"I'm spitting mad, and not afraid to say soÓ is the kind of statement that makes me quite interested in what's going on. This time it was my blogging colleague Lowebrow in Germany, whose feathers were a bit ruffled. She was enraged on behalf of author Nick Green, whose first book The Cat Kin was published by Faber last summer. Lowebrow went on to say how she thought this book was one of the best for the age group 9-12 that she'd seen for a long time. And now, six months later Faber had decided not to publish the sequel, due to the first one not selling enough copies.
I was very surprised, because although I don't know every book published, it's at least quite likely that many book titles will ring some sort of bell in my subconscious. I'd never heard of Nick Green or his Cat Kin. But I do trust Lowebrow, so ordered a copy of The Cat Kin, and it was every bit as good as promised. Luckily Faber's lack of action hadn't stopped Nick Green from taking his sequel Cat's Paw to print-on-demand company Lulu, so I was able to get hold of that book, too. As Lowebrow had hinted, the second book was better still.
The Cat Kin are a group of children who learn the ancient art of Pashki, which means they take on the characteristics of cats. This proves very handy when it comes to fighting crooks that turn up in their neighbourhood. There's plenty of humour and adventure in these books. Nick Green does not talk down at his readers, and he doesn't shy away from mentioning difficult subjects, like severe illness, abortion and homelessness. The plots in both books are are fun and exciting, and I'm left a bit spitting mad, too, because I can't read the third book Nick Green had planned about his Cat Kin.
Naturally I wrote about Nick Green on my own blog, Bookwitch, and reviewed both Cat Kin books on there. Still steaming, I persuaded the editor for the Guardian's book blog to let me loose with a blog piece about Nick Green and his publishing woes. It was all the more interesting, as the first book, The Cat Kin, had been shortlisted for both the Bolton and the Sefton children's book awards. There was a fair bit of interest in Nick Green and his books after the Guardian blog, and I believe even his agent saw it and told him about it. Makes you wonder what the agent's job is.
This publicity caused a number of people, including other authors, to comment on the Guardian site, and my Bookwitch blog also attracted comments from a couple of other authors, who felt as if I'd been describing their situation. David Cunningham, who wrote CloudWorld, and David Thorpe, author of Hybrid, wrote to me. Cunningham had been persuaded by Faber to publish his book in two parts, so when they declined to publish the second part, he has in effect only half a book out. Thorpe had another two books planned after Hybrid, but HarperCollins didn't want to publish them. CloudWorld may not have sold an enormous number of books, but if my maths is right, over 80% of the printed copies have sold, and the fans are waiting for the sequel.
All three authors have many writer friends who are rooting for them, and perhaps also thinking that it could have been them. It looks very much as if success depends far too often on how a book is publicised. With too little effort from the publishers, some really good children's books are sinking. This is strange, as the process of printing the book in the first place has required a fair amount of work before it gets that far. I wonder if publishers simply forget some of their authors? And then they inexplicably give a lot of attention to many inferior books.
A comment from Nick Green
"When I worked in book retail, I learned that what goes on outside a book's covers has a bigger effect on sales than anything that might be inside them. With this in mind, I wrote the sequel to 'The Cat Kin' at top speed - what better way to promote a book than with a follow-up? Besides, though I had nothing in writing, my publisher seemed eager to have it, even joking that they were starting pashki classes in their offices.
When they turned down 'Cat's Paw', they cited insufficient sales of the first book. At this time 'The Cat Kin' had been in the shops for all of six months. So what, you might say, business is tough. Yet here's a funny thing. Many publishers, my own among them, are now actively pursuing a strategy of series books, since they find that standalone novels often don't pay their way. As one duck-hunter said to the other, there's a paradox there.
Richard and Judy aside, sequels are the ultimate marketing tool. They're not merely several thousand mobile advertisements that can also double word-of-mouth. They also demonstrate the prime ingredient of any successful product: confidence. It's confidence that sells commodities; faith in what you're selling, buyers' trust in what they're buying. If publishers don't have confidence in their books and authors, why the Dickens take them on in the first place? Writers work hard to earn their readers' confidence. All I want is for publishers to do the same.
Strange to say, but there are plenty of upsides to all this. One is that I was able to publish Cat's Paw myself immediately, albeit with very limited availability, and the feedback has been great so far. I've also made a lot of new writer and blogger friends as a result, without whose support I might have listened to the demons and given up writing for good. Best of all, though, is that I'm now free to write my next book (not a sequel) with no strings attached, and nothing but the story to think about. It's almost like beginning my career all over again - except that now, for the first time ever, I don't care if this book is traditionally published or not. I only care about making it as good as I can."
It is reassuring that Nick Green has been able to find something positive in his situation. Perhaps a few more mentions of his Cat Kin books will make them known to the wider audience they deserve. Joe Craig, in his comment in the Guardian, reckoned you need plenty of exposure by visiting schools and the like. My calculations suggest Joe Craig must have done two school visits a week for eighteen months, which is a lot, but has clearly had a positive effect on his sales. The problem is that this is a job in itself, and Nick Green already has a job, as well as a family, and a new book to write. Unfair as it seems, he will probably have to fit in some self-publicity, whenever possible, and he needs to forget about being too modest. These books are good.
I know I will continue to push the Cat Kin books as much as I can.