Behind the Blog

This week's special interview guest is Gina Scarcella of the awesome blog Behind a Million and One pages, which features book reviews, questions and answers, interviews, bookmarks, giveaways and endless other cool things - all to do with the world of Young Adult fiction. I met Gina through Allen and Unwin and she was my first ever Afterworld interviewer. I thought I'd through some questions back her way, since she is clearly an expert in her field... L

Check out Gina's blog at http://behindamillionandonepages.blogspot.com.au/

1.     How and when did you start Behind a Million and One Pages?

I started Behind a Million and One Pages back in October 2011. At the time, I was really into Goodreads. Always talking on the discussions, and all I kept seeing and talking to were bloggers. I think that was the moment that I knew I had to start blogging, I was seeing blogs everywhere at that stage so it seemed like a sign to jump straight in! I asked a few of my Goodreads friends who were bloggers about it, and that just convinced me even more.

2.     What made you choose books and in particular Young Adult fiction? 

I've always had my head in a book, even learning to read back in school, I was always at the highest level I absolutely love YA novels, I tried so many others, but nothing could compare to reading YA. I think it's because it can easily appeal to a wider audience, and you can very easily relate to the characters. You become hooked and addicted without even realizing it! It combines a whole heap of different genres together, and I think that's what makes them so entertaining.

3.    What did you do to attract readers to your blog?

The biggest thing for any blogger to do to attract readers is to write reviews and posting them on numerous sites (Goodreads, BookLikes, Book Depository, Fishpond, Booktopia etc) and leaving the link to the review on your site. Other than that, there are a whole lot of other things that attract readers, such as blog tours (which show exclusive material from the author, such as playlists, excerpts, interviews and guest posts), weekly meme's and even something creative and new that you haven't seen before. 

I've always been obsessed with bookmarks, I've searched everywhere for a blog or a site that lets you download and print bookmarks of all my favorite series', but I never found one, so I decided to start it up myself. I've expanded it by letting authors know that I have made a bookmark of their novel (which they usually share on social media), as well as asking authors for their favorite quote to add to the bookmark! I share these on my blog, as well as link back to my blog with the new bookmarks that are added.

4.     How often do you update and how do you share your updates?

For me, this usually depends on the kind of post. For spotlight posts and cover reveals, I try to keep one post per day. Other kind of promotional posts (interviews, guest posts etc), I will try to the two day mark, but most of the time these are one day posts. For reviews, I always plan to have these showcased for two days. Reviews usually pull in a bigger audience, and are reviews provided by a publisher, so I like to give them a big more promo space. I try as hard as I can not to double book during one day, if this happens then I reschedule. I want each post to get as much top-spot coverage as possible, this is especially important because of different time zones. 3pm Sydney time, is usually around 12 midnight in the US, I always keep this in mind so that all audiences, no matter where they are, will be able to see the top post of the day.

5.     You get a lot of ARC (Advanced Review Copies) books and giveaways from publishers – how did you establish those relationships?

Most publishers have a really good blogger programs. I've found that the look for the following in a blog: minimum 200 followers, regularly blogging (3-4 posts a week) for 6 months. Most of them also read some of your previous reviews for quality and duration. If you don't write a good review with a few paragraphs, then it doesn't really seem like you are doing this because you want to and not just for the perks of getting ARC copies. Once you've got all those ticked off, make sure that you go through some of the publisher's titles and upcoming titles, to see if you will be interested with affiliating yourself with them. All information from then on is found in their publicity section of their website. Sometimes they will have a form that you need to fill in, if you are interested in review copies or you will be provided a generic email address.

6.     You are obviously a reader, are you also a writer? In which case, what other sorts of writing do you do?

First and foremost I am a reader. But when you read as much as I do, I think wanting to write something comes as something you naturally want to try as well. I've written a few stories (nothing published of course) and have posted them on my Wattpad account and of course they are YA! My story titled, Anmon, is one that I have planned out in a notebook and want to continue, but the others were from writing groups on Goodreads with prompts etc. 

