UCLPub2015 We are LITERARY BLOOMSBURY

Bloomsbury is well known for being a hub of publishing and literary activity, and not just because of the publishing house of the same name (that was forced, I apologise). From specialist bookshops like the AA Bookshop (that's Architectural Association not Alcoholics Anonymous) to the powerhouse of Waterstones Gower Street; from niche publishers like Penelope Books, to both indie and big name trade at Faber & Faber and the Bloomsbury Group, Bloomsbury really does have it all.

To the uninitiated however, when walking around the area there's actually very little obvious evidence of this. The blue plaques are for architects, economists, the founder of Pakistan, and, of course, the mistress of Prince Frederick Duke of York.

The places that make Bloomsbury thrive as a hub of literary culture are often only known by those who are interested in knowing about them. You have to know that they are there to truly appreciate them. You could walk straight past the University of London Senate House and never know that it was the inspiration for George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. The British Library is an intimidating creature to even the most bookish of worms and the beauty of the Charles Dickens Museum lies in the fact that it looks just like any other house.

There is, of course, the labyrinthine treasure-trove that is the Gower Street Waterstones. When charged with our #literaryme task in our first week it was, without hesitation, the first stop for the majority of us publishing students. It is our siren call; we cannot walk past without entering, and when we inevitably step through those glimmering doors, leaving, particularly without having made a purchase, requires an iron will. And perhaps also a heart of stone.

It is our love of books that brought us all to UCL, and thus to Bloomsbury. We, this new year of students to the masters course, have brought with us a our love of books and writing and publishing from all over the world, hoping to one day leave our mark in this literary community. We are the new generation of literary Bloomsbury. We are the future publishers, editors, designers, authors, and illustrators of the industry and we begin our journey in this hub of literary history with the hope that it's creativity and culture might rub off on us in our future careers.

You never know, maybe one of us will give UCLU's The Library the same reputation George Orwell gave The Fitzroy Tavern. That's the dream, right?

You can continue to shove us into the dark basements of the various buildings of University College London but you will not break our spirit. That is, unless you force us to dissect our beloved again. That one may not go down so well.

Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x

UCLPub2015 - Term 1: Week 1 [5th-9th Oct]

So I suppose this is technically week two but induction week doesn't really count in my books. There's nothing interesting about me getting horrendously lost on more occasions than I would care to admit. This week we thundered through our intensive one week Publishing Contexts module (yes, that's right. A whole module in 5 days). The aim of this module was basically to get us all on the same level as far as our knowledge of the publishing process goes and also to open our eyes to the fact that editorial is most definitely not the only or even the most exciting part of that process.
The week was a tiring one and as it wore on, out came the backpacks as we all chose to forsake style for practicality; and out, in force, were the travel mugs - all of us so very unpracticed at enduring a full week. Looking good for the future, I'd say.

We'll take this day by day.


Monday. Being the first day, we covered the basics: the main areas of publishing, the main departments, the key players, and even touched on production - something that was new to the majority of us. We learnt about the new, more audience-focused publishing model than that of the pre-digital age. We were then asked to do a short presentation in groups of ten on a publishing house. We had thirty minutes to prepare a five minute presentation in which all ten of us had to speak. Suffice it to say, no group managed to stay within the tim constraints. I like to think Nosy Crow would have loved our enthusiasm. The day gave us a broad, and yet thorough overview of the industry; the basics that would allow us to delve more deeply into it in the course of the week.

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to be shown the ropes by none other than Sam Missingham, Head of Audience Development at HarperCollins. She informed us of the importance of hustling, and knowing how to market ourselves and encouraged us to get involved as much as possible both online and in person. She gave us an insight into some of the exciting projects she has been involved in during her time at HarperCollins and after her time was up, when the dreaded "how many of you want to go into editorial?" question came up, far fewer hands shot up than they did in induction week. In the second half of our morning session we heard from Mal who, I have to say, was far more doom-and-gloom than anyone else we heard from this week. I'm sure he burst a few editorial bubbles when he informed them of the average pay of an editorial assistant. Literary agent Rachel had a slightly more upbeat take on things and basically gave us a prep session to her Author Management module, one I'm definitely looking forward to. In the afternoon we heard from editors from publishing houses across the board; Two Roads (trade), Oxford University Press (academic), and ICE publishing (educational). They gave us an honest account of some of the challenges they faced and also what it was that made their jobs so enjoyable and many heads and hearts turned back to editorial.

Wednesday was production day with BIC; a hands-on day that literally broke down the production process of books for us. In the morning we learnt about operations and inventory management; the importance of keeping on top of your stock count. We also learnt about some of the procedures when publishing embargo titles - the super high-profile ones like Harry Potter have to have special measure to make sure no early copies find their way out of the warehouses. In the afternoon I was heartbroken to hear we were to take a scalpel to some Rick Riordan (The Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and Magnus Chase series') and Derek Landy (Skulduggery Pleasant) books seeing how they would definitely still make it into my top authors. I was less heartbroken that scalpels were taken to Jeremy Clarkson's "book" as well. We did this so we could go through the physical elements of the book and the production processes that go into making the things we hold so dear. We also got to have a look at some uncut prints of books which was actually pretty cool as you can see in the pictures.

