New Yorker cover from June 2008

Statistics released earlier this week have revealed that British publishers saw an increase in sales throughout 2012, despite the country been in the middle of a recession.

Many had warned that the increase in digital books would lead to a decline in print book sales, however that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Digital spending rose by 66% to £411 million, yet print sales fell by only 1% to £2.9 billion – much less than expected. The overall British publishing industry grew by 4% to £3.3bn.

But why is the industry growing and growing, whilst most other forms of culture are suffering declining sales?

Well one big reason for the boom last year is the 50 Shades Of Grey books and the plethora of other adult stories, bearing a shining resemblance to them, that followed in their wake. The trilogy alone had combined sales of 10.5 million.

Another reason seems to lie within self-publishing. Richard Mollett, chief executive of The Publishers Association, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that, “Self-publishing has been a wonderful phenomenon. It has thrown up a great new interest in writing and reading”.

Other statistics from the report show that there has been an increase of 4% in the physical sales of children’s books, up to £233 million. While sales of school books saw a rise of 6%, to £172 million. This is fantastic news for us here at MLBT. We have seen a huge increase in sales over the past 12 months, especially in our digital books, which is why we recently launched Pocket Money Books.

There is some bad news though. More local book shops are having to close, due to most people purchasing books from chain shops like W H Smiths and Waterstones, as well as online sites such as Amazon.

So what do you think? Will digital sales continue to make ground on print or will it fade once the hype has gone? Should we be visiting more local book shops and how are they to compete with international distributors? And finally, where will you be getting your books from over the next 12 months?

Leave your comments below and we might feature them in a follow up piece on this subject.

• You can read the Publishers Association article here.

• The Richard Mollet interview is available to listen to here.

Everyone likes something for free right? Of course you do. Well this Thursday (2nd May), we are giving away the brand new Gorgeous George adventure for free. 

This is to celebrate the launch of our new Pocket Money Books range. These new bite-sized adventures will be available exclusively on eBook, priced between 99p and £1.99. They’re a great way to get children starting their first book collection and also really fun short stories for when you’re on the go.

Gorgeous George & The Zombie Fish Eaters is a short story from the author of the popular Gorgeous George books, Stuart Reid. Featuring the eccentric Grandpa Jock, recalling a tale from his youth (well, it’s a tale from years back…. Grandpa Jock has NEVER been young). Fish, hot sauce, fishermen and frolics, Wasabi sauce and silliness. A must read for all Gorgeous George fans (and fans of silly short stories). Part of the My Little Big Town ‘Pocket Money Books’ collection.

Click the link below to find the eBook or get it through your Kindle bookstore:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gorgeous-George-Zombie-Eaters-ebook/dp/B00CGNGMSS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367409294&sr=8-1&keywords=gorgeous+george+zombie+fish+eaters

A few weeks ago My Little Big Town returned to The London Book Fair even bigger, better and grosser than ever before.

During the three day event, held at London’s Earls Court, we brought together all of our authors to showcase their recent and future books. We had soon to be published authors Rowan Gibson, Beth Dexter-Smith and New Zealand cricketer Iain O’Brien, meeting and greeting at the stand. And our very own Stuart Reid (Gorgeous George) drew one of the biggest crowds at his ‘Monsters, Bums, Bogeys & Books that children WANT to read’ presentation.

We also unveiled our Pocket Money Books series, which will be a collection of short stories available exclusively on eBook. This new series will feature some of your favourite MLBT characters including Gorgeous George and Tiny Twisted Tales. These bite-size stories will cost between 99p and £1.99 each and will be available for download via Kindle and Amazon firstly, and then shortly afterwards on the new My Little Big Town hub app.

The MLBT app is now available to download for iPad. Here you’ll be able to get all the latest news about our upcoming releases, author signings and launch events. You’ll also be able to keep all of our eBooks that you purchase on our virtual bookshelf. Our range of eBooks will be extended vastly over the upcoming months, with interactive versions of Where’s The Scone and Pirates Don’t Play Cricket (featuring the voices of international cricketers) being made available online.

