Bridge House Publishing

A Novel Idea for November

2011-11-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

We have reached November already, I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by, and it can only mean one thing in the writing world - it's National Novel Writing Month!

I have to admit I only heard about this idea a few weeks ago, but I instantly fell for the idea. Although I love to write, like many others, I barely get the time to put pen to paper. I would love to write a novel, who wouldn't, but the idea of all the planning and preparation makes me tremble in my boots! So, if like me you can think of a million excuses, what better way to throw yourself into the deep end and take part in National Novel Writing Month.

I know I should have posted about this before November started as we have already lost a few days, but with the weekend ahead, I recon there may still be time to catch up! The aim is to write 50,000 words this month, which can either be a complete novel or just part of one. This works out to be just over 1,600 words a day. Yes I hear you all saying 'but that's a heck of a lot of words per day', I know it is but what better way to force yourself to give up your reservations and get writing that novel!

You can sign up to the website for National Novel Writing Month here where you can track your progress, meet other writers all trying to do the same and receive pep talks and support.
I have to admit that 50,000 words is a little too daunting for myself and I know I could give up with such a mountain ahead so if you feel the same, why not use the National Novel Writing Month's prerogative and set a smaller word target. Why not try for 1,000 words a day? After all you will still have 31,000 words under your belt.

When I heard the idea being discussed on breakfast TV a few weeks ago it was said that you should write your amount of words per day, not letting yourself go back to change anything. I think the idea behind this is that you have so much to write in a month, there is little time to be editing as well. To me this is a great idea. I often start writing, only to become stuck criticising what I have managed to write so far. Yes it is great to edit and alter things, it is how we all improve. I know you probably won't produce your greatest work yet if you have to just keep writing no matter whether you had an off day or not, but you will have made the time to write and have written something perhaps you could alter after the challenge or use to form part of other work.

I hope you all have a successful writing month. It would be great to see who is taking part, leave a comment if you are giving it a go!

Still Time to Enter Our Competition!

2011-10-28T01:49:00.000-07:00

We are still accepting entries for our adult short story competition. Get your pen at the ready as it closes at midnight 1st Novemeber 2011!

We are looking for adult stories up to 5000 words, the theme is open, it can be in any style or genre but do look at our titles to see the kind of thing we publish. We are looking for stories that are different, thought-provoking and unusual- we err on the side of literary. We want previously unpublished stories, if they are submitted elsewhere do let us know if they are to be published as they will need to be withdrawn from this competition.

CLOSING DATE:Midnight NOVEMBER 1st 2011
The fifteen best stories will be published in a collection in 2013 that will support the 2013 charity (to be decided.)
The entry fee also includes a donation of £1 to the 2011 charity Children’s Hospices UK.
The winner will also receive 6 months one-to-one mentoring and the runner-up will have 5 short stories critiqued by our editors.
How to submit:
Pay for your entry with PayPal £5 per story submitted. Then email your story as a word document following the guidelines below
£5 to enter (per story), £1 goes to Children's Hospices UK

Please email your submission to submissions@bridgehousepublishing.co.uk

For submission details please go to http://bridgehousepublishing.co.uk/ShortStoryCompetition2011.aspx

Good luck and get entering!

Cancellation of Charity Summer Party

2011-07-08T05:07:00.000-07:00

It is with great regret that the Bridge House Summer Charity Fundraiser has had to be cancelled. Those that had purchased tickets will receive a full refund.

We suspect that a lot of people are on holiday at this time of year and we all know how hard it is to keep cash flowing- we sadly only sold a handful of tickets.

We do wish to hold an event at another time and if you would like to meet other authors, meet us, buy books, talk about books then do e-mail marketing@bridgehousepublishing.co.uk if you would like to be on a mailing list for such events.

Really sorry to disappoint!

Calling All Adult Short Fiction Writers

2011-06-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

We are looking for adult stories up to 5000 words, the theme is open, it can be in any style or genre but do look at our titles to see the kind of thing we publish. We are looking for stories that are different, thought-provoking and unusual- we err on the side of literary. We want previously unpublished stories, if they are submitted elsewhere do let us know if they are to be published as they will need to be withdrawn from this competition.

