The Word Cloud

After listening to the anguish and turmoil of my fellow writers for a while now, I am beginning to consider the option of starting my own small-scale publishing firm.

I have had the opportunity to read a number of perfectly publishable books over the past year, and yet publishers turned these authors down, including me!

Now I'm not disillusioned, I know exactly how difficult this will be. It will require a great amount of time and effort to set up, it will be a costly venture and may well fall at the first hurdle!

However, I am between jobs at the moment, I have nothing better to do, and who better to work for than myself? I have some knowledge of business and some friends who have started their own business from scratch so I can always call on them for advice. I also have a friend  who has experience of supporting up-and-coming businesses from when she worked in PR, so I'm not really on my own here.

Like I said it's just a thought at the moment and nothing is set in stone.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Be as blunt as you want - If you think it is a stupid idea, tell me! If you have some advice or know any useful sites, organisations or anything that can help me, I'm all ears.

 

Hello!

 

I’m asking for help!

 

I’m launching my new collection of children’s clothes, at a trade fair, called Bubble, at the Business Design Centre, June 19/20 ith 2011.

I have a load of invites, and I would like to send them to shops and businesses who sell children’s clothes, but who want to sell something different, and who care about fair trade and organic fabrics. They don’t have to be dedicated shops, all sorts of people stock children’s clothes.

 

Do you know of anyone who would be interested in either coming along, or, if they can’t make it, would like a wholesale brochure?

 

At the heart of my collection, is the Kimonii – it’s a brand new garment which I have invented, and combines wrap around trousers and top, to form an all-in-one play suit, which is easy to wear and easy to put on. I have the patent on it, and I am working on adult versions as well!

 

You can see my website at www.kappuke-ki-kidswear.co.uk

 

If you’d like to order some things, my new collection will be on-line in July, and as a thank you, if you email me though my site, I will give you a massive 50% off anything in the new collection. It will have to be pre-ordered, but will be in stock by the end of the summer; but it won’t be in shops until 2012!

 

Thanks for reading,

 

 

Finally got around to watching Desk Set which was, as expected, fun but by no means exceptional, and extremely stagey. This week's film is the 1952 screwball comedy Monkey Business (Wednesday, 3.10pm, Filmfour- they're always on Filmfour!) starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe, not to be confused with the 1931 comedy Monkey Business starring the Marx Brothers (which is also worth watching). It's a late screwball comedy, not up with such classics as His Girl Friday or Bringing up Baby (both also starring Grant) but still a very funny film as long as you're willing to buy into the ludicrous plot, invloving a formula which makes people act like children. The film was based on a story by Harry Segall and was written by I.A.L. (Izzy) Diamond, Charles Lederer and Ben Hecht. I've been wanting to do one of these blogs about Hecht but there never seemed any urgency because on any given week there is bound to be a film on that Hecht at least contributed to. Hecht is believed to have worked on around 70 screenplays, many of them uncredited. He also wrote plays and books and later TV shows giving him a grand total of 147 writing credits on IMDB. His first credited work was for Josef Von Sternberg's Underworld which won him best story at the first Academy Awards Ceremony in 1927, and he continued to work up to his death in 1964 (The Magnificent Showman (1964) is his last screen credit though he also contributed to Casino Royale (1966)). Hecht was a dialogue expert, crafting sharp, witty lines delivered at breakneck pace; His Girl Friday (based on Hecht's play The Front Page and to which he made uncredited contributions) is still officially the fasted talking film ever made. He mostly wrote romantic screwball comedies and gangster films but there is barely a genre he did not try, he worked several times with Hitchcock and contributed to the classic John Ford western Stagecoach. He even wrote the story for the Marx Brothers' Monkey Business. Despite this quality Hecht worked fast (obviously), able to turn out a script in a couple of weeks, or in the case of The Unholy Garden, 12 hours. His journalistic training taught him to write to a deadline. (That said, he is believed to have farmed some of the work out to junior writers, adding the Hechtian flourishes himself, like a Renaissance painter and his apprentices.) He also had a lack of regard for his film work compared to his stageplays, something he shared with many writers of the time. It would be ludicrous to try and sum up Hecht's career here, it would take more than this blog just to list his films, but what can an aspiring writer learn from one of the true greats? Well, Hecht often worked with a collaborator, usually Charles MacArthur or, as in the case of Monkey Business, Charles Lederer, and when your specialty is dialogue then that's a big advantage. I used to work with partners but very seldom do now and bantering out the dialogue is one thing I miss. Another thing worth taking onboard is that dialogue is important. I am a huge advocate of visual storytelling and I try to reduce dialogue as much as possible; cinema is a visual medium. But let's face facts; a director dictates the visuals, they treat stage directions- no matter how carefully written- as a guide. They are less likely however to change the dialogue, particularly if it is good (it still happens of course but not to the same degree). A director will never ask a writer for a new visual image, but they will often ask for a new line to be delivered immediately (even a novice like me has had that request). A screenwriter must be a visual storyteller, but dialogue is the more saleable skill. Another thing Hecht learnt from his years as a journalist was to listen to people talk; that's how you learn dialogue (I think).