We have more exciting info from the fair coming very soon, including news about several new authors and illustrators. So keep an eye on our news page and our Facebook and Twitter for all the latest from My Little Big Town.

[Show as slideshow]

You can find us in the children’s publishing section at stand A620. Why not drop by and say hello. View the fantastic selection of books we have on offer (as well as new titles we’re adding in 2014) or just have a chat. We’d love to see you there!

The My Little Big Town stand at the London Book Fair 2013 will also reveal the new branding and ‘look’ to the My Little Big Town company… something that we’re very excited about. As well as the My Little Big Town ‘production and sales team you will also be able to meet several of our authors, including Stuart Reid (author fo the Gorgeous George series) and Iain O’Brien and Rowan Gibson (authors of the upcomign Pirates Don’t Play Cricket). Get yourself a copy of our new 2013 catalogue, as well as our new digital ebook/interactive book catalogue, as well as all sorts of other goodies!

The Mail teamed up with Hessle publisher and illustrator Calvin Innes and Scottish author Stuart Reid to give away 400 copies of their book Gorgeous George And The Geriatric Generator.

And Calvin, head of My Little Big Town Publishing, and Stuart were on hand to sign copies for their latest young fans at St Stephen’s shopping centre in Hull.

Stuart said: “It’s great to be down here and meet everyone. We’re delighted there was so much interest.”

Today, The Mail will be continuing its great giveaways with free toffee apples from our stand at St Stephen’s while stocks last.

READ ALL ABOUT IT: From left, Calvin Innes and Stuart Reid, Leah Tooley, 5, Abby Tooley, 8, and Ben Tooley, 9.

View The Original Article

THE Mail has teamed up with Hull publishing company My Little Big Town to give away fun children’s books.

Former Wolfreton School pupil Calvin Innes, 29, launched the company last August.
With plans to publish more than 25 books by next year, he says he is all too aware of the importance of reading for young minds.

He says his school days were filled with reading books he could not get into and he wanted to publish books that children would want to read.
He said: “It’s all about monsters, bogeys, farts and silly stuff like that, which kids love to read.
“Even the most reluctant readers will pick these books up and enjoy them.”

Calvin Innes with pupils at Francis Askew Primary School in Hull

Mr Innes, who writes and illustrates books, is passionate about igniting children’s desire for reading and visits schools to share his enthusiasm.

His book, Stuart The Bug- Eating Man, which is worth £6.99, will be the first giveaway with the paper.

The book will be available at St Stephen’s shopping centre on Saturday, with a copy of the Mail, until stocks run out.

Stuart The Bug-Eating Man is about a man with an unusual taste for all things creepy and crawly. He likes nothing better than munching on a centipede sandwich or guzzling down a tall frosty glass of liquidised slug. Unfortunately, his family don’t share his taste in snacks.

Gorgeous George, another of the company’s books, will also be available at a later date.
Pupils at Francis Askew Primary School were some of the first in the country to get their hands on the book during a visit by the illustrator and author.
He said: “The aim of the school visit was to encourage children to enjoy reading. We talked about writing and being creative and I showed them how to draw monsters.

“The children were all really excited about the fact they were seeing the book before anyone else.”

Tamisha Newell, 8, a pupil at the North Road school in west Hull, said: “I like Gorgeous George because he’s really silly.

“Silly stuff makes kids laugh and making kids laugh is the best thing ever.”

Calvin Innes with pupils at Francis Askew Primary School in Hull

Find out more about Calvin and his authors at www.mylittlebigtown.com

View original article

YOUNG bookworms are in for a real treat this month when popular children’s author and illustrator Calvin Innes makes a visit to two Runcorn schools to inspire youngsters to get involved with reading and drawing.

