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The Popularity of Book Events Across the UK

February 8th, 2017 by chiara_bullen | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on The Popularity of Book Events Across the UK
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The launch of a book, especially one that kick starts an author’s writing career, is undoubtedly a special occasion. This was certainly the case on the 2nd of February when Cranachan Publishing, who began their publishing journey in early 2016, launched Ross Sayers’ ‘Mary’s The Name’ to a room filled with a bustling crowd and festive atmosphere.

To celebrate the book’s release, which follows the story of an 8-year old girl on the run with her Grandpa, Cranachan Publishing hosted a lively night of music, food, drink and a charismatic interview with the author. The night was a sell-out, demonstrating that small publishers can certainly put on a big show.

This is a scenario you’re likely to come across in venues across the UK, as book events are increasingly popular. In the next couple of months there are at least 260 book events taking place across the country.* Of course, there always have been events to pull in crowds, but with the introduction of technology that encourages virtual events- such as Twitter Q+As with authors and online tours- it’s encouraging to see how physical and digital events fall hand-in-hand with each other instead of one coming out on top.

The success of #ScotLitFest, the largest online-only book festival launched in 2016, shows there is clearly a demand and an audience for virtual book-events, most likely because of how convenient and easily accessible they are. Thankfully, the popularity of physical events doesn’t seem to have wavered despite the demand, and last year’s launch and immediate success of Harper Collins’ ‘BookGig’ illustrates this.

BookGig is an online resource that allows you to enter your postcode to see what bookish events are coming up near you,  allowing you to buy tickets and find out more about the event. This makes it easier to find events close and convenient to you, helping spread the word and drawing crowds to events they might have potentially missed out on. The importance of the prominent presence of physical book events is demonstrated in a comment from Brian Klems of Writer’s Digest:

‘Although today’s virtual world allows authors to connect with their audience without ever leaving their house, virtual communication cannot replace the physical experience of sharing your book and knowledge with a room full of real people at a book signing. Successful book signings help drive word of mouth, move books, built your credibility and platform as an author, speaker and expert in your field and allow you to get a true-life sense of your audience.’

The roaring success of the Mary’s The Name book launch in Stirling truly represents the popularity of physical book events across the UK. With the introduction of successful and easy to use resources making them more accessible, it’s a positive sign of times to come for events in the publishing industry.

Cranachan publishing can be found on Twitter, as well as BookGig.

*Stats from BookGig

– Chiara Bullen

SYP Scotland: Agents Uncovered

February 6th, 2017 by jo_ripoll | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on SYP Scotland: Agents Uncovered
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Photo credit: @SYPScotland Twitter

After missing my train (by one minute!), I arrived late to SYP Scotland’s event Agents Uncovered. Even with my public transportation debacle, this panel was definitely worth the trouble and the run from the train station. Agenting isn’t a topic heavily covered in the program, so it was beneficial to get a more in-depth overview about what being an agent truly entails.

The panel consisted of two agents: Judy Moir, who owns her own small literary agency, and Taran Baker, and was moderated by SYP’s Kirstin Lamb. The running advice of their panel, that we seem to constantly be hearing, is network and socialise. Taran, who started out in bookselling, got her first job as an agent by just being nice and talking to someone at an event. Judy emphasised as well to get to know people your own age in publishing because we are all the future of the publishing industry.

An agent is the mediator between the publisher and the author, but is always working towards the best interests of the author. Some general advice the two shared and important skills an agent needs are:

  • Know your way around a contract. Take a class about contract knowledge because this is absolutely essential to being a successful agent.
  • Know how the publishing process works. Have some general, all-around knowledge of each aspect (editorial, production, marketing, etc). Everything you pick up along the way is helpful.
  • Be able to sell. You have to be able to make a good pitch to a publisher, and an author at times, and sometimes hassle to get the best for your client. Get to know people in the industry, and learn how to work with and sell to them successfully.
  • Have a good nose for talent. Know where potential lies; sometimes it just needs a bit of editing. Along the same lines, have a good eye for visuals—being able to look at covers and marketing plans and recognizing their strengths and weaknesses will definitely come in handy.
  • Have patience. Agents deal with a lot of different types of people throughout the course of just one day (authors, publishers, etc). They do a lot of checking and chasing, and that takes an abundance of patience at times.
  • Honesty is the best policy. Relationships with authors and publishers is the core of being an agent. Managing their expectations with what kind of agent/agency you are takes trust and a healthy professional relationship.