7.     Does blogging make you any money or is it a hobby for you? Do you want it to be a full-time thing?

This always depends. I've had authors wanting to pay me because they use my bookmarks as their official bookmarks, but I always refuse. Mostly of this because of copyright issues, I'm using the cover image of the book, the same font as the title and I don't include the publisher's logo on my bookmarks. This isn't breaching anything, but I never started it to make money from it. 

I get a small percentage from sites where you can purchase books from (Amazon, Smashwords, Fishpond etc) for including their buy link on my site, but that is only when one of my readers buy from my direct link. This money always goes into future giveaways for the blog, and the same as companies advertising on my site. It's the same concept, if one of my readers click on the link to an advertisers site, then I will get a small income from that for giveaways and exciting things for the blog. I never use the money on myself, I don't get much of it anyway, but it always helps because of international shipping etc.

I think I would always like for this to be my hobby, and not anything full time. I'm afraid that because I love blogging so much, that I will get sick of it if I go full time. I don't make any sort of valuable income from my site, so it's not something that I could make a living out of, even if I wanted to. I always enjoy doing this for fun, and I don't think I want it to be any other way.

8.     Tell us a little bit about yourself – who are you and what do you do and like?  

Tough question! I don't really like talking about myself, but here goes: I'm 20 and from south-west Sydney, I work full time, blog part time as a hobby, and read all the time. I've been a blogger for around 3 years now, and I don't remember not having some sort of book in my hand. I love to read all kinds of YA novels, and have to stop myself from buying books every week. 

Thanks for the interview Gina...  reviews and recommendations are always welcome (and thanks for popping my Afterworld interview cherry! You were very gentle...The Scout

Talking Body and Soul with Gemma

  Ask anyone in Australia if they read the weekend paper and I bet they say to you "Uh... 

well, I always read Body and Soul...does that count?" That answer is because of Gemma 

Sutherland - editor extraordinaire. This week she talks to the Scout about what it takes to 

create one of the most popular insert magazines in the country and ask her for advice for

 other writer's trying to get work in the news and magazine world.

(This one's really great for all my writing students. Soak it up!)

 Photo care of Body +Soul

 How did you end up with the Body + Soul gig?

Well, I started my first job when I was in Uni, I got offered a job a day a week just doing copywriting for a local paper. So I took that, and then I filled in any vacancies they had and eventually I got offered a full time job. By the end of Uni I was working full time and studying full time. From there I met a contact who offered me the job of sports editor of a local paper. I took that job as well. I kind of got lucky after that, I got a job offer in London and moved there. I had a weeks trial and happened to nail it,  so I worked there on the tabloids for a couple of years. And through the contacts I made there I got another offer back in Australia. I got a job here editing one of the Telegraph's insert magazines and when they relaunched another one  of the magazines I was responsible for that. I guess I got a reputation for relaunching so when Body+Soul needed a relaunch and re-energise, I was asked to take it on, and that's how I ended up there.

What does your job entail?

Ooh, a lot of political land-mine avoiding! Ha. I commission work. I decide what's going to go in the magazine. So I get a flat plan every week with the ads in place and I decide what will go where, what the content will be, what the cover will be. Then I make sure we've got everything that we need. My art director chooses the pictures and then she gives me a few choices and I pick the ones that I think choose the page the best. I make sure the headlines are right. I make sure the copy has the right flavour to it. Yeah - there is a lot of juggling of different things and often when I think things are going smoothly, something will go completely wrong and then there is a lot of managing to be done. There is a lot of advertising and marketing issues I deal with as well. It's all part of the job.

Check out Body+Soul's Web page here.

What sort of deadlines do you face?

We are a national magazine so we have a unique situation. In a week we shoot three issues off. On Fridays, its our absolute deadline when I send them off to print. This means there are deadlines every day. Our book size is 32 pages and we only have four full time staff so we need to stay right on the ball all the time. 

How do you choose your freelancers?

