Nearly 17 years ago, Heth & I re-mortgaged our house to start Bluemoose.
Publishing was becoming so risk averse they were missing out on great stories and writers.
In the last 4 years we have had 16 lit short listings of major prizes.
For those about to read, we thank you.
To the literary agent who said to me when I was a sales rep in London:
'And what do you do.' And when I told her replied.
'You mean you're not creative!' And walked off.
This is what I do.
Publish award winning books that sell around the world.
Hold a grudge?
You bet.
Holy Moly
We're a Winner!
Many thanks to our editors, Lin Web, Leonora Rustamova, Hetha Duffy, Annie Warren , Flora Rustamova.
All our authors and the most important people in publishing, the readers.
Bloody brilliant.
@thebookseller
@yorkshirepost
@PublishersAssoc
A few years ago I said:
You'll never sell a book by sending out a tweet.
How wrong I was.
On Wednesday I put out a call to arms.
We sold 229 books direct from the website.
Over £2,200.00 of books sold in 24 hours
Readers, take a bow.
Book Bloody Tastic!
Thank you.
Kevin.
Greetings Bibliophiles.
Hate to ask but we really do need your help.
If you can buy some of our books direct:
And RT, that would be grand too.
Cheers, Kevin.
14 years ago we re-mortgaged our house & started Bluemoose Books.
We wanted to find new writers & stories publishing seemed to overlook.
Our authors have been shortlisted & won major literary prizes.
Many thanks to all the readers, booksellers and librarians for their support.
Every London publisher turned down
Pig Iron - Beastings - The Gallows Pole
By
@BenMyers1
All won major literary prizes.
We published The Gallows Pole in 2017
Now a TV series
@BBCTwo
.
Not bad for an indie stuck out in the sticks
@thebookseller
17 Years ago Heth & I re-mortgaged our house to start Bluemoose. We wanted to find great new voices that weren't being heard & put their stories into readers' hands.
Thank you to all those librarians and booksellers who have championed our books.
Magic.
@thebookseller
We've just been told our application for emergency funding has been accepted.
This is a LIFESAVER.
THANK YOU to:
#NationalLottery
Players
@TNLUK
@ace_national
@dcms
It means we can continue to find great new writers and stories and bring them to you, the reader.
Magic.
@vicderbyshire
Ffs. Lord Bamfords just done a runner with £500,000,000.00 owed to HMRC and GMP have sent the cavalry charging in to a Stockport housing estate.
4 years ago we published a book
'london' publishers thought wouldn't sell.
That northern story won the world's largest prize for historical fiction
@waltscottprize
Became a word of mouth bestseller.
Filming starts soon
@BBCOne
The Gallows Pole
@BenMyers1
@thebookseller
Yesterday we had our best sales day ever.
£7000.00
Many thanks to all the bookshops & readers who continue to support us & our writers.
We will continue to find great new writers & their stories.
Thank you.
Kevin. Hetha. Lin. Leonora. Darya.
@thebookseller
@BAbooksellers
Today I signed a contract with one of the biggest Hollywood studios and put in an offer for a wonderful book we hope to publish in 2026.
All will be revealed in the not too distant.
Bloody love publishing.
Time for a brew.
@thebookseller
Thank you Folks.
Last year we made a profit and as a small Indy publisher this is pretty remarkable.
We're not funded by grants.
We live and die from sales.
Thanks to everyone who buys our books.
From Hetha, Lin, Leonora, Flora and Kevin.
Marvellous.
@thebookseller
Not the Oxbridge Way into Publishing.
Kitchen Porter.
Jigsaw factory.
Stagehand in Pantomime.
Burger King.
Library supply.
Publishers sales rep.
Re - mortgage the house to start Bluemoose Books and publish books by writers the mainstream are too risk averse to look at.
I know you're not supposed to
But as a small Indy based in W. Yorks.
We're going to shout a bit.
This week.
Book optioned for TV and Film.
Book sold to publishers in
Italy. Czechia. Russia. Turkey.
Filming starts soon on a book we published in 2017.
@thebookseller
My mum thought showing off was something you should never do.
But for an Indy publisher based in the North , this is BIG, BIG NEWS.
We Have an INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!
Leonard und Paul by
@MumblinDeafRo
It is at No. 8 in the German Bestseller Charts
And that is ace!
Congratulations Rónán
@MumblinDeafRo
Worldwide sales for Leonard and Hungry Paul
100,000 copies.
Absolutely brilliant.
Can I thank all the booksellers, librarians, reviewers and readers who have made this book such a word of mouth bestseller.
@1dublin1book
@thebookseller
How to start an Indy publisher.
