This week at Valley Press, #87: 'Old Dan'

Dear readers,

Happy new year! I'm writing on behalf of your favourite Scarborough-based publishing company (remember us?), where we're starting the year as we mean to continue; just five days in and already a new title is on the shelves.

First up for 2018 is How Old Dan Became a Tree, the second in our 'Shaanxi Stories' series published in association with Northwest University, Xi’an (if anyone from there is reading, happy new year to you too... for February, of course). If this is the first you're hearing about the Shaanxi series, don't worry, you've only missed one title – the sublime Mountain Stories – and you can read about the genesis of the project here.

I thought Mountain Stories was the perfect introduction to Chinese literature in translation, and this new book (by Yang Zhengguang) is a fairly suitable next step – though it is definitely a challenging read. Even in China these stories are considered boundary-breaking, with no shortage of sex and violence (consider yourselves warned). I had various interns proof-reading the text last summer; they would frequently stop, read out a toe-curlingly outrageous bit of prose, and I would reply: 'good grief!' But then they would quickly say: '...but I'm really enjoying it, I'm gripped.' So there you go. (Did you ever hear about the publisher who went broke peddling tales of lust and revenge? No, me neither...)

If you fancy something more local, York-based poet Ian Stuart has recorded an audiobook version of Quantum Theory for Cats, which you can pick up here (or from your preferred audiobook seller) for just over £3. Besides working as a Ghost Trail guide, Ian is also a professional voiceover artist, so the quality of this production (polished in the studio by Scarborough hero Tom Townsend) is second-to-none. Our Arts Council grant for 2018 included funding for audiobooks, so expect quite a few more before the year is out.

There was no newsletter last week, but my typing fingers weren't idle; I sketched out a brief business plan for a one-person publishing company (that's the kind of thing I do for fun these days) and posted it here. Afterwards, my inbox was filled with questions and comments about the featured figures, so I'm now working on a follow-up piece to answer them. Stay tuned for that soon...

...but not next week, as I've decided to make this newsletter a fortnightly event in 2018. The hope is that I can redirect some creative energy to write the 'ten years of Valley Press' memoir, which I half-promised would appear this coming October, and also give the Emma/Valley podcast a decent go (the most recent episode is still the Christmas one).

So I'll see you in two weeks, when I'll be ready to reveal the next book (which is yet another surprising diversion from the usual programming). Stay out of trouble!

All best,
Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher

This week at Valley Press, #83: 'Poet Tree'

Dear readers,

I'll get this out of the way early: I won that award last week, so am 'Young Entrepreneur of the Year' in the Scarborough area for 2017. Perhaps the best part (besides the trophy, which you can see here) is having confirmation that I am a) an entrepreneur, and b) young, both of which have I have occasionally doubted in the last few months. In fact, with the announcement that I will become eligible for a Young Person's Railcard again in April, I feel younger than I have for some time!

Richard Askew (designer of the VP website, and last year's winner) noted that, since its inauguration, this award has almost exclusively been won by people in the creative industries, which I think bodes well for the future of Scarborough as a 'creative hotspot'. If you've never been to our part of the Yorkshire coast, you're missing out – it's got everything you could need, plus the sea and dramatic landscapes. Think of an excuse and get yourself over here! It's good enough for David Dimbleby...

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Returning to the job in hand, we have a competition running at the moment in which you could win £200 worth of Valley Press books, just in time for Christmas. It's actually a competition/offer, so everyone wins really! If you buy a book through our website before noon on December 18th, using the code HAMPER, you'll get 15% off your order and you'll be entered in a draw to win every single one of these brilliant publications:

They've been selected so there's something to appeal to every friend/family member you could possibly encounter during the festive season... assuming you don't just keep the lot for yourself, of course. You'll notice all of our hardbacks are in there, including the limited-edition, signed and numbered versions of Madame Bildungsroman and Take This One to Bed. We've also included both of our titles which are suitable for young children, if you can tear them away from whatever strange bleeping, whizzing items they acquire on the 25th.

Please note that the VP office will be closing at 5.30pm on the 21st December, so make sure any orders are placed in plenty of time for our last post trip that afternoon (but ideally, before the 18th so you can enter the prize draw mentioned above). We'll re-open on January 2nd, probably well after lunchtime I'd imagine...

