Reasons I had a great London Book Fair

Why did I decide to exhibit at the London Book Fair this year? Unlike Jamie, it's never been on my bucket list, and, like Jamie, I don't have a huge amount of money to be splashing out on ventures which will definitely not lead to sales. The LBF isn't a book-selling fair but a trade fair, where publishers go to buy and sell international rights for books. There's networking too, and different countries representing their literary output, but the main business is securing book deals, which doesn't really apply to small poetry publishers.

Rachel, me and Jamie mid-roam at #LBF14

At the risk of sounding frivolous, I think the main reason I decided to fork out for a stand at the LBF was that I wanted my own table and chair. Without the offer of a stand on the Inpress Poetry Pavilion, I would have gone anyway and roamed around like I did last year, but I liked the idea of not having to sit cross-legged on the floor for meetings. As a small, new publisher, my rightful place at the LBF probably is as a bottom-feeder, but it's nice to try on a bit of grandeur once in a while. The other reason I decided to exhibit at the LBF was so I could tell people I'd done it, because I thought it might sound impressive.

So, from the moment I sat down in my chair last Tuesday and sent my first #LBF15 tweet, I'd achieved all my goals. I had low expectations about the fair and was prepared to spend a lot of time sitting quietly at my table or chatting to Jamie (who was sharing the stand with me, naturally), and I would have been perfectly happy with that. Over the course of the fair, though, there was a lot of discussion about how the brand-new Poetry Pavilion concept was doing and lots of people asked me if I was having a 'good fair'. I think I answered every time 'I'm having a great fair!', which was such an unexpectedly superlative reaction that I thought it would be good to share why.

Reasons I had a great London Book Fair 

ONE. Being part of the party. 

Me and Jamie with our table and chairs at #LBF15

Small poetry publishing often feels set apart from the rest of small press publishing, let alone from the big leaguers in the publishing world. I liked having a stand at the LBF because it felt like being part of a huge display of the health of the book industry. I like the optimism and passion on the small poetry publishing scene, but I also like to be reminded that some publishers are producing blockbusters and making deals which the Bookseller and even mainstream newspapers count as Real News. That'll be me, one day!

TWO. Publisher Skills 101. 

Never have I had to explain the concept of the Emma Press to so many people in such quick succession, and on such dwindling reserves of energy. Contrary to my fears, people did actually stop to chat at the Poetry Pavilion and I had to summarise the origins and aims of both the Emma Press and Valley Press (when Jamie wasn't around) to authors, bloggers, printers and other publishers.

I was also pleased to get a bit of practice in slapping down patronising people. Usually I'm taken too much by surprise to react, but at the LBF they came regularly enough that I was able to experiment with varying degrees of hostility.

A fine panorama of #LBF15 by Jamie

THREE. The Inpress Poetry Pavilion. 

The LBF isn't really geared towards unpublished authors, even though the Author HQ hosts talks from editors and agents and being part of the party is important for writers too. For an unsigned writer, I think the LBF is more like a sweets museum than a sweetshop (don't try extend this analogy too far, or at all), which is why the Poetry Pavilion was such a treat. As I sat on the little row of small poetry publishers, I thought about how this was a genuinely useful section of the fair for unpublished poets, where they could come and get to know the editors of some ambitious small presses which might actually be interested in publishing them. I hope the LBF decides to run with this in future years, because it's a valuable resource for unpublished poets and small presses alike.

On setting up a poetry press in your 20s panel @LondonBookFair with @LondonBookFair with @valleypress @TheEmmaPress pic.twitter.com/feZv0DuD3Q

— Nine Arches Press (@NineArchesPress) April 15, 2015

FOUR. The talks. 

I went to most of the talks on the Poetry Pavilion, partly to take a break from explaining the Emma Press to people, and I'm delighted to report that Inpress did a fantastic job of whipping up a programme of readings and discussions at incredibly short notice. Again, I found myself musing on how genuinely useful these talks were, especially to young publishers. When else was I going to hear Michael Schmidt and Simon Thirsk weighing up the differences of Carcanet and Bloodaxe, and Jo Bell and Judith Palmer evaluating the Canal Laureate scheme and the value of arts partnerships?