CLOSING DATE:Midnight NOVEMBER 1st 2011

The fifteen best stories will be published in a collection in 2013 that will support the 2013 charity (to be decided.)

The entry fee also includes a donation of £1 to the 2011 charity Children’s Hospices UK.

The winner will also receive 6 months one-to-one mentoring and the runner-up will have 5 short stories critiqued by our editors.

If you would like to enter please click here to be taken to our submissions page and to see our submission guidelines.

We look forward to reading your entries!

A Little Makeover

2011-06-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to announce (incase you haven't noticed already!) that the Bridge House Blog has had a little makeover. We hope you like the new look, any comments/tips are welcome, please get in touch via our new contacts page.

If you'd like to join our newsletter to keep up to date with what is happening at Bridge House Publishing please follow the link here.

Incase you haven't snapped one up already tickets for our Summer Party are still on sale here, we look forward to seeing you all!

Charity Summer Party

2011-05-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

We are having a Summer party in support of our three charities,

The Caron Keating Foundation

Children's Hospices UK

The Born Free Foundation

It will be on Saturday 23rd July 2011, Midday until 4pm, at the West Ham Hotel, London. Tickets are £25 and include lunch. Partners and Family are welcome. There will be opportunities to,

Meet the editors and other staff

Meet other authors

Buy books at a discount

Listen to readings

Hear the latest news from Bridge House and Red Telephone

Indulge in some good quality networking

Join in some fun and games.

Please click here for more details and to buy tickets.

On another note our newest charity book Hipp-O-Dee-Doo-Dah will be available to buy very soon

As soon as it is available we will be updating the blog with a link to be able to purchase it so watch this space!

All very exciting news at the moment!

Author Visits by Gill James

2011-04-01T01:50:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of these – some of them paid (at £350 a day plus expenses – recommended Society of Author rates) and some for free. The free ones are book promotion events where I read, talk, answers questions, sell and sign books. I still ask for travel expenses for the latter. I’m all sorts of lists but have found the most effective way of getting schools’ attention is a direct email. These cost about £200 to send out but if that is shared between several authors it can be real value for money. I recently did an up-market one which cost us £66.00 each and did £1200 of business from it – plus I now have those schools as contacts.

If you would be interested in joining in one of these mailings, email me - editor@bridgehousepublishing.co.uk and we’ll set something up. Let me know the most you’re prepared to pay. Each writer would have a small bio, a book cover, room to say what sort of workshop they offer and contact details. I’ve done this often as well with six or so of us paying about £20.00

Incidentally, we’re currently offering a free school visit and five copies of Alex Smith’s Calling For Angels for £25.00 plus travel expenses. I’m currently offering the work shop (one hour long). Alex Smith is our Red Telephone Competition winner and was just 14 when she wrote the book. If you know any schools that would be interested, please let me know or get them to contact me direct. I do take some of my own titles along as well

Why we're not Kindling yet...

2011-04-01T01:25:00.000-07:00

This looks like an absolute no-brainer, however, it is not quite what it seems. What could and should be a great leap into the future will falter at the first hurdle. It looks great. Publish direct to Amazon Kindle and you don’t even need a publisher. An author or publisher will get 70% of the price Amazon charges and we set the price. It takes seconds to upload your book. Just think, you could bring out all of those out of print books whose rights have reverted to you. Or one that is for such a niche market, no publisher will touch it.

Amazon Kindle UK now exists but because all the publishing actually happens in the States, they will withhold 30% for tax.

If you have an American tax number that says you are exempt from US tax, they will let you have everything and then it’s up to you to report your earnings to the UK authorities. However, they will not issue the letter you need to prove to US tax people that they may be holding some of your money. Smashwords will issue this letter incidentally. Even with the letter, you have to risk your passport being sent to Texas for three months. Or you can go to a US approved notary and pay £400+ for the privilege of having a copy made. You can go and get it done at the US Embassy and I have heard of one person sending her passport special delivery and getting it back a few days alter by special delivery. Maybe a day in London wouldn’t be so bad. Whatever happens, it will probably take three months. Once you have that number, though, it does mean you can open a US bank account. You could then have your money paid directly into that.So, it’s difficult even for individuals.

