blog.saltpublishing.com » Salt Office Life

Looking Back – 10 Years of Salt: Why we Needed an Office

Jen — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:12:39 +0000

I was looking through my old MySpace Blog , when I came across a slideshow I made back in April 2008. We were in the process of negotiating the lease on our office and I was reaching the end of my tether. Salt had been based in a room stuck at the back of our home, just off the living room (next to the TV) for 8 years, but had gradually encroached on every available inch of space throughout the house. At the same time, our family had grown, with each of the 5 human occupants having to compete for space with the boxes of Salt books, and the boxes were winning!

Here is the slideshow. Sympathy, please:

Two months later we moved in and our lives changed dramatically: newly-found glorious space, floors and walls that weren’t cardboard-box coloured and a working space with a view of a high street, not the fence of our back garden, not to mention a lovely view of the Co-op across the road where we could watch people buying their lunch. I can’t say that our house is much tidier than it was before, but at least I no longer lose the children’s birth certificates in the pile of submissions. Here’s a video I made of our new office, back in the days before it became as messy as the old one:

The Edge Hill Prize, Phoenix Artist Club and Salt Launch

Jen — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:05:11 +0000

Yesterday I had such a brilliant day in London. It felt like I’d been trapped in the office for an age, so it was so good to get on the train and head to the big city. It was the Edge Hill Short Story awards, which were being held at Blackwells on Charing Cross Road and one of our books NUDE by the talented Nuala Ni Chonchuir, had been shortlisted. Nuala, her husband and baby daughter had flown in from Galway, arriving just as the event started, and then flying out at the crack of dawn to Cork as Nuala was teaching there in the morning.

Jeremy Dyson (writer for the League of Gentlemen) won with his collection The Cranes that Built the Cranes, and the lovely Robert Shearman won the Readers’ Prize for his Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical. It was great to meet Robert and Nuala again, as well as Adam Marek (who was shortlisted for the Daily Telegraph short story comp), Elizabeth Baines (Salt author of Too Many Magpies, Balancing on the Edge of the World and the forthcoming The Birth Machine) and Salt poet Robert Sheppard. (Robert, Nuala and Elizabeth are pictured here.)

Before the event started, I met up with Salt author Wena Poon. I have only ever met her in exotic locations: Cork, Singapore, Edinburgh and now London. Okay, London may not be exotic to some, but it is to me! We went for a lovely cake and coffee and caught up on her recent trip to Scotland and made arrangements for the launch of her novel Alex y Robert, which is happening at the South Bank Centre on Monday. Here is a short video of Wena being interviewed about it; I’m going to go (you come to; there’s a link here!) and I’m sure it’ll go much better than Wena predicts!:

After the awarding of the prizes, I popped over the road to Foyles to see if that was where a Salt launch was being held. Lee from the Office had taken newly published gorgeous books down on the train that afternoon for Agnieszka Studzinska, David Briggs and Mark Granier, who were holding a joint launch, but it wasn’t at Foyles and I couldn’t for the life of me think where it could be, so I joined the Edge Hill peeps and headed across the road to the Phoenix Club.This is a private members artists club which had a really lovely, relaxed but vibrant atmosphere. Every now and again they would jet dry ice into the room as a special touch. There were photos of actors on the wall and one end of the room was curtained off, probably for VIP members. We’d been there about an hour when I suddenly found myself face to face with Lee from the Office. I wondered if I’d drunk more than I thought, but no, he’d just stepped out from behind the curtain — that was where the launch was taking place!

What a great evening: a host of poets and a gaggle of short story writers! I met David, Mark and Agnieszka for the first time, as well as the familiar friendly faces of Salties Tamar Yoseloff and Katy Evans Bush. Lee and I got back to Cambridge at midnight. Wonderful!

Happiness comes in the shape of a square

Sarah-Jayne — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:10:55 +0000

Welcome to today’s news round up.

It has been a hectic and exhilarating day and, no surprise, one filled with books. Loads of stunning, beautiful books. And the title of the moment is square in shape.

When the bang of the door was followed by heavy clumps echoing up the office stairs, I felt a flutter of anticipation, wondering if it would be Emily Benet’s Shop Girl Diaries arriving hot off the presses. It was, and we were quickly drafted in to help the drivers bring thirty-four boxes up the stairs in a chain-team effort.

Mad mayhem followed in the office as we all scrambled to have a peek, and then rushed to label up the boxes and get them shipped out to shops and customers. Twenty boxes later, everything was piled up for our DHL man, and we were all ready for lunch.

Lee had brought in a succulent-smelling home-cooked meal of rice and vegetable curry, which he informed me was full of sweet potato, courgette, and red pepper. It looked pretty good next to my microwave chicken and mushroom pie and Gretel’s disappointing jacket potato.

Have a great weekend. I will: I have my weekend reading packed in my bag!

After the deluge – Salt’s office shake-up

Lee — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:33:51 +0000

So, after some extraordinary things happened earlier this year, we’re back on our feet and busy working on a new way of doing things.

Since arriving home from Melbourne, I’ve noticed a renewed air of positivity in the office. And a couple of new faces too. Sarah-Jayne and Gretel have added awesome support to our admin, marketing and sales operations, along with bringing some fantastic new ideas. Not to mention Chris, Jen and Charlotte working tirelessly to pull the business in its new direction.

