That's Amaz(on)ing!

We've just noticed that all ten Tonto Press books have five star ratings on Amazon.co.uk. Not bad going by any publisher's standards, if unregulated reader reviews mean anything at all - and of course they most certainly do.


So if you're an Amazon 'System Addict' and 'Can't Wait Another Minute' why not 'Find The Time' to have a look 'Whenever You're Ready', 'Rain Or Shine'? [That's enough Five Star-related puns for today, thank you very much.]

Paul
[Five Star were an inoffensively-rubbish mid-80s brothers-and-sisters pop-soul combo. Watch their infamous Going Live TV appearance on YouTube.]

Local books for local people?

One of the problems we've encountered in running a publishing company from Newcastle upon Tyne is that our books are often perceived as being of only 'local interest'. This means that some North East bookshops stock our titles in the Local Interest section rather than alongside their regular stock, even when they are supplied nationally via their head office. It means some national buyers overlook our titles in favour of 'national' books published in London. And it means that we regularly get submissions along the lines of, 'I know you only publish local stuff, but I once had an uncle who lived in Whitley Bay and so I thought you might like this...'


In fact, of the ten titles published to date by Tonto Press, only two are specific to the North East of England (Wor Al and The Burglar's Dog - our two bestsellers, both of which sold well nationally).

Jonny Kennedy lived in North Tyneside and then Northumberland, so he was a 'local' lad, but the book can hardly be considered to have only 'local interest'. The documentary about Jonny, The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, was screened - and won awards - around the world. The Emmy Award judges did not dismiss it for being 'regionally specific to the North East of England'. [It won the Emmy.]

And when The Rocketbelt Caper - a true crime / popular science book that is set in TEXAS - is filed under Local Interest in a Newcastle bookshop you know you have a problem. [It should be added that Local Interest sections are usually a mish-mash of local history and guide books tucked away at the back of the store.] Bookshop staff explain that this is because the author is from the North East. True, but the Harry Potter books are not filed under Local Interest in Edinburgh. [Is Peter Kay filed in Local Interest in Bolton?]

It's a fact that we work with more writers from the North East than elsewhere because we receive more submissions from writers from this area (although we also currently work with writers from as far afield as Los Angeles, Geneva, Ottawa...). We're quite happy for that to continue, after all there is a pressing need for a good publisher in this area to support the very many talented writers up here. But their work deserves to be read outside of the North East.

So what is the answer? Set up a 'virtual office' in London? Affect Home Counties accents on the phone? (This might prevent callers from hearing our Northern twang and behaving like they have accidentally dialled Outer Mongolia: 'Oh, I'm sorry, I'm calling from London...' 'Yeah, we've heard of it - it's where the Queen lives, right?') I suppose the answer is to continue to plug away with our books and hope that eventually their quality will be seen to be more important than the address on the copyright page.

Paul

Jonny Kennedy book released - watch the doc

Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off is released today and available from all good bookshops here in the UK, and from Amazon stores worldwide (United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Germany and Japan.


If you have not yet seen the remarkable documentary that made Jonny a household name, or you would like to see it again, you can now watch The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off at the FourDocs website (just click the yellow 'play' button).

Paul

Jonny Kennedy launch events

Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off as told to Roger Stutter, with foreword by Nell McAndrew, is released on Monday and will be available from all good bookshops (ISBN 9780955218385) including Borders stores and Amazon.


To celebrate the release, the book's author and Jonny's friend Roger Stutter (above) will be appearing at a number of launch events, as will another of Jonny's friends Nell McAndrew, and Jonny's mam Edna:

Tomorrow, Saturday 22 September, from 12 noon
Borders, Silverlink, Newcastle upon Tyne:
Roger Stutter will be signing copies of Jonny Kennedy, talking about Jonny, and the Jonny Kennedy charity.

Thursday 27 September, from 1pm
Asda, Metrocentre, Gateshead:
Roger, Nell McAndrew and Edna Kennedy will be signing copies of Jonny Kennedy, talking about Jonny, and the charity.

Saturday 29 September, from 12 noon
Borders, Team Valley, Gateshead:
Roger will be signing copies of Jonny Kennedy, talking about Jonny, and the charity.

Further events are planned around the North East and further afield. Watch this space.



Roger and Edna can be heard on BBC Radio Newcastle this Monday 24 September from 1.15pm. You can listen live or listen again for 24 hours afterwards here.

The third part of the Evening Chronicle's extract serialisation will appear tonight. The first two parts can be seen here and here.

Finally, on a completely unrelated note, a mention for Tonto's opening event at the Durham Lit Fest on 29 September courtesy of the excellent Grumpy Old Bookman:
"Further to yesterday's mention of Durham Literary Festival (they've got two Booker Prize winners -- good, eh? Oh, all right then), I saw that the programme is being kicked off by some (mercifully) non-Arts-Council-funded writers from Tonto Press. So all is not entirely lost."

Paul

Geneva reading photos

As promised, here are some photos from More Tonto Short Stories contributor Daniela Norris's very successful reading from the book at English language bookshop Off The Shelf in Geneva on Friday. Daniela will next be appearing at the launch party for the Geneva Times next Friday 28 September.




Just a reminder that Jonny Kennedy continues to be serialised in the Evening Chronicle tonight. If you missed yesterday's extract you can read it and see photos here.

Paul

Press & media round-up

We've updated our website's media page, and here's a round-up of some of the latest coverage.

The Rocketbelt Caper was featured in the Sunday Sun (Murder movie's rocket science), and then reviewed in the same paper on the following week (Rocketbelt quest ends in murder) ('Yet another soaraway success for Tonto Press'). The book was also featured in a double-page Evening Chronicle spread (Invention led to kidnap and murder). I also spoke about the book to Julia Hankin at BBC Radio Newcastle. You can download the interview as an mp3 file here.


The NewsGuardian got reasonably excited about Pete Tanton's Johnny Lonely book signings (American promotes debut novel in borough).

