SWANWICK WRITERS’ SUMMER SCHOOL – a Chair’s View
I have just recently returned from Swanwick Writers’ Summer School.
https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk
It’s a summer school, residential, full board, where writers can participate in many aspects of a learning programme, be entertained with evening after-dinner speakers and quizzes, open mics and musical evenings.
We have around 200 delegates per year, and it’s a great place to meet writers and discuss the many, many aspects of writing. This was my 7th year, and I have just stepped down from 2 years as Chair.
It all happens at the Hayes Conference Centre, in Derbyshire.
https://www.cct.org.uk/the-hayes/the-hayes-conference-centre
It’s a cracking location.
So, how did this year’s School go? Pretty well, I think. We had a great committee leading up to the School, and our hard-working Secretary Sharon Payne and Treasurer Sally Warr were central to the smooth running of the organisation for the delegates.
I took the opportunity to visit a couple of courses – “The Road to Self-Publishing Success” by force of nature for self-publishing Lizzie Chantree, and “AI and Writers – Should we Worry?” from Martin Lake. Both are items of interest to me. Much of the rest of the time was making sure last-minute glitches were avoided / fixed, supporting the other members of the committee, and gleaning feedback from delegates.
It was a great time – hard work, but worth it. There is a certain magic about the place, a feeling of community, in that we are all writers. Many of us are following different paths, many of us have different destinations, but we are all writers.
The committee arrive on Friday, a full day before the delegates. There’s a lot of work to do to preparing the School. Signs to make, many items to liaise with The Hayes about, certain things which need clarifying. It’s different every year, but it needs to be done.
On the Friday, we pick up boxes of room keys which have been programmed by The Hayes (over 200 of them!) and we need to print name badges and match them up, which is an incredibly fiddly and time-consuming operation. We always feel there must be a more efficient way, but as yet, we haven’t found it!
Early Saturday afternoon, we get the reception volunteers – those lovely people who sit in one of four locations around the site, and welcome delegates with their information packs at the ready. Nearly all the time, this works fine. There are always those delegates who haven’t received or haven’t read their email which tells them which reception is for them. So there’s a bit of human signposting required, always with good humour and WITHOUT asking “WHY DIDN’T YOU READ YOUR EMAIL???”
And then there are those who haven’t been allocated the room they requested. We always try hard to ensure they are happy with their allocation, but sometimes we need to work with The Hayes, who are BRILLIANT, in reallocating some rooms.
It was our 75th Anniversary! Our secretary, Sharon, had reproduced the very first programme from 1949, and a booklet with a great timeline of significant events over the years – from the use of the Hayes as a prisoner of war camp, up to date. The Hayes had donated an amazing celebration cake (including a gluten-free one), the King had sent us a wonderful message of congratulation, we had the Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, Mrs. Elizabeth Fothergill CBE to cut our cake, and share our special anniversary dinner in the dining hall. We had pinned some reflections from tutors past on the walls of the Main Conference Hall, and we had bought and donated a celebration bench, which was assembled and installed in the labyrinth, near to the chapel. Our programme had a lovely diamond emblem on the cover, which was matched by the icing on the cake! Thanks to everyone who contributed to the special celebration events!
One of the Chair’s roles is to stand on the stage and make little speeches. A Welcome Speech on the first day, a short speech at the first timer’s reception, introductions to all of the guest after-dinner speakers, running the AGM (essential, because all delegates are members of the charitable organisation, and therefore must be included in a number of votes). I also MC’d the prizegiving ceremony on the last evening, which was great fun.
I’m not a natural on the stage, as last year’s School showed. I get flustered easily. Delivering courses and workshops to people has never been an issue, but speeches at Swanwick always seemed like an artistic performance to me. So in preparation for this year, I wrote out my speeches in advance. There were a few items which wouldn’t be known until the School was underway, but at least I knew my scripts were in place, including the introductions to the evening speakers.
Another of the Chair’s roles is to book evening speakers. Despite our own preferences, it’s important to get a speakers from a broad spread of the writing sphere. We had 4 slots available, and I know we needed a scriptwriter, a poet, a novelist plus one other (sounds like the opening to a bad joke).
