Grim Days for the Publishing Industry

When I was a kid, there were so many good outlets for books, and it seemed as if we were encouraged to read as much as possible.

My mam used to get catalogues from places like The Red House, which mostly sold children's / educational books. They're the only one whose name I can remember off the top of my head. But even if we never actually ordered stuff from them I was addicted to just looking through them and reading about all the different books available.

The Shetland Times Bookshop was - and seemingly still is - the main outlet in Shetland for reading material. It's a small shop - still open, although I imagine it's probably suffered a bit since Tesco finally descended on Shetland in 2008. But when I was little we went there on most trips to town and I had a field day. I was usually satisfied enough with the range of books available there.

I'm not sure when I first encountered Waterstone's...probably on a trip south as a kid. That was a place I became even more enamoured with. There were other chains too. I loved Ottakar's best, better than Waterstone's by a mile. There was also Bookworld, and some others. But again, whenever I was on the mainland (which, come my teens, was at least once a year usually) I frequented the chain stores.

Then came the internet.

No, this is not going to become a tirade about the internet, because given that I'm writing this in an online diary, that'd be somewhat hypocritical.

When I first began to use Yahoo!, which has been my primary email address host since I first got one, the homepage was, for some reason, merged with Waterstone's. So we ordered books from them - which took around a month to come. Some time later my mam discovered Amazon. The books she ordered from there came in days, so we didn't go back to Waterstone's.

When I first moved to Glasgow in 2006, Ottakar's still existed...but not for long, unfortunately. Shortly after my arrival they were bought over by Waterstone's and rebranded as such. I was gutted. Then I discovered Borders, which became my new love, and continued frequenting places like Fopp. Alas, Fopp went into administration in 2007 - although that one has a happy enough ending, since HMV bought them and retained the two main stores in Glasgow (stop me if you've heard this one before). Then, of course, at Christmas 2009, bye bye Borders. It's an All Saints now.

What I'm trying to say is that the traditional bookseller seems to be dying out. I hate to be one for speculation but what about Waterstone's? Maybe they'll suffer too, like Borders and Zavvi, even Woolworths. Then what are we left with? Fucking Tesco and their bestseller list.

Yes, I do shop at Tesco. But I don't buy books from there, it just feels wrong to me. I go there for groceries, not books. I buy from Amazon only when I can't get the book on the high street. I'm glad I was able to download their Kindle app for free because I wouldn't be seen dead buying one for myself. At the Frankfurt Book Fair one of their buyers declared "I cannot mourn the death of the traditional bookshop." Well, personally I can and will. I hate to think future generations won't enjoy what I did. Even those catalogues...do they still exist? Doubtful, if I'm honest.

At times like this I worry for publishing and whether it may be about to die on its arse. This, however, brings me comfort of sorts:

'The Outsider' on Cargo Publishing, and other writing in general

So, Mark Buckland, my boss at Cargo Publishing, fresh from raising a nice wee sum of money for Movember, is launching a collection of short stories on December 15th. The collection, titled 'The Outsider', contains stories he wrote between 2005 and 2010.

I don't want to sound completely biased saying this, but Mark is a talented writer. I can legitimately make such a statement because I read one of his stories before I even knew who he was, never mind met him. 'The Sloop' (I can't say for sure if it's in this collection or not) was the overall winner of Strathclyde University's Keith Wright Memorial Prize in 2009. The aforementioned competition is held every year and is open to all faculties (although it's rarely advertised outside of the English department, unfortunately). My entry was commended in the same year, meaning that although I didn't win any cash (the runners-up don't; only first, second and third) my entry, a play in Shetland dialect about a fishing disaster that happened more than 100 years ago in my local area, still got in the booklet. Which suits me, I'm more about the exposure.

Anyway - that was how I first came across Mark Buckland. I would later discover from Rodge Glass, who was at that point the Keith Wright Literary Fellow (the writer-in-residence post at Strath) and also a recently-appointed lecturer in Creative Writing, that Mark ran Cargo. After this, I checked out their website and found them on Twitter, and, of course, some months later I got a job with them. But you know that bit.