Small publishers face even more problems. The US tax form does not seem to recognise the term LLP. Bridge House is being knocked back every time we say we are that sort of company. We certainly do not match the other types they describe.

Amazon suggests you ask your tax advisor. We did. The best they could suggest is that one of us opens a US bank account as an individual. This does not seem a very good way of doing business.

Some have suggested telling the UK Inland Revenue that the US is withholding payment. Apparently, they’ve been awarded tax refunds.

Oh, and one final Amazon nicety. Even with the US tax number, they are still deducting the 30% from your earnings. They have forgotten to change the forms!

We really must get this sorted.

Let’s hope that these are just teething troubles. The Kindle is really exciting. We want our books out there on it. Lots of people are how talking about it, so lets hope it gets solved soon. At the moment, we daren’t risk your royalties.

New Charity Book coming in May

2011-04-01T01:18:00.000-07:00

After selling more than 1000 copies of Gentle Footprints we are pleased to announce that our children's charity book is due for release in MAY!

Hipp-O-Dee-Doo- Dah features stories by Alan Gibbons, Laurent St. John and foreword by Michael Morpurgo.

Cover also donated by Anthony Browne.

The book will retail for £7.99 with a donation of £1 per copy to Children's Hospices UK

Changes

2011-02-13T02:15:00.000-08:00

It's notoriously difficult to sell short story collections, as those of you that have tried to will know. Bridge House is a partnership- an alliance of three writers and an admin person and we started out with a dream. We were well aware that there were not enough opportunities for short stories to be published in books and we wanted to give new writers a voice.

It went from strength to strength with 12 titles in less than 2 years. But sales are not as we'd hoped. It's not only hard to sell short stories but also to compete with the big publishing houses. But we love what we're doing so we plan to keep going.

Our most successful book was Gentle Footprints our charity collection, we managed to get that on TV and launched at Hay!

So, while none of us have been able to take a wage, and wonder if that will ever change, we are still carrying on but with changes.

The Bridge House partners met last week and looked at how we can keep going but without making a loss. Less titles, all charity and maybe in the future all competition anthologies which means there will be a small submission fee. It's a shame but since we work for free and we love the books we produce it's a way to still continue.

So do keep following us and let's make this Blog more interactive- authors- if you want to Blog please let me know and I will invite you to post. Let us know what you think!

Another change, starting with the new charity book for children we will be 'going direct' with the printer which we hope will widen our distribution channels and increase sales. It will also make less work for our great admin person who does not have the creative buzz Gill, Ollie and I have and we can't expect her to keep doing all that admin for free. She has been with us for 2 years and has done a fab job- but it's a lot of work and not the exciting stuff.

I hope this clarifies things- we are still here but with differences.

If any of you have any ideas we want to hear from you!

So we'll keep you posted!

Debz :)

DEBUT NOVEL COMPETITION WINNER

2010-10-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

We are delighted to announce that Laura Wilkinson is the winner of the Debut Novel Competition with her novel Bloodmining.

Runner up for ner novel Timeshare was Yana Stajno.

To find our more visit the website MORE

Bloodmining will be out November 2011

New Look

2010-10-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

Now that things are changing at Bridge House (for the better) the Blog has a new look and I have removed all the authors links as we have too many authors now!
But please do follow the Blog and any authors that want to post please let me know and you will be invited as a guest Blogger.
We want this Blog to be more user friendly and a forum for our authors to chat, tell us about your books launches, competitions for writers, workshops... anything writing or book related!

Debz

Also check out cover of Gentle Footprints

2010-02-09T07:01:00.000-08:00

Update

2010-02-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

We have been very busy with our special charity book Gentle Footprints and Twelve Days so for more day to day updates please do follow us on Twitter as I tend to keep this more updated. Also follow the Gentle Footprints Blog as this is raising awareness about the animals included in the book Gentle Footprints

Also for unforseen reasons the original paper publisher of 100 Stories for Haiti (to help earthquake victims) had to pull out we have stepped in and will also be publishing this special collection. Greg McQueen's whose project it is and who seems to have done some amazing things is handling all the marketing etc- we will simply publish and distribute and all profits go to the British Red Cross Check it out 100 Stories

We have also updated the website with a brand new Short Story Competition : Competition

And we have also added 2 new calls for submissions for anthologies: Adult Crime Fiction and cross-over Sci-Fi Fiction New calls

It's all ver y exciting... we are also reading the debut novel stories... so an exciting time...