I hire people who pitch well to me. A very specific pitch with a suggested headline, an introduction and then a really specific outline as to what the story will be. We, being a health magazine, have to run the same content over and over again, so we need to find a new twist on it. I will hire people who know the product well, know what we need, are creative and have really good ideas and know how to sell me the story succinctly. And of course, people who are easy to work with: they file their invoices on time, their copy is on time, it doesn't need a lot of work, and they have gone to an effort to give me interesting information. If I have to go back to them and say, "Look its not quite right, can you fix this?", then I'm less likely to work with them in the future.

What sort of pitches do you ignore?

I ignore pitches that are a bit vague, or if they are too informal or don't hook me right away. And if its really quite long and waffly, then I just don't have time to read it. I need to be hooked within the first two lines or so. I generally get about twenty pitches a day, probably close to one hundred a week. I have to ignore those that just don't suit. And I pick the specific ones that suit the magazine.

How do you manage the freelancers you hire?

If I like a pitch I'll write back to the writer and ask them and ask them to flesh it out a bit more or just say " I love your pitch, can I have 800 works and can you include breakouts and I need by... whatever the deadline is." I usually give people two or three weeks to write a story. I have great people on board who can turn stories around quickly. We pay about 65 cents a word depending on the story, some stories take more work so they may get a package. We often need an online story as well so our online editor will often commission an extension article as well.

What do you love about your job?

I feel really lucky to have my job. I love editing magazines and I think things will be much easier to do if you love your job. I have a passion for it. I do have many things that frustrate me, but I love getting a raw product - a piece of paper - and filling it so that at the end of the week we have a magazine that is hopefully very informative and entertaining and well followed. People really love Body+Soul as a brand and we get a lot of feedback. People look to us to improve their lives and its a privilege to work in something that makes people's lives better.

Follow the Body+Soul team blogs here:

What about you, what do you love to read?

I love writers that make me forget where I am and take me somewhere else. I love J.K. Rowling - I love Harry Potter, it transported me. I tend to read a lot of autobiographies but I also enjoy chic-lit books. If I writer uses their words well and takes me to another place for a while, I love that.

What is the next step for you as writer and editor?

I think probably a foray into the online world. Probably still involved with the magazines in newspapers. Something digital, but I'm not sure what yet...

What is your advice for writers trying to get into the newspaper and magazine world?

Do work experience. Its a very hard field to get into and its hard to just finish Uni and apply for a job these days. We need people who have experience. I wouldn't hire someone who was applying fresh off the boat because I don't have time to train them. So someone who has done work experience who can prove that they are determined and keen and willing to work as hard as they can. And those who have earned some good referees and contacts, that's they sort of person that we look to hire. In my class - sports journalism - I was the only one who got a full time journalism job and I think that was because I was doing so much work experience. In the general journalism course, which had a lot more students, there was only two or three of them that got jobs. Its a very hard field to get into, but if you get your foot in the door with some work experience, you're on the right track. It's very rewarding for me, so I think its worth it.

Thanks Gemma, we love Body+Soul and your advice is priceless.

 - the Scout

Crafternoon Tea with Eliza Muldoon

Eliza Muldoon is one of those brilliant people who does....well...everything. She is an Arts lecturer at COFA, curated this year's ArtMonth, is the co-ordinators of Arts Interview (I've added a link to this amazing series - worth a read) and is about to take on the role of  Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Public Programs Co-ordinator in Katoomba, where she currently lives. She is a mum, a film wife (we are a breed of our own!) and just an all round cool girl. And to top if off she has a craft book coming out this year... So we had cyber coffee (complete with imaginary hot waiter) to talk about her new book and how the whole thing got made…

How did "Lazing on a Sunday Crafternoon" first come about?

Lazing on a Sunday Crafternoon started with the realisation that although I promote the importance of art making to our wellbeing when lecturing I hadn't made time or space for making things in my own life. Then I added some guilt to that realisation when it occurred to me that I reflect on the enormous impact that making things with my parents has had on me and I haven't been making things with my own daughter. So, I committed to making something with Lotte every Sunday - this came to be known as Sunday Crafternoon. The reason it is Lazing on a Sunday Crafternoon is simply because I never wanted our activities to be too demanding so we made things that were easy and often made with things that we already had on hand.