So yes, please do come to Mark's book launch. The event will be on December 15th at MacSorley's Bar on Jamaica St, starting at 7:00pm. Entry is free, and only 150 copies of the book will be printed. All will be numbered and are available at the launch, signed, for £9.99. Mark will also be supported at the launch by Anneliese Mackintosh, editor-in-chief of Cargo Crate and also an established writer in her own right, Allan Wilson, who made his debut in 'The Year of Open Doors' collection, and Craig Lamont, assistant editor of Cargo Crate and another talent to watch.

The Facebook event for the launch can be found here. Come one, come all, and support some great new writing :)

Meanwhile, in other news, I gave up on NaNoWriMo. Basically I was struggling to devote time to it, to get over my issues with procrastination, and also to find time between working shifts and whatnot. Maybe next year, when a plan is established. But at least I've proven to myself that I can still write if I try.

eBook Aversion...Averted?

So...I'm not sure how vocal I've been about this on here, but I am not a fan of eBooks.

When it comes to the art and pleasure of reading, I'm a traditionalist through and through. I love the way books feel in my hands. I love how they smell and the pretty patterns of the words and letters on each page. I love knowledge and will take any opportunity available to feed my imagination. I love assembling them on the shelf - not in any particular order, mind, that's too much effort for me really - and showing them off to anyone willing to look. I just love books. To an extent I was the same with my music for a while. I still like CDs, like stacking and shelving them (but in a proper order this time) then having them there, but most of all listening to them. Not that I've done that in months, like, but I need to soon.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah...eBooks. I never intended to acquire any. I always went and legitimately brought proper, real, physical books from bookshops, usually Fopp. I still have the most of that pile of books I bought to get through, but more on that later.

Last weekend before I headed home I requested a phone upgrade, which, given that my own mobile was on its last legs, was becoming kind of necessary (it made a point of packing in on itself both New Years that I had it, how convenient). The phone in question is a most wonderful Samsung Galaxy S, which means I can now access my work emails (work being Cargo; not that desperate about The Paid Job) from it, but one of the applications installed with it was that of an eReader. I'm not going to use that a lot, I initially thought to myself. I prefer paper books; real ones. But then I looked at it out of curiosity, and the next thing I knew I'd downloaded about 70 classics. Given that some of these are quite long books, perhaps an eReader is then a good idea.

That said, nothing beats the smell of endpapers.

Different Life

So, once again, forgotten to update.

I was back home last weekend, mainly to see Newton Faulkner but also for a long overdue visit. Not a lot happened, I just got another shock at how much older my little cousins are, got beaten by my granny at Scrabble and generally felt glad to have been there. The feelings of homesickness I had for months have subsided significantly. Here's hoping I'll get back for Christmas.

It feels weird, home. There'll never be a point when I won't go back at all. I'll always need to go back, I was born there and around 80% of my family still live there. I might even go back for good some day, but not yet. Like I say, Glasgow is becoming too much of an adventure to give up on right now.

The other thing is, I've been looking back on my childhood, and the time spent on it. I remember being at school and getting picked on. It happened in primary, but that was nothing to what I got in secondary. Most of the folk who picked on me at school don't talk to me any more - some even look right past me. Some of them are a bit nicer to me (although I'd still appreciate an apology). And there are a few, usually the ringleaders, who make a point of continuing to jibe me, but they bother me less. Obviously if they still need to behave like they did at school they must be leading very sad, unfulfilling lives, which at the end of the day is no steam off my shit. That thought reassures me more now than it ever did at school, when even the teachers barely cared (and the only lunchtime supervisor who did retired before I left). But all that...it feels like it never happened to me. I still have confidence issues, and I'm still not brilliant (but better than I was) at taking a joke at my expense, and whatever you do, don't call me Hannah Banana (I can't shake the associations that come with it). But for the most part, I'm a different person to who I was back then. All the stuff that happened, good and bad, feels like someone else's life story. There have been a few other contributing factors to this, like my parents separating three years ago, the general change of image and the higher number of friends I've made in that time. But I'm starting to think I might have buried most of the bad stuff that happened to me back then. Maybe I can move on at last.

