#BookishThoughts-Orion On Tour-Cardiff !

On Thursday, November 12th, whilst scrolling through Twitter in a desperate attempt to avoid doing actual studying, I came across a tweet from Trapeze Books, advertising an ‘Orion On Tour’ event.

People from Orion’s office in London were being dispatched to Wales to discuss books with regional authors, writers, journalists, bloggers ! The deadline was the 13th to RSVP, I dashed off a quick email, not really very hopeful but was thrilled to see there was still room for a little blogger like myself.

November 15th, Octavo Book’s in Cardiff Bay (a wonderful little wine bar/coffee shop/bookshop) was hosting the first part- an open forum to discuss the ins and outs of publishing, and the opportunity to pitch your novel to 4 women who between them covered every issue you could dream of raising.

• How long does it take to get a response to your manuscript?
• Will Orion ever go digital?
• Will you accept/read manuscripts without an agent?
• Why can’t you buy so many books in supermarkets?
• Have you really embraced Wales if you don’t eat a Welsh cake or say ‘Thank you, drive’ as you get off the train?

The answers were varied and interesting-

• It can take months-patience is key and publishing people feel endless guilt at their piles of manuscripts
• Orion is going to be having a digital publishing arm in the near future! How exciting!
• This means that they will accept manuscripts without an agent
• Because the supermarkets judge shelf space on footfall and cost per item and currently they don’t get enough return from books so are gradually shrinking the shelves…BOOO!!!! We came up with some wonderful ideas for market campaigns such as putting them next to tissues, chocolate, prosecco-all your basic go to needs when reading!

Yes, Welsh cakes were eaten and their many varieties discussed including the amazing Welsh cake ice cream..mmmmm..

After having a general round table discussion, those writers with actual ideas to pitch rather than me who was just lurking and soaking in the atmosphere were given the chance to have one to one chats with the Orion crew. This was an invaluable opportunity to discuss the market for regional writers and was made the most of by the attending potential authors-between them I managed to get mini interviews with a memoir writer, 2 romance novelists and a writer hoping to create his own genre of Welsh fiction.

Having already visited Whitchurch High School to discuss the potential for careers in publishing, as well as meeting in Octavo, the Orion team paused for an editorial gin whilst I hot footed across Cardiff to the Old Brewery and Kitchen for Part 2.

Here there was a beautiful display of books, authors , publishing folk , journalists and bloggers-and wine, which was absolutely NOT imbibed on an empty stomach after an early shift and much dashing around. Ahem.

The displays which I have done my best to represent(please excuse my poor photography!)

They covered all the publishing arms of Orion- fiction,  fiction, Seven Dials biography and non fiction, Gollancz Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and Orion books themselves.

It was a wonderful opportunity to get books signed by authors such as Alys Conran or Laura Kemp, network with bloggers such as tomeswithtea and publicists for one of the biggest companies in books. Thank you so much for the opportunity to attend, it was wonderful to meet such passionate, enthusiastic book people and I would love it if any readers could go and follow these amazing Twitter feeds because I had a sneak peek at next year’s books and they are phenomenal…

A slightly drunken stumble to the train station, getting jammed in the train doors, an overly loud ‘Thank you drive!’ to thin air and half and half on the way home…what more could you want from a wonderful evening?!