Cool stuff from the Selectors: Musings on fiction

Fiction publishing  is very much trend and theme driven, and as Heidi Klum said “one day you’re in and the next day you’re out”.

There are always the bestseller authors, but in amongst their numbers are a few subjects and authors that can come out of left field.

Bookshops

Bookshops. Books and people who sell them, read in them, murder in them and fall in love, usually in old dusty quaint places – none of which resemble Whitcoulls or Paper Plus.  The recently released movie The bookshop might also create some interest in this area.

Librarians and Libraries

Librarians and libraries!  Well, not exactly a major trend, but for a generally under-represented group in books and films we seem to be featuring on a regular basis lately – usually there is a murder involved …which is um, interesting?

Bakeries

Bakeries.  Food has always been a feature in fiction, but just lately there has been the odd bakery/romance popping up, which seems like a nice mixture to me.

Bees and Beekeepers

Bees – and for some reason Beekeepers…

Feminist Dystopias

Feminist dystopias – not surprising considering the dramatisation of The Handmaid’s tale. These books are not for the faint hearted.

Find more feminist dystopias in our collection.

Of course, fiction publishing is also affected by what is going on in the world, there have been more titles published in the last few years about refugees for example, plenty of titles about the economic crisis, climate change and a plethora of light easy reads for those of us who just want to escape.

Best book covers 2017 – My pick of New Zealand’s finest

It’s one of the pleasures as the year ends to slow down and smell the roses – or, in this case, stop and appreciate the book covers. Join me as I judge New Zealand books by their covers.

Christchurch Art Gallery

Gold medal winner for 2017 is our own Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. It’s not a parochial choice. They’ve produced a standout series of publications to add to their award-winning output.

Aberhart starts here (by senior curator Dr Lara Strongman with Laurence Aberhart) is the companion book to the exhibition (on until 6 February 2018 – don’t miss it).  The striking cover cleverly matches Aberhart’s photo with the title added to the building as if it were graffiti, or a business name (in that attractive and distinctive typeface used in the exhibition). The text and the photos have been given room to breathe on the page. It’s a beautiful book with a kind of stately gravitas.

A more raucous beauty is Say something! Jacqueline Fahey by curator Felicity Milburn with Allie Eagle, Julia Holden, Bronwyn Labrum, Lana Lopesi, Zoe Roland and Julia Waite. Again, both words and images are placed to perfection on the page, with zingy pops of colour. The exhibition is on until 11 March 2018.

Christchurch Art Gallery have also made some rather stunning “Little Books” – (Birds, Sea, Flowers, Black – highlighting taonga from their collection. The covers are gorgeous, and the books have coloured page edges, foil, and ribbons to mark your page. Swoon.

The publication Bulletin always has outstanding covers to match its great content and striking internal visuals.  The colour scheme and Ann Shelton’s art on the cover of the latest issue are a visual symphony. B.189 had The Ramones on the cover!

Credit for this great mahi also goes to:

• The students from the graphic design department at the Ilam School of Fine Arts who do the design on Bulletin;
• Lecturer Aaron Beehre who is art director for Bulletin and who also designed the Little Books;
• Photographer John Collie;
• Designer Peter Bray who worked on the Aberhart and Fahey books.

Find books published by Christchurch Art Gallery in our collection.

Special mention

Illustrator Giselle Clarkson has had a phenomenal year.  Her art is full of life and fun. She created the much-shared biccies and slices taxonomy in Annual 2. Giselle does brilliant work in The Sapling, school journals – in all sorts of places and on wide range of topics (her natural history comics are fab). Kei runga noa atu – I would love to see a whole book by Giselle!

• Visit Giselle’s website
• Follow @giselledraws on Twitter 

Drawn by @giselledraws in children's book "Annual 2" https://t.co/9HcBwpHyKp Perfect Christmas pressie! #BiscuitOfTheYear (Squiggles, duh!) pic.twitter.com/EEXhtX0ZKS

— NZ Book Council (@nzbookcouncil) November 1, 2017

Here are some of 2017’s best covers:

Illustrators and artists

I particularly like the timeless quality of the first three covers. The historical tourist poster vibe of Maria McMillan’s The Sky Flier is quite striking too.

