David Roy's Blog, page 3
January 23, 2023
Review for 'My Name is Rebecca'
“… I remember her in my very bones, in my very flesh … I remember her absence in my flesh and bones, in my blood and brain.”
Belfast, 1983. Rebecca’s twin sister, Ruth, is killed in a bomb blast. Now, over twenty years later, Ruth’s killer is released according to the Good Friday Agreement. Rebecca, feeling the insistent tug of memory and grief, looking for relief, travels to the sea cliffs of Slieve League with childhood friends, James and Robert. There, she experiences a kind of epiphany that becomes a touchstone throughout the remainder of the novel.
“… something has changed in an instant, and the world is suddenly crystalline … it is as if a veil has been torn in two in front of her eyes and life itself has been exorcised abruptly … she feels joy; she is joyful. She feels drunk, from joy.”
This is a long, slow burn of a novel. It reads as prose poetry - Burnside is, in fact, a poet - using the repetition of words, of phrases, of scenes, with slight changes and additions of details to emphasize ideas and themes. If you are looking for action you will find, instead, thought and conversation. Experiences are considered from different angles, multiple times. Burnside gently eschews narrative, timeline, and perspective expectations to fully explore themes, particularly in the second half of the novel. The use of language, the writing in general, is exquisite without being overdone.
My Name Is Rebecca examines grief, mourning, loss, and memory. It delves into trauma, individual and collective, centered on the Troubles of Northern Ireland, a nation grappling with decades of violence, uncertainty, tension. It considers whether it is possible to move past that, to heal or, if not to heal, to maintain a kind of resilience and move on.
Thank you @bigdaveroy and Hobart Books for sending me this pensive, lingering poem of a novel.
(ID: A green book with a silhouetted figure walking into the shadows held up by a hand in front of a frosted window pane in a brown door.)
Belfast, 1983. Rebecca’s twin sister, Ruth, is killed in a bomb blast. Now, over twenty years later, Ruth’s killer is released according to the Good Friday Agreement. Rebecca, feeling the insistent tug of memory and grief, looking for relief, travels to the sea cliffs of Slieve League with childhood friends, James and Robert. There, she experiences a kind of epiphany that becomes a touchstone throughout the remainder of the novel.
“… something has changed in an instant, and the world is suddenly crystalline … it is as if a veil has been torn in two in front of her eyes and life itself has been exorcised abruptly … she feels joy; she is joyful. She feels drunk, from joy.”
This is a long, slow burn of a novel. It reads as prose poetry - Burnside is, in fact, a poet - using the repetition of words, of phrases, of scenes, with slight changes and additions of details to emphasize ideas and themes. If you are looking for action you will find, instead, thought and conversation. Experiences are considered from different angles, multiple times. Burnside gently eschews narrative, timeline, and perspective expectations to fully explore themes, particularly in the second half of the novel. The use of language, the writing in general, is exquisite without being overdone.
My Name Is Rebecca examines grief, mourning, loss, and memory. It delves into trauma, individual and collective, centered on the Troubles of Northern Ireland, a nation grappling with decades of violence, uncertainty, tension. It considers whether it is possible to move past that, to heal or, if not to heal, to maintain a kind of resilience and move on.
Thank you @bigdaveroy and Hobart Books for sending me this pensive, lingering poem of a novel.
(ID: A green book with a silhouetted figure walking into the shadows held up by a hand in front of a frosted window pane in a brown door.)
January 18, 2023
The Small Time
Prince Harry sits in a chair and whinges to a ghost writer - 'his' book sells millions. Meanwhile people who can actually write sell handfuls of books. Who ever said life was fair.
Hobart Books has been running for two years now. By this point I expected us to have an office suite in the Chrysler Building, a personal jet and a corporate yacht for entertaining celebrities.
That has not happened.
Instead I am setting myself up as a market trader.
It's all more Rodney Trotter than Alan Sugar but if it means we sell books then so be it.
Now, where did I put that pasting table?
Hobart Books has been running for two years now. By this point I expected us to have an office suite in the Chrysler Building, a personal jet and a corporate yacht for entertaining celebrities.
That has not happened.
Instead I am setting myself up as a market trader.
It's all more Rodney Trotter than Alan Sugar but if it means we sell books then so be it.