An illustrator for over 10 years, the famous publisher and artist will visit St Edward’s Catholic Primary School and Weston Primary School to talk about his work and get children to unleash their creativity through illustration and other exciting activities.
The illustrator of the popular Stuart Reed book Gorgeous George And The Giant Geriatric Generator will also be on hand to sign copies for pupils.

Calvin, whose work spans from books to film, has worked with famous brands such as Cadbury and was also recently involved with the advertising of last year’s Smurfs film.

He also runs My Little Big Town, a children’s publishing company based in Hull which published the famous Gorgeous George title that has featured on ITV’s Daybreak and BBC Radio 2’s Steve Wright Show, captivating children all over the country.
He will stop by at St Edward’s Primary School on the morning of Monday, October 29 and he will spend the whole day will be at Weston Primary School on Tuesday, October 30, all day.

View original article

PUBLISHING firm My Little Big Town plans to take on more staff as it looks to release up to 15 titles in the next year.

The Hull-based company, which specialises in children’s books, is forecasting turnover of more than £1m in its second year compared to £70,000 in year one.

Calvin Innes, chief executive of MLBT, said: “Over the next 12 months, we will launch another 10 to 15 titles and have a massive push on digital books to establish ourselves as a major player in that market. We’ll also be developing merchandise for our bigger titles.

“This year, we forecast our turnover will be more than £1m and we expect to have six staff working directly for us. We will also be going from one digital book to at least 10 interactive titles.”

MLBT published its first book, Gorgeous George and The Giant Geriatric Generator, last August. The book, written by Scottish author Stuart Reid and illustrated by Mr Innes, has sold more than 12,000 copies. The sequel, Gorgeous George and the Zigzag Zit-faced Zombies, is released in January and has more than 6,000 advance orders.

In addition to selling print and digital books, MLBT is also selling overseas rights to its books and negotiating joint publishing deals with overseas publishers. MLBT currently employs four people including Mr Innes’ brother who develops the digital books.

View the original article

Nearly one hundred years ago, in Little Pumpington, a power plant was founded by three men called Mr. Peabody, Mr. Percival and Mr. Prickly. These founding members decided to name their power plant after themselves, as many rich and pompous men do, and called their company 3P’s Power.

The three Mister P’s were mean, malicious men and wanted to do everything possible to make as much money as they could, as quickly as they were able. They employed children and paid them 2p a week and when child labour was banned by the government, they employed the poorest people in the town and continually threatened to fire them if they didn’t work hard enough. Now, even though the factory was a power plant, burning lots of coal and turning it into electricity, there were parts of the factory that could get quite cold in the winter. When some of the workers complained that they couldn’t feel their fingers, Mr Peabody, Mr Percival and Mr Prickly agreed to turn the heating on in those parts of the plant.

Then they docked everybody’s wages to pay for the heat!

And it was a dirty job too. There was soot, smoke and steam everywhere, especially at the bottom of the three enormous chimney stacks. If you didn’t work in the freezing cold part of the factory, then you worked in the boiler room, a swelteringly hot pit of fire and burning coals, where the men fried eggs on their shovels for their lunch and when they walked around the corridors next to the gigantic coal-burning furnace, they splashed through deep puddles of their own sweat.

Thirty years after the power plant opened, Mr. Prickly suggested to Mr Peabody that his son Peter should marry Mr. Peabody’s daughter Patricia. That way all the money that they made stayed in their family and they didn’t have to share it with anyone. (Mr Percival had long since met an accident in the furnace of the factory, when he‘accidentally’ tripped and fell into the giant oven, when inspecting the boiler room with Mr Peabody and Mr Prickly. There were no other witnesses.) So Peter Prickly married Patricia Peabody and ten years later, they had a daughter whom they called Petunia, who became the sole heir to 3P’s Power.

