Catch Ivan Vladislavic on a rare visit to the UK!

Photo copyright: Minky Schlesinger

Photo copyright: Minky Schlesinger

Acclaimed South African author Ivan Vladislavic will be in the UK for the next fortnight so be sure to catch him at one of his events.

During the week of 16 June Ivan will be taking part in the Norwich Worlds Festival. On Thursday 19 June he will join JM Coetzee, Xiaolu Guo and Julia Franck for an evening devoted to the very best in world literature. The event takes place at 7.30 at the Norwich Playhouse and is organised by the Writers’ Centre Norwich. Tickets are available here.

On Saturday 21 June, Ivan will be Guest of Honour at Lunch with And Other Stories, a lunch event for And Other Stories subscribers at Hardy’s Brasserie in London. To book, contact nicci@andotherstories.org

He’ll be reading at the Peckham Pelican on Sunday 22 June at 12.30 p.m. as part of the Literary Kitchen Festival. This is a free event.

Ivan’s work is studied on various university courses and he will be visiting a couple of universities on this trip. On Monday 23 June at 3.30 p.m. he’ll be at the University of Sussex, where, in honour of his retired proofreader, Aubrey Tearle, from THE RESTLESS SUPERMARKET, they are holding their own ‘Proofreader’s Derby’. There is still time to enter! It’s a free event, more details here.

Described on the Africa in Words blog as ‘one of the great prose stylists in the world today’, Ivan will be reading from DOUBLE NEGATIVE and THE RESTLESS SUPERMARKET and will be in conversation about the subtleties of balancing editing and creativity, and the mechanics and the artistry of creating written work.

On Tuesday 24 June, 5:00pm - 6.30pm, the Faculty of English at University of Cambridge will host Ivan for a reading from THE RESTLESS SUPERMARKET and discussion after. This is a free event, open to the public and there is no need to book. Details here.

On Wednesday 25 June, Ivan will be appearing alongside Patrick Flanery and Neel Mukherjee at Camera Obscura: A View of South Africa.  Each author will be bringing their own work and experiences to the table and you can expect readings alongside stimulating conversation. The event is at Diorama Arts Studios at 7pm and tickets cost £5 – to book contact Charlotte at Slightly Foxed enquiries@foxedbooks.com Tel: 0207 370 3503

Ivan Vladislavic’s hilarious and poignant novel THE RESTLESS SUPERMARKET was published by And Other Stories in April 2014. Neel Mukherjee gave it a stunning review in the Independent: ‘A work of such immense imaginativeness, of such extraordinarily serious playfulness, comes along very rarely. Let us celebrate it.’  

A multiple prize-winner in South Africa, DOUBLE NEGATIVE was published in the UK in 2013, also to wide acclaim, and has been chosen by Writers’ Centre Norwich as part of their Summer Reads programme.

See more on Ivan’s website here.

Praise for Ivan Vladislavic:

‘Vladislavic is internationally recognized as one of South Africa’s most significant living writers.’ – Kenyon Review

'One of South Africa's most finely tuned observers' - Ted Hodgkinson, The Times Literary Supplement

'Ivan Vladislavic is one of a handful of writers working in South Africa after apartheid whose work will still be read in fifty years.'  - Jan Steyn, The White Review

Kerry Hudson named one of the Bookseller’s Rising Stars of 2014

Photo Credit: Nick Tucker

Photo Credit: Nick Tucker

The Bookseller magazine has published its list of up-and-comers of the publishing world, which they've been doing annually for four years - and we're delighted to note that Kerry Hudson is among those chosen for the accolade.

 Kerry is author of TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA and her new book THIRST will be published by Chatto in July.

She makes the list for the WoMentoring project, which she founded after reading reports of women writers being paid and reviewed less than their male counterparts. The group has around 80 mentors, including writers and book trade stalwarts—such as Picador editorial director Francesca Main and our own agent Juliet Pickering —who give their time, for free, to promising women writers who can’t afford to pay for development through the usual channels.

Blake Friedmann offer their congratulations to Kerry and wish WoMentoring the best of luck for its first year.

 Praise for TONY HOGAN...:

'What a brilliant thing to turn the chaos and trauma of a hectic childhood into a debut novel as colourful, funny, joyful and compelling as this.' - The Guardian

 'This is a remarkable debut novel of love and loyalty, of fierce passion and scabrous wit.' - Foyles

'From the (unrepeatable) hilarious first sentence, this debut sucks you in with its idiosyncratic style... Kerry Hudson's writing is very funny, and her deft touches give the book a reality that makes it all the more powerful. Hudson certainly has a bright future.' - We Love This Book

News from Rohan Gavin’s KNIGHTLEY & SON US book tour!

After KNIGHTLEY & SON was selected for the American Booksellers Association “Indies Introduce New Voices” and the “Kids’ Indie Next List”, Bloomsbury US arranged an American author tour starting with Rohan’s first ever school visit. With his trusty publicist, Lizzy Mason, Rohan began in San Francisco before travelling to Petaluma, Los Angeles, Houston and San Antonio, where he addressed hundreds of children in packed gymnasiums, holding them all enthralled with the escapades of Knightley & Son.

The father-and-son duo’s adventures have won the hearts of UK readers too, with a Sunday Times Pick of the Week and KNIGHTLEY & SON proving the fourth highest selling debut in Children’s Fiction in the six months since release.

Here's a glimpse of the tour:

Rohan talking to kids at Harvard Elementary, Houston, Texas.

Rohan talking to kids at Harvard Elementary, Houston, Texas.

