of sorrow. I mean, come on, you could simply gouge yourself on the thigh with a steak knife every day and get the same result without having to go out walking in the rain or clean liquid faeces from the sofa. And it’d be cheaper, too. Put it this way, if they ever re-make Ring of Bright Water, I’ll be the guy with the spade for only a minimal fee.

Because look what we spend on the buggers. We spend more pampering our pets than the combined GNPs of the world’s forty poorest countries (Figures from guilttrip.com, correct at the time of going to press). Do we contribute to a charity that will provide a fresh, renewable supply of water for eighteen million fly-blown Africans, or do we pop down to Pets-R-Us for some hamster-bedding?

Again, what’s the point? Fuck it, they’re going to die in the end anyway. Pets, I mean, obviously ...

Read Perry Iles' full rant in his column Feeble Excuses, Procrastination and Displacement Activities in the next April issue of Words with JAM.

Blogs Part 2 - Ever feel like you’re talking to yourself?

OK, now you have a wonderful blog. It looks amazing. What you’ve written is groundbreaking at the very least, and you are managing to produce content of a similarly high standard at least twice a week.

But still you haven’t had “the knock”. In fact, you haven’t had a comment. Well, aside from that one your best mate Carol sent you saying “oh how lovely” because you kept telling her about it over spritzers. It’s pretty dispiriting. We’re often led to believe that having a blog is the key to success, but it isn’t. It’s the first step of what may well be a road to nowhere. “If you build it, they will come” may work for baseball pitches, but sadly it doesn’t for blogs. On the other hand, there are things you can do to get people reading. And don’t forget to keep up producing great content!

It’s time to think about the second stage of blogging ...

Read the full article by Dan Holloway in the next issue of Words with JAM. For Blogs Part 1, subscribe now and receive the last issue directly to your inbox, absolutely FREE ...

Submitting a Non-Fiction Proposal

We hear so much about what to include and how to submit novels to agents and publishers, that it’s almost a case of information overload. However, for writers of non-fiction books the information on what to include and when to submit it is much harder to find. You’d be forgiven for thinking there couldn’t be much difference between the two forms of submission, but that isn’t the case at all. If you have a non-fiction book idea, you need to forget almost everything you’ve learned to do with submitting novels and start again from scratch.


Full article by Lorraine Mace on how to submit a non-fiction proposal in the April issue of Words with JAM.

Is Your Book A Whisper Book?

Whisper books are the holy grail of the publishing industry – a book which, without any particular ‘hyping’, appears out of nowhere to become a runaway bestseller. A book which people buy and read just because someone else tells them how bloody marvellous it is.

The example everyone will quote is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Hard though it is to imagine at this remove, back in 1997, Bloomsbury had just taken a punt on an unknown writer and a manuscript eight other publishers had rejected. They presumably expected to make a respectable number of sales with it but no one imagined it would become a worldwide phenomenon. Certainly, it didn’t have any massive publicity machine behind it. But children started reading it – and they started telling other children about it. And like the perfect meme, the news spread.

Of course, the whole point about whisper books is that they are essentially random. If it were possible to predict just what combination of zeitgeist and great writing would cause this kind of reading explosion, every publisher in the business would be saving themselves a fortune in marketing. On the other hand, it can’t hurt (can it?) to maximise the chances of your book being talked about. But what can you, the author, do?

Read the full article by Catriona Troth in the next issue of Words with JAM ...

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief ...

By Gillian Hamer

There’s not many people who wouldn’t know the author of Harry Potter if you asked. And most readers know the name of the author of His Dark Materials. Many of us know that Stephanie Meyer is the latest big name in young adult novels, behind the massively successful Twilight vampire series.

But how many of you have ever have heard of Rick Riordan?

Be honest. Because I hadn’t.

But once the latest teen flick hits the screens later this month, Rick Riordan is likely to become a household name, in much the same way as JK Rowling and Philip Pullman.

The Lightning Thief is the first in a five book series: Percy Jackson & the Olympians. The series takes the concept of ancient Greek mythology and places it in a modern day setting, with up to date characters, and a highly paced and often humorous style.

Percy is an action adventure hero, along the lines of Harry Potter. Like Harry, he has his share of issues - he’s accident prone, suffers from dyslexia and ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder.)

Instead of discovering he’s a wizard, Percy discovers that his real father is Poseidon, god of the sea, which means Percy is a demigod – half human, half god. At the same time, Zeus, the king of all gods, has accused Percy of stealing his lightning bolt … the original weapon of mass destruction.

Read the full article in the next issue of Words with JAM ...