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Despite appearances, this is not a blog with a ‘fifty shades’ theme. The major source of sauce round here is gravy. But don’t click away just yet.
We have now perfected our new process infographic so you can see at a glance how we get you from submission to publication. Everyone in the Fantastic Books family has had to get through that first crucial stage, so if you want to know how to get a publisher on the hook from the first contact, then you may wish to read on.
International Trust Your Government Week, December 20 – 27
Allegedly promoted by the United Nations to encourage temporary respect for elected officials and bureaucrats alike regardless of party affiliation, election legitimacy, position on global warming, documented legal status, sanity, education, nationality, race, heritage, gender, sexual orientation, criminal record, degree of intelligence or common sense, International Trust Your Government Week (ITYGW), fosters diversity, tolerance and general laissez-faire in the interests of World Peace.
During this week, celebrants are urged to write to their government officials at all levels with the basic message: “We don’t care what the heck you do because we think things will somehow work out okay in the end.”
Of course, they won’t necessarily, but still it can be a fun week as a break from reality if nothing else. Like binge watching House of Cards. No, wait, that’s too close to home... How about Brave New World...? No, wait …
Howdy folks,
Dan here. I thought I'd post a blog to explain what our FantastiCon event is all about and what you can expect if you decide to come and join us for the weekend. Here we go.
ALREADY HYPED FOR THE EVENT? GRAB YOUR TICKETS HERE!
Ok, here's your weekend in a nutshell IF you plan on taking it easy...
What a wonderful weekend break our head honchos Dan and Gabi have just enjoyed at EliteMeet in Bristol. While we toiled in the whirring, clunking underbelly of the FBP Offices, our brave leaders were forced into a car, chauffeured to Bristol by the ever graceful Commander Sam Stanley (he of retro gaming 16-bit Sam fame) and Ben Moss-Woodward, fed the finest foods and press ganged into playing the finest and most enjoyable board, RPG, retro and Virtual Reality games and then, no doubt entirely against their will, given copious amounts of alcohol and sent to bed at one of Bristol's most central and pretty hotels, the Grand.
Obviously as underlings in the cellars we know nothing of 'enjoyment' or 'freedom' but hope that our masters had a good time and they will return soon to continue at the helm of our great endeavour (and possibly top up our water troughs if they get a moment and would be so kind).
EliteMeet is a gathering of folks from one of the friendliest, welcoming and accommodating gaming groups in all the world, that of the Elite: Dangerous fan community.
Is it enough to purchase a book, read it and enjoy it?
On the surface the answer would seem to be yes. However, look at it from this point of view.
There are hundreds of thousands of books published every year, millions in fact. They all sit on the usual sites (Amazon, iBooks, Google Books, the Fantastic Books Store) and folks purchase and read them. When a book is considered to be of low quality, either because of sloppy production or the writing itself, it may receive a negative review which will push it down the list of books and lower its visibility on those sites. After a few days that book will sink away from view and possibly never been seen again.
In contrast, if a book receives a positive review its visibility is bolstered and it shows up a little higher in searches and suchlike.
Great! So all we need to do is find a couple of positive reviews and all is good, yes? Unfortunately not.
It was recently International Women’s Day, always an important day for all of us here at Fantastic Books and for our wonderful free thinking readers. But the day is bittersweet: we celebrate the amazing women in our lives but are confronted with the stories of those women whose astronomical achievements haven’t been currency enough for a ticket to public consciousness.
We’d like to think that this doesn’t happen anymore, that we are raising a generation whose stellar women will not be consigned to the footnotes. But the recent viral video by Rebel Girls, which has taken the internet by the scruff of the neck, is a warning against complacency. It shows a mother and daughter in front of shelves groaning with children’s books. One by one the pair remove books to show the depressingly small number of volumes left which feature girls as vital, aspirational characters. As the video ends, the little girl asks the off screen bookstore owner “Excuse me, I want to go to Mars. Do you have a book for that?”
Watch this space. It’s about to get interesting!