Here are a few more additions to our series of Rapid Reviews…just get in touch if you want to contribute your own video reviews to CompletelyNovel!

Yes…it’s been pretty full on over in CompletelyNovel HQ, especially for the last week which goes some way to explaining the lack of updates to the blog. There is also another reason, however…the blog will be moving! We will soon be integrating the blog into the rest of the website more fully, so that you can easily find out our latest news. The blog will feature on the page dedicated to the team , and the posts will also appear on the Community page of the website.

We’ve just created a press section too on the website where you can find out what people have been saying about us (well…the ones that we know about!) and there was an update last weekend that has increased the speed of the website.

Check out the video below of Keira Dickinson’s book lanch. Held in a pub in Oxford, there was much fish, beer, fish and fun.

Anna and George from CompletelyNovel.com review The Book Thief by Markus Zusak in just three minutes…and also give some tips on a really fun way to make your own book!

I’d like to reassure everyone that no actual books were harmed when making this programme. Don’t be fooled by the amateur-looking footage. The stapling has been done with very sophisticated CGI.

For those who missed it, here’s the recording of Keira Dickinson talking about her ‘Anthology for Fish’ on BBC Radio Oxford!

Howdie – here are a few more updates about us that have come out of the blogosphere, journosphere and ‘le web’ (as they call it in France).

Interview on The Next Women, Business News for Female Internet Heroes (I have spent today mostly dismissing all of Oli and Jon’s comments on the basis that they are not internet heroes…whereas I now clearly am. This also means taht any tech-based questions I ask are officially not stupid)

Review on Juxtabook, blog on all matters bookish:

Completelynovel.com, which went live to the public on January 27th, is going to add a new twist to the new book trade. If BookRabbit was a cross between Amazon and Facebook then CompletelyNovel is a cross between BookRabbit and Lulu: it combines book buying, social networking, and self-publishing. The self-publishing is in a much more attractive format than Lulu.

Have a look at the article for more… it includes a review of Alan Baker’s book, which features on our website – The Lighthouse Keeper. It also refers to a ‘rather demented looking red haired badger’ that features on our site. I entirely agree – the badger looks demented, but Oli has grown unreasonably attached to it now and won’t change it….though he insists on animating it. It’s not healthy.

And an article in Printweek, the premier website for news and in-depth features from the printing industry

Listen in to BBC Oxford Radio today at 3pm to hear more about it! Keira Dickinson, one of the winners of our Launch competition (her story, The Barman and the Gargoyle features in the CompletelyNovel.com Launch Anthology) will be launching a book of her own on Friday 25th February in Oxford. She has produced this intriguing and magical book with the help of Cally Gatehouse, whose illustrations tie together the four short stories. Brought together through a combined love for fish and salt water, Keira and Cally make an unusual and excellent team.

I have been assured that the launch of Umm and Ah and the Problem with Chlorine: AN ANTHOLOGY FOR FISH will incvolve not only beer but also a fish dance (something along the lines of a ‘jive on a deep sea dive’), someone in a fish costume, real live goldfish and maybe even fishfingers, although hopfully not placed too close to the goldfish: we wouln’t want them to get upset. There will also be a reading from the Anthology and of course, everyone will have the opportunity to buy a signed copy.

If you’d like to take a look at Keira and Cally’s wonderful creation then you can check it out on CompletelyNovel and even read it online or buy a paperback copy direct from the website. As this is CompletelyNovel, all proceeds will go straight to the author!

WARNING: Prepare to enter unchartered fictitious waters!

The Anthology for Fish is like a sandwich for the television. It will tempt, tease, and try to provide you with nutrition, but the only way you’ll grasp it is to get out of who you are and become completely submerged. (Which is not really how a television would get a sandwich)

I’ll be speaking at the fabulous BAD IDEA Butcher’s Shop on Thursday, February 26. The event is from 7pm – 9pm at the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, 9a St. Thomas’s St., London SE1 9RY:

“Prepare your prose for the taste of cold editorial steel: The Butcher’s Shop, BAD IDEA’s unique writing workshop, returns on Thursday February 26 for a recession themed special. Broke, destitute, disillusioned? Dreaming of bankers’ heads on spikes? We want to hear all about it in stories of 350 words or less – simply send your writing to info@badidea.co.uk and we’ll make it part of the evening’s entertainment.

We’ve also invited news editors Alyssa McDonald (New Statesman), and Jean Hannah Edelstein (BAD IDEA) to pore over one lucky story and investigate what makes recession rage translate into good feature journalism!

Special guests from CompletelyNovel.com will also be in attendance to lead a debate about HOW TO SAVE PUBLISHING FROM ABSOLUTE ANNIHILATION BY THE 21ST CENTURY’S DIGITAL TSUNAMI!!”

For more information on the event and details on how to send submissions please visit here. And check out the video below – you can see the kind of spectacle you will be letting yourself in for!

