A shout-out on Huffington Post - all is right with the world

We're not ones to name-drop.
Oh, who are we trying to kid. Course we are.
A Google alert pinged into our inbox last night to tell us that we'd had a mention on none other than the Huffington Post.
The shout-out came courtesy of children's author Hilary Robinson, who we're delighted to confirm will be joining us at Manx Litfest in September.
If you have a look on her website, you'll see that not only is Hilary a prolific author, she's also a broadcaster, radio producer and feature writer. She's also a patron of the Children's University, which earlier this year opened a branch on the Isle of Man, and in addition to her events within Litfest, we're in talks to arrange an event with IOMCU.
Anyway, Hilary has put together a fine article for the Huffington Post - top tips for writing and selling your book - and gives us a most welcome name drop at the end of the piece, which left us blushing a little.
We'll have details of Hilary's events in due course.

Jasper Fforde kicks off the new Manx Litfest Reading Club!

What's that you say?A reading club? Featuring authors appearing at Manx Litfest? Why. yes!

And below is a press release we've just issued on the very subject - but please note, while it's aimed at IOM media, all you followers and fans who aren't based in the Isle of Man are more than welcome to join in the fun:

Manx Litfest is launching a reading club to promote authors who will attend this year’s inaugural festival in September.

Starting in April, the club will focus on one author each month with the aim of encouraging as many people as possible to read a book by that particular writer.

It will be a ‘virtual’ group – there will be no meetings, but everyone is encouraged to get involved with discussions about the author on Manx Litfest’s blog, Facebook page and on Twitter, and it’s hoped that existing book clubs will want to get involved by reading and discussing the authors as part of their normal programme.

Festival Director John Quirk explained: ‘There are lots of book clubs around the Island. Some are organised by libraries or as part of a larger organisations, such as the WI, and some are just groups of friends who happen to be mad about books and who meet at each other’s houses – or in their local pub, as is often the case!

‘The Manx Litfest reading club will act as a complement to these already existing clubs. We don’t want to replace any groups or draw members away from their clubs, but if they want to read our Litfest authors too, they can join in. Or, as one or two groups have already indicated, they are tweaking their reading list to incorporate our monthly choices.

‘And it’s not a set book each month – you can read any title by the author we’re focusing on, with the goal of discussing their writing in general, not just one particular book. Ultimately, we just want to encourage reading and ensure that when our authors arrive for Manx Litfest, there is an appreciative, well-read audience in place.’

The first author to go under the microscope is Jasper Fforde, author of the Thursday Next series and Nursery Crime series, as well as the young adult book, The Last Dragonslayer, and its sequel, The Song of the Quarkbeast.

‘People keep asking me what genre Jasper writes in, or how I would classify his writing,’ said John. ‘And to be honest, I still don’t know what the best reply is. The Thursday Next series is a mix of humour, fantasy, alternate history and sees Thursday, a “literary detective” based in Swindon, investigating crime in a world where the line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly thin, with characters able to jump in and out of books.

‘For my part, I’m currently reading The Big Over Easy, the first of the Nursery Crime novels. It’s based in the same alternate world as Thursday Next and features Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his sidekick Mary Mary investigating the grizzly demise of a certain Humpty Dumpty. Jasper is an ingenious writer – these books might sound like they are aimed at children, but they are bona fide crime novels, albeit not what you’d normally expect from a crime novel.’

The author focus during May will be on acclaimed crime writer RJ Ellory, author of A Quiet Belief in Angels, The Saints of New York, Candlemoth and A Simple Act of Violence, which was named the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year at the 2010 Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, beating Ian Rankin, Peter James and Mark Billingham.

Manx Litfest will run from Thursday, September 27 to Sunday, September 30 this year. It will feature visiting authors and poets alongside Isle of Man-based writers in a colourful celebration of storytelling.

Among the other names appearing at the festival are Martin Bell MBE, former BBC war correspondent and one-time MP for Tatton, along with Ann Cleeves, Chris Ewan, Jeremy Strong, Elizabeth Buchan, Neil Ansell, Thommie Gillow, Michael Curtis, Tom Palmer and Hilary Robinson.