I especially enjoyed the panel discussion on translating poetry from Susan Curtis-Kojakovic of Istros Books, with Damir Šodan, Ana Brnardić and Pedro Serrano, and felt quite enthused to start dabbling in translations myself. If you're a translator and think you have something which is just right for the Emma Press, get in touch!

My friends @valleypress @wbphull #publishers at the London #Book Fair #LBF15 pic.twitter.com/SFv2Ndcqx0
— Stephanie Cox (@cox_stephanie) April 15, 2015

FIVE. Hanging with my peeps.

What really made the fair for me was that several of my favourite – and soon-to-be favourite – small publishers had also decided to come along. I wouldn't say that my life as a publisher is particularly lonely, but I do miss the sociability of working at Orion, with all the tea breaks and chats across desks. The three days of the LBF were a great chance to have proper chats with Katherine from Ugly Duckling Presse, Jane from Nine Arches Press, Clive from Burning Eye Books, Mick and Sarah from Seren and Tom from Penned in the Margins, as well a rare catch-up in person with Jamie from Valley Press. I also got to meet Michael from Carcanet, Jenny from Candlestick Press and Shane from Wrecking Ball Press.

SIX. Pens.

It was a good excuse to get some promotional pens done.

All prepped for the dark arts seminar with my @TheEmmaPress pen. #LBF15 pic.twitter.com/sz6FCvGQpZ
— Joseph Coelho (@Poetryjoe) April 14, 2015

New books and news from Valley Press

Dear readers,

This month I'm proud to introduce two new books into the world, Seahouses by Richard Barnett and (deep breath) Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space by Nora Chassler. If you want to bail out of this blog post now, having visited those two links, you should feel free - I recently asked Mrs. McGarry if she reads these missives; she sighed and said 'well, they're a bit long aren't they'. So this is your point to escape ... otherwise, let's push on.

I'll start with GDMEOS, or Granny as I've been calling it for short. Set mainly in a small flat in New York, in 1982, this is a novel that has so far been called 'unabashedly literary' and 'a bit post-narrative' by those attempting to concisely explain it. The press release, posted here, offers a more thorough introduction, and there's a sample here.

A launch event for this book is coming up next week in Edinburgh; specifically, at the marvellous Word Power Books, on Monday 30th March, from 6.30pm. This is a 'drinking and mingling' type of launch, with minimal public speaking, but the author will read a few choice paragraphs from throughout the book to whet your appetite - and sign copies of course.

Then we have Seahouses, the debut collection of poetry by Richard Barnett (beautifully pictured here on a bench by our own Jo Brandon). You may have heard of Richard through his acclaimed non-fiction writing, or encountered his poetry in Pocket Horizon back in 2013; but if you'd like to get better acquainted, he recently recorded three Seahouses poems for a podcast, which you can find here. If you prefer poems on the page, where you can keep an eye on them, you can read the first 17 pages of the book on its homepage here.

This book has a launch event too, though you don't need to get your coat on just yet - the Seahouses launch is on Wednesday 27th May, from 6pm, at Blackwell's Holborn in London. Richard will be reading at 7pm, but before that, you've guessed it - drinking and mingling. The literary life is a tough one!

In other news, Valley Press is heading to the London Book Fair on the 15th and 16th April, and this year we really mean business - we're exhibiting, in a part of the fair which the organisers are calling 'the Poetry Pavilion'. The precise stand number, if you'd like to come and see us, is 3A74b; it's a shared one with our perennial allies The Emma Press (who you'll find 50cms to the right, at 3A74a). We're really looking forward to it - we've got our entry badges printed out and everything.

