London Calling

[Pauline Rowson]

I’m off to the Society of Authors AGM in London today. I’ve been a member for almost ten years and although I don’t get to attend every meeting or function I have used the society’s extremely helpful service on publishing copyright and contracts. The SOA has (as its web site declares) been serving the interests of professional writers for more than a century, and has more than 8,500 members writing in all areas of the profession. These include novelists, textbook writers, ghost writers, broadcasters, academics, illustrators and translators. Being a member helps me keep in touch with the current issues in the publishing world, and I also receive a very useful quarterly journal, The Author. The Society maintains a database of writers and their specialism.

Tomorrow, after the AGM, there is book-trade question time with Jonny Geller, the Managing Director of the agency Curtis Brown; Alexandra Pringle, the Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Publishing, (they of Harry Potter fame), and Graham Rand, Commercial Director of the book wholesalers, Bertrams/THE. He is also President of the Booksellers Association.

I’m not sure what I want to achieve by attending, perhaps simply the opportunity to network with other authors, and those in the trade, because there are usually some literary agents and publishers at the events. I am sure I will also pick up one or two ideas and tips from the speakers. Failing that it’s a good excuse for a day out in London.