Work in Bakery. Pantomime with Les Dawson.Tudor Hall. Jigsaw factory. Burger King. Library supplier. Sales rep at Headline & other publishers. Get tired of orange headed celebrities publishing books. Re-mortgage house & start Bluemoose with Hetha.
The BIG books are becoming even bigger from
All the branded names.
Taking so much oxygen from the book world and shelf space in bookshops.
The landscape for smaller presses is being denuded.
But we will keep finding new writers & bring their stories to you.
Kevin & Hetha.
Bluemoose - Last 12 months
1st International best seller.
3 books short listed for 5 lit awards.
6 part BBC One Drama series starts filming
1 book selected for biggest Book Club on BBC 2
1st Radio adaptation
Foreign Rights sold to 12 countries
Eric turned 12.
@thebookseller
In the last 12 months our authors have had 5 books that have been short listed for major national book prizes.
1 title has sold over 110,000 copies.
1 book has been turned into a major
@BBCTwo
drama series, on air 31.5.23
Not bad for a small indie.
@thebookseller
We need your help.
Bertrams wholesaler went into administration.
We've lost money.
If you can help by buying some books direct from our website, that would be grand.
@thebookseller
Thank you.
Kevin, Hetha, Lin, Leonora, Annie, Flora.
Why Libraries are so important.
Please do read this.
“We should never, ever, in this country close down a library again,” he said.
@libsconnected
@thebookseller
Oh my giddy aunt!
We've just sold the rights of
Ghost Mountain & Panenka by
@MumblinDeafRo
To Karl Blessing Verlag, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in Germany.
Many thanks to Deborah Druba our wonderful agent in Paris.
@thebookseller
@IrishTimesCultr
@Waterstones
So looking forward to this. It shouldn't be as hard as it is to get the stories - real life and fictional - of women over 40 heard. Maybe things are finally changing.
Today is our 15th birthday.
Many thanks to our authors, readers, booksellers
Bloggers, reviewers and librarians.
And especially our brilliant editors, Lin, Leonora, Annie,
& Flora but most of all to Hetha who has always been
There even in the darkest times
@thebookseller
You know what , I’ve been down in London and we haven’t had the results we’d wanted but holy Jeebus for a small Indy in Hebden to have been short listed for 5 Lit prizes, I am so proud of
@IonsJane
and
@MumblinDeafRo
and
@MsSDuggal
and chuffed to be publishing such great books.
London publishers turned down The Gallows Pole by
@BenMyers1
6 years ago we published it.
A story about poverty & survival in 18th century Yorkshire.
It won
@waltscottprize
and will be on
@BBCTwo
very soon.
Indies publishing stories from the margins.
@thebookseller
Bluemoose will be 15 in August 2021.
We re-mortgaged our house to enable us to find
New voices that 'London' publishers just didn't hear.
Thank you to all the booksellers and librarians
Who've placed our books into readers' hands.
Here's to the next 15!
@thebookseller
Big publishers risk averse ?
The Gallows Pole
@BenMyers1
and
I Am Not Your Eve
@devikaponna
turned down by everyone.
We published both.
An adaptation of Bens’s
book on
@BBCTwo
Devika’s debut short listed for 3 major lit prizes.
We Publish for readers not shareholders.
In the last 12 months.
Winner - Northern publisher of the year.
5 short listings for lit prizes for
GHOST SIGNS
@StuHennigan
I AM NOT YOUR EVE
@devikaponna
BBC 2 drama series of The Gallows Pole
@BenMyers1
2 books in TV/Film production.
Not bad eh?
@ObsNewReview
This year we won't be publishing any celebrity memoirs.
Or next year for that matter.
Or celebrity fiction titles either.
But we can guarantee publishing cracking new books
From great new writers.
With stories to tell.
We started publishing books because there were stories and writers out there that the mainstream constantly turned a blind eye to.
7 of our authors have been short listed for
20 National and International Literary prizes.
Not bad for a small indie.
@thebookseller
Congratulations to
@StuHennigan
His book Ghost Signs
Short listed for Parliamentary book Awards.
Up against Marina Hyde and Matt Hancock.
We’ll be at The Hose of Commons on 22nd February.
Brilliant.
To find and publish new writers that were ignored
By London centric publishing.
Writers from working class backgrounds & older writers too.
We started Bluemoose 15 years ago.
I was 45 and Hetha 41.
It is possible to do stuff when you're a bit older.
@thebookseller
Good morning .
What a cracking start to the week.
Messages from around the globe.
Eric didn't make the photo op but a Hollywood
A Lister - Julia Roberts did get a mention.
Thank you
@helenpidd
and
@GuardianBooks
@BAbooksellers
Time for a brew
Congratulations to
@MumblinDeafRo
We're pressing the button
On the 6th reprint of Leonard and Hungry Paul
Who would have though that two such quiet people
Would have made such a mark!