Besides all of these skills, I, personally, learned a few things from this panel. Agents are not necessarily built-in editors. There are some agents who like to have a polished manuscript before taking it to an editor or a publishing house. But, that is not all agents, and acquisition editors should not expect a fully-formed book from an agency. Sometimes you have to go fishing for the talent; it won’t always find you. However, don’t completely under-estimate the slush pile.

And, the best advice, for everyone out there, not just for potential future agents: Don’t try and do it all; you’ll never sleep.

By Jo Ripoll

Lessons from the “Academic Publishing: Routes to Success” monograph workshop

February 3rd, 2017 by Soraya Belkhiria | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Lessons from the “Academic Publishing: Routes to Success” monograph workshop
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The Monograph Publishing Round Table opened the “Academic Publishing; Routes to Success” workshop hosted by the University of Stirling on Monday 23rd January and coordinated by the dynamic Dorothy Butchard.

Dr Andrea Schapper, Dr Timothy Peace and Dr Kelsey Williams, all from the University of Stirling shared their experience with monograph publishing from the author’s point of view, guided by the questions of Claire Squires.

The following blog is an organized summary of all the points they raised while sharing their personal experience with publishing a monograph from their thesis work. For a more complete panorama of the day long workshop, please go read Aleksander Krzysztof Pęciak’s blog article.

Why publish a monograph?

What could be gathered from all the panelists is that, in an environment where it’s quite difficult to find a stable job as an academic, having a published monograph on your CV can really make a difference to get interviews. It was also the general consensus that the monograph is a more accessible piece of writing than a thesis, and that by choosing this format you are making a claim to a wider audience, even compared to journal articles. Andrea Schapper also said that monographs were special because, compared to articles, they are the work of several years put together in one product.

The 10 steps in getting published:

  1. Identify a book series which your monograph could fit in. As Timothy Peace remarked, you might have an idea of this from the research you’ve done and the familiarity with book series on your subject it has brought you.
  2. Send an email to the series editor to see if your title interests him and fits with the editorial line. That will save you time. If you receive a positive answer, you can then submit a proposal.
    But, if you are rejected, as says Andrea Schapper, “Don’t give up if you’re being turn down. Don’t take it personally but take it professionally. Rejection is part of an academic’s career.”
  3. Be prepared to revise a lot of what you have already written. Kelsey Williams, whose monograph was published by Oxford University Press, had to make pretty drastic revisions to make his thesis accessible, and to axe 1/3 of his content to be under the 80,000 words limit. Timothy Peace for his part only had to cut down the “boring bits of methodology” and make the text more reader friendly and less PhD sounding.
  4. Allow for time. The revisions took Kelsey Williams between 8 and 10 month, so this can be a lengthy process. The press can be even longer to give you definite answers when you are producing your first book. In his case, by the time Oxford University Press agreed to sign a formal contract, he had already produced the final draft.
  5. But don’t wait too long to publish the monograph, as it is a very useful thing to have done when hunting for a job. From the time you contact the editor to the date of publication, at least a year is necessary.
  6. Deal with peer reviews. While reviews can often help you write a better book with their suggestions, they can also be an obstacle you have to overcome. Andrea Schapper said that for her monograph, two reviewers liked the book and one didn’t. His critics gave her the impression that he didn’t really read the book, but she addressed his comments in her response with evidence from her own material and the editor was fine with publishing her work in the end.
  7. Index your own book. According to Timothy Peace, it will save you money, because the publisher will make you pay for this service, and you can do it in as little as two days with the help of a software. On top of that, it can be a useful way to assess the structure of your argument.
  8. Ask people to review your book for you. Even if a “I’ll review yours if you review mine deal” can sound difficult to strike in conscience, it is actually very helpful to get your book talked about.
  9. Be prepared to do a lot of the promotion yourself, as publishers do not seem very inclined on investing energy in promoting first-time monograph authors.
  10. Enjoy your royalties! Because yes, as surprising as it sounds, you might receive a royalties check! (even if you won’t get any advance).

And to conclude, here are some thoughts from Kelsey Williams to pounder: “The first book is going to be the worse book you’ll ever write, and that’s okay. Be generous with yourself and don’t be too perfectionist, because it will slow you down and maybe break your career dynamic instead of helping it.”