I'll end with a few bits of press: there was a full page on Oz Hardwick's The Ringmaster's Apprentice in the Yorkshire Post a couple of weeks ago; the wonderful Sabotage Reviews tackled Richard O'Brien's A Bloody Mess and (somewhat belatedly) Miles Salter's Animals; Cuckoo Reviews did justice to A Pocketful of Windows and A Bloody Mess; and Helen Mort was full of praise for Matthew Hedley Stoppard's A Family Behind Glass on Twitter last week. Oh, and as I write this very paragraph, Rodge Glass has just declared his love for the writing of Nora Chassler - and says Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space is a great title.

I'll see you next month for details of our two April books, and any news that might arise from the LBF. Looks like a busy spring for Valley Press this year!

All the best, and thanks for reading,
Jamie McGarry (VP Publisher)

Press release: New from Valley Press, Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space

An ‘unabashedly literary’ novel, Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space is is the new book from Scottish-based, American-born writer Nora Chassler – a story as distinctive and unforgettable as its title.

Set in New York City, 1982, the book follows a dysfunctional family – detail-obsessed Carrie, constantly-angry Eli, their pot-smoking mother Viv and her teenage boyfriend, Arnie – who live in a one-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side. One by one, they encounter a psychic, Miss Rosa, who lives ‘above the smaller dry cleaners’ and is desperate to share her life story with the family; a story that resonates disturbingly with their own lives.

‘It’s about the blur between kids and adults, sex and love, stories and real life,’ says Chassler of her latest publication. ‘It was a hard novel to write. I knew it was odd from the moment I started … though I tried to make it as pleasurably readable as possible, while respecting its increasingly bizarre aims. Hopefully I managed to juxtapose the plotless discomfort of the family with the deathbed story Rosa is attempting to concoct, to make sense of her life. In a way, it’s about the stories we think we’ve lived.’

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1972, Nora Chassler grew up in New York, a city she writes about in immersive, extraordinary detail – almost as a character in its own right. She has an undergraduate degree in English from Hunter College, CUNY, and a Masters in Creative Writing from St Andrews. She has worked as a model and a social worker, and now lives in Edinburgh.

Her first novel, Miss Thing (2010) was described by The Herald as ‘Somewhere between Nabokov and Bret Easton Ellis … Chassler’s characters illicit real emotion. Their stories grip you to the last and leave you wanting more.’ The Independent said Chassler’s ‘shimmering debut’ ‘demands – and rewards – close attention. It’s clever, playful and often darkly funny. It’s also touching.’

Produced in a luxurious foil-finished paperback format by Scarborough’s Valley Press, Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space will be launched in an event at Edinburgh’s ‘Word Power Books’, on Monday 30th March, from 6.30pm.

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Find out more about the book, and read a sample, here.

Journalists/bloggers: download this press release as a PDF here.

A new book and a priceless one, from Valley Press

Dear readers,

It's the first newsletter of 2015, and though the year may have changed, our mission at Valley Press remains the same: to bring you the best new literature we can find, in as nice a package as we can possibly manage. With this in mind, I'll kick things off by introducing you to our latest book, which is simply titled All.

All is the second collection of poetry from Canadian-born, Yorkshire-based poet Robert Powell. He started working on the poems that make up All in early 2008, and handed them to me around this time last year - so this book was six years in the making, seven if you include the last twelve months of editing and designing.

And it shows; every sentence, every word in this book seems to me to be in exactly the right place. It's a phenomenally good read, so I suggest you get stuck in straight away. You can read the first twenty-three pages here (scroll down to find the preview widget), and one of my other favourites on the author's page.

Once you've taken all that on board, you can of course buy a copy, or you may prefer to come to one of the launch events during March. The details are as follows:
 

Wednesday 4th March, 7pm
Waterstones, York
Coney Street, York, YO1 9QL, 01904 620784

Sunday 29th March, 2pm
The Orangery, Wakefield
Back Lane, Wakefield, WF1 2TG, 01924 215550

The York launch, which I shall be proudly attending, will also feature our own James Nash and the non-Valley (but still highly talented) poet Carole Bromley. Wakefield guests are to be confirmed, but will be excellent I'm sure.

