How far do authors have to go to promote themselves on today’s web?  Have we pulled the curtain back too far? Does knowing more about an author help to build their readership – or does it detract from the reading experience?  That’s the theme of special guest New Zealander Philippa Ballantine tonight.

And Canadian Geoff North has a modest proposition for you to consider – why don’t agents and writers cooperate with each other at an earlier stage, rather than insisting on sight of a full manuscript before giving it consideration?

With with regulars Donna Ballman and Dave Bartram – and Eve Harvey reporting from the chat room – it’s a Marmite of a show!

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Topics on tonight’s show include:

• Labrador Iggy goes on the lam for five years
• One in ten British schoolkids think the Queen invented the telephone
• British Navy scraps 200-year-old cocktail parties
• Why do we reverence the book?
• Vanity Google book searching

This week’s titles for the Commissioning Meeting are:

DONNA
“Stray Thoughts for Girls”
Lucy H. M. Soulsby

GEOFF
“Klondike Nuggets and How Two Boys Secured Them”
Edward Sylvester Ellis, 1840-1916

PHILIPPA
“A System of Instruction in the Practical Use of the Blowpipe”
Anonymous

DAVE
“Yeast: a Problem”
Charles Kingsley, 1819-1875

If you liked this show, please take this time to ReTweet it using Twitter (see the ReTweet button underneath) and share it with others. You may also want to follow us to stay up to date with all our shows. And please feel free to leave your comments below!

Photo by FUNKYAH

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GIVE US A TITLE – GET A TITLE!

We’re pleased to give a copy of Kader Abdolah’s The House of the Mosque for the winning title suggestion this week, courtesy of Canongate.  In the house of the mosque, the family of Aqa Jaan has lived for eight centuries. The house teems with life, played out under the watchful eyes of the storks that nest on the minarets above. But this family will experience upheaval unknown to previous generations. For in Iran, political unrest is brewing. The shah is losing his hold on power; the ayatollah incites rebellion from his exile in France; and one day the ayatollah returns. The consequences will be felt in every corner of Aqa Jaan’s family.

Join us next week in the chatroom and win another fabulous new title – in return for giving us a title for the show!

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