– Soraya Belkhiria

Academic Book Week visits Stirling

February 3rd, 2017 by Aleksander Pęciak | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Academic Book Week visits Stirling
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A logo for Academic Book Week 2017: A yellow pile of books with yellow text below: Academic Book Week 2017. Dates are located below the name of the event: 23RD - 28TH. All elements of the logo are based on a black background.There are not many opportunities to get to know something more about academic publishing outside the course, so I enthusiastically attended the workshop “Academic Publishing – Routes to Success” organised on Monday, 23rd of January. Although the whole event was aimed at postgraduate students interested in pursuing their academic careers, publishing students also found it helpful, as discussions and talks given by speakers explained the processes of communication between researchers and publishers.

Academic Book Week is a week-long celebration that focuses on the issues around academic publishing and relationships between academic books’ authors, publishers and readers. Started in 2015 as a centerpiece of the Academic Book of the Future Project, Academic Book Week continues to deliver essential information and tools that can positively aid all parts in the area and creates space for lively debates.

“Academic Publishing – Routes to Success” was the first workshop organised in this year’s edition of the event – it was arranged by researchers on the Peer Review project, Professor Claire Squires, Dr Simon Rowberry, and Dr Dorothy Butchard. The workshop was divided into five sessions, covering different aspects of academic: Monograph Publishing Round Table, with Dr Andrea Schapper, Dr Timothy Peace, and Dr Kelsey Williams (University of Stirling), Peer Review and the Postgraduate Experience, Open Access with Dr Betsy Fuller (University of Stirling), Journal Publishing, with Dr Chris Gair (University of Glasgow), Social Media and Blogging to Develop and Communicate Research, with Nicola Osborne (EDINA, University of Edinburgh). The sessions took nearly seven hours and between them, attendees received a proper lunch and beverages.

The Monograph Publishing Round Table was a panel discussion moderated by Professor Claire Squires – researchers representing different scientific backgrounds, who were already experienced with publishing their monographs, shared their views on the topic and advice for current PhD students. Then, in the second session, Dr Dorothy Butchard introduced the audience to the ideas behind peer reviewing and revealed how the whole process looks like in practice. The session was finished with a discussion about the most current issues in academic publishing, where the audience was first shared into smaller groups and then presented their opinion on the topic. The Open Access workshop delivered by Dr Betsy Fuller clarified the concept of OA, explained differences between its models, presented possible ways of being published and where to find funds for that.

The part of the workshop that I found most useful and informative for publishing students was presented by Dr Chris Gair from the University of Glasgow, editor of Symbiosis: A Journal of Transatlantic Literary and Cultural Relations. His whole presentation shed a light on journal publishing and explained how to maintain a perfect strategy to have your article published.

During the last session, Nicola Osborne, Digital Education & Service Manager from EDINA, demonstrated the way of effective scientific communication on social media platforms, as well as how to use blogs to share and sell researcher’s ideas. From the perspective of a publishing student who wants to work in academic publishing in future, researchers popular on social media and representing a decent and engaging style of writing would make perfect authors to be published and promoted.

All the workshops and discussions clearly proved that to be successful nowadays researchers should be not only skilled in writing and researching the areas of their studies but in maintaining their own brand and effective communication on social media as well. With dynamic changes around academic publishing, they need to take care of their image and its recognition in the community of academics and publishers.

My Internship with Barrington Stoke

February 2nd, 2017 by evangelia_kyriazi-perri | Posted in Blog, Internships | Comments Off on My Internship with Barrington Stoke
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2017 could not have started better for me, as I was offered an internship at Barrington Stoke. Barrington Stoke is a children’s and YA publisher, founded by Patience Thomson and Lucy Juckes, a mother and daughter-in-law team with personal experience of the way that dyslexia can lock children out of the world of books and reading. They came up with the idea of books that would open the door to more young people.  They developed a dyslexia-friendly font, pioneered the use of tinted paper and began to commission short, achievable books from an amazing range of authors.

The Perks of Being a Publishing Intern!

Over the years, the company has gained many awards, such as Children’s Publisher of the Year, and many supporters due to their collaborations with exceptional and award-winning authors and illustrators. Working for a children’s publisher for 5 weeks is an amazing experience. Currently being in the middle of my time there, I received valuable guidance, advice and the chance to develop my editorial, social media and design skills, as I’m responsible for updating the company’s blog to a great extent, using WordPress.