How did you get a book deal for the project?

I'm not exactly sure of the process but I think it started with a conversation about our crafting activities with a woman that had a daughter the same age, she happened to be my husbands' book publisher. I was convincing her how easy it is to make things and how much fun we've had. Before I knew it she had put me in touch with another publisher, who I had actually met previously, as she thought this could make a cute book. A couple of weeks later I bundled up the goods we had made so far and took them into the office for a meeting. Between the suggestion that this could be a book and the meeting I developed an instruction formula, the title and started taking photos of the processes we used to make each item.

What is the process for writing a craft book?

It was quite a bit more labour intensive than I expected, but the support from the publisher has been great and they have been incredibly patient with me while I have worked out what the dickens I am doing. Developing the craft project ideas was the easiest part, by the end of our 12 month adventure we seem to have made about 107 things and so all I needed to do was select which of those would be most suitable. I then had to develop a consistent voice for explaining how to make them, as Allen and Unwin were happy with my very conversational style. This wasn't particularly difficult to do either. Detailing the steps was a bit time-consuming though and often involved me remaking the items to work out how we had made them. The instructions benefited enormously from a magnificent editor who specialises in craft books. 

The final stage is the design stage, which we are in now, I had some ideas that the design team have completely respected and they have knowledge of what works in this style of publication and I completely trust them on that, and so this stage has been going very smoothly. I'm rather keen to see what it looks like all done! Nearly there.

Did you take the photographs yourself? What was the process like?

Taking the photos proved to be the most labour intensive aspect. In total we took about 4 500 photos in order to get 52 process sets that I was happy with. I love taking photographs and Allen and Unwin seemed to like my rustic, rough style but I would never consider myself a photographer and so I had a lot to learn- I made a LOT of mistakes. I had to pull apart a few of them and re-enact others because when we started we had no idea that this would be a book and so we didn't have any photos of the processes. Lucky for me I have a gorgeous, young photography-loving neighbour as well as a French-Canadian student that was staying with us and so between the three of us we muddled through. Lotte started to find being photographed a bit tiresome and so I started bribing her.

How long will the project have taken from start to publication?

The first email was sent in September 2010 and so almost two years from idea to book. I thought I could do my part in about 3 months! Oh how wrong I was.

What have you enjoyed the most about the process?

Definitely making the actual objects with Lotte. It was so great. Sunday crafternoons have been on hold lately as we haven't been home much but I am keen to get started again next week. Op shop outings for supplies is a close second.

What sort of books inspire you?

I love design books. My favourite book is 'Tibor' about Tibor Kalman, the Hungarian/American Graphic Designer that started colours magazine. It is a beautiful mix of pictures and politics. I bought it when I was a student and it was rather expensive so I had to lay-buy it. If I sit down to read, rather than just look at pictures it will be inevitably be a psychology based book concerned with neuroscience, organisation or creativity. 

How do you promote your book and get publicity for it?

I actually don't know how it will be promoted. Hopefully I'll get to just make more craft and somehow use that. Having just worked as the Artistic Director of Art Month Sydney I learnt an immense amount about both marketing and publicity processes. I guess it is probably time to start thinking about how it all applies to '...sunday crafternoon'.

And of course - when is it out and how can we get it?

It should be ready before Christmas. Maybe as early as September.

Thanks Eliza... my children and I look forward to being up to our eyeballs in glue, string and glitter...

 - The Scout

Kimberley Duband: actress, writer, film maker and braveheart. The huge amount of talent packed into the small package that is Kimberley, is astounding. She always has several projects on the boil, but this week she is talking to The Scout about her documentary The Road to Tumaini.

So, you're a writer, actor and filmmaker? How do you put food on the table?