Debz :)

Great news about Gentle Footprints!

2010-01-17T11:30:00.000-08:00

Our special animal anthology Gentle Footprints to raise awareness and funds for Born Free will be launched at the Hay-On-Wye Summer Festival on FRIDAY JUNE 4th!!! Full details still to be announced.

Festival website: www.hayfestival.com

And Richard Adams and Virginia McKenna have agreed to be guest speakers!!!

More soon...

Debz :)

Twelve Days Anthology

2010-01-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

This new collection is now available from the Bridge House website as well as usual internet sources. This is a special collection of unusual, dark stories for these long January days. The stories were chosen because they were a little different.

So please take a look and add this book to your must have read to start 2010

Also coming soon the animal anthology Gentle Footprints, email me if you want to get involved in raising awareness with this special charity book. Check out the Blog http://gentlefootprintsanimalanthology.blogspot.com/

Debz

Animal Anthology

2010-01-05T05:30:00.001-08:00

Some of you might be off enjoying writing time while it snows outside and for me it gives me a chance to catch up! We have selected 19 stories for the Born Free Animal Anthology, these are currently being approved by Born Free to ensure they adhere to the Born Free message, as soon as we have the list approved the lucky authors will be notified.

One of these authors is of course Richard Adams who has sent me the first draft of his new story and I am looking forward to seeing the finished story very soon!

We are also planning a big summer launch (details soon to be finalised) and I have set up a new BLOG for this very special book...

So we look forward to a new year and to continued publishing success.

Gill has also informed the lucky authors who have been accepted for the Travel Anthology and is in the process of sending out the edits...

There is still another month left for those still wanting to submit to the Debut Novel Competition.

I have also set up a TWITTER account for those that want to follow us there...

All the best,

Debz :)

Bridge House Short Story Competition 2009

2009-11-29T05:34:00.000-08:00

At last I can share with you the information about the winners of the first Bridge House Short Story Competition. The standard was high and it was hard to choose the winners- but they are all worthy. We decided that all three places will have their stories published in future anthologies.

The stories are:

First Place Sandra Morgan Dancing To Lili Marlene

Second Place Susan Stern I Never Wear Black

Third Place Carol Croxton When Angels Weep

Find out more about the authors and read extracts of these stories here on the Bridge House Blog...

News

2009-11-29T05:27:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the lack of posts- we are all really busy trying to get the Christmas books out in time!
Delays beyond our control have given us rather a lot to do and this cuts down in marketing time, so we hope all of our authors are doing their part to push the books!

Spooked is out and available to order through the Bridge House Website. Scream should be out any day. All is not lost as we can relaunch these for Halloween next year. As for the Children's Advent and 12 Days- these will make in time for Christmas- just! So again we may have a relaunch next year.

These things happen, especially as we all have other jobs as well!!! But we are working like mad to make this happen so we thank everyone for their support!

Check out the website this week when we have offers on books for Christmas- free postage on older titles... so please add books to your Christmas lists!

Debz :)

Let's get all spooked

2009-10-20T12:37:00.001-07:00

First of all there will be the cosy nights of denial that it's not quite autumn so you can settle down to some adult fairy tales. Alternative Renditions is now out! £8.99- check out the Bridge House website to order direct from us or from Amazon, WHSmith and Waterstones.

And then when you can't deny the nights are getting longer- surrender to the darkness and try out our adult ghost collection- 25 scary tales... SPOOKED out soon £9.99.

And so the teens don't miss out it's time to SCREAM! Also coming soon our young adult horror £6.99

Coming soon for sale on the website- you can buy both for £15!

2009-10-12T11:46:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

Not been posting a lot but we've all been busy with three new books about to come out. As you know there was a slight delay but Alternative Renditions the Adult Fairy Tale collection is now ready to preorder on the website! Check out new titles for October. This is a delightful collection of well known tales as you've never seen them before! What a charming Christmas presie!