Working in an office is one of the best experiences I could have gained, because I always wanted to work in this environment, collaborating with other workmates and get an insight into working for a publisher. Barrington Stoke  is small but very friendly company, with many tasks and responsibilities for the staff. As an intern, I’ve undertaken various tasks so far, helping by completing office administrative tasks such as mailing the new book catalogues to booksellers such as Waterstones. My favourite task was definitely blogging, because I own my own food and lifestyle blog, so it was interesting to create blogs about book titles and mini author interviews called ‘Five Questions’.

Working on blog posts for the book titles!

 

During my internship so far, I’ve been using Indesign and Photoshop tools, to edit pictures and create banners for the blog posts I was responsible to create. This helped me very much to practise my design skills and familiasize myself with design tools, which will help me in my future career. At Barrington Stoke, I’ve also been responsible for proof-reading some of the book catalogues and stock lists, and have explored the editorial department.

I consider myself lucky to have worked at Barrington Stoke and I believe this internship strengthened my passion for social media and digital marketing, helping me pursuing a career after my postgrad.

 

By Elina Kyriazi-Perri

Holidaying in Sepia (part two)

December 16th, 2016 by Alec Spencer | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Holidaying in Sepia (part two)
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Most will not know who I am. Having started my part-time MRes in September 2014, the 27 months runs out about now. So, hello to the (by now not so) new MLitt course and farewell – though if you are interested in Penguins our paths might still cross.

My first ‘Holidaying in Sepia’ blog was written decrying the constant use of technology to which we are all subjected, probably subservient to, and upon which we depend. Relaxation for me involves a good book, preferably in warmer climes, and occasionally accompanied by a drink. So it is that, after a period of intensive work and dissertation submitted by due date, I find myself again enjoying relaxation in the manner described.

Books can resonate with readers, be page-turners and can be all-absorbing. They have the power to transport us and energize our minds. They can allow us to wind down, and dare I admit to the groupies of ‘Bloody Scotland’, that Ian Rankin and Rebus are great escapism, situated in the familiar locations of Auld Reekie and Fife.

But where was I? Oh yes, being absorbed by a good book. I was given one, recently published and signed by the author. I found it interesting, stimulating, absorbing, emotional, educational and even disturbing. This was, in the main, a biography. Like any good historical novel, best guess at what might have happened or what the thought processes were are interspersed with fact, documentation and archive material. The people had migrated and travelled, created new lives, and in this book one of the characters came under the scrutiny of MI5.

Time for dinner; time to stop reading, take a shower and to get changed. So civilized on holidays. My thoughts were still with the book until I realized that even though my watch might survive, the leather watchstrap had absorbed too much of the shower to remain of use. I suppose part of the reason for my absent-mindedness was that, written by a relative, the book’s central characters just happened to be my grandmother and my aunt!

I think I am less likely to have a mishap while reading Rankin.

The course at ‘Stirpub’ is great. Enjoy it and reap the rewards. I’m off to get another sangria.

Alec.

In praise of serendipity

December 16th, 2016 by morven_gow | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on In praise of serendipity
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img_2140In praise of serendipity

Over this semester, we have all enjoyed learning at the collective knees of visiting speakers. They have represented all sectors of the publishing industry – bar one.  Best represented by the chaotic, Bernard Black of Channel 4 TV’s Black Books I confess a deep and abiding love for the mostly unkempt and tatty world of the preloved book.  Every place associated with a book is sacred and has the air of a temple. For me, there is no other book buying experience to top the emotional pull of a second-hand bookshop.

Crossing the hallowed threshold, it’s best to be in a state of mindfulness – open to the calls and vibrations coming your way from the waifs and strays on shelves, on tables or piled high in columns around you.  “What a load of tosh!” I can hear some of you cry out.  But others will agree with me.

You will discover exactly the book you didn’t know you needed or wanted on that day and at that time you ambled into the shop.  We behave quite differently depending on the reading material we require at any one time and, while a bricks/clicks-and mortar bookshop, or Amazon and others, can supply you with exactly what you know you want, their book shelf categories and algorithms cannot hope to compete with the happy discoveries which occur when the infinite random variables in your brain meet the ideas and thoughts bounding off the shelves, tables and columns.