Now when Petunia was a young girl she used to visit her father, Mr. Prickly Junior at the power plant almost every day. She loved looking down from the big director’s office and over-seeing the whole factory. To Petunia, it seemed like the most marvellous position of power, she loved the feeling of control it seemed to give her over the ‘little’ workers running about down below on the factory floor. She would tour the factory with her father, who would shout at his struggling labourers to work harder or to stop slacking. He showed Petunia how power plants burned fossil fuels like coal and oil, boiling water like a giant kettle and turning it into steam, which then fuelled a generator which stored the power until it was needed; usually when the people of Little Pumpington turned on their TV’s and lights at home, especially in the evening.

There was one part of the tour that Petunia hated and this was when they walked through the basement where the engines churned and generators rumbled loudly and the valves hissed and spat steam everywhere and cranking of the pipes was so loud she could hardly hear herself speak. Petunia hated the noise.

Over the years, Petunia visited the factory less and less as her school-work and studies took over. She left school and went to college to become a teacher, imagining the power and control she could wield over whole classrooms full of little people. One summer’s day during the school holidays, Petunia returned to the factory to visit her father once more. ‘Aren’t you inspecting the factory today, father?’ she asked, wondering if she should take the tour again with her father for old times sake, but secretly thinking that she didn’t really want to see the dirty old furnaces one more time.

‘No, my dear,’ wheezed Mr Prickly Jr. pompously ‘I’ve found a marvellous young foreman to do all that work. I never need to set foot out of this office.’ And Mr Prickly Jr. coughed, wretched and cleared his throat in one hacking breath. ‘His name is young Mr Watt and I think you’ll rather like him’

Mr Prickly Jr. pointed out of his office window to a smart young man, quite tall, with broad shoulders in a brown suit, marching through the factory floor with a clipboard. By the time Petunia had left her father’s office and stepped down the long flight of stairs to the factory floor, she saw Mr Watt pointing his finger in a poor worker’s chest and shouting at him.

‘You’re fired!’ he bellowed and Petunia fell in love with him immediately. His forceful, bullying manner was just like her father’s and she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with this young man, whether he wanted to spend it with her or not. What Petunia did not know about Mr Watt was that he had a dream too. He longed to own his own power plant. He loved the factory and its marvellous ability to turn coal into energy; how this had transformed the lives of everyone in Little Pumpington and most importantly, Mr Watt loved the feeling of control this gave him over everyone’s lives. He wanted to control everything too, a bit like Petunia.

When he was a small boy, Mr Watt had enjoyed frying the wings off insects with his magnifying glass or putting fireworks up cats’ bottoms. Not only was this very cruel but people kept finding crispy bits of cats’ fur fluttering around the streets for days after fireworks night. And of course, the cats weren’t too happy about the idea either. As he grew older, Mr Watt’s sense of manipulation and domination grew with him until he found it was not enough that he succeeded, everyone else must also fail.

As soon as he left school, he enrolled in Power Plant Academy to learn all about power, energy and electricity and his control freakery started to take over his studies. In order to guarantee he scored the highest marks in the end of term exams, Mr Watt studied longer and harder than any other student in the final few days leading up to the exams, sometimes working well into the night. After dark, Mr Watt’s light could always be seen burning in his dormitory and occasionally he was forced to take a moonlight stroll to clear his head before falling asleep. Mr Watt refused to drink water before the exams, insisting that he’d been studying so long and so hard that all he needed to drink was cola and caffeine energy drinks, straight out of a can just to stay awake. And this was indeed a massive stroke of good fortune for Mr Watt because, and no one ever found out exactly how this happened but the mains water supply that flowed into Power Plant Academy and dormitory had become polluted with a tasteless, yet powerful laxative and all the students sitting the energy exams were struck down with the most violent bouts of diarrhoea.

People were forced to rush out of the examination hall to the toilet every ten minutes and at times there was a bit of a log jam in the bathrooms. There would be queues of students, crossing their legs and clenching their bottom cheeks, waiting for the next cubicle to become free. The drains became clogged up and one or two didn’t quite make it to the toilet in time. By the end of the exam, the hall had become a very smelly place but fortunately for Mr Watt, who’d kept drinking his energy drink and hadn’t touched the water, he remained sitting at his desk throughout the examination and successfully completed all the questions within the time limit.