Black and white and photographic

Photos are always a popular way of attracting a reader. I love the energy in Victor Rodger’s Black Faggot, showing the play in performance. and see that sense of motion and action in Floating Islander, Oxygen, and The Treaty on the Ground. In contrast see the stillness of Elspeth Sandys’ portrait, and the calm library depicted on the cover of The Expatriates.

Colour

Magenta, lavender, pinky-purple – New Zealand book covers this year showed a bit of trend towards the pink side. I for one love it.  (Update: Spinoff books mentions book covers in their Second annual Spinoff Review of Books literary awards and picks the cover of Baby by Annaleese Jochems designed by Keely O’Shannessy as best cover).

Te Reo Māori

Original NZ books in te reo Māori, and also translations of classics. It’s grand to see te reo front and centre.

Aotearoa’s first bookface cover?

Tom Scott might be the first author to do a sort of #bookface cover. Well, technically, more #illustrationface – either way it’s a great cover.

Cute as heck

Finally, let’s place together two critters that ought not be proximate. They are both so phenomenally cute …

Browse more covers of  New Zealand books published in 2017

International “Best Book Covers” lists

• The 30 Best Book Covers of 2017 Paste Magazine
• The Best Book Covers of 2017 Bookish
• Judging Books By Their Covers: The Best Book Covers of 2017 My Book Cave

Best book covers of previous years

• Best book covers of 2016 – My pick of New Zealand’s finest
• Best book covers of 2015 – My pick of New Zealand’s finest
• Best book covers of 2014 – My pick of New Zealand’s finest
• Best book covers of 2013 – My pick of New Zealand’s finest
• The colourful book covers of 2012
• Best book covers of 2012 – New Zealand’s finest

For more on local book covers and design, see the PANZ Book Design Awards.

Adventures in Publishing – WORD Christchurch

Eat. Sleep. Read. Scott Pack’s t-shirt made a nice statement and I felt an immediate affinity. Eloquently introduced by Tracy Farr author of The Life and loves of Lena Gaunt, this could well turn out to be one of my favourite sessions.  Scott Pack could quite easily give up his day job and become a stand-up comic, a lovely British self deprecating humour always wins me over.

Scott Pack. Image supplied

Changing the title of the talk to How to accidentally become a publisher: A story in 10 books is a crowd-winning way to lead us through his career in publishing.  It turns out that Scott Pack is a bit of a risk taker who surprisingly listens to Radio New Zealand, (but more about that later). The  books he uses are varied and prove a clever way to describe career highlights.

Blood Sweat and Tea by Tom Reynolds

Scott Pack left Waterstones where he had worked for about 10 years and became involved in The Friday Project.  Ebooks have taken off by this point and bloggers were also starting to make their mark. Tom Reynolds had been writing a very popular blog about his life as an ambulance driver, so The Friday Project were the first publishers to turn digital on its head and publish a digital format ie a blog into a print format book.  It became a best seller, and as we know the rest is history as there are now any number of blogs becoming books.

White Noise by Don De Lillo

White Noise was used to highlight the National Radio story. Scott Pack suffers from tinnitus and finds it much harder to get rid of the white noise sound when it is quiet at night. After trial and error he came upon the solution of listening to Radio New Zealand, which gave him something good to listen to but because it wasn’t necessarily British or local he could also go to sleep and not get too caught up in the interviews as he would with a British made programme. This led to his next book The Life and loves a Lena Gaunt by Tracy Farr. He heard it read on Radio New Zealand, loved it, contacted Tracy and ended up publishing her along with Fiona Kidman and Damian Wilkins all in the space of about 5 months.

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

The Wisdom of Crowds was a nice lead into one of Scott Pack’s latest venture Unbound – kickstarter (or crowdsourcing)  for books.  The curators of the site put up a chapter of a book that has been submitted by a writer that they think shows some merit.  As a reader you get to like a book and give the amount of money that you think it is worth to the kickstarter or crowdsourcing site.  If the book raises enough money it is published and you get your name in the back of the book.  Authors can also offer other means for you to support them – a chef for example who is trying to get his/her book published could  (for a price) to come to your house and cook  you dinner.