And the Jonny Kennedy book has been mentioned in several articles about Jonny and the Jonny Kennedy North East charity. The Evening Chronicle featured Jonny's brave fight to help fellow sufferers. Both the Sunderland Echo and the Shields Gazette reported on the charity's new shop, and on the support offered by singer Charlotte Reid, pictured below with the book.


Finally, the Chronicle is beginning to serialise extracts from Jonny Kennedy tonight. We'll post more about that over the next few days.

Paul

Geneva reading is sell-out success

Good news from Geneva, and Daniela Norris's reading from More Tonto Short Stories. The Off The Shelf bookshop was full, and the book sold out. 'It was fun and I enjoyed the opportunity you've created for me to join the rank of "real" writers...' says Daniela. 'I love meeting readers and talking to people interested in books and writing, so readings are definitely my thing.' Expect photos from the reading to appear here here soon.


More Tonto Short Stories, featuring Daniela Norris's The Day Of The Dead, is a brand new anthology of fresh short stories by exciting new writers, following the acclaimed original Tonto Short Stories. It's available from all good bookshops, including Geneva's Off The Shelf, and direct from Tonto Press.

Paul

Geneva convention

More Tonto Short Stories contributor Daniela Norris will be reading from the book at English language bookshop Off The Shelf in Geneva tonight, Friday September 14, from 6 to 7.30pm. Swiss newspaper 24Heures has written a feature about Daniela (Short-story writer gives reading), which reports, 'Daniela Norris has a fascinatingly diverse background. Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1971, she has lived and worked in Canada, Israel, Kenya, Angola, Peru and France. The ex-diplomat and former editor currently works as a writer and an adviser to one of the permanent missions to the United Nations in Geneva. In her spare time she writes fiction.' You can find more details and directions at the Off The Shelf website.


Paul

Rocketbelt launch report & pics

Around 50 people squeezed into our makeshift cinema here at Brick Works on Thursday for the launch of The Rocketbelt Caper. It was a very warm night, and ice buckets full of premium Czech lager were much appreciated.


Once everyone had been suitably refreshed we screened a short film about the caper, with interviews and footage of the main protagonists - proof that the story in the book is 100 percent true! Over the remainder of the night the screens played a selection of real rocketbelt footage that had everyone captivated (you can watch a clip below), backed by music including, of course, Elton John's Rocketman (and William Shatner's Rocketman!).


Watch some of the real rocketbelt footage!
Thanks to everyone who came along to show support or buy a book, and further thanks to Jamie and Jo for their help on the night. The Rocketbelt Caper by Paul Brown is available now from all good bookshops, and some rubbish ones.


Paul

How NOT to approach publishers...

A week or so ago Stu posted some advice on how to approach publishers. Now here's how NOT to do it. We don't make a habit of posting submission emails here on the blog, but after our very polite and quite generous (even if I do say so myself) responses, this emailer's nasty reaction was astonishing... The spelling mistakes are the emailer's own, we've 'bleeped out' the swearing, and we've changed the emailer's name. Let's call him "Gary Blair"...


Dear Publisher,

I know there is a snobbery surrounding poetry, some publishers won't
touch a writer
who is unpublished, some won't read submissions, some demand hard
copy, some look
for structure, theme and reasoned arguments. As I am not "in the
scene" I can only
be honest and hope honesty is good enough..
Please find below a selection of works which I submit in word format
(I figure in
the immediate age of the internet, why not get an immediate rejection?)

Many Thanks

Gary Blair

[There follows an entire collection of poetry, not in 'word format' but pasted into the body of the email, so long that our email program is forced to cut it short]


[We reply]

Hi Gary

Apologies for this "immediate rejection", but it has nothing to do with snobbery, rather the fact that we do not publish poetry at all. Without wishing to patronise, it might be useful to check publishers' websites etc to ascertain the type of material they publish before contacting them. This will save you time and reduce the chances of rejection. Unfortunately your current approach is unlikely to yield
any positive results.

Best of luck

Paul
Tonto Press
www.tontopress.com


[A couple of weeks later... Gary sends exactly the same email again]

Dear Publisher,

I know there is a snobbery surrounding poetry...


[We reply]

Hi Gary

We have already responded to this query. We do not publish poetry, therefore please remove us from your mailing list.

Best regards

Paul
Tonto Press


[Just weeks later...]

In A Bar At The Edge Of The World

Please find attached below a ten poem collection, as I do not have the
finances to
send a hard copy, be simply scrolling below this message the work is
contained for
your perusal. I appreciate this may not be the normal way of doing
things but who
knows you might actually like it!

Gary Blair

[Cue another very long pasting of poetry that again exceeds our email program's capabilities]


[We reply again]

Dear Gary

We told you last time you sent us poetry that we aren't interested in it. Try finding out this kind of info before just sending to anyone. Our website would have told you this.

There are publishers who are interested in poetry - try the INP website for poetry publisher in the region.

Best of luck.

Stu
Tonto Press


[Gary replies...]

Sorry for being a t*sser, it won't happen again! Gary


[But it does...]

Please find pasted below a collection of new poetry works entitled "Empty Sky".

I hope you may find the work to be of sufficent merit to justify further
corrispondance.

Yours,

Gary Blair

[Yes, another huge pasting of poems...]


[We reply again]

Gary

We've told you several times to stop bombarding us with your work. We are not interested in it and never will be. Remove us from your list.

Stu
Tonto Press


[Gary replies...]

The reason you end up on my mailing list is when I type UK Poetry
Publishers in a
search engine your company crops up. (By the looks of things you do actually
publish poetry)
Trust me I want nothing to do with you set of smug Geordie tw*ts
either, so let's
agree to mutually despise each other and be done.

GFB


[We reply]

If you want nothing to do with us - stop emailing us.

We don't publish poetry and have no plans to. It's quite simple. If you despise us for that, then that's your own problem. We tried being civilised to you though you clearly have issues.