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One last thing: assuming blizzards haven't frozen the city solid, we'll be in Waterstones York from 7pm today (Friday 1st) for Ian Stuart's Quantum Theory for Cats launch. Ian is presently employed as a Ghost Trail guide, and also dabbles in voiceover work, so you're guaranteed a good show and some fantastic readings; do try and make it if you can.

Bearing in mind his experience, I drafted Ian into Tom Townsend's studio (check out his new single, very groovy) on Wednesday to record an audiobook version, which will hopefully be available in the next few weeks. For a sneak preview, there's a video here of Ian reading the title poem... hope it gives you a quick laugh. Only some knowledge of quantum mechanics is required to get all the jokes, but I know you're well-versed in such things. If not, you soon will be!

Next week: our last, surprise, festive publication of 2017 will finally be revealed. *drumroll*

All best,
Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher

This week at Valley Press, #82: 'Eggs and baskets'

Dear readers,

Whenever I think we've reached our peak, in terms of events, projects and activities, Valley Press finds a new way to get even busier and send its poor overworked publisher running back to his desk. Not today though; I'm resting up after a bad cold to see if I can make it to yet another glitzy award ceremony in Scarborough this evening. (I'm up for 'Young Entrepreneur' against two bakers, which is a bit of a conflict as I love food and books equally, and am keen to support anything that encourages more baking...)

Today's newsletter is a textbook example of what working on several projects at once looks like, which is also a key topic in this week's 'Friday Morning Meeting' podcast (they're going to be fortnightly, if that hasn't been made apparent before). Towards the end, in what's probably my favourite part, we deconstruct the 'eggs in one basket' idiom – how many baskets/eggs are ideal? Would an egg and spoon race be preferable? We also compare managing a publisher to playing Tetris... it's not all metaphors though, don't worry!

If that's not enough snazzy, 21st-century digital media for you, I also have three videos from Wendy Pratt's Gifts the Mole Gave Me launch event to share. As you can see from the header image, it was held in our favourite room at VP HQ, and attracted a sizable and enthusiastic crowd (hooray!) Wendy had two brilliant support acts, so you have three poetry videos to watch if you feel inclined: Caroline Hardaker, Oz Hardwick and then Wendy herself.  (Enjoy some positive heckling 1min 40sec into Caroline's video, courtesy of perhaps the keenest newsletter reader of all, who also gets some decent airtime in the podcast. You know who you are!)

* * *

There are two books I need to give a serious plug to this week, and the first is Quantum Theory for Cats, which you may recall is being launched at Waterstones York, Friday 1st December from 7pm. This is a debut pamphlet from Ian Stuart, who cites Stevie Smith and Robert Frost as his main influences. Like those literary heavyweights, he champions the art of 'complex simplicity'; the poetry can be witty and wry, but remains serious about its interest in the human experience.

Time I wheeled out a poem. This is one of the more understated pieces, but one that lingered with me long after I first read it:


Phone Call

‘Do you remember, years ago,’ he said,
‘we met up in some bookshop. I was with
my sister. She was quite impressed with you –
said you had a gentleness, an air
of understanding – and a lovely voice.’

‘That’s nice,’ I said, yet knowing as I spoke
I had no memory of that day at all.
It wasn’t me they’d met.

The conversation ended, but he stayed,
my doppelganger – kindly, gentle, calm –
the kind of man I once hoped I’d become.

I look for him each morning in the mirror
and sometimes catch a glimpse,
but then he’s gone.


Ian's pamphlet was the one book this year where I decided to handle every stage of production myself, harking back to days long gone by. I didn't draw the cat on the cover though, that was the work of – fun VP trivia alert! – Ben Hardaker, husband of Caroline Hardaker, our most recent pamphlet author (and in fact Caroline did some of the shading on the final article). Quite the supportive little community we have here!