Mr Watt graduated top of his class quite easily, since most of the other students didn’t even finish their papers, and the next stage of his plan to become the best power plant manager ever was put into place. He then applied directly to 3P’s Power for a job, enclosing with his letter, not only his exam results but a league table of all the students’ marks. Mr. Prickly Jr. had noted Mr Watt’s excellent results, especially compared to his other classmates, and when he interviewed Mr Watt, Mr Prickly Jr. was also very impressed with Mr. Watt’s air of authority and natural command, so before he’d even arrived at the factory to start his new job Mr. Watt had been promoted to foreman.

After that, Petunia, who, as a spoilt little rich girl had her father twisted around her finger, convinced him of Mr Watt’s talent, abilities and desires. Whilst he was courting young Petunia Prickly, Mr Watt, always with an eye for opportunity, was promoted by Mr Prickly Jr. to the role of director. The following year, after Mr. Watt married Miss Petunia, her father promoted Mr Watt to the lofty position of Managing Director. Old Mr. Prickly Jr. promptly retired, then died. In the space of two short years Mr Watt had gained total control of the 3P’s Power where he remained as Managing Dictator, I mean Director, ruthlessly ruling over the power plant.

Buy Gorgeous George & The Giant Geriatric Generator by Stuart Reid (illustrated by Calvin Innes) from all good book stores. Also available on the Amazon Kindle.

George was wide awake.

There was a thick fog outside which seemed to glimmer orange in the street-lights. A glow was twinkling through the frost that was forming on the outside of the window and George lay in his bed, mesmerized by the sparkles through a gap in the curtains.

Almost hypnotised, George slipped out of bed, crept toward the window and parted the curtains ever so slightly. The street outside was wrapped in a cold blanket of mist and only the street-lights could be seen, like large balls of flickering amber. The rest of the street was either painted with a light orange glow, or hidden in pitch black shadow. George sat for a long time and watched the icicle shapes grow on his window. Crystal fingers stretched inwards from the edges of the glass; crisp and sharp, forming intricate designs as tiny droplets of water began to freeze and expand with the rapidly dropping night-time temperatures.

There was no noise in the street; it was completely silent as if the fog had smothered any sound that dared to creep out from the darkness. But if George strained his ears hard enough and closed his eyes tightly, there, right on the corner of his imagination he was certain he could hear a low humming noise. Not quite a groaning or a growling but a soft humming whirl coming from outside.

His house was silent. Everyone would be sleeping soundly, the heating had switched itself off hours ago and all the plugs were pulled out of their sockets. Apart from George, nothing moved inside his house. The noise had to be coming from outside.

The humming sound was darting along the edges of his imagination now. Curiosity and intrigue dared George to open the window, just a tiny bit, to hear the sound a little clearer. As soon as George turned the handle and pushed quietly an icy blast of cold air rushed into his bedroom and he shivered inside his pyjamas. George’s breath blew puffy clouds out towards the small gap in the window frame and he pulled his arms tightly around his body. Settling down on his knees he closed his eyes again and concentrated on the humming sound. The noise was definitely not in his imagination now; it was outside, down the bottom of the street and coming closer. George opened his eyes and strained to see through the amber mist into the darkness beyond. The humming was always there.

At the very bottom of the street, where the houses meet the park and the large trees and hedges absorb all the street-lights, George saw two eyes approaching through the darkness. These eyes burned softly with a bluish white radiance that split through the orange fog. As these two eyes slid closer up the street, George saw that they were the headlights of a small truck; an almost silent little box on four wheels, painted a dull black colour which absorbed all the light around it. And as the little black truck coasted up the middle of the road, George realised that this was where the humming noise was coming from.