Best of luck getting published!

Stu
Tonto Press


[Gary replies]


Like I said you end up coming up on poetry publishers in search
engines but I shall
remember in future


[Then Gary sends a postscript]

Oh f*ck off!

[Now what had we done to deserve that?!]


There are lots of things to be learnt from that electronic exchange, all of them blindingly obvious. We fully expect to hear from 'Gary Blair' again, but we hope not to.

Paul


[UPDATE: We DID hear from 'Gary Blair' again]

Please reemove me from your blog site

OK, OK I get the message I'm a tw*t, I know I am but can you remove my name from the blog of how not to approach publishers?

In exchange I give you my word that I will never approach your company ever again.

PS I still hate Geordie's so that won't change but if you want to never ever hear from me again please remove any reference to my name on your blog.

PPS My spell checkl was knackered for several weeks so sorry about the mistakes in my written insults!

Yours

Gary Blair

Jonny on the telly

Friday's North East Tonight on Tyne Tees TV featured Jonny Kennedy author Roger Stutter talking about his friend Jonny and the book. You can watch the piece on the new ITV Local website here.


Paul

Rocketbelt launch lands safely

Thanks to everyone who came along to the launch event for The Rocketbelt Caper. A good turn-out bought books and watched a film about the rocketbelt murder, and, on a very warm night, drank a lot of cold beer. Photos and reports will appear here next week. Special thanks to Jamie for lending his audio visual (and carpentry) skills, and to Jo for manning the book store.

P.S. We are assured that Jonny Kennedy author Roger Stutter's delayed appearance on Tyne Tees Television's North East Tonight will air tonight!

Paul

Rocketbelt Caper media frenzy!

It's the turn of The Rocketbelt Caper to go under the media microscope today, which means I'm readying myself to be grilled by the Evening Chronicle and BBC Radio Newcastle. The Chronicle article will be published on Thursday, and the Radio interview broadcast live today at 1.15. Here's a photo from the book of one of the rocketbelt builders, Larry Stanley, after being attacked with a hammer...


Paul

Jonny Kennedy media frenzy!

Although it won't be released until 24 September, Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off is already attracting a lot of media attention. (A big problem for publishers is trying to keep a lid on publicity until the release date nears to avoid jumping the gun!) There was an article in last night's Evening Chronicle (Brave fight to help fellow sufferers) about Jonny and EB, which mentioned the book. And ITV North East (Tyne Tees telly in old money) are today filming author Roger Stutter as he watches the book being printed(!) for a piece about the Jonny Kennedy North East charity on North East Tonight. So tune in on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday at 6pm to see what Roger has to say. If you miss it you can catch the show online for 24 hours here.

Paul

The Rocketbelt Caper released today

'We finished the rocketbelt, and from then on there was murder, kidnapping, and all kinds of other stuff'

When three friends set out on a quest to build a real-life Buck Rogers-style flying machine, their obsession with the Rocketbelt 2000 shattered their friendship and set in motion an astonishing chain of events involving theft, deception, assault, a bizarre kidnapping, a ten million dollar lawsuit and a horrifically brutal murder. From sci-fi to reality, this is the incredible true story of the amazing rocketbelt.


'In this book, Paul Brown brings the topic alive. It has to be one of the most readable science/technology focussed books of the year. Brown has an excellent journalistic style, and pulls the reader on relentlessly through the tales of technical inspiration and human weakness that litter the history of the rocketbelt. The book overall is a delight to read, and the story is genuinely one where reality is stranger than fiction. Recommended.' - Brian Clegg, Popular Science .co.uk

As featured in yesterday's Sunday Sun (Murder Movie's Rocket Science).

Read more here and here.

Paul

Another "Meet Pete" at Borders Gateshead

There's another chance to meet Johnny Lonely author Pete Tanton and get a signed copy of his award-winning novel (and a free badge) this Saturday 1st September at Borders, Team Valley Retail Park, Gateshead (0191 4877803). Pete will be there from 12 noon for much of the afternoon, so if you are in the area do pop along and say hello. Pete's last signing event was a great success, with Johnny Lonely outselling every other book on the day. If you can't get along, the book is also available direct from Tonto, or from Amazon and all other good bookshops.


Paul

The Rocketbelt Caper in stock

The Rocketbelt Caper is officially released next week, more news to follow. The book is now in stock and can be purchased direct from Tonto or via amazon.co.uk. It will be available from all other good bookshops from Monday. If you'd like a signed copy just order via Tonto and drop us an email request.


Paul

Rover Returns

For your chance to win an exclusive limited edition set of four Burglar's Dog badges...

Just answer the following question:

Who was Scooby Doo's annoying little sidekick who used to shout 'Puppy power!'?

a)Nappy Doo
b)Happy Doo
c)Scrappy Doo

Answers on an email to Tonto Press by 12pm today. First three randomly picked will win.
contact at tontopress dot com

Good luck!

Stu

So, you wanna be a writer?

Yep, it's official. According to a new survey, more Britons dream about being an author than any other job.

YouGov reckon that nearly 10% of us want to be an author. The list goes on... next up is sports personality, astronaut and then event organiser. When I think of the months spent in front of my PC, sitting around in my pyjamas all day, unwashed, unshaven, with too much coffee and caffiene drinks in my system, with only the cat to talk to. Ah, those were the days. Hardly the most glamorous job in the world though, is it? The poll suggests that it is probably down to JK Rowling who seemed to bring 'sexy back' to writing. Personally, I think it may have been down to Pete Tanton with his first novel, Johnny Lonely, but it is great to see writing getting so much attention now.

There was also the suggestion that publishers and agents have had a huge increase in children's literature submissions.

Read the full article here.

Stu

More appropriate approaches to approaching

Well, as it is still summer (just) and we've all got time on our hands, we are no doubt polishing our manuscripts down ready to send to publishers and agents. I know yesterday's post was a tad light-hearted, but I can't stress enough the importance of the correct approach.