The main Litfest hub will be the Villa Marina and Gaiety Theatre complex, with other events held at venues around the Island, including Castle Rushen, Erin Arts Centre and the Manx Museum.                                                                                                                                              Manx Litfest is being supported by the Manx Heritage Foundation and the Isle of Man Arts Council, and is grateful to the support of a host of companies and individuals, including Isle of Man Advertising & PR, Appleby Isle of Man, Words & Spaces, Assist Consultancy, Signrite and local artist Ali Crellin.

Book fans can find out more about the festival plans by visiting www.manxlitfest.com and by following on Twitter (www.twitter.com/manxlitfest) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/manxlitfest).

A quick word about Sir Hall Caine...

One of the key reasons for staging Manx Litfest is to provide a platform for 'Manx' writers (and by that we mean Manx-born or Isle of Man-based), both past and present.

Arguably the most famous Manx writer - although he was actually born in Runcorn, Cheshire - was Sir Hall Caine, who in his pomp during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was one of the biggest-selling authors around, and that includes Dickens, Stoker (a great friend of Caine, who dedicated Dracula to him) and Hardy. Caine was a member of the Manx Government for a time, had an airport in the Island named after him, and Alfred Hitchcock's final silent film, The Manxman, was based on one of Caine's novels.It's strange then, that today Caine is largely unknown outside of the Island, most of his books out of print or difficult to source.

If there's one place in the Isle of Man with which Caine is synonymous, it's Greeba Castle, which Caine bought in 1896 and fixed up, living there until his death in 1931.We'll be featuring Caine, and a host of other Isle of Man writers, on our website in the run up to the festival, so we won't go into too much background about him here.

What we can reveal is that, working with Caine's great granddaughter who still owns Greeba Castle (picture courtesy of Peter Killey at manxscenes.com), we're looking to use the castle during Manx Litfest as a venue for a talk (hopefully two...) on Caine. These will be limited ticket events (it might have the word 'castle' in its name, but there are no huge rooms to seat hundreds) so keep an eye out on our website, on this blog, on Facebook and in the media for announcements about when dates and times are firmed up and tickets go on sale.

Thanks for reading.

Funding boost from Manx Heritage Foundation

We've been away from the blog for a little while, frantically working our fingers to the bone behind the scenes, sending emails, making phone calls, biting nails and brewing cuppas.

One major snippet of recent news we've neglected to post about is our first piece in the funding jigsaw falling into place for this September's inaugural festival. It comes courtesy of the Manx Heritage Foundation, which has very kindly awarded us a £5,000 grant. The Foundation looks to support and promote all aspects of Manx culture on the Island and does a fine job.


Here's a link to a piece about the grant on the BBC site. There's still a long way to go, but we're expecting further funding news over the next few weeks from various trusts we've applied to - fingers crossed.

Although the blog has been a touch quiet these last couple of months, you'll see quite a change over the coming weeks, as different aspects of the festival start to come together, including the schedule for the weekend.

Back soon...

Calling all Tolkien fans...

As any serious fan of JRR Tolkien will know, next year marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit - not to mention that the end of the year will see the release of the first part of The Hobbit movie.

So what would any self-respecting litfest do to celebrate such an occasion? Why, sign up a respected Tolkien scholar, of course.

So we're just a little bit delighted to announce that Colin Duriez, Tolkien biographer and walking Middle Earth encyclopedia, has agreed to attend our inaugural litfest in September next year. Colin has a new biography of Tolkien out late next year (yes, fingers are crossed that it will be available in time for the litfest) and this follows previous books The Tolkien Handbook and Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings - A Guide to Middle Earth.

Colin also serves as conference director for Festival in the Shire, a celebration of all things Tolkien held each year at Pafiliwn Bont in Wales, and was one of the commentators used by Peter Jackson for the extended DVD versions of his Lord of the Rings movies.

