Depends a bit how you define changing the world, I would say - attitudes, mindsets, manners, unquestionably yes. Government policy, I'd say was harder to prove (Lady Chatterley, I grant you. Pity it's not a better book, but I know that's not the point).

I'm usually arguing for arguments sake, in the sense that I put it before: make a hypothesis at me, and I can't help testing it against the evidence. When I was growing up there were only three real crimes in my family:

1) Being unkind (a crime regularly committed nonetheless by me and my sisters)

2) Not arguing logically

3) Not admitting it when someone else had proved their point

As we had no TV, and no friends who lived less than a bus ride away, there was plenty of time for arguing in every sense of the word. And as a diplomat, one of my father's main skills was never to lose an argument, so we learnt that at his knee the way other children learn cookery or car maintenance. Every now and then my mother tried to add not being dressed for lunch to the crime-sheet, but we treated that with the scorn it deserved.

Emma


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And no, I don't think market forces should govern our cultural lives either.

Just off to the Purcell Room on a heavily-subsidised bus to hear an Arts Council-sponsored talk by three writers all of whom have had been helped by grants and subsidised publishing in their time...

I have a friend like that, for whom the argument is the supreme form, to be enjoyed like a game but, just like with any good game, to be played seriously. It always makes for an interesting evening. I've always admired that rigour, and the fairness in acknowledging an opponent's point won.

Bit of a blunt instrument though, posting.

When you say dressed for lunch do you mean properly dressed for lunch? Because I'm getting a slightly startling image of the Darwin household lunchtable right now...

Pete

No, I only mean day clothes not pyjamas, don't worry

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And yes, posting is a bit of a blunt instrument - plus you can't make someone acknowledge your point if they don't want to. It's the equivalent of them walking out of the room because they know they've lost the argument, instead of admitting it. That was crime number 3, clause 2. :)

Wait just one second, so am I right in thinking all this means that people are supposed to get dressed to eat.

Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick with that Burroughs book, Naked Lunch...and it probably explains the uncomfortable silence at that dinner party the other night.

Every book is, in an intimate sense, a circular letter to the friends of him who writes it. They alone take his meaning; they find private messages, assurances of love, and expressions of gratitude dropped for them in every corner. The public is but a generous patron who defrays the postage.

-part of the dedication from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Ah, the day of the gentleman author.

Ah, the day of the gentleman author.

...and the incurable consumptive drowning in his own blood.

Emma

Hey come on, we've got way nastier incurable diseases these days... and anyway TB is back on our doorstep.

Yes, it is, and quite often antibiotic resistant at that.

Dying of TB is incredibly nasty, though; it's interesting to watch the Victorians sanitising it in prose and pictures. Maybe it's because I'm very claustrophobic (both my sisters are asthmatic) but I've always been more horrified by deaths to do with not being able to breath than anything.

Vita Sackville-West's novel Family History ends with a fascinatingly honest account of a woman dying of pneumonia, in the 1920s, just before penicillin. Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich is another one - unflinching and extraordinary.

Emma

Anyhow, sorry to drag us back to the little matter of self-publishing, but wanted to draw people's attention to latest interview with Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, who self-published their first book as co-authors, with huge success- might be of interest, here

Yes, sorry, we all got a bit diverted. It's a good interview.

Emma

Sorry for off topic-ness

For my satirical novel 'ANTHONY BLAIR CAPTAIN OF SCHOOL' I opted to publish myself because I wanted to keep control of design and illustration, and I didn't want to wait 18 months. It cost me quite a lot of money to do a hardback with illustrations and I'm not yet in the black because I decided to keep the price as low as possible. But I've sold several thousand copies through the mainstream book trade since October 2005, as well as through my Black Pig Books website, and it's been great fun. I used the services of AMOLIBROS (www.amolibros.com), a consultancy run by JANE TATAM whose flexible formula for authors includes the services of a proper distributor. She also did the typesetting and advised me on the production. I did most of the marketing and bookshop visiting myself. It's time-consuming work promoting a book, and I'm now sniffing around for a publisher to do a paperback edition so I can go back to writing.

Hi all

My manuscript has been selected for a National Publishing Inititative (Singapore's). It's a cross between a children's picture book and an adult's read - like Shel Silverstein's.

Ideally I would love the book to have a market base beyond Singapore's shores, but I have onlt till Sept to publish the book.

Realistically speaking should I self-publish or can I still find and agent or publisher in time?

If the answer to the latter is yes, would it be more efficient to get an agent or publisher direct? Any leads on which agents or presses?

If answer is no, can anyone advise me on options of offshore printing (seeing that almost all books are now printed in China), shipping and warehousing, as well as distribution methods and channels in the States and UK?

I mean, if I printed the book in Singapore, and get an ISBN no. for it, are American and British bookstores and also web-based sellers willing to take on a non-local self-published first-time writer/ illustrator?

Do I absolutely have to publish it in the countries I want to market it? Do I do this by launching the book in US/ UK or can I do this after launching in Singapore, presuming the sales isn't THAT fantastic? Or can I try to sell the books to distributors before it is printed in Singapore, using its reputation as having been accepted and polished by the nation's Media Development Authority as selling point?

Does anyone have contacts or information on marketing and distributing the book in US/ UK myself and on such service providers, since I am not local and lack both the local expertise and general publishing expertise? Are there companies who handle distribution and marketing?

Does distributing in US/ UK mean I have to get a new US/ UK ISBN number?

The book has a twisted ending, not an entirely happy one like in most children's stories. Itz a tad Shel Silverstein/ Tim Burton like. Going by this vague description, is this more suited for UK or US market? Oh, and it rhymes ...

I have read bad reviews about vanity publishing, so I would place this as my last option. Is it true that traditional channels of distribution like bookstores will not touched books from Vanity Publishers?

I am not interested in small scale publishing. I wish my book to be read by as many as possible to get the message across about the abuse Asian elephants suffer. Many may love this majestic animal, cause it even more abuse through touristic activities simply due to lack of knowledge, and even plan to donate a portion of the proceeds to buying an abused elephant off the streets to recover in a good elephant sanctuary. Of course the book is not blantantly outfront in its message. It is a fable, and simply illustrated much like Shel Silverstein's. So I do want my book to do well and am not interested in vanity publishing.

Many thanks to the kind souls replying to my numerous queries!

Best,
JP