It wasn’t a noisy petrol motor like a car or a coughing spluttering diesel engine that was powering the black truck; it seemed to George that a noiseless, unseen hand was pushing the strange vehicle along. George had heard his Grandpa Jock talk about the old days, when people had their milk delivered directly onto their doorstep, straight from the dairy, without even sniffing a supermarket. Milk was delivered in little trucks called milk-floats. Grandpa Jock said these milk-floats had electric motors and the reason they were called milk-floats was because these little trucks were so quiet that they seemed to float along the road, without a sound. But nobody in Little Pumpington gets milk delivered to their doorstep now, not unless it’s been ordered online and usually comes along with lots of other groceries from the big supermarket inside your computer. And nobody has their shopping delivered at one o’clock in the morning.

So George was pondering the mystery of a midnight milk merchant when the truck bumped up onto the pavement and stopped outside old Mr Swan’s house. Mr Swan was a grouchy old man who smelled a little bit like wee and a lot like stale beer. George’s dad said that when Mr Swan dies, they’d better not cremate him or he’ll go up like Guy Fawkes although George wasn’t quite sure what he’d meant. Mr Swan always wore three jerseys and a cardigan, even in the summer, and in the winter he’d wear special gloves with the fingertips cut off them. George thought that this was so Mr Swan could keep his hands warm and still pick his nose, which was quite a good idea because when George wore gloves and picked his nose, the fluffy fingertips were always getting gummed up with bogies, the wool made his nose tickle and his mum usually went mad, shouting ‘I hope this snot comes off in the wash!’.

George always sniggered when he thought about his bogies swimming around in the same washing machine as his dad’s favourite golf sweater. But George wasn’t sniggering now. George was shivering and not with the cold. He had seen two enormous shadows step out of the black truck and go in through the front door of Mr Swan’s house. These shadows lurched, rather than walked and had a sinister sense of purpose.

Two minutes later the shadows returned, this time staggering more than swaggering as they carried a large, black sack. They disappeared behind the truck and George saw one of the vehicle’s back doors open, then softly close again without a sound. One of the dark shadows appeared around this side of the truck, opened the driver’s door and was about to step in, then paused. The shadow looked up at George’s window and their eyes met. At least George’s eyes met with an evil glint from inside a black hood and George seemed too paralysed to move, his body was tingling all over and he held his breath. Holding his breath seemed a good idea because George thought that maybe the shadow had seen the warm, cloudy air billowing out from his mouth and escaping through the gap in the window that was still open a few inches. Gulp!

The shadow lifted its large club of a clenched fist and with a stiff, dagger-like thumb drew its hand across its neck. George didn’t hear if this was accompanied with a creaking, tearing sound from the back of the shadow’s throat but it should have been and probably was; only the fog had stifled it.

‘GEORGE!’

George leapt into the air, his heart missing a beat at the shout and he turned toward his bedroom door. George’s mum flew into the room in a flurry, with the frustrated annoyance of a parent who didn’t want to get up out of their nice, warm bed but knew that they had to.

‘What are you doing out of bed at this time? Why is your window open?’ she asked, ‘have you been sleep walking again?’

‘No, mum, it’s the shadows,’ George replied sleepily and he turned to the window to see the street, empty, orange and completely quiet again.

‘Shadows? Really George!’ George’s mum muttered as she stepped over and pulled the window tight shut. ‘Get back into bed and no more silly dreaming. You and your imagination boy.’ And she bundled George into his bed, pulled the quilt around him and tucked it under his legs.

‘Now go to sleep.’ And she scurried off to her bedroom again, hoping that the duvet was as warm and snuggly as it had been when she’d left it two minutes earlier but knowing that it never was. George closed his eyes and wondered if he really had been dreaming as the swaggering, staggering shadows lumbered around the edges of his mind and he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Buy Gorgeous George & The Giant Geriatric Generator by Stuart Reid (illustrated by Calvin Innes) from all good book stores. Also available on the Amazon Kindle.