Look at the three query letter examples in the Yearbook. I've more or less used their template in the past and I know it works. You only have a few seconds to catch a publisher's eye... don't over do your letter, don't be aggressive. Don't give them the excuse they are looking for to stop reading!

Here's an example of a recent submission:

Hi Tonto Press,
(TITLE OF BOOK) – (ONE LINER OF THE BOOK).

I’ve had four books published so far – (TITLES LISTED). My background is in freelance journalism particularly in lifestyle and women’s mags. For the first ten years of my career I devoted most of my time writing for football magazines like Goal, 90 Minutes, Shoot and Football Monthly.

If this book has piqued your interest I can send you a detailed proposal with chapter breakdowns, along with some sample chapters – (CHAPTER HEADINGS). The final book would be around (NUMBER) words in length.

I look forward to hearing if you want to take a look at (TITLE).

Regards,

NAME

P.S. Why Tonto Press? Are you fans of the Lone Ranger by any chance, or is it you see yourselves as Lone Rangers in the publishing world?

As you can see, this writer got straight to the point, told us what the book is in a nutshell, their publication history, and that they can send samples of the book if we are interested. Nothing more required, although there is a P.S, which tells us a bit more about the writer and their humour which is used within the book. It is a friendly approach and informal because of the nature of the piece.

It worked. We asked to see more.

I'm not saying that this is a new template for you to use. You need to know who you are approaching as well as you know the target audience for your work. The next enquiry letter we received used our names. It showed they found out who they were writing to and they knew what we were looking for by checking the website.

Remember - publishers and agents receive gazillions of letters every week. Be patient. Don't contact them after 5 days and ask if they want to publish your book. If they've taken a good while, a polite nudge is acceptable. Publishers and agents are not just looking for quality/commercial work – they are looking for writers they can work with and who they see themselves working with over time.

Best of luck!

Stu

How NOT to approach a publisher

We've all read the Yearbook... so why is it that (very few) people still approach you in such poorly conceived ways?

As many of you will know, we set up Tonto Press with the primary aim of nurturing, discovering and developing new writers, as well as working with experienced writers. We made it clear we don't publish poetry and won't publish poetry - why? - Well, you can't do everything, it's not where our interest lies and there are plenty of poetry publishers in our region. Stick to what you know.

We're a friendly bunch... approachable, keen to hear good ideas and will advise if and when we can because we know what it is like to be a writer looking for contact with a publisher. We invite email submissions and we even look at work that doesn't come in via an agent!

I dare say there are publishers out there who don't like being hassled by writers. We're a bit different in this respect too because we're interested in hearing from writers. Of course, we still get our fair share of good and bad submissions. That's always going to happen. However - and no matter if the manuscript is good, bad or ugly - there are certain ways of approaching people like us and here's some tips:

1. Find out what the company publishes and is interested in before approaching. Sending poetry to a publisher who isn't interested in it is quite pointless. Even if your poetry is brilliant, they are not going to publish it.

2. Finding out their names is a good idea. It is more personal and shows initiative.

3. Ask if they are looking for fiction/non-fiction etc at present and if they'd be interested in - brief description of work. Don't just send BCC emails to all your 'publisher contacts'. Our website usually tells you what we are looking for and when. Asking is always the best way.

4. If your spelling is as bad as mine, run a spell check before sending it. It makes all the difference.

5. If they are not interested, don't just send them it anyway. They haven't got time to read it and are not interested! They weren't kidding!

6. If they offer you advice, take it. It will probably be good advice and it means they have bothered to read your submission.

7. Don't keep sending them unsolicited work 'on the off-chance'. This will just annoy them.

8. Importantly - BE POLITE. People tend to react better to polite enquiries.

The last two are specific to a recent writer:

9. No need to be abusive if your work is rejected. It just shows your lack of vocabulary and immaturity.

10. Stop sending abusive emails. It is not big or clever.


Stu

The Burglar's Dog is back!

Yes, today we can officially reveal that The Burglar's Dog is back! And he's just as angry and rude as he was last time! The brand new revised and updated edition of The Burglar's Dog Alternative Guide to Drinking in Newcastle upon Tyne will be released two months from today on 15 October, but you can pre-order your copy now. The new edition of the North East publishing phenomenon of last year has been completely updated and revised, with new pubs and features, and a new cover design by Garen Ewing.


If you pre-order your copy from amazon.co.uk following the instructions here we'll send you a brand new set of FOUR exclusive Burglar's Dog pin badges, as shoddily illustrated below, absolutely free. You'll also be helping to push the Burglar's Dog towards being an amazon bestseller! (You can also save a few quid as amazon is currently selling the book for just £6.59, 34 percent off the RRP.)


The badge offer runs until 15 October or until stocks last - so don't delay. If you pre-order more than one book we'll send you more than one set of badges. You can read more about the book here, and the badge giveaway here.

Paul

Rocketbelt Convention

Ahead of the September release of The Rocketbelt Caper, last weekend saw the 2007 Rocketbelt Convention at Niagara Falls, New York. It was a gathering of rocketbelt builders, pilots and enthusiasts, several of whom feature in the book. Here's a video showing clips from the 2006 event, plus a brief history of rocketbelts - yes they are real! Look out for veteran rocketbelt pilot Bill Suitor, who has flown rocketbelts for the US Army, in the James Bond movie Thunderball, and at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He also piloted the Rocketbelt 2000, the device at the centre of The Rocketbelt Caper, and is a key player and interviewee in the book.


Paul

When Harry met Johnny...

