Jennifer Barclay's Blog, page 15

My Travel Writing

WRITING ON GREECE
Falling in Honey: Life and Love on a Greek Island
to be published by Summersdale in March 2013
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Falling-Honey-Life-Greek-Island/dp/1849532710/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352535931&sr=8-1

My Big Fat Greek Romance
feature on the most loved-up spots in the islands for Thomas Cook Travel magazine Feb-April 2013:
http://ink-live.com/emagazines/thomas...


      


4 Historic Hideaways in and around Rhodes
for Wanderlust online / Unique Honeymoons
http://www.unique-honeymoon-ideas.com/great-honeymoon-ideas/4-historic-hideaways-in-rhodes.aspx

72 Hours in Rhodes
for Cox and Kings online
http://blog.coxandkings.co.uk/blog/2012/10/72-hours-in-rhodes/

The Temptations of Rhodes Saturday Market
for Wanderlust online
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/blogs/my-life-as-an-expat/market-september-rhodes-town-greece

10 (Cheeky) Pound-stretching Reasons to Visit Greece
http://www.skyscanner.net/news/articles/2012/08/013359-10-insiders-tips-for-greece-on-a-budget.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Skyscanner+Ltd&utm_campaign=1549999_UK+Airmail+21+August+2012&dm_i=OAH,X7ZJ,3I2YA1,2R9QK,1

Tales from the Kantina, Eristos Beach - Tilos, Greece - for Wanderlust online (August 2012)
http://ht.ly/cYXi5

Greece Offers Bargains for Savvy Travellers (June 2012)
http://www.skyscanner.net/news/articles/2012/06/012885-greece-offers-bargains-for-savvy-travellers.html

Is Greece Safe for Tourists? for Skyscanner (March 2012; 300+ 'likes'!):
http://www.skyscanner.net/news/articles/2012/03/012213-go-greek-is-greece-safe-for-tourists.html



WRITING ON SOUTH KOREA
48 Hours feature on Seoul for Food and Travel magazine April 2013 issue



Meeting Mr Kim: Or How I Went to Korea and Learned to Love Kimchi
published by Summersdale in July 2008
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meeting-Mr-Kim-Learned-Kimchi/dp/1840246766/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352536014&sr=1-1

'My Travels' column for The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/feb/26/seoul-korea-monastery-jennifer-barclay

10 Reasons to love Jeju Island for CNNGo.com:
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/play/10-things-do-jeju-island-045157

Blog post for Visit London's 'World in London' Olympics project:
http://blog.visitlondon.com/2011/01/south-korea-in-london-fan-dancing-taekwondo-and-kimchi/

Various stories on South Korea for Blue Wings (in-flight magazine for FinnAir):
February 2012: 48 Hours in Seoul feature
http://www.digipaper.fi/bluewings/82941/
Cover story on the women divers of Jeju Island - including my photos:
http://www.digipaper.fi/bluewings/53130/
General piece on how to experience South Korea
http://www.digipaper.fi/bluewings/31931/
Column on eco-friendly city planning:
http://www.digipaper.fi/bluewings/40350/

South Korea cover story for Selling Long Haul magazine (2 years running)
http://content.yudu.com/A1rp77/slhapr2011/resources/index.htm

Contributed to 48 Hours in Seoul for The Travel Magazine:
http://www.thetravelmagazine.net/i-4509--travel-guide-to-seoul.html



OTHER WRITING
The Traveller's Friend
part of a Summersdale gift book series published in October 2011
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Travellers-Friend-Miscellany-Wit-Wisdom/dp/1849531897/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352536276&sr=1-5
featured in ABTA magazine, National Geographic Traveller (UK) and Wanderlust magazine: 'perfect for dipping in and out of at random'.

Reviews of travel and other memoir for Chicklitclub.com:
http://chicklitclub.com/theelegantartoffallingapart.html
http://www.chicklitclub.com/happierthanabillionaire.html

Blog post on Nepal for Visit London's 'World in London' Olympics project:
http://blog.visitlondon.com/2012/01/nepal-in-london-nepalese-restaurants/

Grateful

I'm especially grateful to two authors today.

The first is Cherry Briggs, the author of the extraordinary travelogue about Sri Lanka that I'm editing this week. I only have three days to work on it, so I'm glued to my computer screen. But what a joy it is to read. Cherry followed in the footsteps of the forgotten Victorian Sir James Emerson Tennent, who was a good friend of Charles Dickens as well as being one of the colonial administrators of the island. The contemporary journey takes our intrepid young teacher through areas that had been war zones just a year before, and she immerses herself in local life to much entertaining effect. What a brilliant manuscript for a completely unknown writer to produce out of the blue. I foresee great things. The book will be called The Teardrop Island and comes out next June.

The other author is a chap who's written a book about his emigrating to Australia and sent it along for me to read. He writes: 'I know that these days if you have a job you are doing the work of two people, so I am happy to wait for your reply.' Bless you, Ross.

