The Deixis Press Weekly - Issue #23

Sep 23, 2021

This newsletter covers about two weeks, and it is going to be a mess. I’m writing this intro before I write anything else, but I already know this to be true.

Monday, 13 September - Friday, 24 September

Normally what I do is try to make a little note of whatever thing I’ve been up to in the day, either here or on a notes app or a scrap of paper or something, so that I can keep track of what I’ve been up to. I also think I’ve mentioned that I like using Notion, which has little task cards on a to-do list that I can drag and drop over to “Done” when they’re, you know, done.

In the old days, before digital stuff made life easier, my working method was this: a notebook and a bunch of highlighters–most importantly, a BLUE highlighter. BLUE meant done. The notebook always got marked up to hell and back; if the whole page was BLUE that whole page was finished. But I could also look back and see what those blue things were.

These past two weeks have been so insanely, sickeningly busy that I’ve got no clue, none. I know these things:

SOME RISE BY SIN is out, as of 15 September! It’s ready for YOU to buy right now, because you haven’t done that yet, have you?

If you’re international you can order it at your favorite bookshop or buy from Amazon (I can tell you for free that the Kindle book nets both me and the author the most return, but I respect the fact that you love the way real books smell or whatever, so I fully support your decision to buy in whatever format you like).

If you’re in the UK, you can buy a hardback copy from me directly. Hell, you can do that internationally if you REALLY want, but I can also tell you for free that you won’t like the associated postage costs.

15 September was my birthday, by the way, so think of your copy as Some Rise By Sin as a present to both me and you.

IF YOU PREORDERED SOME RISE BY SIN (ESPECIALLY FROM WATERSTONES) BUT HAVE NOT NOT RECEIVED IT YET: please please please:

let me know, and
tell the place you preordered it from and make them sort it out.

I cannot express in words, screams, or murderous interpretive dance how cross I am about ^^^ THIS WHOLE THING.

DONT TUCH ME. ME ANGY.

I had a coffee with a publisher I know a little bit to discuss specifically how to improve my approach to distribution to avoid problems like the above.

I think the balancing act between the cost of print runs versus the safety of POD is still the main point. The problem with POD is that I remain at the mercy of people who don’t seem to see POD as something that real publishers do, though they very much do do it, and everyone should stop pretending that they don’t.

But he also gave me some great ideas for generating revenue that I hadn’t even considered, like selling licensing rights for things like audiobooks rather than trying to produce them myself. There are always downsides to every choice like that that I might make, but sometimes the choice might be “remain afloat” or “go bankrupt”; I would often prefer the former.

I’ve sorted out the launch party for the press and the first two books, which I have done all together as one big event, not least because that is the cheapest option.

My guest list started with people closest to the authors and those who were directly involved with the books, then expanded outward to include some industry folks etc. If you believe you should have been invited, you definitely should have. And if you’re London or London-adjacent and you’d like to come along (it’s a great chance to get any books signed), please let me know and I’ll put you on the list (there is currently some room).

I have thoroughly researched prizes, which is a good thing because it looks like I’m already on the wire for some stuff I’d like to apply to for my 2022 books.

For example, if I wanted to enter SOME RISE BY SIN, which has been out since 15 September, for the 2021 Booker prize (which covers all books that are published through the end of this month), I would have had to have my entry form to them by the beginning of April this year, and the completed book to them by June. Given I had only just launched my press at the beginning of April, obviously none of that happened.

Fortunately, not every prize has such stupidly early deadlines for application forms and completed manuscripts, so I have been able to get several applications in, with more to do by the end of this week.

I’ve been in touch with a few sci-fi authors–with exactly zero success–to ask if they would like to read Adam Saint’s upcoming technothriller.

The zero success part makes me super sad. Do you know a sci-fi author who enjoys supporting other authors? If so, show them this blurb and ask them if they’d be interested in having a look and maybe providing a cover quote.

The Transfer Problem is a technothriller following Ethan, an introverted banker with a traumatic past, who falls in love with Anna, an enigmatic scientist with whom he shares an academic interest in the philosophy of existence and consciousness. But with the reappearance of Ethan’s rogue brother Robert—a hacker who is forbidden from using technology—the hypothetical turns all too real: Robert convinces Ethan to let Anna transfer a conscious mind into Ethan’s trading algorithms.
But when Anna’s experiment goes well—too well, in fact, with world-altering consequences—Ethan finds himself on the run, searching for answers to Anna’s mysterious past and looking desperately for a way to give humanity its future back,
The Transfer Problem asks what it means to exist, to be real, and to be human, but it also asks an even bigger question: how far would you go to avenge yourself?

I’ve done a bucketload of freelance work over the last couple of weeks, and I have a bucketload more to do.

This is really positive (and relevant to note) because it funds the press, even though it isn’t that interesting to read about. I do things like manuscript assessments/structural editorial work and proofreading, and I’m much more thorough with my professional proofreading work than I am with writing/proofreading my newsletters, dno’‘t wrorry.

None of that is enough, obviously, so I’ve also liaised with a bunch of damp-proofers, flooring folks, kitchen people, garden landscapers, and plumbers, and spent a night in the hospital with my son.

Because no new publishing venture would be complete without also overseeing a property renovation and caring for a poorly child. (It’s this weird thing he occasionally gets where he doesn’t usually need an inhaler, but then sometimes if he has a little cold, it turns into a huge wheeze (in the bad sense) where he can’t breathe and his inhaler can’t help. He’s out now and seems ok.)

I’m sure the moment I press send I’ll think of a trillion other things I got up to over the past two weeks. It’s been great seeing attention for Siôn’s book popping up here and there:

All of the above was made possible by Hannah, my amazing publicist, whose work I deeply appreciate. There MAY be something SRBS-related in a big outlet at the weekend (keep your fingers crossed for Sunday), and we’ve found out today that The Workshop of Filthy Creation will be getting some good attention in October as well. I couldn’t have done any of that without Hannah.

That’s enough for the moment; I will now wish you an (early) happy weekend.

Yours,

Angel

The Deixis Press Occasionally

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