Okay, you lot. You are a truly talented bunch and you've already given lots of great advice- re my job situ- so I feel a little guilty for asking for more help. Only a 'little' guilty though- you don't get anywhere in this world being shy.

Here's the thing, I'm starting a new business venture which will be mainly selling portraits of children and pets. Most of the artwork will be bespoke- parent or horse/dog/ Jaguar owner will hopefully commission me to produce a portrait of their loved one etc either from existing photos or I'll take some pics. In addition I will be attempting to sell prints of existing artwork, turning them into various things like greeting cards, book marks, posters...

I need to get on with getting my website sorted but first I need a name for this business. For those of you who don't already know- my name is Liza (pronounced Leeza as in Goddard and not Lie-za as in Minelli).
I want something catchy that possible has my name in the title but also suggests that I produce quality portraits of both animals and people.

Names I've had so far have been:
 Liza Doodles Littles - courtesy of Noel- although great it's a bit of a mouthful,
Reflections in water - by Minxie
Reflections- Flickimp
Pitter Patter Prints- Barb


Other suggestions I've had have been,

Paw Prints -
Foot Prints -
Doodle Bugs
Lasting Impressions- I loved this until I didcovered it's already been used
Drawn to you
Drawn to Life.

Anyone else got any ideas?

I have just read an article in one of the technical journals I subscribe to and I find myself completely enraged. I’m sure we have all heard of Kevin Costner the actor. You know, Field of Dreams – Dances with Wolves – Centrifugal Oil Separator.

Yes, that’s what I said. That last is not a movie. Some years ago he decided to do something with his money. So he bought a small research company with a good idea, put $20 million into it and they developed a device for separating crude oil from water. It’s mechanical, meaning there are no toxic chemicals involved. Essentially, although the details are not made public it’s a centrifuge, a spinning device that separates liquids with different specific gravity (density). It works on a pretty significant scale that can remove oil from the water, put clean water back and pump the oil off into a tank and the rate of thousands of gallons a day. Near to 100% purity of separation. Just imagine. Apart from the ecological elegance the oil it recovers would pay for the cost of the deployment. It's a beautiful concept.

The oil companies wanted nothing to do with him. He thought they must have plans of their own and so watched the most recent big oil spill since his device was perfected with interest, expecting to see new technology deployed. But no. He saw tons of toxic emulsifier dumped in the ocean dragging the oil down to poison the sea bed for years. Forty year old technology allied to tugs with flotation devices and people in wellies with spades on the beach. Plus a lot of sea life directly killed by corrosive crude oil.

He isn’t holding anyone to ransom. He simply felt the amount of money he made from acting was silly and wanted to do some good with a bit of it. They could have simply cruised up and down the coast with a few of these mounted off the sides of ships and gathered it all up.