I also have a new role – of a more technical nature. Keeping our database and website up-to-date is vital in maintaining good contact with authors, booksellers and reviewers, but it also creates a strong foundation on which to increase publicity and sales. This will be accompanied by a new integrated blog, more frequent email newsletters, and a focus on promoting both new releases and backlist titles.

And that’s not the only thing that’s changed. We’ve been shuffling around tables, rearranging offices and updating computers too.

Things take time, and you may not see the fruits of our inventions immediately. But we are working hard towards a sustainable (and enjoyable) future.

It’s a pleasure to work here. We want to extend this pleasure to our readers, not only in the form of our books, but through everything we do.

Alex Pryce — Diary of a Salt Intern

Chris Hamilton-Emery — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:45:38 +0000

Author photo ? Susan Collins

Monday 25th May

The fact that the rest of the UK is enjoying a sunny bank holiday makes me feel slightly apprehensive as I dutifully present myself at the door to the Salt offices in Fulbourn at 9.30 a.m. Chris is most welcoming, and once we are settled down with a cup of tea (milk, no sugar, I note) he explains the basic structure of a publishing business. Much of this is new to me as an English student, but Chris makes it very easy to understand and soon the office whiteboard is full of graphs to do with front and back list sales projections. Chris makes it quite clear that Salt have struggled financially, and that the Just One Book campaign (which I?m already up to date on through Twitter and Facebook) is a very serious part of keeping the business afloat.

Chris and I had already decided that we wanted to work on audio production ? something I know about from my project PoetCasting. I settle down to some real work and rustle up some guidelines to help Salt authors to produce podcasts of their own work. I?m suitably pleased with a productive first day at work, and I?m excited about the rest of the week.

Tuesday 26th May

I arrive by bus to Fulbourn and am pleased to see the office peopled this morning by Tom, Charlotte, Jen and Chris. Having made my introductions we set about approaching the direct website UK sales. Again, this is entirely new to me but I quickly find my way around the online sales details and the boxes in the store room. It is all hands on deck pretty much all day to hand pick, write and pack each of the orders, but I can?t think of a better way to familiarise myself with the Salt list. I?m pleased to see some of my favourite Salt books (The Ambulance Box, A Fold in the Map and Me and the Dead) are selling well.

This afternoon, Kirsty arrives in the office to give us a hand. She helps by writing the hand written notes for each package and we all end up giggling. Aside from the direct sales impact, the viral campaign has been attracting some very welcome press attention too and we are pleased to hear that Chris (who is currently working from home) will be heading down to London tomorrow for an interview for Newsnight Review. In the office, we wonder what he will wear …

Wednesday 27th May

Chris sets me to some database work this morning. I?m not totally unfamiliar with the concepts having studied the theory at A Level, but I feel a certain burden of responsibility ? what if I accidentally delete the entire thing? Thankfully, I don?t ? but I do email all the Salt authors (a considerable number!) to ask them to confirm their contact details and keep them informed of plans for Salt?s future. It is quite inspiring to see that despite the economic concerns, Salt are still innovating and looking forward.

A very positive post on the Just One Book campaign has appeared in The Guardian Books Blog ? as well as hundreds of other places on the net. In literary terms, it seems Just One Book may be the largest and most successful viral on the net yet.

After I?ve completed this I continue with the packing of orders ? although it is frustrating that some can?t be completed because the books have to come from the printers. Tom, Charlotte and I are climbing over the mounds of packages as we have run out of franking stickers ? although they will arrive tomorrow.

Thursday 28th May

In the morning I update the author details that have been returned by email. I am initially tentative about the database (not least because I am using a Mac for the first time in years) but I soon come to grips with it. There are lots of messages of support landing in the inbox, and I email off some thank you notes too. Everyone is very touched by the support the Just One Book campaign has generated.

The franking labels have arrived, so the mountains of post can finally be moved ? although it takes several sweaty and out of breath runs to the Fulbourn Post Office before we can see the office carpet. Books, even poetry books, weigh a lot in volume!

Andrea Porter, a Salt poet, arrives at lunchtime to read some of her poems into my microphone both for PoetCasting and her Salt author page. She brings cake too, and Jen and I heroically tuck in as it simply must not go to waste! Andrea records 10 poems from her collection A Season of Small Insanities.

Friday 29th May

Today is my last day with Salt, and I am sorry that my week has been so short! I didn?t end up making the coffee or doing photocopying; I was welcomed into the team and took a hands on role in a manically busy week.

Jen has brought her small woollen friends Travis and Lily to visit before Travis starts his world tour. We leave them alone for 5 minutes and find that they have caused havoc with the mail, climbing all over it. Jen also pursues me around the office with her camera until I relent and grudgingly smile ? it seems I am much less photogenic than Travis.

We fill what orders we can, although we are eagerly expecting a delivery of paperbacks needed to complete lots of orders. Everyone heads across to the pub for a well earned lunch before heading back for one last push now the paperbacks have arrived. We spread them out and get through loads of orders in the final dying hours of the working week. There is no space for clock watching at Salt. I am satisfied by the piles of post I have left behind me, and the order screens seem largely completed.

I make my exit, accompanied by Cameron and Chris to catch my train home from the flat fens of Cambridgeshire to Leicester.