Thursday was marketing and rights day with our very own Martin Nield and some of his friends from Hachette. We learnt about the different sales strategies required depending on the retailer, and how marketing has had to change with the new digital era. The rights section of the day put into perspective the global nature of the industry; it is not at all about keeping your head above the sea of contracts I had thought it to be - it's all about the global potential of the book and involves a hell of a lot of travel, an exciting prospect for many. At the end of this day, that question was asked again: "who wants to go into editorial?" and so very few put the hands up, though by this point, I really couldn't be sure if this was actually the case or whether people were no just too scared to be honest.

By Friday most of us were just happy to get out of the basements we'd been consigned to for the rest of the week. We spent the morning at Faber & Faber where we heard from Helen, a success story as a Faber employee and alum from last year's MA programme. She helped us to put into perspective what it was we were doing there and was living proof that we had made the right decision. We learnt all about the SYP and the president of the Publishers Association and MD of Penguin General Joanna Prior helped us to consolidate what we had learnt from the week with some examples of books that she had helped publish and the marketing strategies involved in publishing them. We also heard from Jacks Thomas, the enigmatic woman behind the London Book Fair and London Book and Screen Week for what was  a really interesting insight into what goes into organising such large scale events. In the afternoon we went to the Wellcome Collection with Anna Faherty where we got to see IRL Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (as seen on GBBO 2015) and explore the wonder that is their reading room, a room I
think we will all be visiting with worrying frequency.

Overall, while an exhausting week, it was also one of the best weeks I've had for a long time and has really excited us all for the coming year. And while I think the speakers succeed in turning many of my classmates away from editorial, they didn't quite succeed in converting me.


Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x

New Beginnings #UCLPub2015

I've been ridiculously quiet for around about 10 months now which is a bit of an embarrassment but, for a couple of reasons, that might be about to change. And I plan to actually stick to that this time.
I've just started my Publishing MA at UCL (how exciting is that?) and things have really started changing even though the course only really started this week! I'm going to actually try to keep this blog going; giving updates on what I'm learning and all the new experiences that this step has brought into my life.
Now obviously, being on a Publishing degree course, book blogs are pretty unremarkable; everyone who's anyone has a book blog. However, it has been made clear to us that having a social media presence and getting comfortable portraying ourselves on various forms of it are KEY TO OUR FUTURE! (the capitals made it more ominous, I feel).
So here I am, attempting to actually keep up a blog. Fingers crossed!

Hope you enjoy,
Naomi Joy x

Wool (Silo Saga 1) by Hugh Howey

 

Book: Wool

Author: Hugh Howey

Published: Arrow, April 2013

Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopia

My rating: 4.5/5

Amazon says: "In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.

Inside, men and women live in an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.

To live, you must follow rules. But some don't. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism.

Their punishment is simple and deadly. They are allowed outside.

Jules is one of these people. She may well be the last."

WHAT I THOUGHT:

This was by far the best book I read all summer (I started writing this post a long time ago as you can see).
Confusingly, this book has been billed as the "science fiction version of Fifty Shades of Grey". This is not at all down the to content. The book was originally self-published as a short story, only expanded on after great interest from readers. That, I promise, is where the similarities end.

It seems Wool has a penchant for being wrongly compared to other books. My copy had a review by the Sunday Times on the front claiming that this was "The next Hunger Games" but that really doesn't do it justice and I feel is a misleading statement in terms of the target audience. Much as I loved The Hunger Games this book is similar in the same way that it is similar to every dystopian novel: it depicts a really rather morbid and morose dystopian future. THG is a YA book and no offence to Suzanne Collins (I've read the series numerous times) but it is written in that way. From the first page I knew I was going to love Wool; the first line hooked me but it also told me the audience was going to be somewhat different to THG: "The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do.". It was just dark enough, just intriguing enough for me to really want to read on. It was, in no way, aimed at the same audience as THG. 

The book is so well written, I read it in just 2 days I was so gripped by Jules' story and the history behind the silos. As with most dystopian novels the question lies: how did they get to this point? We know what it used to be like but what happened to send everyone underground? The question remains through most of the book and it keeps you reading, keeps you wanting more. The beginning is perhaps a little slow but there's a story building and you know it's worth sticking around for. Jules' arrival and the subsequent collapse of Silo Eighteen turn it around and the pace of the book quickens.
The characters are engaging. Jahns and Marnes are older characters for this sort of genre but it works well, they are well-rounded and well-built characters. Jules injects a little youth and pace to the story. She is a headstrong but likeable female protagonist for a change and I quite liked the fact that she didn't have a love interest for a lot of the book (Lukas wasn't an entirely necessary character addition and wasn't as developed as a character as many of the others but I understand that perhaps it would help Jules from going insane with only Solo for company).

Overall I thought this was a fantastic read. Wonderfully crafted, it is a well-written, gripping novel with a unique and yet familiar concept. I would highly recommend it, it is definitely well worth a read. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy!