Rohan talking to 300 students at Bowditch Middle School, CA.

Rohan talking to 300 students at Bowditch Middle School, CA.

Preaching to students at St. Vincent’s Elementary, Petaluma, CA.

Preaching to students at St. Vincent’s Elementary, Petaluma, CA.

Rohan adds:

“The final leg of the tour took us to San Antonio, home of the Alamo, and the awe-inspiring Texas Library Association mega-conference, culminating in a twenty mile cycle ride to promote local libraries. I rode alongside my US Publisher Cindy Loh, marketing director Erica Barmash, fellow Bloomsbury author Megan Frazer Blakemore, and thirty or so librarians (one on a unicycle!) but little did our intrepid crew know we’d be pedalling through some of the lesser travelled parts of San Antonio, where we were greeted by pickup trucks with tinted windows and an unleashed Rottweiler that threatened to eat the hapless bookworms as they cycled by. It would have been great material for the Knightley & Son sequel K-9 (yes, it’s about savage canines), were it not for the fact that I’d already finished writing the new book, and hoped to live to see its release this August. Fortunately Cindy Loh practiced excellent author care and jangled nerves were soon soothed in the safety of a Mexican cantina.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury US and all the kids, teachers, librarians and booksellers who made the tour such a success.”

Praise for KNIGHTLEY & SON:

‘Dangers are faced in London in an engaging, characterful debut … with enjoyably convincing family relationships.’ – Nicolette Jones, Sunday Times, Pick of the Week

'Heaps of mystery, dry humor and tweed abound in this exemplar of crime fiction à la Doyle... Darkus’ skill at deduction, perpetual observation and sang-froid are spot-on Holmes-ian… Heroes, villains and settings are all fully realized through proficient description, and contemporary technology gives way to sheer brainpower… A rousing page-turner with one fault: It ends.' - Kirkus (Starred Review)

‘Skillfully done. This is a quick and fun read; a great choice for those looking for a new mystery to dive into’ – School Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘Gavin deftly paces the story...Fans of this debut will be glad that the ending leaves the door open for sequels' – Booklist

‘Danger and excitement—not to mention quirky characters and wonderful writing—lurk around every page!’  — Chris Grabenstein, New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, Treasure Hunters, and I Funny: A Middle School Story

For more on the series visit www.knightleyandson.com or tweet @rohangavin



Carole Blake on ‘Does a writer still need an agent?'

This post originally appeared on Alison Morton's Roma Nova blog.  Alison Morton is the author of three Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO. Watch the trailer for the hotly anticipated SUCCESSIO here!

I'm delighted to welcome my friend Carole Blake to my blog today to give an insight into one of the hottest questions in the publishing today. Carole has just celebrated 50 years in the publishing business, so she probably knows a thing or two. In 1977, after 14 years in publishing, Carole started her own literary agency which merged with Julian Friedmann’s agency to become Blake Friedmann in 1982. She is a past President of the Association of Authors’ Agents and author of From Pitch to Publication, a must-read for any writer wishing to understand the publishing industry. An updated version is due out in 2015.

Welcome, Carole. In the changing publishing world, one question I see debated everywhere, and with enthusiasm, is whether a writer needs an agent in today’s publishing environment.

Yes. And no. Many authors, especially self-published ones, manage everything for themselves now and many do it really well. Many authors are writing in areas that will not attract agents, so they have no choice.

But, of course, I think an agent is only a good thing for a writer: I’ve been an agent for 37 years and I know there are many things we do for our clients that would be difficult for them to accomplish alone.

Handling your own marketing, selling yourself, takes time and a certain kind of personality too. Having an agent represent you gives you a broader spread of influence, a bigger reach, access to many more contacts  A good agent fights for you on many fronts and brings their experience to your career. I can’t imagine an author alone, negotiating their contract with a gigantic multi-national conglomerate publisher and getting the concessions that agencies do. An author without an agent simply wouldn’t have experience of enough contracts to know what was achievable. Even Amazon, with their ‘White Glove’ programme, offer agented authors who epublish via them, much higher royalty packages than unagented authors, and access to more promotions.

As publishers are sold, merge, go under, an agent represents stability in an unstable industry; continuity as publishing staff come and go. Agency staff change too, of course, but much less frequently than at publishing houses. Some of my clients have been with me for more than 30 years, yet they all find their editor, publicist or publisher (sometimes all three!) has changed. The market is a jungle. An author alone can’t expect to stay abreast of everything, especially if they are having to devote time to their marketing and are having to sell their own books.

In addition to wide negotiating experience, agencies have staff to sell the rights they withhold from UK publishers: US, translation, film, television, stage, audio being the most common. Every extra strand of income we negotiate for our clients, every new language, every new right, brings more income and a greater visibility for the author.

Agents only get paid when they pay their clients (by law we must have separate client accounts, like lawyers). That certainly focuses the mind! We have a common purpose, and we share together in the successes. And we are there to encourage if things go wrong.

Many of my authors are published in more than 30 languages. That means that every time they deliver a manuscript I can anticipate selling it over and over again, without the writer having to do any more work. My agency has a network of overseas agencies that sell our list, and we have staff who deal with publishers around the world. Our preparation for international book fairs is military-like in its precision. My staff and I bring our decades of experience to bear on the work of the authors we represent, and take a huge satisfaction in presenting them with multiple deals over a range of formats and languages.

Thank you, Carole, for such a clear explanation for the readers. I’m looking forward to your update of From Pitch to Publication next year.