Pete Tanton's signing session at Borders Silverlink on Saturday was a great success, with Johnny Lonely outselling every other book on the day - even Harry Potter. The store sold its entire stock of Pete's novel - luckily he had brought a box of spare copies to replenish their shelves. Pete also found time to be photographed for local paper the News Guardian - North Tyneside residents should keep their eyes peeled for that being published. If you missed the signing the Silverlink store still has a handful of signed copies, or you can get a copy signed in person by going along to Borders Team Valley in Gateshead on Saturday 1st September. No doubt Johnny will give Harry another bloody nose. Bloomsbury and JK Rowling are quaking in their boots...

Pete on Google News: Teacher Pete Is New Novelist to Watch.

P.S. The Tonto office is a little emptier this week now that Marianne has finished her work placement. Both myself and Stu would like to say thanks very much to Marianne for all of her hard work, which was very much appreciated, and we wish her every success in the future. There's no doubt she'll make an excellent editor - assuming we haven't completely put her off the publishing industry!

Paul

My last day of work experience!

Hi everyone,

Well, after three very eventful and exciting weeks I've come to the end of my work experience with Tonto Press and I'd just like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to both Paul and Stu for firstly taking me on for three weeks but also for being so nice to me and very helpful, giving me lots of advice about the publishing industry. Me and Paul were talking this morning about how I have actually taken an active part in all parts of the editing process, having worked on several different manuscripts in their various stages of completion. This has provided me with excellent experience which I will never forget about. I also got the chance to go to Pete Tanton's book launch, which was a huge success and a thoroughly good night.


So most of today has been spent proof reading the Jonny Kennedy manuscript and although I obviously haven't spent any where near as much time on this as Roger, Paul and Stu I did feel a great sense of satisfaction when I finished reading it, and I can't wait to get my signed copy by Roger when it is released later next month!

Anyway it's time for me to go now, so make sure you carry on checking out all that's new with Tonto on their blog, and who knows, maybe some time in the future you might see me back on it!!!

By Marianne Lund.

PS. Don't forget Pete's Johnny Lonely signing at Borders Silverlink on Saturday from 12 noon!

Drop-in at the Tonto Office

It's a sunny Thursday and I (Pete Tanton) have just dropped into the Tonto HQ, ostensibly to pick up copies of Johnny Lonely and to pick up the nifty new JL badges for distribution at my upcoming signing at Borders bookstore at the Silverlink, and have found my exit barred until I cough up a blog which will meet with the combined approval of Marianne, Stu and Paul. It looks like I'm going to be here for a while...

So, I've just been coasting along since the launch of Johnny Lonely back on July 26th - thanks to all who came and made it a success. Thanks as well to everyone who has bought the book, making it Tonto's best seller, and thanks as well for all the excellent reviews of the book on Amazon. Johnny will be happy.


Paul and Stu have been beavering away on the final edit of Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, due to the printers soon. Stu has bravely come into the office after being poorly this week. The show must go on. Marianne, meanwhile, has been an oasis of calm and good cheer. She's been reading the Stephen Miller story, and has only one day left of her placement. I know Stu and Paul will miss her when she goes.

If any of you are around on Saturday, drop into the Silverlink Borders, and say hi. You might get a cool badge!

by Pete Tanton

Filming begins on rocketbelt caper story

We have exciting news for all you film enthusiasts out there - the film that Stu mentioned a few weeks ago based on the rocketbelt caper story began filming on the 1st of August in New Jersey, USA. The film is called Pretty Bird, which was the nickname for the Rocketbelt 2000. The movie's star and producer is Paul Giamatti, who also starred in Sideways and American Splendour.

Paul Giamatti
The film has slightly fictionalised the true story told in Tonto's forthcoming non-fiction book The Rocketbelt Caper. In the movie, three friends - Curt, Rick and Kenny - successfully build a rocketbelt, only for jealousy and distrust to turn the men against one another. The film also stars British actress Emily Mortimer, who was in Notting Hill and Number 13, Garret Dillahunt, who was in Deadwood and ER and lastly Billy Crudup who was in Almost Famous and Watchmen. You can check out audition and plot summary details by searching for "Pretty Bird" here. The Tonto book, The Rocketbelt Caper, will be released on 3rd September 2007.

By Marianne.

Introducing Jonny Kennedy

If you're not one of the millions of people who watched the Emmy Award-winning documentary The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, you might not be aware of Jonny Kennedy. We're publishing Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, as told to his friend Roger Stutter, on 24 September. In the meantime you can see Jonny in a trailer for the documentary here. Roger is also in the trailer.

Paul

What the hell is a rocketbelt?

The Rocketbelt Caper is being printed this week, but what the hell is a rocketbelt? This short video should explain...


Paul

Durham Literature Festival 07

This year's Durham Literature Festival is being held between the 29th of September and the 13th of October and for the first time the event will feature cutting edge fiction from four writers published by Tonto Press. The event is called Pete Tanton and Friends and is the festival's opening event on Saturday 29th at 2pm. The event will begin with forty minutes dedicated to three of the writers published in More Tonto Short Stories, Roz Wyllie, Stephen Shieber and Katie-Ellen Hazeldine. There will then be a twenty minute interval before Johnny Lonely author Pete Tanton takes to the stage for thirty minutes. There has been a set designer commissioned for the event so the lighting and general stage area is sure to look exciting.

The capacity for the Gala Studio venue is a maximum of seventy five people so make sure you get your ticket soon. You can buy tickets through The Gala Theatre's box office by calling 0191 332 4041, or online here.

You can find out more about the Durham Literature Festival here, and download a PDF of the festival programme here. We hope you all have a really good time, and look forward to seeing you there!

So, it's Marianne here again, and I've been working with Tonto Press for the last week. The last few days have been exciting and kept me busy with the proof reading of the Jonny Kennedy book and with the initial stages of reading through and editing an upcoming book Tonto Press are working on, which is an autobiography by the Paralympic champion Stephen Miller, who has already won 3 Gold Medals, and is set to get his fourth in the upcoming games next year. I'm very interested in Athletics myself so I've really enjoyed reading about his experiences and gaining an insight into his training. I'm sure this will be a successful book when it is published, so keep an eye out for it over the next year.