How do any of us do it? ...With a lot of hard work and perseverance. When you decide to make a life living off the things you create, you discover that working isn’t a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday gig… and that no one is going to just hand you your dreams on a golden platter!  ‘Making-it’ in this industry demands dedication even when there seems to be no payoff in sight, taking every “No” and turning it into a “Yes” and making a concerted effort to not just talk about your great ideas, but to take action and turn those ideas into something tangible.

It’s a feast or famine industry, the tough part is staying at the top of the food chain.

Tell me about The Road to Tumaini?  

Tumaini is the Kiswahili word for ‘hope’ and The Road to Tumaini is a documentary that follows four Australian architects, passionate about the education of girls in the third world, who respond to a request from a remote Kenyan community to help them build a girls school. After years of careful planning and fundraising, the architects arrive in Kenya excited and ready to start work. But things don’t go to plan, and when their lives are threatened, they have no choice but to leave Kenya with their dream unrealized.

It was a bizarre turn of events that lead me to discover this story.  I happened to meet one of the architects a couple of weeks before she went to Kenya. She told me about the non-profit organization bricks+cartwheels and their upcoming adventure. I was really inspired by their courage and asked if I could go along to document their journey and help them raise awareness. They agreed, and I set off with them, excited by the prospect of following the process over a 6 year period; from the initial building, to seeing the first grade of girls go through the school and graduate.

The hope that everyone had, from the Kenyan girls and women in the community, to the architects in Australia and all their supporters worldwide, was infectious. However, when things didn’t go as planned, and they saw their dream of creating the school crumble before their eyes, I too saw my documentary going to pieces. Life rarely goes to plan, and this was one of those moments that no one could have predicted. But I believe it’s how you recover from those unexpected bumps in the road that matters. And so, The Road to Tumaini was born. A story now, that is more exciting and more real than anything I had originally planned. On the surface, it still highlights the plight of the girl child and how important education is in bringing a people out of poverty, but it also shows how helping others is often much more complex than it seems.

I am currently in post production on The Road to Tumaini, which is scheduled to be completed this year. 

What other projects are you working on at the moment?

A couple of really exciting projects are in the pipeline at the moment, I have just come back from Los Angeles where I have been talking with a couple of production companies about a television series I have co-written with an incredible young Australian writer by the name of Anthony Roberts. The script and concept were received really well over there, so hopefully it wont be too long until I am back over there for development season. The other project is a feature film which I won't talk about now, it’s very much in it’s early stages, so that will have to wait a while.

How do you find time to create?

I just have to be focused and schedule it into my day. Just like making time for lunch, or yoga or facebook! I schedule in time to create. A wise man told me once that anyone can be a writer, or an actor or a filmmaker, the hardest job is staying one. I always feel that my greatest limitations are fear and time, and they are also my greatest gifts because they propel me forward. Sometimes life is that thing you get bogged down in whilst you’re procrastinating the life you really want to have, and so the daily struggle is being mindful of this and just committing to making the time, or push through the fear barriers in order to pursue the thing that you love most. 

What inspires you?

So many things inspire me, and it’s not always the obvious things that have the greatest impact. A conversation with a friend, watching other films, spending time with motivated dedicated people (who help you strive harder) walking the dogs, other people’s stories (never be too busy to listen to someone if they are prepared to tell you something...you never know where you’re next great idea will strike), traveling, running on the beach, horse riding, books, being in love…the list goes on. They all inspire me in one way or another to do better, think more creatively, challenge the boundaries of what I think I can and can’t achieve, and remind me that it is the journey that is just as important as the destination.  

Kimberley is still taking donations for the final stages of post-production and release on The Road to Tumaini. The project is approved through Documentary Australia Philanthropic Foundation to accept tax deductible grants and donations. If you want to contribute visit: 

http://www.documentaryaustralia.com.au/films/details/828/the-road-to-tumaini-hope  

or contact The Scout to get a direct line to Kimberley. And pass this on to anyone else you know who might be interested - its a project worth helping from a director worth admiring.

(photos of Kimberley by Asia Upward)

Thanks Kimberley, your energy is always inspiring.... The Scout.