i Editors’ Note In order to do that, or at least to be able to have the funds to publish that pet project, it is key that publishers find the winning combination in a book that will create more than just a buzz, but also make people pre-order on Amazon and queue round the block to get into Waterstones. Just think about it this way – for every Da Vinci Code, Twilight, and Fifty Shades of Grey, the industry has been able to produce books that otherwise would have never had the capital behind them to see the light of day. So maybe Welcome to the SYP conference edition don’t judge those middle-aged ladies too of Inprint, in which we’ll be asking ‘what harshly when you see them tottering off makes a bestseller?’ Is giving your book's to the cinema to see Fifty Shades Darker main character a meteorological related next year … scar all it takes, or is it enough to just fill the pages with drawings for your readers As always we must thank our editorial to colour in? Is there a secret formula, or team; Alice, Laura, Pauline, Tahmeed, is it just luck? As it turns out, there’s no Zoë and our designer Dasha, for pulling simple answer. together yet another sterling issue. We’ve got one more issue left to go, which will Not only does this year’s SYP conference be winging its way to you in the New explore all these questions by looking Year, so do get in touch if you have any at the different sections of the industry suggestions about what you’d like to see through the eyes of some of publishing’s or if you’d like to get involved by emailing best and brightest – but the articles within [email protected]. the issue offer insights from every part of the industry. We’ll also be looking at areas So enjoy, and see you at the conference! just on the periphery of the bestseller, like the lingering bias of literary reviews and whether people get just a little snobby when a book gains mainstream success. From the outside, the world of publishing may look glamorous to many (they clearly don’t know anything about the paper Sarah Minty and Diane Brincat cuts) but at the end of the day, it is like any other business – companies need to make a profit and balance the books. Issue 151 November 2016 Contents www.thesyp.org.uk 3 Make a Bestseller in Ten Easy Steps Inprint is the magazine of the 4 How to Self-publish a Bestseller Society of Young 6 Bestsellers Around The World Publishers, sent out free of 8 The Social Media Machine: charge to all Can it Make a Bestseller? members. 10 Bestsellers: With Great Success @SYP_UK Comes Great Snobbery 12 The Bestseller or the Bookseller, Managing Editors Which Came First? Diane Brincat 16 Tod ay s Bestsellers Sarah Minty ' 17 Committee Update Editors 18 The Power of Publicity Alice Dewing Laura Pietrobon 20 So You Want to be an Agent? Pauline Cuchet 23 The Bookclub Tahmeed Zaki Zoë Sharples 24 Lesser Known Literary Landmarks of London Designer Dasha Miller 26 Just Like The Movies 28 Women Unmasked: Contributors Sexism in the Media Jess Balance 30 Chair's Column Emily Cook Stephanie Cox 31 Conference Conversation Starters Gemma Gardner Marie-Claire Grima 32 Conference Bingo Laura Jones Amy Maidment 2 Pauline Cuchet shows you how easy it is to make the Make a next bestseller in ten quick and easy steps! Bestseller 6. Vampires and werewolves are in Ten Easy welcome, and it is always better if Steps you can combine both. 7. Animals are always a big hit: tigers, dogs, birds … Take your pick! 8. Important theme: deadly disease, war, racism, the hunger of caterpillars… You Whether you are an aspiring writer or really want to make readers think. wanting to add a few zeros to your bank balance, we feel it is our duty at Inprint 9. A love story where timing is just always to share with you the secret to an instant off for ultimate frustration. That might bestseller. Sit back, relax; it will only take make your readers want to throw your three minutes. book out of a window but just make sure it's all worth it in the end. (Disclaimer: the writing process might take slightly longer than that.) 10. Finally, give your characters a quest that could be easily solved but instead 1. Find a conspiracy theory. It does not make them go through several death- have to be good; simply scandalous defying adventures. enough. Bonus advice: if you can include a gluten- 2. Include the word 'girl' in the title to free recipe that takes less than five minutes inspire both intrigue and girl power. to make anywhere in your story, then you have hit the jackpot. 3. Do not forget that magic is might, but not in a death-eater way, just in a 'magic And there you have it. Now all you have makes everything better' way. to do is pick up a pen and paper, your fancy laptop, or hip typewriter. You’re 4. Handcuffs and whips are must-have welcome! accessories for your characters. And don’t you dare forget blindfolds! *If you want a more in-depth (and serious) discussion on what makes a 5. Also tattoos are a must, preferably bestseller, check out literary agent Jonny mystical ones. Think unicorn, griffin or Geller’s TEDx Talk on YouTube. possibly even a dragon… 3 How to Self-publish a Bestseller Laura Pietrobon Talk me through the decision to self- publish – how did this come about? Self-publishing may have been met with skepticism by industry professionals in The Kickstarter campaign had been done the past, but the last few years have found for over a year by the time I took the self- many are now starting to sit up and take pub plunge. I had originally intended to notice. An avalanche of technological go the traditional publishing route, but I changes means that it is easier than ever wasn’t successful with that the first time for authors to get their stories out there around. If I hadn’t had the campaign, I on their own terms – in the last year alone, would’ve kept querying and pitching and sales of self-published e-books made up all that stuff you’re supposed to do. But 22% of the UK’s digital book market. since I had an awesome group of backers who’d been waiting very patiently for Last year, A Long Way to a Small Angry something to read, I felt I owed it to Planet, by Becky Chambers, made it them to put something in their hands. onto the shortlist of the Kitchies (a prize celebrating the best in speculative What did you have to do differently fiction) – an achievement, made all the when you decided to self-publish? more interesting by the fact it made her Did it help that you had that the first self-published author to do so. background in freelancing already? A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet took the world by storm, in a way that Having a freelance background definitely no self-published novel has done before, helped. I was used to being my own becoming a bestseller in the process. boss and making my own schedule, so hammering out a self-publishing game Becky’s had been working as a freelance plan came pretty naturally by that point. I writer when she began a Kickstarter with had to do a ton of research on things like the intention of funding a novel. We sat online marketplaces and file formatting down with Becky to talk over her self- and submission processes. All of the publishing journey and take a look at how practical stuff about self-publishing, I she turned her book into a bestseller. learned as I went. 4 I broke even. That’s the best I did and the best I figured I could hope for. We’re talking a few hundred sales, nothing more. Hodder and Stoughton, my primary publisher, did a huge amount of marketing, as did Harper Voyager, my stateside publisher. Those efforts got the book exponentially farther than I could have done on my own. But that’s not because traditional publishing is inherently better at getting the word out there (though having a trained, experienced marketing team certainly helps). I know folks with the marketing savvy to go it alone. I’m just not one of them. And I think that’s the biggest thing I learned from having published one book both ways. There is no right way to do this. There are pros and cons on both sides, and it really comes down to what your personal skill-set is and how you What do you think makes a bestseller want to spend your time. – or, even better, what do you think makes a science fiction or fantasy Self-publishing has definitely seen a bestseller? rise in the industry in the last couple of years – do you think it’s influence Having an awareness of who your audience will grow alongside traditional is is a foundational consideration in any methods? creative medium. You have to know who you’re talking to and what kinds of stories Absolutely. The Long Way had the will appeal to them. But beyond that, the enormous honor of being shortlisted best thing any creator can do is just be for the Arthur C.