Marianne

Johnny Lonely book signings

If you didn't manage to get a signed copy of Johnny Lonely at last week's launch don't despair! Author Pete Tanton will be signing copies at Borders Silverlink, Newcastle on Saturday 11th August from midday AND at Borders Team Valley, Gateshead on Saturday 1st September from midday. Head along to get your signed copy, or if you've already read it why not pop along to have a chat with Pete? Tomorrow we'll be announcing another exciting date for your diary...

Pete signing stock copies at Borders
Paul

Johnny Lonely on the radio

Johnny Lonely author Pete Tanton was interviewed on Radio Newcastle last week, and you can download the interview as an mp3 (some say podcast) here.

Pete with Carol Clewlow
Paul

Johnny Lonely launch pics

All this week we'll be posting stuff relating to the Johnny Lonely launch. Today there are some photos from the big night. If you didn't get a chance to get to the launch, a reminder that signed copies of Johnny Lonely are available from Borders at Newcastle Silverlink and Gateshead Team Valley. Pete will also be signing in person at both stores in the coming weeks, more details to follow. Tomorrow we'll post Pete's interview with Radio Newcastle.

*LOST JACKET* A black zip-up jacket was left at the launch on Thursday. If it is yours please come along and pick it up from Brick Works!

Wrist ache
Standing room only
A natural performer
Paul

Johnny Lonely Video

Here is a short film featuring Pete Tanton, introducing his new novel and reading a bit from it.

Stu

Johnny not so Lonely

Thursday 26 July saw the first book launch at Brick Works in Newcastle. The event was Pete Tanton's launch of 'Johnny Lonely', where we enjoyed hosting a packed party. Many of the arts event liggers turned up an hour early to meet Pete (who was fashionably just on time) and hit the refreshments early.
Our very own 'mariachi' provided the music and by 8pm, the building was at bursting point, forcing some outside into the street. Pete took to the stage at 8.15pm for his reading. Choosing a section when the band arrive to play the Artoberfest gig, Pete had us all laughing along as the scene evolved. He stopped reading at the right moment... we all wanted to hear more and I'm sure everyone would have hung around all night to listen.

The launch ended at around 10pm but the party carried on into the Ouseburn. Not for some though... Paul and I had to clean up for our writing course the following morning. Rock n Roll, eh?

It was great to see so many people celebrating the release of a book and the event was a success. With only a few copies of the book left at the end of the night, Pete urged everyone to purchase the book at Borders Silverlink and Team Valley in the North East. Borders are a big supporter of Tonto Press and are stocking the book as well as supporting Pete with signing sessions. Pete's first one will be in August - we'll post more info nearer the time.

Stu

On course part III

It's the last day of our creative writing course, and as part of our module on 'How To Get Published' we're recommending three essential titles containing contact details for agents and publishers, plus useful articles on how and what to submit. (We also recommend that writers check publishers' websites before submitting to obtain the latest up to date submission requirements). First up are the 'big red' and 'big yellow' books, the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2008 and Writer's Handbook 2008. Any aspiring writer needs at least one of these books, both of which offer excellent advice on getting started in the industry.



Additionally, for writers looking to break into the huge US market, there is the US publication Writer's Market, which also contains agent and publisher listings and useful articles.


Paul

PS - The Johnny Lonely launch was a great success - look out for pictures here on Monday!

Johnny Lonely Launch TONIGHT

Just a quick reminder. To those who have been following the publicity of our New Novelist winner Pete Tanton, the launch of his book is tonight (Thursday 26 July) at Tonto Press HQ in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The event starts at 7.30pm and there will be live music and readings by Pete, as well as refreshments. Johnny Lonely can be purchased at the launch.

Photos will be posted of the event.

Pete will also be appearing on The Julia Hankin show on BBC Radio Newcastle tomorrow at around 3.15pm.

Stu

On Course part II

More recommended books from our creative writing course: Raymond Carver's brilliantly simple short stories have long been considered inspirational by new writers, and the 438-page Carver anthology Where I'm Calling From collects many of his best stories and also contains a short version of his incredibly useful essay 'On Writing'. (The full essay can be found in Call If You Need Me.) Here's a quote from 'On Writing': 'If we're lucky, writer and reader alike, we'll finish the last line or two of a short story and then just sit for a minute, quietly. Ideally we'll ponder what we've just written or read; maybe our hearts or intellects will have been moved off the peg just a little from where they were before. Then, breathing evenly and steadily once more, we'll collect ourselves, writers and readers alike, get up, and go on to the next thing: life, always life.'


Another writer we recommend, particularly with reference to our module on 'dynamic description', is Mark Richard. I've already mentioned his short story collection Ice At The Bottom Of The World on this blog - it's currently out of print but well worth tracking down - amazon currently have used copies available from just £2.


Paul

On Course

We're running a creative writing course this week - the last in this format for the foreseeable future as we concentrate on the publishing side of the business. One of the books we always recommend on the course is On Writing by Stephen King. Even if you have never read any of King's fiction, we think you'll find this to be just about the most sensible, accessible, and inspiring guide to creative writing available, and well worth £6.99 of your hard earned. You can get it here.


Just about the only thing we don't cover on the course is grammar and style, but we do reccommend Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, which is an indispensible little guide that every writer should have on their bookshelf. It's just £4.99 from amazon.


Stephen King also recommends Strunk and White. If, like me, you've never managed to get through a King novel you might enjoy some of his shorter fiction. US Esquire magazine is currently printing King's 21,000-word novella The Gingerbread Girl. US Esquire remains one of the best places to find good short fiction. Try this: The Night Johnny Ace Died by James Lee Burke.

Paul

Please publish me... I'm sure it will be a classic

In the news today:
A string of publishers failed to spot blatant plagiarism of one of English literature's most famous authors, in a cheeky test to see if she would have secured a book deal.

The manuscript apparently got several rejection letters and only one publisher spotted the scam.