Morons. I despair.

Let me tell you about Harry. Not our Harry Bingham. Another Harry entirely. And let me assure you this is true to the best of my knowledge. Harry is a chap I met in Bedfordshire one afternoon at a show who describes himself on his business card as a writer and entrepreneur. Harry is a great chap but entrepreneur he ain’t. Well not a successful one in any event.

Or is he? I bumped into Harry again a month or so back and got an update.

At the Getting Published Day last Saturday one common theme across all of the speakers was that the book business is just that. A business. An industry. It is necessary to make a profit, necessary to achieve sales at a meaningful level. It was mentioned that a new book by a debutant author might get around £20,000 spent on launch and promotion. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a decent sum and I think we would all miss it if it vanished from our savings, but I’m equally sure that a new book by, let’s say Salman Rushdie, would receive rather more up front investment. But I also expect that we would all acknowledge that anything with that name on the front cover, regardless of it’s being crap, if it were so (not that I express such an opinion here or ever have) if well placed on the tables and shelves in shops, advertised in public pages and reviewed – positively - on all the right programmes would sell well. All it takes is money.

Let’s get back to Harry. Harry wrote a book. I know he’ll forgive me for saying this, but it wasn’t that good. Certainly well written for the material, but not a best seller proposition. He wrote a small book of tales about horses that had been circulating in his family and his neighbourhood for years. Harry isn’t really an entrepreneur, he is a farmer.

Now, straight away you can see that no agent or publisher is going to do anything with this except at best send a politely worded rejection. Which is what Harry found happened when he tried.

But farmers are made of stern stuff in Bedfordshire. Harry spent a few bob and printed it himself. He got himself a couple of rural flavoured endorsements, one from an actor off The Archers and another rural ish literary type. He got features on the local radio and national radio (if we may so describe Farming Today). He set up his web site and he does book signings at various events.

In a blog the other day linked from this site a certain Crabbit Old Bat confirmed that an author who is doing well may receive 10% of the face price from their book when it sells. I imagine the margin may drop for debutants, but hold that number.

Harry has sold around 1,200 copies of his 2,000 print run at full price and is now discounting the rest.

I reckon the publishing business would rather look down on these figures with disdain. But let’s look at this from a different angle. C.O.B confirms that 10% return to author is normal for the writer. I conservatively estimate that after various costs Harry is getting 80% return. So pro rata adjustment to his sales of 1,200 makes that an equivalent of 9,600. Not earth shattering, but I’m sure they’ve had worse. Also he is discounting to move his remainders after sales of 60% at full price. Again, not a disaster. Not wonderful either, of course. But we are talking about a cheaply printed collection of quaint stories about rural folk and their horses here.

Now, from a business standpoint I call that, if not a success (and I am tempted to call it one) then it certainly isn’t a failure. Harry has shown a decent profit. But it hasn’t made a penny for the publishers or agents, has it?

Now consider Jason. I mentioned Jason a few weeks ago in another of my errant blogs. Jason writes graphic novels. These aren’t comics. They are dark and dangerous stories in the form of graphic novels. Jason is very very good indeed. He does all his own artwork by hand, he’s a talented artist and wants to work that way. He employs a printer to his own standards and specification, which is high and runs the whole show with a bit of help from his girlfriend, whilst holding down a day job.

Jason has won awards and has genuinely made it to being reviewed on national television. Unlike Harry with his horse tales, Jason is a real player (no disrespect Harry) and sells in respectable quantity. I don’t know for sure why he chose to go it by himself although having chatted with him at length I think it has much to do with production quality. Jason is a star in my eyes.

Neither of them has to carry the overhead that comes from agents and publishers. Obviously agents and publishers have the right to run their businesses how they wish and also to be paid for what they do. But when what they do is take on what they confirm to be under 0.1% of submissions, whilst continuing to pour money into work product they haven’t yet seen from names they know will sell regardless, then they surely can’t blame that other 99.9% of hopefuls if they choose another way. A way which technology is making increasingly practical.