The next book in our schedule, while also filed under 'poetry', couldn't be more different. Verse Matters is our second big 2017 anthology, and has involved two distinguished editors, cover design by rising star Mandy Barker (of Sail Creative), typesetting by internationally famed text-wrangler Gerry Cambridge, and includes new material from the following writers:

Liz Berry, Bashar Farahat, River Wolton, Shirin Teifouri, Rachel Bower, Sai Murray, Malika Booker, Helen Mort, Vicki Morris, Char March, Mimi Mesfin, Jacob Blakesey, Hannah Copley, S J Bradley, Nick Allen, Wendy Pratt, Jo Irwin, Charlotte Ansell, Warda Yassin, Louise Clines, Catherine Ayres, Ethel Maqeda, Katherine Henderson, Sez Thomasin, Beth Davies, Hollie McNish, Laurie Bolger, Shelley Roche Jacques, Kate Garrett, Debjani Chatterjee, Amy Kinsman, Carol Eades and Suzannah Evans.

Some very familiar names in there, and some exciting 'emerging talent' too. It's all inspired by the legendary Verse Matters spoken word night in Sheffield, and we'll be heading to that fair city on the 14th December to enjoy a launch event, featuring many of the writers mentioned above. Details of that are here.

It seems worth adding that, thanks to the generosity of the editors, all royalties from the book will be split between ASSIST Sheffield and the Cathedral Archer Project in Sheffield, two great causes worth looking up. More on this book next month.

* * *

If all that hasn't quite satisfied your appetite for literary engagement (you really are insatiable), there's also an in-depth review of John Wedgwood Clarke's Landfill on the Manchester Review, with Ian Pople giving that book the serious attention it deserves. Time to hang up my keyboard now, but I'll be back (inevitably) next week, to start the countdown to you-know-what. Plus, there's still time to squeeze in one extra book this year, that I haven't told anyone about yet...

All best,
Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher                                   

This week at Valley Press, #80: 'The Late Show'

Dear readers,

A very late missive this week, as the internet has been down in the office, and I've been in York for Oz Hardwick's latest book launch – the third event for his current collection, in fact. (Can't say he's not getting it out there!) It was held as part of the NAWE conference, who really made us feel very welcome; I was given a lovely three-course meal simply for coming, caught up with many old friends, and even made some new ones. As you can see on the photo above, Oz had a slide to match each poem he read, offering an insight into some of the inspirations behind The House of Ghosts and Mirrors (the slide above is a drawing of a castle, hidden behind wallpaper in his childhood home).

Some other news, in brief:

• Wendy Pratt will be celebrating her latest book with an event at Valley Press HQ (aka Woodend, The Crescent, Scarborough), on Saturday 18th November from 2.30pm. Expect cakes and wine, and if those aren't delights enough, she'll be joined by the aforementioned Mr. Hardwick and rising star Caroline Hardaker.
  

• Our next publication, Quantum Theory for Cats, is now available for pre-order; I will share some sample poems in the near future, but for now, please note the forthcoming launch in Waterstones York on Friday December 1st, from 7pm. This is a witty new poet who needs as much support as you can collectively muster; a winner from our 2016 submissions period who has waited patiently all year to see his name in lights. Don't miss out!
  

• The first 'proper' episode of me and Emma's new podcast is now available; you can find it exclusively here for the time being (trying to get it on iTunes too). I slightly hijacked this call by sharing my 'four golden rules' for publishing, each more counter-intuitive and difficult than the last, and then thinking of a fifth rule on the spot – but you might find them interesting. We got some coverage in the Bookseller today for our efforts, you can find the article here if you want the behind-the-scenes scoop.
  

• It was announced this week that VP are teaming up with York St John University for our first foray into the world of journal publishing, taking over the York Literary Review from 2018 onwards. Submissions will be open to pretty much anyone, by the sounds of it, from late January – all details here (and watch this space!)
  

• Finally, more exciting news from York (well done to Vanessa for setting all this up): we will be working with the Cultural Education Partnership to engage children and young people from York's schools, showing them the delights of the literary world (which you newsletter readers already know well) through workshops, author visits and an anthology of work from young writers. We'll be supported in this effort by Colin Jackson of Creative Learning Partnerships, and it all kicks off in January.

Thanks for reading and digesting all that, I hope you found it interesting – I never like to get too caught up in self-promotion, but then it is a company newsletter I suppose! See you next week for some lighter fare; poetry, gossip, and all other manner of fun.

All best,
Jamie McGarry, VP Publisher