Read all about it.


Stu

Your chance to star in a Rocketbelt movie

The Rocketbelt Caper by Tonto's very own Paul Brown is just about to be sent to print for release in September. The book is an incredible story with all the ingredients of a crime movie.

And speaking of which... there IS a movie going into production!

Follow this link to see how you can audition for a role in Pretty Bird.

Myentertainmentworld, a film and TV casting website, say this on the website:

Paul Giamatti and Emily Mortimer have signed on to star in the indie comedy Pretty Bird for actor turned writer/director Paul Schneider. The film will star Giamatti as Curt, a lovable loser who believes he can invent a rocket belt that will bring him fame and fortune. He enlists the help of friends and trouble arises when they actually succeed and they begin turning against each other. Mortimer will play Mandy, the "Director of Marketing" for their operation. Giamatti will also produce the film along with his wife Liz. It's been a while since we've seen Giamatti doing some comedy, which we all know he's really good at. This should be a nice change of pace and he also has Fred Claus due this winter. Giamatti is currently filming the John Adams miniseries for HBO and will begin work on Pretty Bird this August in New Jersey.

Stu

Johnny Lonely has lots of friends...

How the fictional eponymous hero of Pete Tanton's Johnny Lonely created a profile on popular "social networking" website MySpace remains a mystery (Pete swears he had nothing to do with it!) but here it is. But Johnny seems to be making friends - or "virtual friends" - and quite a motley selection of them, some with rude names and in various states of undress! If, unlike me, you have any idea what any of this means, you'll want to add yourself to Johnny's friends list at www.myspace.com/johnny_lonely. Explanations of how this whole Myspace / Facebook thing works are welcome to be posted here as comments!


Meanwhile, UK readers are beginning to post their reviews of Johnny Lonely on amazon.co.uk. Alison Hicklenton says it's, 'A great read and a great starter for all sorts of discussion.
In years to come students will be talking about this book as being as seminal as Louis Sachar's "Holes".' Dr Halcyon S Leonard ('REAL NAME' according to amazon) calls it, 'A wonderfully observant and penetrating picture of suburban America.' And Rhoanne May says, 'The writing is honest, original, clever and witty. I do hope this will be the first of many books from Pete Tanton!' The current rating is given as 4.5 stars out of 5, although my rudimentary mathematics knowledge says it should actually be 4.83 out of 5, which is quite a recommendation.

Johnny Lonely is officially released on 30 July, but both amazon and Tonto are shipping it already, so snap up your copy now!

Paul

Johnny Lonely launch event details

It's already been mentioned, but here's confirmation of the launch event for Pete Tanton's New Novelist-winning debut Johnny Lonely. The launch will be on Thursday 26 July at 7.30pm, at Brick Works studios in Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne. Come along and enjoy a glass of wine or two, live music, and a reading from Pete. We hope to see you there. You can get venue directions here.

Guerilla promotion courtesy of Pete's son's school!
And thanks to Marianne for her blog posts over the last week, and for her hard work during her work placement. Her blog even merited a mention from Grumpy Old Bookman. As you can see from her posts, she was virtually running the place!

Paul

Marianne's Blog Day 5.

Hi everyone!

It's coming towards the end of my placement now and I've just finished reading and editing the Jonny Kennedy manuscript, I feel a huge sense of satisfaction and I've only contributed a very small amount of time and effort towards getting this manuscript in a finished form, compared to the amount of time that Roger (the author) and Paul and Stu (the actual editors) have spent on this book, so I can only imagine the sense of accomplishment they must feel when one of their books is finally published.

Although I had heard about Jonny Kennedy before coming to work with Tonto Press I hadn't actually seen the channel four documentary, so for me reading about his life story and terrible condition was a completely new experience, and now that I've finished the book I feel that I have gained a really good picture about Jonny's personality. As a result I now cannot help but think of Jonny with admiration and respect - I certainly don't think I could have coped as well as him, and have handled life with such humour, if I had been born with Epidermolysis Bullosa.

In the book that is due to be published in September there is a selection of photographs of Jonny chronicling his life from when he was a baby right up to the months leading to his death. There are also several pictures which show Jonny with his mother and different friends, and below is a sneak preview of a picture of Jonny with his mother when he was a baby. The second picture below also shows Jonny with his much loved cat Terbie, and of course one of his signature hats. These are exclusive pictures that haven't been released yet, so I hope you appreciate how lucky you all are to be seeing them now!! Only joking, of course I hope you enjoy seeing them as well! And thanks for reading my blog over the past week, you've been a great audience!!




By Marianne Lund.

Another brick in the wall

CityLife has a piece on the opening of Brick Works with quotes from Stu. See a PDF here.

Paul

Marianne's Blog Day 4.

Hi everyone!

It's day four of my placement and I started the day by having a look at several different manuscripts that had been sent to Paul and Stu via email, which included short stories, outlines and chapters of books. This was really interesting as it gave me insight into the kind of topics that people choose to write about and what condition these are in when they are sent to publishers.

After this I spent some time planning the budget for the Johnny Lonely book launch, which is taking place on Thursday the 26th July at Brickworks building. I was also thinking about how to arrange the rooms allocated for the launch to best accomodate all the people that will come.

I also spent time writing the latest addition of the Tonto Press Newsletter which informs everyone about the upcoming book launch and also how you can now pre-order their books that will be published in September, on Amazon. These are 'The Rocketbelt Caper' and 'Jonny Kennedy; The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off'. In the afternoon I also continued reading through the Jonny Kennedy manuscript.

I have also decided to recommend my favourite book, dvd and cd to you all, so here goes!

One of the best books I have read in a long time was by Arundhati Roy and was called The God of Small Things, it is not religious like the title implies, but is set in an Indian town called Ayemenem and tells a very poignant and tragic story of a pair of twins and how their lives are torn apart through traumatic childhood experiences. This book is beautifully written, perfectly evokes the climate that is described and made me cry several times! This book also won the Booker Prize in 1997 and I always look out to see if the author has written anything else, but as yet she hasn't!