What's more, Colin's expertise doesn't just run as far as Tolkien - he's also written several books about Narnia creator CS Lewis, including a book charting Lewis and Tolkien's close friendship. And for fans of Hogwarts, he's also the author of The Unauthorised Harry Potter Companion.

So, welcome onboard, Colin - we're looking forward to welcoming you to the Isle of Man next September. Oh, and please try to think on and bring some fine weather with you...

The publicity bubble

Publicity generated by the media - including all this social media of blogs, Facebook and Twitter etc - can be somewhat misleading. When you're organising an event, large or small, you do what you can to get the word out there; it appears in the newspapers and on the radio, you tweet and facebook about it. People follow you, or like you, and support what you're doing by making comments and, hopefully, spreading the word.

News about Manx Litfest has, over the last year or so, appeared in the Manx Independent and Courier a few times, been in Manx Tails a couple of times, the BBC Isle of Man website, featured on Manx Radio on more than just a few occasions; we've built up 218 or so followers on Facebook, and 330-odd on Twitter. We've been out and met with a few book groups, touched base with organisations such as the WI, spoken with various sponsors and venues, including Manx National Heritage re all its various sites. And we've been spreading the news by word-of-mouth with just about everyone we meet.

And when you talk on Facebook and Twitter to followers, within the bubble of publicity we've created, it's easy to think that everyone knows what we're up to. Let's face it - you'd think that, on an island of, what, 90,000 people (give or take), it wouldn't be too hard for word to spread like the proverbial wildfire.

But it ain't that easy.  Sure, there's plenty of folk who know what we're trying to achieve. But when I'm out and about meeting people, I mention Manx Litfest and more times than I'd like the response is a blank expression, a shake of the head, and the words: 'Nope. Don't know anything about it...'

It can be rather disheartening. It's clear there's still a stack-load of publicity to still to do. There are parts of the Isle of Man we need to reach - and not forgetting further afield around the British Isles. Clearly, a literary festival isn't for everyone. There are people, so rumour has it, who don't read books. I know. I can't believe it either. But there are many who do. And we want to reach them.

So, a plea to everyone reading this - if you could, tell just one person, each day, and help spread the word. If you're part of a group - be it sports, arts, a charity, a social club - tell those involved. In the next few weeks, you'll start to see posters and flyers about Manx Litfest appearing in book stores and libraries etc. If you see a flyer, take one - if you already have one, pick up another and pass it to someone you know who loves books. If you have somewhere in your office/shop/club where you could put up a poster or two, drop us an email - manxlitfest(at)gmail.com and we'll pop a few posters in the post to you. Same thing if you have somewhere to store a stack of flyers.

It's all about reaching the readers. There are plenty of you out there. So let's hook up.

Cheers
JohnQ

Behind the scenes...

We're on countdown. Less than twelve months to go now, until the first ever Manx Litfest rocks into town. Behind the scenes, things are moving pretty fast. In fact, about just as fast as the days and weeks are scarily slipping by.

We are tantalisingly close to announcing several items of big news, including details of venue, the first authors who have signed up and an idea of a few of the events, including how we foresee the festival 'hub' taking shape.

All that, and more, will be announced over the next month or so. Believe me - we're desperate to get news out there to the blog/facebook/twitter fans and followers who have been supporting our efforts thus far. So just a little more patience and you will be richly rewarded, in a literary wellbeing kind of way.

On a day-to-day basis, work continues on developing the website - thanks to the support of the guys at Isle of Man Advertising & PR - and in incorporating Manx Litfest as a charitable organisation, courtesy of the team at Appleby Isle of Man.

Aside from that, we're laptop-deep writing letters and reports and filling in application forms for support from a variety of trusts and foundations, and preparing press releases and liasing with media - both on-Island and around the UK - to publicise the festival over the coming months. And meetings. Gazillions of meetings.