Now, where did I put that pasting table?
January 14, 2023
Facts
Happy New Year.
The other half of Hobart Books sent me an interesting article on the state of the publishing industry. It was both heartening and depressing to know that my travails as a writer and as a publisher are common - in fact they are the norm really.
For instance, around 60% of books published sell less than 1000 copies and a fair number sell less than a dozen. It is no surprise to find that the market is controlled by a few big concerns and that the rest of us are simply going after crumbs.
The only thing to do is to keep plugging away in whatever way and build up our brand and those of our authors.
So, if you'd like to buy a book, simply use the link or visit your local bookshop -
https://www.hobartbooks.com/
That's a segue. I think...
The other half of Hobart Books sent me an interesting article on the state of the publishing industry. It was both heartening and depressing to know that my travails as a writer and as a publisher are common - in fact they are the norm really.
For instance, around 60% of books published sell less than 1000 copies and a fair number sell less than a dozen. It is no surprise to find that the market is controlled by a few big concerns and that the rest of us are simply going after crumbs.
The only thing to do is to keep plugging away in whatever way and build up our brand and those of our authors.
So, if you'd like to buy a book, simply use the link or visit your local bookshop -
https://www.hobartbooks.com/
That's a segue. I think...
January 5, 2023
Not the end
Yesterday, an email was sent out to all the Hobart Books' authors explaining our parlous situation. so there is no point pretending now. We have invested thousands of pounds in this venture and made not one penny either for ourselves or our authors. We are losing money hand over fist, selling handfuls of books and, in some cases, losing money on sales.
By default I became responsible for marketing whilst my business partner Adam, did the admin side of things and did so impeccably. So, if the blame for our near demise lies with anyone, then it lies with me.
I have posted extensively on social media and pushed our wares in every way I can think of. Christmas was make or break and sadly the latter has come about. The bottom line is that few people have bought our books. Even the friends and family angle has proved to be of limited value. Hobart cannot survive on good wishes and there have been few enough of those.
So, to the small number of genuine supporters - the ones who actually bought a book - I would like to offer my profound thanks. But sadly, I have learned a lesson about friendship. I have often said to my wife that if I had a friend who was a writer, I'd have every one of their books on my shelf. Indeed I have supported many other writers over the years and I doubt if one has reciprocated.
From now on we will be a digital only publisher. My modest dream has crumbled; I never got to see one of my own books on a shelf in a bookshop.
By default I became responsible for marketing whilst my business partner Adam, did the admin side of things and did so impeccably. So, if the blame for our near demise lies with anyone, then it lies with me.
I have posted extensively on social media and pushed our wares in every way I can think of. Christmas was make or break and sadly the latter has come about. The bottom line is that few people have bought our books. Even the friends and family angle has proved to be of limited value. Hobart cannot survive on good wishes and there have been few enough of those.
So, to the small number of genuine supporters - the ones who actually bought a book - I would like to offer my profound thanks. But sadly, I have learned a lesson about friendship. I have often said to my wife that if I had a friend who was a writer, I'd have every one of their books on my shelf. Indeed I have supported many other writers over the years and I doubt if one has reciprocated.
From now on we will be a digital only publisher. My modest dream has crumbled; I never got to see one of my own books on a shelf in a bookshop.
December 31, 2022
2023
It's been a good year and a bad year for Hobart Books. Good, because we have published great new books by great new authors and bad because we haven't sold very many of these new books.
Hobart has the products and the infrastructure to be a huge success story - everything is in place - and yet if no one actually buys our books, then what has been the point? I don't think these difficulties are ours alone. Publishing is a crowded market, readers stick to authors they know, bookshops stock the popular books; few people take a risk on a book by someone they haven't heard of.
We've tried email marketing, social media accounts, visits to bookshops, freebies, competitions, sales promotions and overall, nothing works. Most people ignore the posts and the emails and support across the board has been almost non-existent.
Hobart Books is a veteran owned company and even appeals to fellow veterans has yielded almost nothing. So much for that famous camaraderie...
When it gets to the point that your family and friends aren't even buying the books you know you're up against it.
I feel let down and dispirited but now that I know where our support doesn't come from, Hobart Books can strike out in a new direction. We're not finished and too much work has gone into this company for us to accept defeat.