But I also owe some thanks today to the patient cartographer David McCutcheon who's been creating maps for a couple of other books I'm working on. He's gone through five drafts of each map in the last two days, I think. At the start of the week, I hadn't realised how many things there were to think about when putting a map together. It's been amazing watching them evolve.

My Home Office

It's well over a year now since I moved to a little Greek island to set up as a freelance writer and editor in a home office.

For the first year, I divulged my whereabouts only on a need-to-know basis. Thanks to the magic of Gotomypc.com, when I'm doing Summersdale work, it looks like I'm working from an office in Chichester. To a lot of agents, if you're not in London, it doesn't really matter where you are - most London agents (most Londoners, in fact) aren't quite sure where Chichester is.

I'd realised that most of my job was done by email anyway, whether I was dealing with someone in the US or Australia or Manchester. As long as I had a good internet connection, I could work from home. On an island, so that when I was finished at my desk, I could get outside and in ten minutes be walking up a hill, or down to the sea.

I work with people for whom 'normal' is to do something like rowing across the Indian Ocean, or skiing to the South Pole, or paragliding across the Himalayas. They weren't bothered that I was going to live on a Greek island. And in fact, a lot of people in the publishing business shrugged and said, 'Oh yes, I know someone else who did something like that.'

It's important to see people face to face a couple of times a year, and I love my trips back to the UK. But being far away from the UK has also forced me to get more connected with people online and to use social media resources more (which is, I suppose, why I'm writing this).

Last summer, a few months after making the move, I acquired a book called COMMANDO DAD for Summersdale after a series of Skype discussions with the authors; it got lots of attention, to be featured on ITV and in the Guardian and Telegraph: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Commando-Dad-Elite-Carer-Birth/dp/1849532613/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348515415&sr=8-1. I also acquired UK rights to Torre DeRoche's LOVE WITH A CHANCE OF DROWNING, which would never have happened if I hadn't been spending more time on Facebook: http://www.fearfuladventurer.com/archives/5940.

And two weeks ago, in a cafe in Rhodes, I acquired a wonderful new travel book about Sri Lanka by a British author who was at that point in the Andes. She was very relieved to find out that her not being in the UK wouldn't be a problem.

Rejection

I've been meaning to write a bit more on this blog for a while. Thoughts over a glass of wine at the end of the day, that sort of thing.

An author wrote a very flattering and effective pitch letter to me at Summersdale not long ago, saying how his adventure book would be a perfect fit for our list. The way he described it, it certainly sounded that way. In the end, however, we decided it wasn't for us, and I wrote to let him know. He lashed back with a nasty email saying, among other things:

'I wonder if you didn't find the story compelling because it doesn't have tales of drugs, sex, drunkenness and generally hapless travelling exploits like... most of your other travel publications.' 

It would have been funny if it hadn't been so vicious and mean. The odd thing was, he also said he'd just been taken on by an agent, so he really had no reason to be bitter about the rejection. But if you've ever wondered why publishers often send standard rejection letters, that's one reason why. Still, I like to provide a personal note when I can. 99.9% of authors are grateful for that.

I remember a job I interviewed for back when I was trying to get into publishing in Canada. Well, I don't remember the interview at all, but I remember the rejection letter they sent had a spelling mistake in it (something like 'we recieved a huge number of applicants'). Of course, being young and foolish I had to write back to them and say maybe they should have hired someone who knew how to spell. Ouch. Just as well I didn't end up working in children's publishing, as it's a small world and I'm sure someone wouldn't have let me forget that.

Another author who took my rejection of his manuscript rather bitterly a year or so ago has ended up being a friend. He recently told me he thinks I was right to turn down his first manuscript. I understand how much rejection hurts and niggles - I'm an author, too. But it's part of the process of publishing - it's unusual to find a famous author who hasn't had rejection letters.

Anyway, I wish more of our books had drugs, sex and drunkenness. We'd probably make a lot more money.

Travel Writing Workshop

I'm a travel writer and editor, and I live on an idyllic Greek island. I'm thinking of running a travel writing workshop in 2013, if there is interest.

This would involve coaching new authors on developing your travel notes or manuscript into a narrative travel book or travel memoir (not articles for newspapers or magazines).

I've been publishing this kind of book for more than seven years at Summersdale, and have recently started working for Bradt also on their travel literature list.

I also work directly with authors - feel free to contact me for details.

If we succeed in setting up a workshop on Tilos, participants would need to make their way to Rhodes, and we'd organise transfers, accommodation and meals for the duration.

My Career in Books So Far

My first full-time job in publishing in 1993 was with Lucinda Vardey Agency in Toronto. (I'd moved there from the UK a year or so earlier, done work experience with Penguin and HarperCollins and taken on any part-time work in publishing I could find.) Lucinda was selling her business to Bruce Westwood, who merged it with another literary agency, creating Westwood Creative Artists. I started out as admin. assistant, royalty statement checker and apprentice agent, and gradually took on selling foreign rights and working alongside Bruce with some of his clients such as Alberto Manguel (A History of Reading). The agency represented Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance and Yann Martel's Life of Pi. I still remember the frisson of excitement as Naomi Klein's No Logo came off the fax machine (yes, it was that long ago).

