Who Owns A Book?

Yesterday’s signing – and the conversation that followed in both staffroom and pub – has made me ask myself a question.

Who really owns a book?

It it's written by the Author, represented by the Agent, bought by the Publisher, polished by the Editor - and then Printed (one way or another), promoted by the Publicist, reviewed by the Bloggers, featured in the Press, sold by the Bookstore, bought by the Public and promoted all over again… breathe, dammit... whose is it, really? What if you add digital publishing and certain online retailers to this cycle and it becomes more complex still? (Or less, depending upon which side of the till you’re standing. Charlie Stross put this one better than I ever could).

And that's not forgetting the self-published authors; the cover artists, and blurb-writers, the fan-bases and bloody, bloody Facebook… everything folds in together and the list goes ever on.

Eventually, with fortune and planning, the whole thing comes full circle – and the Author comes in to talk to the Public. As a friend of mine used to say, 'Everybody wins'.

But does that answer the question?

The face of publishing is changing. We’ve glimpsed it in the darkness – where new hopefuls or talented artisan writers are treated like monkeys, given peanuts for selling soul and talent to organ-grinders who want only profit… and the backlash has been substantial. I'm sure we all remember a certain gentleman in Frey Flannel.

I’m always reassured that the moment one faction steps in and demands sole ownership, the fight rises to topple their monopoly.

Watching Joe talking about and reading from ‘The Heroes’ yesterday – watching the responses of and questions from his fans – has made me realise something. Not about fighting (though we talked about that too) but about the real owners of a book.

Who owns a book? The characters. That's where the passion is; if the cycles turns properly, then they live in the hearts of minds of everyone, Author to Public, all the way round. (It's when they don’t that it seems to go tits up). To coin a popular phrase – it's character driven, the whole damn thing.

And that's how it should be.

Witness: -

With thanks to Joe, his Heroes, Gollancz - and the team at FP Bristol.

'No, You're The Rock Star' - FP's Ten-Author Signing

It started with a call.

When I asked David Devereux to come in and sign ‘Eagle Rising’ at Forbidden Planet, he muttered something innocuous about bringing in one or two of his mates. It sounded harmless enough.

But it snowballed.

The Magnificent Seven became eight, became nine, became ten. Thundering forwards with a strong belief that this was absolutely the Right Way To Go, we set light to the rulebook and we threw it away.

On Thursday evening, Forbidden Planet played host to: -

• Joe Abercrombie
• Alex Bell
• Mark Chadbourn
• David Devereux
• Jaine Fenn
• Jon Courtenay Grimwood
• Tom Lloyd
• Suzanne McLeod
• James Swallow

Sadly, we were down a man as Steven Savile got snarled up with a snowy airport and chairs designed by the Marquis de Sade – but the format (or lack of it) remained.

No barriers, no queues. No formal signing tables. With bowls of Pringles on stand-by and titles available by all the authors present, we let readers, writers, fans and journos mix it up, free-style. This wasn’t only about meeting your favourite author – this was about discovering new ones, about meeting new people, about opening your bookshelf and mind to a host of new concepts.

Jon Courtenay Grimwood described it as a ‘miniCon in a bookstore’ – a phrase David of GeekSyndicate picked up as his podcast tagline. (I think he got enough interviews to keep him busy for days!). Also in attendance was the irrepressible @loudmouthman – even wifi-less, he was uploading some kick-arse footage and promises edited highlights soon.

Not to be outdone, the wonderful Robert Rankin – a week after his own signing (though not demanding rayguns this time) – dropped in to hang out. He refused a name-badge, just wanted to join the fun.

This event was a total boundary-breaker – it’s been tried before, but never on this scale and never at Forbidden Planet London. With a guest list to rival any UK SF Convention, it’s generated huge amount of energy, enthusiasm and talk about the future. Many happy customers, happy authors, happy publishers and happy FP – as we all kept saying, ‘everybody wins’.

More pictures will be found on my Flickr page.

Lastly, a big list of ‘thank yous’ – to the much-undersung staff at the FP Megastore (who kick arse), to Jon and Gillian at Gollancz for their help and support, to all the authors who came in, and to the man who kicked the snowball off the top of the mountain, Mister David Devereux, Rock Star.