If you are concerned about the ‘dark’, second-hand book economy, with authors, publishers and agents missing out on remuneration, as long as you remember to sing the praises of the books on sites like Goodreads, you will be playing your part in the book selling process, encouraging others to buy and read the books. You may even replace the preloved one with a new copy, if it’s a bit too tatty and it’s captured your heart.  In the photograph, there are some titles which called to me from shelves in Wigtown, Galloway; Arklow, Wicklow; Glasgow and Dunlop.  They have found their ‘forever home’ with me.

Go on.  Find your local ‘Black Books’. Bernard may even have a glass of wine waiting for you.

By Morven Gow

FutureBook Conference 2016

December 16th, 2016 by Puyu Cheng | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on FutureBook Conference 2016
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FutureBook is The Bookseller’s digital publishing conference. This conference took place on 2nd December in London, and it also hosted the annual FutureBook Awards and the BookTech Showcase. FutureBook Conference is also Europe’s largest digital publishing conference. The key themes of this conference were:

  •  How publishers can define and better take advantage of current trends in digital
  • How innovation has become ingrained
  • The new business models coming out of the start-up sector
  • Change management within established businesses
  • Trends emerging over the horizon.

Although I didn’t go to the conference in person, I learned a lot by reading some articles from The Bookseller and the FutureBook’s tweets. I think this conference is very important for the future development of the publishing industry. There were four keynote speakers at the conference this year, including Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur; Ogilvy & Mather’s James Whatley; Anki Ahrnell, Bonnier AB’s chief digital and technology officer; and Eva Appelbaum, partner at Digital Talent @ Work. And after reading an article from The Bookseller, I was impressed by Eva Appelbaum’s speech.

Eva Appelbaum (twitter) is a digital strategy specialist at Digital Talent @Work. And the topic of her speech was “How to create the publishing people of tomorrow”. She said: “We’re in an awkward position, we have one leg in industrial, and one reaching forward to digital but we don’t know what the ground we’re stepping into is going to look like.” That’s right. Since twenty-first Century, digital technology has been widely used, and now more and more industries need to rely on digital technology to survive. And with the rapid development of digital publishing, publishing industry had a revolution.

Now the publishing industry is at an important turning point. Just like Appelbaum said, the publishing industry has one leg in traditional publishing, and one reaching forward to digital publishing. Maybe the development of digital publishing is a great threat to the traditional publishing industry, but at the same time, it also offers a broader development space for the publishing industry. With the rapid development of digital publishing, there is a severe hit for the sales of print books. But e-books and audiobooks sales are increasing, which gives publishers some opportunities to gain profits. So for traditional publishing, digital publishing is not only a challenge, but also an opportunity.

Appelbaum also said: “Publishers need to move away from thinking about digital as a silo and instead focus on cultivating the mindset and behaviours needed to thrive in the digital age.” I think the idea is profound. There is no doubt that digital publishing has great potential, but the development process will be very tortuous. Therefore, publishers need to actively explore new digital technology, while improving the development of traditional publishing, so as to make the development of the publishing industry in a stable state.

The Bookseller believes that “FutureBook is the must-attend event for anyone who wants to face our digital future from a position of power.” I agree with it. In my opinion, with the development of digital publishing, the FutureBook Conference seems to be more and more important.

You can find more information about FutureBook Conference 2016 on their website and twitter.

And you can read the article from The Bookseller about Eva Appelbaum’s speech.–‘Human revolution’ needs to be understood, urges Appelbaum

by Puyu Cheng

More and more Americans like to see the net fiction from China?

December 14th, 2016 by biyan_gu | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on More and more Americans like to see the net fiction from China?
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Recently in China, the growth of a new net fiction website is catching people’s attention – Wuxiaworld, a overseas website which was founded in December 22, 2014, and the current average monthly page views is over 70 million within less two years. It is indeed a remarkable achievement as the monthly page views of the original website – Qidian is only 580,000.

From Alexa, we can see that the traffic ranks has dramatically increased. The majority of the audience are from the U.S.A. The audience totals 100 million. As a simple fiction site, this should be a very good achievement. For the growing trends, it can be seen as explosion.