   

I started taking on my own clients. For a glorious moment, I was the youngest literary agent in Canada. When I struggled selling a first novel, Bruce said I should be careful taking on too much of this literary fiction stuff. A year or so later, I sold rights to a first novel called What the Body Remembers in a dozen countries for a total of half a million dollars (Cdn) and it won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel (The Times called it 'astonishing...enthralling'). He let me get on with it. I remember how tough it was still to get a publisher for Michael Redhill's novel Martin Sloane. And I felt smug afterwards when it won or was shortlisted for pretty much every single literary award. I also worked with some amazing non-fiction writers such as Mark Kingwell; my last big coup at the agency was selling US rights to Jack Todd's memoir of being a deserter from the US army during the Vietnam War. Of course, I also made some mistakes. Know that bestselling author Linwood Barclay? Yes, I turned down the chance to work with him. But really things like that aren't mistakes, as it's only by working with someone who sees your potential that you become a success.

       

After seven years at WCA, I quit and went travelling in Asia, which planted the seeds of my own first book, Meeting Mr Kim: Or How I Went to Korea and Learned to Love Kimchi, although it was still just a loose folder of stories. In the meantime, my friend Amy Logan and I put together an exciting idea for a collection of travel stories by some of Canada's top authors; we ran around town delivering the proposal to publishers, thus ensuring it arrived in their in-trays on the morning of - September 11, 2001. But we still found a fabulous publisher for it, Vintage Canada, and they launched AWOL: Tales for Travel-Inspired Minds in 2003, which Metro called 'wonderful' and the Globe and Mail listed as one of the Great Summer Travel Reads.

 

In the meantime I started working as a freelance editor, assessing submissions for a literary agency and writing book club guides for Random House. I almost took a job working as a non-fiction editor with a big company but decided to move to France instead, where I continued working as a freelancer with English-language clients. One of the highlights was when I worked on spec with a young Zimbabwean teacher on his first novel based on a true story about a teenager whose parents were killed in the land reclamations; it was published as Unfeeling. I also learned a lot working on an eco-thriller, Water Inc by Varda Burstyn ('a smart, sexy, witty and hard-hitting eco-thriller' - Booklist; 'rolling with intrigue and suspense' - Kirkus).

 

Moving back to the UK in 2004, I became Commissioning Editor and then Editorial and Rights Director at Summersdale Publishers. I joined because of the superb travel writing list, but they did mention in the interview that there might be a few, erm, other sorts of non-fiction books. So we reprinted Gerald Durrell books and Henry Miller's The Colossus of Maroussi, but were much better known as the publisher of the ridiculously best-selling F in Exams: The Funniest Test Paper Blunders, as well as far less literary works. I learned about gift and humour books and got to grips with the real business side of publishing, balancing commercial necessity with editorial passion. In 2010, we were shortlisted for the IPG independent publisher of the year award for the first time. Having developed better instincts for true crime and other commercial and literary non-fiction, I'm extremely proud of the successful books I've acquired, sometimes named and in some cases edited over the last few years.

                   

In 2009, in addition to my work at Summersdale I got into social networking. Two years running blogs for the Korea Tourism Organisation helped me get a bit more connected online, and now I'm using Facebook and Twitter to find new books as well as to chat about them. Communicating and connecting with communities online has become so essential to my work that I realised I could do a lot of my job from anywhere, so in 2011 I moved to a tiny Greek island where I work from home as a freelancer. I'm still a commissioning editor for Summersdale. I'm also selling North American rights and proofreading fiction for Legend Press. I'm project managing and selling international rights to the travel literature list at award-winning Bradt. I'm working as freelance editor for the occasional private client. And my new book, Falling in Honey, set in Greece, is set to come out in spring 2013.

A couple of recent interviews with me about my work:
http://www.lizcleere.com/2012/04/jennifer-barclay/
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/articles/interviews/jennifer-barclay-get-your-travel-book-published?page=all

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS AND INTERESTS
1990: MA in English Language and Literature Oxford University.1990-1991: Teacher of English as Second Language in Athens.Experience of the travel industry includes working for Caldera Villas in Santorini, Greece; Voyageur Quest outdoor adventures in Ontario, Canada; and L’Echappee Verte outdoor adventures in Montpellier, France.Languages: good written and spoken French and Greek; basic Spanish.Born in Manchester, England, I have lived in Greece, Canada and France, with long stays in Guyana and South Korea.Speaker: Travellers’ Tales Festival, Globetrotters Club, Korean Cultural Centre etc.Appearances on national radio (UK – BBC Surrey – consulted as expert on political situation in Korea; BBC GNS – interviewed by stations around the country about republishing Janet and John and Gerald Durrell) and television (Canada – book panel, Korea – various appearances)Interests: walking, cycling, swimming, outdoors, history, arts, food & drink.