Lastly he talked about and area that he is obviously passionate about.  He is on the hunt for lost, forgotten or out of print books.  The Iron Chariot by Stein Riverton was apparently the 2nd best Norwegian crime novel of all time. (Why 2nd best no one seems to know) but it is long out of print and  has now been translated. Scandinavian crime is still a ‘thing’ and he hopes it will sell well.

Plenty of food for thought, this was a great session for aspiring writers…and I think there were a few in the audience, but it was also highly entertaining and informative for those of us who just love books and enjoy listening to someone who shares their enthusiasm.

WORD Christchurch

• WORD Christchurch website
• Our WORD Christchurch 2016 overview
• Our posts about WORD Christchurch 2016

Cosplay and Comics at Papanui Library

Love reading and drawing your own comics? Do you want help with your drawing, assistance with your technique and tips on comics, publishing etc and a free comic? All of this for no charge? Right then get yourself signed up for our free comic drawing workshop at Papanui Library with Spencer Hall, artist/cartoonist. The workshop is for ages 12-18, registered attendees only and a limit of 30. We won’t let you go hungry either, there will be pizzas from Hell.

There was a waiting list of disappointed young cartoonists last year so don’t delay, break out the light sabers, shake out those capes, slap on the face paint and come dressed as your favourite comic book/Manga character and be in for a prize.

International Free Comic Book Day is on Saturday 7 May this year but our event, which will include free comics courtesy of Comics Compulsion, will be on Saturday 21 May.

The selection of free comics this year ranges from Dark Horse to Archie to Strawberry Shortcake to Titan’s Assassins Creed to Love and Rockets. Something for all tastes.

To see what you might be missing check out last year’s pictures.

Meanwhile back at the library our comic book collection grows apace. We have comic books about Men who dress as Bats, Women as Cats, Green Men, muscly men, and animals that talk, Bart Simpson and Adventures, Mysteries, Funnies, Scareys, the lot. I was delighted to see Scrooge McDuck, nephew Donald and the Beagle Boys make a comeback in hard cover. Made me quite nostalgic for my young reading self.

Guts and Girls and other matters

Gut: the inside story of our body’s most underrated organ has apparently taken Europe by storm and it is way up the nonfiction bestseller lists in Spain (as La digestion es la cuestion) and France, where they have paraphrased the title of the Luis Bunuel classic film, calling it Le charme discret de l’intestin. The book was originally German, where it was a huge hit under its original title Darm mit charme  (which translates as Charming bowels ). In Europe this fragrant title has even knocked the Pope off the top three.

And what has this to do with girls? It’s all about The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. The top fiction in France is La fille du train and in Italy it’s La ragazza del treno  with La chica del tren in Spain. It’s everywhere else as well (way up the list in Britain and the U.S., and presumably if there is life on Mars, it will be up there as well).

The film version will be underway with British Rail soon and Emily Blunt is the girl. Tate Taylor, who directed the adaptation of that other big bestseller The Help is on this one. It is interesting that film rights were sold well before publication of the book, which implies that it was a train that was on schedule from the beginning.

Philip
Fiction selector

Happy 80th birthday Caxton Press

The Caxton Press is 80 today.  It was launched on 10 June 1935 by John Drew and poet/typographer Denis Glover to publish New Zealand literature. Leo Bensemann had a long and fruitful association as a designer and illustrator with Caxton. Most of the decade’s best writers were first published by the company. Caxton Press tells the story on its website:

THE CAXTON CLUB was a colourful group of students, writing enthusiasts and amateur printers which operated a small printing press in the basement of the University Clock Tower, Worcester Street, in the early 1930s. In 1935, renowned New Zealand literary figure Denis Glover, together with a partner, borrowed £100 for a new press and formed The Caxton Press. They set up in an old wooden shop at 129 Victoria St where they stayed for fifteen years.

In 2013, Central Library Peterborough hosted A Caxton Miscellany – a Christchurch Art Gallery exhibition (see our photos).

A Caxton Miscellany, Saturday 16 February 2013. Flickr: CCL-2013 -02-16-IMG_3708

One of the gems of our digital collection are The Group Catalogues, 1927 — 1977 as printed by Caxton Press. You can see their exquisite work closeup in these digital copies.

