Events

Oxford Self Publishing Workshop

We are running a two-hour workshop to help writers to plan their self publishing project in the Plowman Room at Oxford Town Hall on 6th June, 5.30-7.30.

Sections will include:

*What are your objectives
*Planning the publishing process (activities, time and cost)
*Managing risk (what can possibly go wrong?)
*Managing expectations (the worst case scenario)
*Review (a few real case studies)

This will be an interactive workshop in which participants will be invited to think about their publishing project and share their experience.

The workshop will be chaired by the writer Bob Fowke and will be introduced by a brief talk about the history of self publishing.

Contact us at info@youcaxton.co.uk for further details

books

Pablo Neruda

Pablo Nerida’s body is to be disinterred in order to ascertain if he was poisoned by orders of the Pinochet regime rather than having died from a heart attack while suffering from cancer of the prostate. Suspicions were first voiced by Neruda’s chauffeur and although they are not backed by Neruda’s widow they have not died down. It is unclear if a post mortem will be able to establish definitively how he died. The Wikipedia article on Neruda gives as good background as any and there’s a piece on the decision to disinter in today’s Guardian.

Events

Jeff Hill

Jeff Hill’s talk took place on 26  March in our Bishop’s Castle shop/office, having been delayed. It was renamed ‘Writing the Game: in praise of masculinity’ and took the audence on an erudite and entertaining tour of various books that have used sport as their dominant theme over the last two hundred years. It was remarkable that sport could be made more so much more interesting than is usually the case by someone who has, by his own admission, no interest in sport for its own sake.

books

Agatha Christie

The Agatha Christie Miscellany by Cathy Cook (The History Press, £9.99) is just out. There’s a good piece in the  Independent on the book and on Agatha’s writing methods by the ‘Blagger’. Crime is an interesting genre from the point of view of the self-publisher, it has the advantage of a well-established niche.

books

Wellcome Trust Science-Writing Prize 2013

To date we have helped with the publication of little that could be considered scientific, but there’s no harm aiming high. The Wellcome Trust are finalising plans and procedures for the Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize 2013. Publishers are permitted to submit up to three books or manuscripts.  The Trust is obliged to narrow the field but since only 1% of manuscripts submitted to publishers are subsequently published by them (historically this includes books self published by Jane Austen, James Joyce, Beatrix Potter and Edgar Allen Poe to name but four of many), the Trust is using a very blunt instrument in order to reduce its workload.

News

Apple apologises to China

Given the number of e-books being read on iPhones and iPads and other such Apple devices, Apple’s relationship with Chinese readers is no longer a matter of of purely academic interest to self-publishers. There’s a good piece in today’s Huffinton Post regarding Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook’s recent apology to Chinese consumers. Writers of e-books are in the hands of some very large slavering beasts these days when it comes to territory and availability.

books

Royal Ballet

A new book by the injured ballet dancer Andrej Uspenski Dancers, published by Oberon Books, gives an unusually informal record of ballet dancers behind the scenes. For those of use who like dancing but are overawed by the professionals, it’s good to see their human side. There’s a good review by Jane Shilling in the Telegraph.