My role on the committee of the Frinton Literary Festival << https://www.frintonliteraryfestival.co.uk/ >> allowed me access to a number of speakers, which usually results in one or two bookings for Swanwick. This year, I invited Adele Parks to speak, as she went down really well in Frinton. Lesley Kara is a personal friend from Frinton when we both lived in the area. The scriptwriter Julian Unthank contacted me directly, interested in returning. I watched an evening speaker session from him a couple of years ago, and he was engaging and funny, and provided an interesting insight into scriptwriting. This year, he had a particular insight which I thought would go well. And finally, Luke Wright was a personal recommendation through a friend of a Swanwicker.
On Saturday evening, we hosted Adele Parks <<https://www.adeleparks.com/ >> and her husband Jim, who conducted an interview. I think it worked really well, and a tiny frisson of marital relationship came through. Adele was awarded an MBE for her services to literacy in the New Year’s Honours list in 2022.
On Sunday evening, we entertained Lesley Kara << https://www.lesleykara.com/ >>. Lesley and I used to be in the same local writing group, from 2015 – around 2019, so I wanted to try to show that the road to writing success (if becoming a multi-million Sunday Times bestseller is your measure of success) can come to all of us. I thought it might be interesting for the audience to hear what it was like at the pinnacle of the book industry. Lesley is a great speaker, and answered my occasionally slightly intrusive questions with honesty.
Unfortunately, Julian Unthank << https://vhassociates.co.uk/writer/julian-unthank/ >>, who we’d booked for Tuesday evening, needed to cancel at the last minute as he was suffering Covid-like symptoms. We like to try to cover all aspects of writing from our after dinner speakers, and Julian is a superb screenwriter, with a host of credits such as Queens of Mystery, Doc Martin, New Tricks and The Bill, and has spoken to us before with a very entertaining and dynamic event. I hope you recover soon, Julian.
Our final speaker of the week was Luke Wright << https://www.lukewright.co.uk/ >> His approach to poetry is fresh and exciting. His performance skills have been honed over many years of professional gigs and support acts. He is the regular warm-up guy for John Cooper Clarke. He’s a theatre maker and broadcaster, and visited us after another successful set of sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe << https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/luke-wright-joy >> Suffice it to say that he held us, the audience, in the palm of his hand for an hour. Spellbinding!
Away from official events, I was able to chat to a number of delegates – some old friends for several years, some I’d met once or twice, and some I met for the first time. I always enjoy speaking to delegates quietly, and away from the events, as I feel I’m like to get a honest opinion about the week, how it is going, what they’re enjoying and what they’re not. This is really valuable.
During one of the discussions, someone asked about marketing information. I referred to a couple of websites I’ve used in the past when researching marketing advice.
The first was Kindle Boards << https://www.kboards.com/ >>
Alas, like a number of websites, Amazon didn’t like the use of “Kindle” in the name, so they needed to change it. This is a great discussion board, especially in the Writers’ Café section << https://www.kboards.com/forums/writers-cafe.60/ >>. This was where the ‘big hitters’ used to hang out during the ‘goldrush’ of self-publishing, in 2010 – 2014. Suddenly, there were devices where reading ebooks became a genuine possibility (and a pleasurable experience), and when Amazon first began using Print On Demand. For those who don’t know, PoD is based on a machine which takes in paper at one end, feeds your manuscript and cover data in the side, and out pops a book at the other end. There are no print runs. If someone wants one copy of your book, they will print one copy. Magic!
Anyway, one recent discussion concerned the use of Google Ads for books, which is fascinating. Real world data from real authors.
<< https://www.kboards.com/threads/has-anyone-tried-google-ads-for-books.339604/ >>
And another resource I have used is K-Lytics << https://k-lytics.com/ >>, which uses software to interrogate the Amazon store software, and despite Amazon’s continued desire to hide *actual* sales figures manages to create data and charts to indicate both the sales volume and competition for a number of categories and sub-categories. They also do a monthly general report, showing trends for ebooks and print books generally, and in specific categories.
Some people were kind enough to ask about my own books. My fiction is listed at:
<< https://gerald-hornsby.com/fiction-books/ >>
and in particular, my latest novel, the first in a new series
<< https://gerald-hornsby.com/last-orders/ >>
My non-fiction books for authors can be found at:
<< https://gerald-hornsby.com/non-fiction-books/ >>
and I had a discussion with someone about writing novels efficiently, and how I can write up to 4 novels per year. And I have a book!
<< https://gerald-hornsby.com/the-efficient-novelist/ >>
So, to sum up: another great Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, I think just about everyone went home happy, and were looking forward to Swanwick 2025.
As am I!