It's pretty intense - so, if we do seem a little quiet and distant at times, like a teenage sweetheart just before they dumped you, don't worry. We're still here. And we won't dump you. Providing you promise to come to events, of course, and buy a Manx Litfest mug/T-shirt/pen (or hip flask - I'm really pushing for a hip flask...)

Right. That's all for now, folks.

Happy reading.

Cheers
John Q

A new logo - courtesy of the talented Alison Crellin

Those of you with Action Man eagle eyes will no doubt have spotted something slightly different about our Twitter and Facebook profiles these last couple of days.

If you haven't noticed anything, can I suggest you get yourself down to Toymaster pretty sharpish and get one of those flicky switches installed in the back of your head.

What are we rattling on about? Why, the new Manx Litfest logo, of course!

A while back, we asked if any IOM-based designers/artists fancied devising a logo or two and submitting them to us, with the plan being we'd choose our favourite to be used in the run-up to next year's festival. Many logos from several designers/artists pinged their way into our inbox and it was a tough choice.

Ultimately, we liked what Ali had done and went back to her with a couple of suggestions - and, hey presto, she dazzled us again with more options. The Manx Litfest team unanimously fell for the one above/right and it will be used to brand literature, the forthcoming website and our social media presence.

It will also form the basis of a range of merchandise - we can't wait to see the logo emblazoned across a T-shirt or adorning a mug etc...

So, our eternal thanks to Ali. She is indeed a woman of many talents - and a busy one at that; an artist, she also teaches an evening class in photography at IOM College, is a part-time library assistant at Henry Bloom Noble Library in Douglas and works full-time at Waterstones.

You can find out more about her on twitter by following @agc_art or by visiting her on Tumblr

 Thanks again, Ali!

A little advice on ordering books, the need for writers to socialise and top tips on how not to get right up authors' noses

Some of the most useful advice, ideas and general background skeet on existing festivals that we've received has come direct from authors.

Last week we had the chance to pick the brains of an author (who is hoping to have a free slot in his diary to attend the first Manx Litfest) and one of the most interesting - and potentially challenging - points he raised related to the supply of books for signing at events by writers.

Whichever bookstore is involved in supplying the books for a particular event (and ensuring an even spread among the bookstores is going to be a challenge all in itself) has to take a bit a shot in the dark when predicting how many books to order. The issue for smaller bookshops (or any bookshop, for that matter) is that they don't want to a) be left with stock after the event that they may not be able to shift or b) have to pay for shipping unsold stock back to UK, the cost of which will likely put a major hole in any profit they may have made on the night. This is something we need to discuss with bookstores in the coming weeks and months. 

The isssue of paying authors to attend also came up - but that is something we're keen to do anyway, as we've mentioned before.

There were some additions to our 'list of things that could potentially piss off an author'. They tend to be fairly obvious points - such as running out of books to sign/sell - and generally revolve around making sure they are looked after reasonably well. Why is this so important? Pretty obvious - apart from the fact that we're nice people and we want to show authors a good time anyway, the bottom line is that we're looking to build a strong reputation on the litfest calendar. If we treat authors poorly, word will undoubtedly get around. It's that simple.

Geography was another issue ro raise its head - as in the locations to be used, and the benefits/drawbacks of having events spread around, or most of them taking place within a central hub. This is a crucial factor and one that we're giving much thought to at the moment. Some difficult decisions like ahead, that's for sure.

There was one final point made - authors like to socialise, and there is usually a central bar/pub where they hang out with each other and mingle/drink with fans. I think it's best if I offer to research this element myself.

Cheers
JohnQ

Counting down...

By early next week, we should have announced the dates for the first Manx Litfest in 2012. It's been a slow, drawn-out process making the decision. There have been so many factors to consider, some of which we'd anticipated, others that arose during the much banging-of-heads-on-desk that was done.

There were the various existing Isle of Man events to consider (ie avoid), the already-chock-full calendar of literary festivals around the British Isles to take into account, other major international festivals taking place further afield, school holidays... the list was long.