The dvd that I am going to recommend is called Overboard and stars Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. This is a slightly dated film but is absolutely hilarious and is very firmly one of my favourite films. Both Hawn and Russell act their parts brilliantly and it is a typical slushy romantic film, but it's also very funny! It's one of those films that you can actually watch again and again so I would say that it's not only worth watching, but also worth buying, here's a link to Amazon so you can do so now!

At the moment I have Snow Patrol's album Eyes Open in my cd player so I'm going to recommend that cd to you today. I think the lead singer, Gary Lightbody has a fantastic voice, really smooth and easy to listen to. In particular I really like the third song on the album 'Chasing Cars' and also the sixth song, which I can't remember the name of but it's lovely and the start of it sounds like a lullaby. I also like the fact that all the songs don't sound the same, which can happen with a cd from only one artist.

By Marianne Lund.

Marianne's Blog Day 3.

Hi everyone,

It's day three of my placement and again I spent most of the morning reading through Jonny Kennedy's manuscript...I am, slowly but surely making my way through it and hopefully by the end of Monday I will have finished it! Me, Stu and Paul also got together with all the other people that are in the twelve studios that make up Brick Works and went for lunch at the local pub.



This was the first time all the people working in this building have got together since the opening several months ago so it was really nice for me to be able to meet other people and hear about the different jobs they are doing. For example there are several different artists, web, interior and graphic designers, screen writers, film and video production and also Lens Based Media. So it was really interesting to hear about the different projects they are doing and the upcoming work they hope to do. After lunch we came back and cracked on with our work and I have continued to concentrate on Jonny Kennedy's manuscript. The more I read this book the more I enjoy it and as soon as it hits the shops I'm going to be out there buying the book!

By Marianne Lund.

Marianne's Blog Day 2.

Hi everyone,

Today has been another interesting day, I spent most of the morning reading more of 'Jonny Kennedy; The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off' and as I got further into the manuscript I learnt even more about Jonny, his condition and the life he led. Jonny successfully and at times poignantly recaptures his childhood for us and several experiences that stand out for him in his mind, which really demonstrates to the reader the extroardinary life Jonny led.

In the afternoon I began proof-reading another book that Tonto Press plan to publish in the near future, which is called 'The Rocketbelt Caper; A True Tale of Invention, Obsession and Murder' and is written by Paul himself. I enjoyed this as it gave me an example of a much more finished version of a book before publication and showed me a different stage of the publishing process. In particular I was looking out for any spelling and grammatical mistakes, but I only found one, which just shows how close it is to being ready for publication.

Later on me, Paul and Stu also travelled down to Durham for the annual meeting held once a year by Independent Northern Publishers. This was very insightful for me as I was able to meet other publishers and see what issues the meeting was focused on and what issues the actual publishers wanted to raise and discuss. I also gained more understanding about how tight funding is for all the publishers in the Northeast which is decided by the Art's council and also which types of literature get preference over others. This was an invaluable experience for me and I enjoyed the opportunity of seeing what priorities different publishers have.

By Marianne Lund.

Marianne's Blog Day 1

Hi everyone,

My name is Marianne Lund, I'm a second year English student at Newcastle Upon Tyne university and I'm working at Tonto Press for one week on a work experience placement, and this is my first day's blog! To start with both Paul and Stu talked me through what kind of things I would be working on over the five days which was useful as it gave me some focus and a time line for the different jobs I would be doing.

So the first thing Paul and Stu wanted me to look at was the manuscript of the book 'Jonny Kennedy; The Story of the Boy whose Skin fell off'. This is a biography as Jonny didn't actually write it himself, instead his friend Roger Stutter wrote down, over the course of ten years, everything that Jonny told him about his life. There is also a very touching foreword by Nell McAndrew, who met Jonny several times. I found this very interesting because I was already aware about Jonny because of the Channel Four documentary a few years ago which chronicled his life and death. I also found it rather exciting that I was the third person to ever actually read the manuscript, apart from obviously both Paul and Stu who have been working with Roger, but more importantly I began to appreciate the amount of work and time that goes into preparing a manuscript before it is ready for publication. I spent the whole day working on this book and I only managed to get to page 28! However I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and trying to find ways to improve it and I think it will be extremely successful when it is published because it is such an unusual story, with surprising amounts of humour in it. I also think that this book will help raise more awareness about the agonising disease Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) that Jonny suffered from which is not currently widely known about in society.

In the afternoon I also sent an email around to all of the English students at Newcastle university informing them about an upcoming Creative Writing Course that Paul and Stu are putting on which starts on Monday the 23rd of July and lasts a week, until Friday the 27th of July. I thought lots of students might be interested in this but probably wouldn't know about it so this was an ideal opportunity and way to publicise the course.

Students tackle a group writing exercise on the last course

Towards the end of the afternoon I went through all my suggestions about the manuscript with Paul and Stu. At this point they told me more about Jonny's life and his personality, that they had learnt about from working for so long with Jonny's close friend Roger and I found this very interesting. Overall it was a very enjoyable day and i'm looking forward to being able to finish reading the manuscript over the next few days of my placement!

By Marianne Lund.

Jonny in the Journal

The Newcastle Journal ran a piece on Jonny Kennedy and our forthcoming biography Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off last week (Final words of boy whose skin fell off).


Although we were delighted to receive the coverage, we couldn't help noticing that a similar story ran in the very same paper almost 4 months ago (Jonny's thoughts are to be published in a book), and another in the Journal's sister paper the Sunday Sun on the previous day (Our Jonny lives on). None of these articles had anything to do with Tonto, which just goes to show that even the most carefully orchestrated publicity campaigns can sometimes have little bearing in what does and doesn't get coverage! The book will be released on 24 September, and you can read more details here.

Paul