So, you’ve uploaded your manuscript to the website (so readers can check it out using our lovely online reader) but what about the cover? Well, we’ve developed a nice little tool to help you create your own cover online for free. You don’t need to have knowledge of InDesign or Quark or any other complicated and expensive design software. You just need to be able to move things around on a page! We’ve been wanting to make a few changes to the online cover creator for a while now, and those have just been added to the live site. If you’ve already used it then you’ll be pleased to hear that it is a lot more user friendly now. You can use your own photos or some stock images that have been uploaded to the website to create your cover. If you’d like some tips on design, then you can head over to the Resources section of the website or for some good examples and ideas you might like to take a look at the Book Design Review.

If you are a photographer and would like to see your images appearing on the covers of CompletelyNovel books, then please get in touch!

We now have installed a new book reader on to CompletelyNovel to make it even easier to read new works by our up and coming writers. It offers you the option to jump between pages or scroll down through them, save your place in the book and also has a zoom. We will soon be introducing page commenting and other funky features for it. If there is something that you would really like to see, then just let us know by using the feedback form on the website. Thanks!

George and Cathy review The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon in just three minutes…and try to explain the Monty Hall problem!

This is the second in our Rapid Review series. Let us know what you think! Any suggestions of books we should review? Just get in touch.

Hey there – we’ve had some coverage in the publishing industry press which has been good news. The CN word is spreading! Check out BookBrunch and also Book2Book There will be more to come!

It’s great to see lots of new users popping up on the website – and we’ve been having lots of great feedback which is even better. My favourite is probably the following:

“What a fantastic site! As you can see, I have completely lost it, bombarding you with my latest recommendations and high hopes of getting through the many new books I’ve added to my ‘library.’ Ha ha. Well done. This looks absolutely fab and I have no doubt you are going to make a big splash. Have already got local WAGS book club razzed up the walls about it. The sky is the limit lads.”

Yes…someone actually wrote that, which is fantastic. Not sure exactly what ‘razzing up the walls’ involves but I’m confident that it is a good thing.

And, to top it all off, there is a new coffee shop opening downstairs from us which promises great cakes. Big win!!!

In the post this morning arrived a copy of Multimedia Information and Technology Magazine, a CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) publication. I turned the first page and….there we were! The lead article was about CompletelyNovel and how library staff or users can use the website, particularly as a way to create clubs to discuss current reading material, notify members of events in the libraries or discuss the library services. Appearing in both print and electronic formats, the MmIT journal is distributed to over 3000 subscribers world-wide, and its readership is made up of librarians, teachers, academics, and media and ICT specialists. CompletelyNovel is a great tool for libraries as it offers readers a new way to engage with books, and of course they can also read unpublished work on there too. We’re looking forward to talking more with libraries about ways we can help them make the most of all that web 2.0 goodness!

Thanks very much to the Self-Publishing Review for writing a review on us. Here’s a little extract:

“The other useful feature of Completely Novel is it’s combination of book publisher and social network. Though there is something of a community within the Lulu forums, with people requesting reviews, it is not quite an active part of the site. Generally sales of Lulu books occur off site – on Amazon or other outlets if the person has gotten ISBN distribution.

Completely Novel aims to fix this dynamic by combining the book directory of Lulu with the interaction of a social network. Yes, Lulu has a place for reviews beneath each book, but these remain static – they’re not the same as the comments on a blog, with a commenter’s profile and the ability to add a book to your library, the way you’d add friends on another network. Each book is available for free to read online and writers and readers can add comments on book. It could potentially be a good way for writers to network with other writers. In a sense, it turns each book into a blog entry, with comments beneath.”

The Self-Publishing Review site has got lots of tips for writers wishing to self publish and you can find out more about other people who have done so. If you’re one of our keen reviewers, then you might like to consider also being a reviewer for them – I believe they are currently on the look out!

Update on the CompletelyNovel Rapid Reviews Thanks to everyone for your supportive/bemused comments relating to the rapid review. We’ve got our next guests for the CompletelyNovel Rapid Review set up too. Both have far more experience ot camera/stage than George or I so I’m confident that they will show us how it’s done!

It’s early days so be gentle with us when it comes to critiquing the work! Filmed in our very own CompletelyNovel studio here in Dalston, this little number is going to be the first in a series of Rapid Reviews. Enjoy (and I’m sure we’ll get better)!

Hi there. I hope everyone has been keeping safe in the slippery conditions. Well, we are very pleased to have reached a significant milestone on the CompletelyNovel road to revolution. We’ve now taken the need for an invite code away which means that everyone is now invited to come and join us on CompletelyNovel. I have been celebrating by doing victory lunges enthusiastically round the CompletelyNovel kitchen. Oli and Jon just had a beer, which is probably more normal. We’ve also addeed in the CompletelyNovel Rapid Review to the site (more about that in a later post).

In other news, I had a lovely chat with friendly booksellers Crockatt and Powell, well, Mr Crockatt at least! Looking at ways we might be able to tap into their expertise for CompletelyNovel. Also bought a copy of Michael Rosen book for Oli’s newly arrived neice. I guess it will be a while before she can read it herself but it’s cardboard so she can always chew on it for a good few months. I felt a little odd reading it on the tube but I did find it more entertaining than looking at more pictures of Lily Allan! Michael Rosen is great.