Today, Monday 31 March, is the LAST DAY for receipt of submissions for this year’s North East New Novelist contest, hence the deluge of emails I arrived at work to find this morning. All entries that meet the submission criteria and arrive in our inbox by midnight will be accepted.

The competition is open to writers currently residing in the North East of England who have not previously had a novel published. Entry is free, and full details can be found here.

Paul

Tonto’s current fiction project gets a mention over on The Guardian’s Books Blog, which sparks an interesting debate in the comments about mentoring, involving, among others, Tonto writers Adam Maxwell and Stephen Shieber. Rosalind Wyllie and Tonto mentors Caroline Smailes and Laura Hird are also mentioned. Just to clarify, the fee mentioned in the blog feature is for another mentoring scheme – writers on the Tonto scheme don’t pay a penny.

Paul

There’s a good article about UK independent publishing over on Publishers Weekly – Where ‘Every Book Counts’ by Edward Russell-Walling. ‘Independent publishing in the UK is not without its pains and frustrations,’ says Edward, ‘but the sector is as inventive, as determined and, overall, as healthy as it has ever been.’

Paul

Yep, today we are giving away free books as a little experiment in word-of-mouth. We’re offering copies of Jonny Kennedy: The Story of The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off or The Rocketbelt Caper: A True Tale of Invention, Obsession and Murder to the first 50 people to contact us and offer to help spread the word! All we ask is that you tell us and others what you think of the book by posting a short review either on your website or blog, your Facebook or MySpace, your favourite forum or message board, or on a website that takes customer reviews such as amazon.co.uk or play.com. Just fill in the form here. But hurry, there are only 50 freebies up for grabs!

*UPDATE* Sorry, but the stock of free books has now run out. However, if you click on the link above – today only – you’ll find a very special offer by way of consolation…

Paul

If you’re planning to enter this year’s North East New Novelist contest you now have just a week to submit your manuscript.

Backed by the National Lottery and the Arts Council, the competition will see two local writers have their novels published, and give the winners the chance to work with bestselling local authors to develop their books before they hit the shops. The winning novels will be chosen by bestselling authors Kitty Fitzgerald (Pigtopia) and Wendy Robertson (Family Ties). Kitty and Wendy will then mentor the winning writers. Both chosen novels will be published by Tonto Books in January 2009.

The competition is open to writers currently residing in the North East of England who have not previously had a novel published. Entry is free, and full details can be found here.

The final date for receipt of submissions is Monday 31 March 2008.

Paul

The 2008 Hexham Book Festival (2nd-5th May, Queen’s Hall, Hexham) features the likes of Germaine Greer, Simon Armitage, John Burton Race, Tonto office radio fave Stuart Maconie, and three Tonto Books authors.

On Sunday 4th May at 12 noon, Pete Tanton (Johnny Lonely), Stephen Shieber (Being Normal) and Rosalind Wyllie (Everything You Ever Wanted) will be discussing their work and the writing process, along with Tonto fiction mentor Caroline Smailes. It should be an interesting event for writers and readers alike. The Northern Writers’ Awards ceremony will take place afterwards, so why not make an afternoon of it? Tickets are free and can be obtained from the Queen’s Hall Box Office on 01434 652477 or online here.

Roger Stutter, author of Jonny Kennedy: The Story of the Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, will also be at the festival to chat about local lad Jonny and sign copies of the book.

Paul

Here’s a first peek at our new catalogue for autumn (some say fall) and winter 2008. Yes, I know we’ve not even had spring yet, but that’s this publishing lark for you. You can download it as a PDF file here.

Paul

Today I’m blogging over at The Bookseller, offering my views on the recent Arts Council funding changes. You can read it here.

Paul

Caroline Smailes is the author of In Search of Adam, and one of the mentors on our current fiction project. Now Caroline has written a novella called Disraeli Avenue, named after the street in which In Search Of Adam is set. Brilliantly, she is making the the novella available as a free download. Even more brilliantly, she is asking readers who download it to make a donation to One In Four, a small charity that offers support for people who have experienced sexual abuse and sexual violence. At the time of writing, she has raised £1,255, and is just £245 short of her target amount. Hurry here to offer your support.

On a related note, In Search of Adam is published by The Friday Project, an admirable publisher that is unfortunately currently being liquidated and having to ‘dispose of its assets’. Bad news for all those involved with TFP, including the authors.

Paul

Coming for Christmas – the NUFC.com Toon Diary 2009. A must-have for Newcastle United fans, this useful and fascinating spiral-bound week-to-view diary is packed with facts and information compiled by the fine chaps at NUFC.com.

NUFC.com (Newcastle’s Unofficial Fans’ Collaboration website) is the most popular and respected source for all things related to Newcastle United, receiving 3 million web hits every month – double that of the official club website.

2009 marks the 40th anniversary of Newcastle United’s European Inter Cities Fairs’ Cup victory, and the diary is presented in a fantastic retro cover to commemorate that fact. This book is sure to be on every Newcastle fan’s Christmas list this year.

Paul