Since this is the first site of the week since moving to our new home it seems appropriate to feature a couple of blogs this week. Over the past year or so there has been a spate of publishers waking up and jumping on the blogging bandwagon. These two, however, both come from relatively small independent publishers and stand out from the usual corporate puffery that has tended to be the fare from the big 'uns.
Me and My Big Mouth is by a book industry veteran - Scott Pack, formerly the buying manager of Waterstone's and now the commercial director of the Friday Project, the independent "blook" publishers. The title should give you a clue about Pack's style - no words are minced, no nonsense spared. On launch dates and the bookselling industry, for example, he starts: "the words 'piss up' and 'brewery' spring to mind". Sure, there's some plugging of Friday Project books (and, if it's Tom Reynolds' excellent ambulance worker blook, Blood, Sweat and Tea, then fair dos) and the bumptious tone will not be to everyone's taste but this blog also offers real insight into the bookselling industry from someone who has been at the centre of it. He seems to have twigged the blogging importance of frequent updates, too.
The Snowblog, from indy publisher Snowbooks, who were named Small publisher of the year at the 2006 British Book Awards, is another candid (although less expletive-laden) take on the books world. There's a bit of frippery but also some fresh thinking on publishing processes, regular updates and a healthy dose of scepticism. Like Pack's, it is a blog with a distinct personality, the sense that it is written by real people rather than a corporate cog in a wheel. It would be even better, however, if it allowed a dialogue with its readers by enabling the comments function.