2023 will be our year.
Hobart has the products and the infrastructure to be a huge success story - everything is in place - and yet if no one actually buys our books, then what has been the point? I don't think these difficulties are ours alone. Publishing is a crowded market, readers stick to authors they know, bookshops stock the popular books; few people take a risk on a book by someone they haven't heard of.
We've tried email marketing, social media accounts, visits to bookshops, freebies, competitions, sales promotions and overall, nothing works. Most people ignore the posts and the emails and support across the board has been almost non-existent.
Hobart Books is a veteran owned company and even appeals to fellow veterans has yielded almost nothing. So much for that famous camaraderie...
When it gets to the point that your family and friends aren't even buying the books you know you're up against it.
I feel let down and dispirited but now that I know where our support doesn't come from, Hobart Books can strike out in a new direction. We're not finished and too much work has gone into this company for us to accept defeat.
2023 will be our year.
December 14, 2022
Sex, lies, murder
Sex, lies and murder at Christmas? Look no further than Full Circle by Hobart Books' debut author Gary Cockaday. Treat the one you tolerate to an erotic thriller to fend off the cold. Available from bookshops or via Amazon. Follow the link and click 'buy now' for your copy. https://www.hobartbooks.com/
How am I doing? Does this make you want to buy a book or not?
How am I doing? Does this make you want to buy a book or not?
December 11, 2022
Our survey said...
I did a survey on Twitter asking where people bought their books from. 50% said Amazon and the rest was evenly divided between Waterstones and independent bookshops. None of my respondents said that they didn't buy books.
Whilst it does give a representation of people's book buying habits, with a sample of only 22 respondents it can't be taken as gospel. It is likely that no one claimed to not buy books because those in that category wouldn't answer the survey in the first place.
Love 'em or loathe 'em, Amazon is probably the future of publishing.
Whilst it does give a representation of people's book buying habits, with a sample of only 22 respondents it can't be taken as gospel. It is likely that no one claimed to not buy books because those in that category wouldn't answer the survey in the first place.
Love 'em or loathe 'em, Amazon is probably the future of publishing.
December 5, 2022
Christmas
My wife found my train ticket for the London Book Fair last Friday when we were out having a wild night in the rugby club. I was very confused as I had no recollection of being on a train this year. Much forced hilarity ensued when I figured it out. Ho, ho etc. It could have been a scene from a terrible BBC sitcom.
Anyway, Tik Tok. My daughter who is Hobart Books' social media manager is getting our shop up and running on Tik Tok. She seems to know what she's doing, which is good news because, frankly, it's a mystery to me. As ever, marketing is the main thing in my life (that and trying to keep up with my younger daughter's washing).
Hobart Books has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, plus this account and my account on Linkedin. Our writers have their accounts too. I don't write any more, just try to encourage people to buy book. But it's relentless.
Christmas needs to go well for us.
If you'd like to buy a book, follow the link: https://www.hobartbooks.com/
Merry Christmas
Anyway, Tik Tok. My daughter who is Hobart Books' social media manager is getting our shop up and running on Tik Tok. She seems to know what she's doing, which is good news because, frankly, it's a mystery to me. As ever, marketing is the main thing in my life (that and trying to keep up with my younger daughter's washing).
Hobart Books has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, plus this account and my account on Linkedin. Our writers have their accounts too. I don't write any more, just try to encourage people to buy book. But it's relentless.
Christmas needs to go well for us.
If you'd like to buy a book, follow the link: https://www.hobartbooks.com/
Merry Christmas
December 1, 2022
Glamour
It's a life of unrelenting glamour being a publisher and author. If I'm not jetting off to the USA for a meeting with the New York branch of Hobart Books, I'm hot air ballooning across the Serengeti in the name of research. Why, only today I went to Currys to pick up a new tumble dryer only to find they wouldn't give it to me because I didn't know the last four digits of my wife's credit card.
I'm going to cancel the order and fix the tumble dryer myself. That'll teach 'em.
Then I'm going to write a book about it.
I'm going to cancel the order and fix the tumble dryer myself. That'll teach 'em.
Then I'm going to write a book about it.
November 25, 2022
Thought for the day
It's when you have exhausted the support of friends and family that the real business of sales begins. And it's not easy.