You'll hear about the dates in the media, read about it here, and see it on Facebook and Twitter (assuming you follow us. If you don't, then head over to those links and get on with it. We'll wait. Right, can we continue?)

We're pretty happy with the dates. Yes, that's tempting fate. But right now, fate wouldn't dare stick her nose in. It's been that kind of process, she's likely to get her nose broken. The weekend in question is, as far as we can tell, free of any kind of reasonably sized event in the Island. And while it will clash with a few festivals around the British Isles, that was always going to happen, and the time we've picked is one of the quietest on the festival circuit. So hopefully we're on to a winner.

Now we've fixed on the date, we can start approaching authors to gauge a) their availability and b) their interest. As and when we have names to announce, you can be sure we'll be doing so, complete with a little jig.

Much of the organising so far for Manx Litfest has been behind-the-scenes kind of stuff, laying the groundwork. But we can feel the pace starting to pick up, and that will certainly happen once the dates are announced and everyone has a goal to work towards.

Okay, I've said enough for now. Tune in tomorrow, when we'll be back with a few words about some of the pitfalls we're expecting to encounter...

Cheers
JohnQ

Manx Litfest 2012 - dates to be confirmed soon

In our last post, we mentioned a little matter of announcing the dates for the first ever Manx Litfest. Well, we're close now - but not quite there yet.

What we can say is that we've narrowed it down to September 2012, providing the weekends we are looking at during that month can accommodate us. We're fairly confident though, and would hope to be able to confirm the dates within the next couple of weeks following a meeting with the Isle of Man Arts Council.

You should also hear some news about the winner of our logo comp, which we're again aiming to firm up during the next few weeks.

In other news, our legal supporter Appleby Isle of Man is drawing up the relevant paperwork to officially register Manx Litfest as a company with charitable status, and that should come to fruition within the next couple of months.

Finally in this quick update - if you're not following us on Facebook or Twitter, please feel free to do so and help spread the word about what we're trying to achieve.

More news coming soon...

Cheers
JohnQ

Appleby Isle of Man joins the Litfest crew as legal advisers

Great news, Manx Litfest fans - we can officially announce that law firm Appleby Isle of Man is on board as legal support/advisers.


One of the most challenging aspects of getting a festival up and running is the legal issues - setting ourselves up as a limited company with charitable status. There's the memorandum of association, articles of association, dealings with the Attorney General's office, registration with the Companies Registry - I don't know about you, but I was lost at 'memorandum'...


We are, therefore, delighted to announce that Appleby Isle of Man has agreed to offer us advice and support over the coming months to help put the litfest on a firm footing. 

Who are Appleby? With offices in key offshore jurisdictions of the Isle of Man, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey, Mauritius and the Seychelles, it's the leading provider of offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services. That's who. They've also got offices in London, Hong Kong and Zurich, so as you can imagine, it feels good to have such a big name player on our team.

With initial funding in place from the Isle of Man Arts Council, and now Appleby on board as our first sponsor, it feels like things are starting to take shape.


We've got more news bubbling away, but can't reveal just yet. What's that? You want a teaser? Oh, okay. The dates for the first Manx Litfest in 2012. How do you like those apples?

Watch this space...

On the hunt for IOM-based reading groups

Without wanting to state the bleeding obvious, the Isle of Man's reading groups (who who knows, maybe even further afield) will be a key market for Manx Litfest.

They are out there. We know they exist. We've spoken to one or two, but there are a whole gaggle of reading groups of whom we're not aware. Over the next month or so, we're looking to put that right. As part of the drive to get the Manx Litfest name out there, we want to make contact with groups and, hopefully, go along and meet them.

This will give serve two main purposes - it will give us the chance to let the groups know about the festival and what it entails; and, second, it will give the groups the opportunity to tell us what, and who, they'd like to see at the festival.

So, if you're a member of a reading group, get in touch and let's get talking. If you know of a group, either pass on their details to us, or tell them to get in touch with us at manxlitfest(at)gmail.com

Cheers for listening, folks.
JohnQ