We are also busy working on our young adult horror collection SCREAM and our adult ghost stories SPOOKED- both due out early-mid November. We had really hoped to get these out for Halloween, we're doing our best to get them out as soon as possible, things happen, right?

So check out the website for more information.

More soon,

Debz

Autumn News

2009-09-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well as the year moves on and the feeling of Autumn is in the air we are all busy at Bridge House getting ready for the launch of Alternative Renditions- the adult fairy tale collection. This was due for release September 13th but has now been delayed until the end of the month. A great Christmas present!

We are also hard at work with the young adult horror and adult ghost collections out by Halloween!

And the children's Advent Anthology and adult Twelve Days of Christmas... we're as busy as the elves.

The debut novel competitions is now open for submissions- check out the website and the submissions are rolling in for the Animal Anthology...

Post a reply, get a conversation going- check out the growing list of authors.

More soon!

Debz

Richard Adams offers to write an animal story for the Animal Anthology!

2009-08-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of visiting the acclaimed author of Watership Down, The Plague Dogs, Shardik and many more, this weekend. He will not only write a foreword for the Born Free charity book to be published in Spring 2010, but he has offered to write a short story especially for the collection. Bridge House are delighted!

The call for submissions is currently open- please see the information on the Bridge House Website- also see the information as posted on the Born Free website:

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/get-involved/animal-anthology/

See Mr. Adams pictured here reading from the latest Bridge House anthology Disasters and Miracles now available to order from our website.

Other news:

We now have the cover for the Adult Fairy Tale anthology- with the design team and I have just had a sneak preview of the Adult ghost cover- spooky!

Thanks!

Debz :)

Latest News August 2009

2009-08-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

Well Disasters and Miracles is due for release this week and the author copies should have arrived today! Looking great! Well done Gill who put it together!

The cover for the Adult Fairy Tales is now being inked and Gill was trying to decide on the right title- so we should have this soon as well.

For the Ghost and Horror these jackets are also in design and the stories are finishing their editing.

The selections have been made of the Christmas books- the Childrens Advent and the Twelve Days of Christmas so we will be thinking about editing these soon.

And finally keep those submissions rolling in- good news about the Animal Anthology- look out for the call for submissions in BBC Wildlife Magazine in September and now on the Born Free website

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/get-involved/animal-anthology/

Also check out the feature about Bridge House in Writer's News this month!

Exciting times!

Let me know how you're all doing!

Debz :)

And another thing...

2009-07-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

I am really working hard to drum up some support for next year's charity book: the animal anthology. I meet with Richard Adams next month and he says he is very happy to support the project.

I received a lovely email from Jonathan Scott from Big Cat diaries and he has offered to review the book...

The call for submissions should appear in BBC Wildlife magazine...

I urge you all to have a go at submitting a story... more about the charity later...

Debz

Disasters and Miracles and more...

2009-07-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

The new anthology proofs have now gone out to the authors for a final check- we hope we haven't missed anything but we probably have! And then the new book should be with the printers this weekend.

We hope to not have a repeat of the problems we had with the printer with the Suitcase anthologies and all being well, the author copies should go out prior to the release date and you should be able to preorder as well.

The book looks good- 122 pages, retails for £6.99- some wonderful stories.

I spent Sunday indulging in them and felt proud of everyone that contributed.

So I am now working on my marketing plan and will be contacting the authors this week with some ideas...

We are now working on the final edits and the book cover for the 2 sides anthology- a superb collection of adult fairy tales so some more information about this coming soon

For the ghost and horror writers- the edits for these will be soon- and we want some ghoulish ideas for launches...

Children's advent is the baby and the authors are getting to know one another...

The 12 days of Christmas- we will be looking at these submissions very soon and letting the successful writers know...

A busy but wonderfully exciting time!

That's all for now folks!

Debz :)

Welcome!

2009-07-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

We have Blogs for our previous titles but with our growing catalogue we now have a general one and we encourage you to post your messages and if you want to say hi to any of the authors this is the place- coming soon I will give all the authors space on this site for photos and blurb...

Debz :)