I don’t believe that the 99.9% of aspiring writers that submit proposals and that don’t make it simply aren’t ready, or aren’t good enough. Not all of them, not by a long way. Too much complete crap gets put on the shelf for me to believe that. Too much work I’ve seen just around here isn’t considered when it can be so much better than that tells me otherwise.

It’s a business and the business is about making money, not producing literature. The safe route of another by “X” will sell sufficiently to keep us in business is best for business. This may be massively against the personal preference of so many individuals in these organisations, but companies are like that, as I will argue in another little essay, probably later this week if I get time.

It has been said that self publishers will find out how many friends they have by how many books they sell. Well, Harry is a great fellow, but he doesn’t have 1,200 friends and that level of sales makes business sense the way he did it. And Jason? Watch out for him.

I think that the mainstream publishing industry should stop looking down at self publishing and perhaps consider its position with a bit more care. I think some areas are less dismissive than others, but overall it remains disdainful. There are too many good writers out there who can’t smash through the ceiling that might go that route.  And there are enough of them in that potential group that are genuinely good enough that if they do that they might just capsize the ship. Just as so many musicians have done by going their own way.

I’m not suggesting that I have said anything unique here. Probably there are many that have already formed such views, maybe even expressed them. I just wanted to write it down for myself. If I have bored you, I apologise. I may bore you with another instalment later.

 

Fashion is in everywhere! Although not everyone is blessed with a beautiful face, everyone decide what’s the ideal look that will fit for his or her fashion. As you can see in many offices, employees have different styles and designs of clothing. Some are quite cool while others are elegant and conservative. Wholesale clothing on the other hand also fits for one’s fashion and pocket. And since it is wholesale, you can choose the desired styles you want and sell the rest afterwards. There are also promos and discounts most especially when Christmas.

Women are indeed known for being choosy. In many instances, they for about 1-2 hours just looking for a single item on shopping stores. When it comes to styles and designs, there’s nothing to fear of. It’s because there are thousands of wholesale clothing designs available to choose from. You can be as conservative as you mom or as sexy as your favorite Hollywood star. No need to spend much of your cash. In just a reasonable amount, you can achieve your goal. And what’s good about shopping is when you shop online wherein you can have better options.

Internet is wide enough to search the things you’ve looking for. The very vital thing here is to consider the supply and demand. As much as possible you place your order earlier. Always bear in mind that you’re not just the person looking for such dress. There are so much more. If you’re not satisfied with specific clothing, then you can just leave it and find another one. You’re free to compare styles and prices as much as you want.

But what’s more important when shopping online is the security. As much as possible don’t use easy payment methods. Use the secured one. It’s either a paypal. Alertpay or routepay account. When shopping for wholesale clothing, it could be better if you give much of your time in choosing. It doesn’t matter if reaches 1-2 days before deciding. The important thing is that you’re satisfied.

 

 

After the movie “This is it”, the passed away “King of pop” remained in the hearts of many. As US newspapers and associated press editors stated, Michael Jackson’s death remains as the top entertainment story of all time.

Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 yet his death was still undergoing several investigations due to the rumors that Jackson’s death was ruled a homicide.

And his personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray was suspected to be responsible about Jackson’s Death. At the age of 50, Michael has achieved thousands of memorable thing in his life and the Movie “This is it” is one of the proofs.

During Michael’s funeral, there are thousands of people joined the last moment in his life including celebrities, relatives, friends, owners of wholesale lingerie businesses in California as well as fans out there.

This only proved that the name Michael Jackson is not only famous in US but all over the world. As the King of Pop, Michael will always be Michael in the hearts of many.

Just imagine people from different parts of the country reunited for one goal which is to recall the memories of Michael.

Although, there are issues of molestations when against Michael when he was alive, these were all gone after Michael’s death.

This only proved that people really loves Michael not just because he is the King of Pop but also as an ordinary person.