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment :) 
Naomi Joy xx

The Circle by Dave Eggers

Title: The Circle

Author: Dave Eggers

Published: Penguin Books, 2014

Genre: Sci-Fi

My rating: 2.5/5

The Circle runs everything - all your internet activity in one easy, safe and visible place. No wonder it is now the world's most powerful and influential company. So when Mae Holland lands a job at it's glittering California campus, she knows she's made it. But the more her ideals and ambitions become aligned with those of the Circle the closer she comes to discovering a sinister truth at the heart of an organisation seeking to remake the world in its image...

WHAT I THOUGHT:

Many of the reviews emblazoned on and inside the book remark on how unputdownable this book was. Unfortunately, I can't help but think that this was partly down the the fact the there were NO CHAPTERS making it difficult to find a place to stop. I've never found chapters to be such a pivotal part of a book before but I found the pace of this book a little hard to get along with without the break up.

Instead of chapters Eggers has divided the book into 3 (though there are no hints that this will happen until you hit book 2 over halfway though and book 3 with about 10 pages to go) and I think it's best if I tackle this review book by book.

Book I

This book started strongly. Mae, our protagonist, and her life are just about lacking enough to be believable and relatable and she becomes a rather interesting character. You explore the Circle with her and discover as she does. Francis at this point is an intriguing possibility, not at all the kind of guy you expect your protagonist to end up with but good enough for now. Then, as if just on cue, in walks Kalden; a man suitably mysterious and exciting. The book as a whole is praised for it's chilling plausibility and Book I makes this praise seem rather suitable. Companies like Google and PayPal are now seemingly inescapable when it comes to internet activity so an overarching, far-reaching company that owns and oversees all internet activity is a very strong premise for a book and there were so many more routes that Eggers could have gone down to keep his book plausible and gripping.

Book II

When Mae goes "transparent" things, I feel, start to go downhill. We take leaps and bounds toward implausibility and Eggers loses the strongest thing he had going for him and his book. Mae becomes rather a dislikable human being in her over-eagerness to accept the Circle into every aspect of her life. She becomes almost entirely incapable of individual thought and her character becomes depressingly one-dimensional. I became almost entirely uninterested in Mae's story and I found I only carried on reading in the hope that maybe things might turn around.

Book III

There's little to say about book III as it is rather short. Book II ends and you are hopeful that Mae has found a tiny scrap of integrity within herself but unfortunately all faith is lost in Mae and with it all the progress and headway Eggers made in Book I.

My greatest issue with this book is the fact that it relies far to much on people's ability to lose their cynicism and, as a cynic myself, I find this very difficult to find plausible. While it has been shown that there are people who will latch on to any new craze I wonder if as few people would question this kind of organisation encroaching on every single aspect of their lives, implanting chips into their children and peeking in on every moment of their day.

This book is nothing if not thought-provoking I will give Eggers that. It is a very interesting premise and while I feel he failed to exploit it as well as was possible I do believe that the route he took could spark some very interesting debate about privacy and the right to anonymity. Despite the negative tone of this review, on the whole I would recommend this book to anyone after something different and thought-provoking as it really is a great idea for a book but it is definitely not one I will be revisiting myself.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment :)

Naomi Joy xx

Just a quick apology

So I've been very quiet of late for no real reason really but that's all set to change *fingers crossed*. I'll do my best to post at least once a month.
I'm going to upload a few reviews of books that I read over the summer and then hopefully over the next few months I'll do a bit better at posting on a relatively regular basis.
Sorry again,
Naomi Joy :) x

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Book: The Fault in our Stars
Author: John Green
Published: Penguin, January 2013
Genre: YA fiction
Rating: 4/5

"I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once."

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

WHAT I THOUGHT:

This is one of three books that has ever made me cry, the other two being Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. I was up at 3am reading under the covers (because I still do that aged twenty) balling my eyes out - I'm just glad I didn't leave it to finish at the hairdressers the next day!

This book really is unputdownable but at the same time there were several points at which I felt I really needed to put it down for the sake of my mental state. It's such a beautifully written book and it feels so honest as if Green were writing at a very personal level which made it special, uplifting and harrowing in equal measure. It's not a happily ever after book so don't read it if that's what you're after but honestly if it had been, the book would have felt like a bit of a waste of time. Green has a knack for drawing in a reader with his beautifully written characters and their heartbreakingly realistic stories. It was written as though you were peeking into someone's diary or watching their lives play out in front of you and this is the feeling that I believe most authors should strive for with their readers.

The way Green describes Gus and Hazel's feelings about An Imperial Affliction is how I felt about this book. An Imperial Affliction (AIA) frustratingly ends in the middle of a sentence and Gus and Hazel's quest to find some closure make up a lot of the book. The more Green mentioned this flaw in AIA the more I worried that he would follow suit and leave me hanging. But, thank goodness, he didn't. He took us right through to an ending that, fortunately, didn't end in death and leave you on a downer. It ended the only way it could, bittersweet and beautiful and painstakingly realistic.

It is most definitely one of the best books I've read all year and Green is an author whose books I will endeavour to continue to explore.

Thanks for reading :)

Naomi Joy xx