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ALUMNI NEWS
Bluebell Martin (1994, Geography)
on her foray into independent collaborative publishing
Bluebell Martin (left) with Maeve Ryan and Polly Courtney
After I left Catz in 1997, I spent the winter
‘doing a ski season’, working in Meribel – a ski
resort in the French Alps. I had no idea that
fourteen years later I would be reliving the
experience by co-publishing bestselling novel
War & Piste by Alex Thomas.
My day job is that of Partner at qualitative
research agency Acacia Avenue International,
but like many others I also have a ‘five-tonine’
occupation as an occasional editor for
unpublished authors in need of some help
in fine tuning their manuscripts in hope of
a publishing deal. One novel I’m particularly
proud of contributing to is Poles Apart by Polly
Courtney, which led on to a three-book deal
with HarperCollins.
In 2009 I received a manuscript, via Polly,
from a new author called Alex Thomas. The
first chapter needed a lot of work, but once
the story got into its stride I found myself
completely immersed in the adventures of the
heroine, Poppy, in a fictional Austrian ski resort.
The story was not only wickedly funny but also
a brilliantly accurate depiction of the realities of
ski season life, which I immediately related to
my own experiences a decade or so before.
Over the next few months, the author and
I worked together on tightening up the
manuscript in preparation for being sent to
publishers, and spent a number of evenings
putting the publishing industry to rights.
We bemoaned the risk-averse nature of
traditional publishing and the many barriers
for new authors – increasingly short-sighted,
we believed, in the era of the internet and
an explosion of self-publishing, both in print
and online. We even talked about setting up
an editing business in the future, that didn’t
charge £500 for the first chapter, and actually
helped new authors instead of hindered them.
The manuscript nearly made it, being praised
for the quality of the writing by several
publishers, but ultimately wasn’t taken on.
It was ‘too niche’. Secondly ‘it wasn’t girly
enough – could it be re-written as chick lit?’
The former issue was fundamental, and the
latter was simply not an option – the author’s
aim was to appeal to intelligent, adventurous
male and female readers, not girls interested
primarily in reading about shopping and
finding Mr. Right.
So in December 2010 we decided to go it
alone. Our belief was that the combination
40/BLUEBELL MARTIN