More on the Caxton Press

• A Caxton Press set on DigitalNZ
• Search our catalogue for Caxton Press, Leo Bensemann, and Denis Glover.
• Peter Simpson. Bensemann, Leo Vernon, from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 5-Jun-2013
• Caxton Press – History on their website
• A Caxton Miscellany Christchurch Art Gallery exhibition (our photos)
• Caxton Press exhibition The art of ordered plainness exhibition at Reed Gallery, Dunedin Libraries
• Home and Building, Volume 18 Number 1 (June 1955) The Caxton Press by Brian Bell, NZETC The New Zealand Electronic Text Centre

Denis Glover, founder of Caxton Press, with Book Week display in Alexander Turnbull Library. Further negatives of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1963/3385/9A-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23233944

Freerange Little Prints – your chance to collaborate on books for kids

We thought you might be interested in this opportunity from Freerange Press:

Freerange Press is calling for submissions for original, imaginative and interesting children’s books, based around our journal topics, which explore themes responding to life for an urbanized humanity (the city, politics, design, art, pirates). We want to make books that both kids and adults love, that encourage a shared reading experience, as well as exploration and discovery.

We are looking for a combination of great language and illustrations/visual material in the following categories:
Non-fiction (all ages – up to 12 years)
Picture books, from simple (think 3-7 years old) to relatively complex (6-9 years)

We want to hear your thoughts, imaginings and artistic expressions on how to interpret our journal themes for kids. These publications have canvassed a myriad of ideas, from the big to the silly, from the city and the self through to tricksters, gardens and humanimals.

We welcome those who wish to collaborate on a book as an illustrator or writer, and we are happy to discuss proposals at all stages of development, including conception, ongoing or relatively complete projects that are seeking publication. They just need to fit our focus. Read more about the journals and submission process here.

The first round of submissions closes on 31 May.  Please contact Emma for more information: emma@projectfreerange.com

Best book covers of 2014 – My pick of New Zealand’s finest

This awards ceremony starts with the winners. My two favourites of the year:

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen by Dylan Horrocks. I could have picked any of Dylan’s four covers represented below. The man is a massive New Zealand talent, and deserves all the kudos. Onya Dylan.

Creamy Psychology
A survey of the work of photographer Yvonne Todd. Artists and photographers – like cartoonists – often have a head start when it comes to good covers. They have the images. And this is hypnotically creepy and yet alluring. Love it, and the title.

Let’s continue the awards ceremony with two strong Christchurch-focused titles. Potently distinctive, and both representing well what is inside.

Last year I praised the array of fantastic cartoony covers on New Zealand books. I’m pleased to see more goodies this year. I feel like a Dylan Horrocks cover is so damn good, and generally indicative of an excellent book too. Two of them this year are his own collections.

More proof that artists give good cover. As do poets.

Beautiful fiction.

Some super covers for kids and teens.

Very New Zealand. And evocative.

Typographical delights.

There is a boom of publishing in the area of First World War history. This has an appropriate solemnity and gravitas. As do some others employing black and white photography.

I love this one. Love love LOVE.

A lineup of stuff can make for an attractive cover.

Book of the year. But though the cover is distinctive and recognisable (it looks a bit like the Shroud in Turin?), I kind of wish it had a Sharon Murdoch cartoon on the cover. She is on Twitter as @domesticanimal and is all kinds of awesome.

For more book cover and design, see the PANZ Book Design Awards.

• Best book covers of 2013 – My pick of New Zealand’s finest
• The colourful book covers of 2012
• Best book covers of 2012 – New Zealand’s finest

Could your blog become a book?

I have written before about blogs being turned into books. At that time it was a bit of a novelty, but no longer. A very random check of the library catalogue comes up with 44 blog titles bought for this year, so far!  These titles range from self-help books to craft and travel. Some are only available as eBooks and are quite possibly self-published.  Others have been picked up by very mainstream publishers.  It makes sense then that when a blog has thousands of followers it will create quite a buzz for the book, creating an easy marketing exercise for publishers perhaps?