With the movie, this is it; people have able to recognize the real Michael. “This is it” isn’t really a film, a concert or a movie.

This is actually the compilation of Michael Jackson’s preparation for the upcoming concert in London. These comprise 50 shows all at once.

Unfortunately, due to what happened to Michael, the concert will remain as a dream. 

Above all, Michael Jackson’s death serves as celebrations pop music all over the world. Some people sells wholesale clothing with Michael’s face printed while on the other hand, there are also some that sells DVDs and other Michael’s memorabilia.

One of my mother's greatest feats was being able to recite from memory Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tale, 'Matilda, who told lies and got burned to death'. She did so at every opportunity, which accounts for my strong moral fibre, and my nervous tic.

In this age of loose morals, surely we need a new Hilaire Belloc to warn of the dangers of sliding off the straight and narrow? Well, if no one else is keen to 'step up to the plate', for all those who witness terrible things happening in their offices, I offer the following....

Jim, who avoided teamwork and suffered the consequences

 

Jim’s approach to interaction

Drove his colleagues to distraction.

He caused them all much grief, it seems,

By never taking part in teams.

Now teamwork, as I’m sure you know

Is central to our status quo:

It’s how consultants earn their fees

With lessons from the Japanese.

But Jim just didn’t seem to care –

He shunned his team-mates everywhere.

 

When colleagues, as they often do,

Announced there’d be a drink or two

That evening at The King & Queen

(“The unofficial works canteen”

As it had wittily been named)

Jim always answered much the same:

"I’m sorry, but I’ve got a few

Outstanding tasks that I must do.”

 

Jim liked to think things through alone:

He often left his telephone

Switched off, so he could think things through.

The emails in his inbox grew

And grew, but he would only read

Those which displayed a pressing need –

And as for all the hundreds more

Which knocked upon his cyberdoor

With Jim’s name in the ‘cc:’ field,

To these ones he would never yield:

If all they said was ‘FYI’,

They were not graced with a reply.

How irresponsible, each day

To simply throw such things away!

He should send thousands every week:

It’s called the ‘C.Y.A.’ technique.

(Please don’t ask me to translate –

It might be ‘inappropriate’.)

 

His fellow workers every day

Would talk (in that supportive way

That colleagues will) behind his back

About the qualities he lacked.

“It’s clear, though he will not admit it

That he is simply not committed!”

 

Well, one week things came to a head:

The Managing Director said

That teamwork was now de rigeur

And all the firm’s employees were

To go on a team seminar.

(He then departed in his car

To play golf with a colleague who,

Like him, felt he already knew

About the subject; if they’d stayed,

They knew they’d just be in the way.)

 

And so Jim and his team-mates went

To part of Wales, where they spent

Two days among the hills and trees

Engaged in such activities

As building bridges out of sticks

Or towers out of Lego bricks

(Both of which, it’s plain to see

Will boost your profits instantly -

If only you can find a way

To link them to your working day).

 

Midway through the morning’s games

– I’m sorry, ‘exercises’ –  James

Was spotted walking off alone,

In conversation on his phone,

While his team on the climbing wall

Were bonding, trying not to fall.

They asked Jim why he did not climb.

He said: “It’s all a waste of time!

We’d get much more done back at work,

This seems like an excuse to shirk!”

 

This was pushing things a bit;

The MD got to hear of it.

“Better off at work? I say!

If everybody thought that way

In just what sort of state would be

Our sceptre’d isle’s industry?”

 

They couldn’t let this get about,

So Jim found he’d been ‘managed out’

(Which means, for those who do not know,

They simply engineered things so

That one day Jim discovered he

Had been replaced by a PC.

They made it clear he wasn’t fired,

But knew that he would soon grow tired

Of having nothing much to do;

And so he did). And so to you,

Dear reader, must I now relay

The lesson of Jim’s darkest day:

 

 

However cut-throat work may be,

It thrives on reciprocity;

So, if you don't want to get hurt,

Pretend to be an extravert!