Bright Young Things?

So...I don't usually comment on current affairs in this thing (there've been moments since I started it in February), but since this involves further / higher education I think I need to say something.

As you know, the ConDems have made a lot of plans for education that, long story short, will make it pricier than it already is. If it carries on, university will once again become an elite club for the rich. So, needless to say, a lot of people who don't want to be cut off in the middle of their degree course because of the costs descended on London to protest the plans. "No ifs, no buts, no education cuts." Fair enough.

I'm proud to say I know a lot of fellow students who went on the march to protest this peacefully. However, I'm gutted that a small number spoiled it for everyone by causing clashes and trashing the Tory headquarters.

To those who caused the trouble - are you proud of yourselves, really? You ruined the cause for so many. A lot of the folk who came down for the protest came down to get a point across. You were there to look for a scrap. Yes, it got in the news. But now it won't be remembered for the cause it was promoting, it'll be remembered because you lot started a fight. As if the MPs at Westminster are going to be convinced by a bunch of oiks laying waste to the building.

I don't back the Tories' plans at all. Everyone should have the right to an education if they want. It shouldn't just be for the rich, that'll send us back to the dark ages. Many students already have a lot of debt. I have an overdraft and a loan. Apparently that's considered not too bad. I know folk who took out credit cards to survive. A friend of mine worked 4 jobs to get by (yes, at the same time) while he was at uni. I know a lot of folk who stand on their own two feet as students. I've always been humbled and impressed by my pals who fall into this category, and in my case, I would never have got my degree were it not for parental contribution. The thought of education becoming a privilege instead of a right angers me too, but the wanton destruction of a building isn't the way to go about protesting it. I learned that a long time ago.

To those of you who protested this peacefully, thank you. I hope your effort turns out to be the one more acknowledged.

Better update

Still not caught up with NaNoWriMo. But hopefully the next few days might see that change.

I went to see the Goo Goo Dolls with my friend Lauren on Sunday. They were pretty good live. Then tonight I just saw the Drive By Truckers with Martin. They too were awesome.

I'm flying home to Shetland tomorrow - mainly to go and see Newton Faulkner but also because I haven't been home since that time at New Year. I've missed it, I won't lie. I miss the sea air and the quiet. See, in Glasgow my current pad is on a main road (although at the back of the building so a little quieter - then again, we're next to a police station) and the previous two were just off main roads (one next to a pub, fun times on match days), so fairly busy locations really. In Shetland my mam's house is in the back of beyond so it's nice to chill out a little. My granny's little house is even more remote, I'm hoping to get up there at the weekend too. I miss my granny. I hope I can still get home at Christmas and see her then too. Oh, and the others.

Also - my Cargo boss, Mark Buckland, is growing a 'tache for Movember. I think you should all sponsor him, because it's all in a good cause. You can go here and give all you can.

Right - need to go to bed soon, I have to be up at 0730 to get an early train to Aberdeen and I still have shit loads of packing to do.

Pungs

Yeah, that's NaNoWriMo naffed. Three days and I've written nowt. The procrastination kicked in again. I strongly doubt I'll have reached 50,000 words by the end of the month but then again, I don't think my idea would've stretched to that anyway

The Literary Ace...HA.

Yeah...times like this I am glad I have Snoopy comic strips to get me through.

I mentioned this in a previous post, but I am now officially participating in National Novel Writing Month. Frankly, I'm scared shitless. I've never attempted to write something at this kind of speed before. 50,000 in a month. Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus. That's more than I wrote in total at uni in four years. I have no chance. Think a lot of winging it is going to occur. I do have an idea, but it's not even a skeleton, it's still very much in the embryo stages. Worth a try, though. I've written fuck all in recent months because of stupid things like finishing uni (I still wish I'd graduated in absentia, what a waste of 300-odd quid it ended up being for me) and work, flat hunting etc. I need to get back into it. It was always what I wanted to do with my life, after all.

But yeah, if you wanna keep up / add me, my username is selkiesong - aye, like on Twitter.