Cooking, crafting, travelling or dealing with addiction and health issues etc., lend themselves well to a blog format. Alongside the ideas and information around their chosen topic the blogger often includes plenty of human interest; small titbits about their life making the  blog all the more enjoyable as you feel part of the their daily existence. The joy of the blog is therefore the interaction between the reader and the blogger, the up-to-the-minute experiences that you can click into on a daily basis, the highs and the lows shared, not to mention plenty of photos and tutorials.

Does this translate well into a book? I’m not sure. The book enables the author to present the parts of their blog, for example the recipes, crafts or experiences that have had the most online success, and this sounds like a good process. Not so good if you have been an avid follower of the blog as no doubt there will be plenty of repetition. The missing ingredient for me would be what makes the blog unique, and that is the human interaction, the comments from readers and the community that develops around the blog.  That said, the book will reach a different audience perhaps and will of course bring more readers to the blog. A Win-Win as they say.

So if you are interested in giving blogging a go, and are perhaps thinking that you might get picked up by some huge publisher and make your millions, here are some titles to get you started.

Mollie Makes: Blogging: The guide to Creative Content.*  This is a special edition of the Mollie Makes magazine and has some great ideas for those of you interested in the creative crafty side of things.

Picture Perfect Social Media. Great advice for the all important visual impact of your blog.

Blog Wonderful. The author spent a year growing her following and documenting what worked, and what didn’t.

Blogging and Tweeting Without Getting Sued. Sounds like a sensible book to read before you get started!

Every time you post a blog or tweet you may be subject to the laws of more than 200 jurisdictions throughout cyberspace. As more than a few bloggers or tweeters have discovered, you can be sued in your own country, or arrested at the airport heading off to a holiday in another country.

WordPress, the platform we use for this blog also has some handy hints on how to turn a blog into a book.

*To find Mollie Makes: Blogging: The guide to Creative Content in the catalogue, click on View subscription and availability details and look for call number 745.5 MOL BLOGGING 2014.

The Indies: WORD Christchurch

The Indies brought together publisher Murdoch Stephens from Lawrence & Gibson, and two of his authors, Brannavan Gnanalingam and Thomasin Sleigh, with chair Guy Somerset, erstwhile Books & Culture Editor for the Listener.

That’s right @Brannavan @TSleigher – I’ll speak with my publishing hat on @WORDChCh as @GuySomerset leads us to glory pic.twitter.com/OfNux4FSdQ

— Murdoch (@DoingOurBitNZ) August 30, 2014

Thomasin Sleigh, Murdoch Stephens, Brannavan Gnanalingam and Guy Somerset.

Best dressed panel? Suits & ties on Brannavan and Murdoch! Indie-tastic. #wordchch — ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 31, 2014

Thomasin Sleigh, Murdoch Stephens, and Brannavan Gnanalingam.

The team showed how sharp indie can be, and as Guy Somerset observed they looked like an awesome 1960s band.

Lawrence & Gibson deal with all aspects of publishing – even the printing and using the guillotine. As Thomasin observed, you get to experience “a really physical relationship with your cultural product”. Murdoch wants the writers to have a real sense of being in a collective, all the money goes back into books and:

We want to publish writer’s first experimental works.

Thomasin’s book Ad Lib is about reality tv. How long is it going to go on for? Until we’ve all been in it? She is interested in the formulaic repetition, the same bit of content being used over and over again.

“Publishing world 10 yrs behind music” says Murdoch on digital publishing but reckons hardbacks will come back like vinyl. #wordchch ^DR

— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 31, 2014

There was discussion about New Zealand’s small independent presses – Hue and Cry, Giant Sparrow etc. They all have  different styles. Murdoch reckons the hardback book is going to make a storming comeback (I do hope he is right):

“Publishing world 10 yrs behind music” says Murdoch on digital publishing but reckons hardbacks will come back like vinyl. #wordchch ^DR

— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 31, 2014

• Three quick questions with:
  • Murdoch Stephens
  • Thomasin Sleigh
  • Brannavan Gnanalingam
• Search the catalogue for Thomasin Sleigh and Brannavan Gnanalingam
• Search the catalogue for books published by Lawrence and Gibson
• Read more WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival posts
• WORD Christchurch photos
• Our page on WORD Christchurch