Brilliant.
Thank you to all the reviewers, bloggers, booksellers and readers.
It's never happened before in the history of Bluemoose
But due to popular demand we are pressing the reprint
Button on Panenka by
@MumblinDeafRo
two weeks
Before we officially publish.
Thank you to all the readers and booksellers for their
support.
@BBCFrontRow
Magic.
Well isn't this grand.
We've been short listed in the regional finals for small press of the year award
@thebookseller
#Nibbies
.
Congratulations to all the publishers too.
BREAKING NEWS.
To combat AI in publishing.
Bluemoose will be introducing AU and AG into their publishing processes.
AU = Aye Up
AG = Author Generated Writing.
@thebookseller
@PublishersAssoc
This year we'll publish our 50th title.
Never in a gazillion years after remortgaging our house to find great new stories corporate publishing overlooked did we think we'd still be here.
Thank you to all the booksellers, librarians and book lovers who've supported us.
Oh my giddy aunt.
First it was
@guardian
Then
@BBCRadio4
#Today
programme.
And now someone has written a
@Wikipedia
page for
Bluemoose.
Brilliant, just brilliant and thank you.
17 years ago Hetha and I started Bluemoose to find great new writers and stories the mainstream publishers thought too risky.
To see
@MumblinDeafRo
books now being translated and published across the globe is just brilliant.
Leonard and Hungry Paul.
Panenka.
Ghost Mountain.
Dear Big Publisher.
It is never a good look
When you try and take the credit for publishing
An award winning book.
Please reference who published it first.
I have never seen trading conditions like these in the book world for 35 years.
Brexit disaster is horrendous for so many smaller presses.
We need your help.
If you’re able you can support us by buying some of our cracking books.
Thank you.
We're thinking of starting
The Radical Literature Festival.
Stir the pot a bit.
No Orange headed celebrities allowed.
Chinos will be banned as will corduroys and brogues.
Who's up for it?
'Who's going to read a story about a working class man in a small northern town.'
Said the London publisher.
2 award winning books later and
@BenMyers1
THE GALLOWS POLE won
@waltscottprize
in 2018.
On
@BBCTwo
31.5.23 directed by Shane Meadows.
Oh London, do wake up.
Thank you, thank you.
I did a talk a few years ago saying nobody sold
Any books via a tweet.
How wrong was I!
Yesterday you bought BM books in your 100's.
I Love the book community.
Thank you. Kevin. Hetha and Eric.
@thebookseller
#readerscommunity
Good morning .
We need your help!
Today with
@LittleToller
we are publishing an exceptional short story by the bestselling author
@BenMyers1
.
Two indies working together to keep our publishing doors open.
At 10am we will launch. Can you RT and tell the world.
Thank you.
I've been in a bit of a fog recently.
Eric gone, great indie publishers closing down.
Ministers dissing the arts & creativity.
And then I started to read.
And you know what?
There are some BRILLIANT people out there creating work to lift the heaviest heart.
Cheers.
Thank you.
Thank you
Thank you.
I've just checked our sales from yesterday after I put out our call to arms.
The BEST sales day EVER, EVER, EVER from the website.
I know times are tough for everyone so thank you again.
Kevin.
@thebookseller
Four years ago this title changed Bluemoose forever.
LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL
@MumblinDeafRo
Short listed for 6 major lit prizes.
Translated into 6 languages.
Thank you Rónán for writing a book that'll be around for a long, long time.
@thebookseller
@IrishTimesCultr
Here we go , he's at it again!
We re-mortgaged our house in Hebden to start
Bluemoose. 2021 is our 15th birthday.
Our author's have won national and international awards.
And I'd like to thank our brilliant editors
Lin, Hetha, Leonora, Annie and Flora.
And you, the readers.
We have just signed a contract that will enable us to continue to find, publish and develop new writers and their books for a long time...but there is always a payoff. Thank you to all our authors who continue to surprise with their talent and their work.
@GuardianBooks
The London Book Fair is cancelled.
For small indies like us and others, it costs a lot, in time and money.
If you can it would be grand if you could buy a few books from our website or
@IndieBookshopUK
or
@Waterstones
or other indies too.
Thank you
Why I love publishing.
2 major announcements which we hope will put more indies in the spotlight.
April was our best sales month EVER.
I chatted to one of authors about working together for the next several years.
Finding great new writers & stories is in good hands.
We're up for an award
I would like to thank our editors, Lin Webb, Hetha Duffy, Leonora Rustamova , Annie Warren , Flora Rustamova and brilliant designer Fiachra McCarthy.
And all the booksellers & librarians who've placed our books into readers' hands.
Thanks
@thebookseller