But it is quite hard to compartmentalize this kind of fiction, writers write the novels down chapter by chapter and publish them through the fic-website. If their works are really popular, some publishers will also help them to publish the real books for both the writers and readers. It is a kind like light novels from Japan, but most of them are seen as Pulp fiction. A great numbers of Chinese are wondering why these fictions are becoming so popular in the western countries.

Or in the other word, why Europe and the America do not have this kind of net fictions? Or do they have this kind of commercialization of the system?

Before the development of the network, Europe and the United States have established a mature mechanism for best-selling book. Formed readers, a well-developed publishing mechanism, and stable author groups & agencies.

This is the most advanced printing system, from the 18th century it bumped all the way to come over. When the network comes, this system seems not work well with the network.

However, compared with the network publishing system, this traditional production system is obviously slow and not flexible enough. A best-selling book can raise the profile of authors for a few years, but it would be eliminated if the text need to update in more than a week. Moreover, the best-selling author is very difficult to face the competition as the author of the net fiction, facing the reader – this work is often done by the editor. This relationship is not enough “flat”, the innovation is not fast enough, the grasp of the market is not precise enough.

This system has been defeated, in fact, as Fifty Shades of Grey was the fanfiction of Twilight originally, written and published on the Internet. At first some publishers do not want to make it real and it also have some problems about the IP right. However, the final market proved that this is actually the reader wants to see.

It seems that the net fiction has strong life: the users product the content, the authors tried to form the perfect rules and settings again and again, and the following group of authors will share, inherit and develop these routines, styles and settings. And this process is very fast and flexible response.

Therefore, Chinese net fictions are becoming popular for foreign readers. This is the victory for the new media, new mode of production, against with the old media, the old mode of production. And for some national conditions and the accumulation of pressure and power, making this process particularly fierce.

Europe and the United States literature industry is well developed, but there is a gap between the authors and the readers. The author needs help from press to meet with the reader, the reader can only passively wait for works from the press. Harry Potter, Twilight, and so forth are liked by the masses, but because of their poor literary style they were rejected by many publishing houses.

The net fiction can avoid the disrupt from the publishers, authors can release their works on the internet, a simple truth, less risks for publishers but represent the masses needs.

Diverse Reads

December 14th, 2016 by marian_perez-santiago | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Diverse Reads
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Diversity, or lack thereof, is an important topic within the publishing industry. Representation is extremely paramount in both real and fictional worlds and, within each, the publishing industry could do better. However, there are some incredible diverse reads who don’t get the same attention as their non-diverse counterparts. Here are a few of my favorite diverse reads, both fiction and non-fiction. They are in no way all-encompassing nor are they in any particular order. Enjoy!

 

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This short collection of essays written as a letter to Coates’ son explores what it means to be African American in the US. Coates studies racism throughout history to present-day, even analyzing current tragedies like the racially charged deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. He discusses how racism is structurally ingrained and how the system wasn’t made with people of color in mind. A thought-provoking read, this book will stay with you long after you’ve finished it.

 

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

This is Woodson’s account of growing up as an African American girl during the 1960s Civil Rights movement and its aftermath. Told in verse, it explores Woodson’s childhood and her struggle to find her identity in a world that told her she was somehow less because of her skin color. This is a truly provocative read for all ages.

 

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This short essay doubles as a call to arms for both women and men. It explores the true definition of feminism through the lens of a Nigerian woman. Adichie uses personal experience to argue that feminism should be all-inclusive and rooted in cognizance. This read, although short, is so enlightening that it should be required reading in school. It’ll make you want to fist pump à la that one scene in The Breakfast Club.

 

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

This is a fantasy fiction novel set in the Middle East which follows Amani, a girl who just wants to escape her hometown of Dustwalk in favor of somewhere she can be free. Destined to end up “wed or dead”, she, instead, uses her spectacular sharpshooting skills to get herself out of Dustwalk, only to discover a dangerous secret about her companion and herself. With fantastic world-building, a diverse cast of characters, and a grand adventure, this book is sure to keep you entertained!

 

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

This is a novel set in post-war Barcelona that follows Daniel, a teenager who finds a book—The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax—and seeks out the authors other works only to find that someone has been methodically destroying all of them. Daniel goes on a journey to solve the mystery of the book burning only to discover dark secrets. Originally written in Spanish, this book has fantastic prose and an intriguing plot that will stick with you, even after you finish.

 

By Marian Pérez-Santiago

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