In other news: congratulations are due to the Pocketful of Windows contributors and their enterprising editor Mr. Hodcroft - the 500th copy was sold earlier this week.  No small achievement!

A particular sales outlet asked me to produce some copies of the book without its '£3.99' badge, which I duly did, and as a side-effect I ended up with one badge-less copy to sell myself (pictured on the right). Regular readers will know I love an experiment, so I've put it up for auction on eBay, in order to (as I was recently advised by a publishing CEO) 'let the market decide the value'. I look forward to seeing the outcome when bidding finishes on the 21st February.  

I'll close with some more congratulations, as our constant allies The Emma Press have won their first poetry prize - Stephen Sexton's Oils was selected as the Poetry Book Society’s 'Winter Pamphlet Choice'. I'm looking forward to reading it soon, and so should you. (After you've read All of course ... maybe you could read them at the same time?) 

That's all for now, as I'm on the verge of sending our two March titles to the printers, and after that I need to come up with some new superlatives to accurately describe those incredible literary achievements to you in the March newsletter. Wish me luck!

All the best,
Jamie McGarry
(Valley Press Editor)

The Emma Press is Two Years Old

At the end of this month, it will have been two years since we published our first book, The Flower and the Plough. Two years! It feels like much less time has passed, because I spend nearly every day trying to whisk my business up into something enduring and the deadlines have come so thick and fast that I don't have time to stop and reflect on all we've achieved.

Our book table in December 2014

Towards the end of last year, people at events started commenting on how much my book table had grown since the previous year, and I would think very briefly about how nice all the books looked together, before going back to worrying about the next new books and events. I hope that I'll proceed through this year at a slightly less breakneck speed, but in case I don't manage that I'm going to share with you a short list of what I've been happiest with over the last two years.

Rachel and Emma at the 2014 Michael Marks Awards

1. Working with Rachel Piercey. Mixing business into a friendship has its risks, but it has been a complete pleasure working with Rachel on all the Emma Press books. Since starting to plan The Flower and the Plough in 2012, we have felt our way towards defining how the Emma Press operates and what it stands for. From thrashing out final selections of poems in anthologies to lugging boxes of books across muddy fields, I've had the most incredible time working with Rachel and I'm very proud with what we have created. You can read more about our working relationship in my Poetry School interview.

The tour poster

2. The Mildly Erotic Poetry Tour. In the summer of 2013, I applied for and was awarded funding from Arts Council England as part of the Lottery-funded Grants for the arts programme. I was then plunged into a whirlwind of emails, rehearsals and promotion for the 10-date Mildly Erotic Poetry Tour, learning as I went along about all the challenges of event planning. The most piquant thing I learned was 'Don't book two or even three events within a few days of each other, or even back to back, especially when they're at opposite ends of the country.' But we survived, and it was great, ridiculous fun! You can read my blog about the Mildly Erotic Poetry Tour here.

Amy Key, Sarah Hesketh and Eve Lacey

3. Finding our guest editors. Or, rather, being found by them. We've been lucky enough to be approached by poetry editors who understood what we were doing with the Emma Press and wanted to be part of it. First Amy Key, co-founder of Poems In Which, came to me with her idea for Best Friends Forever, the anthology about female friendship which we published last month. Next came Sarah Hesketh, who was about to publish her collection of poems inspired by her time as poet-in-residence at Age Concern and wanted to edit an anthology about ageing (publishing Sept 2015). And then Eve Lacey, who had recently edited an anthology about women warriors for For Books' Sake and wanted to edit an anthology about the sea (the call for submissions will be later this year). That last one is fresh news, by the way – you heard it here first!

4. The Emma Press Club. I started the Emma Press Club last year because we were getting increasingly large numbers of submissions to our open calls and I wasn't convinced that everyone had read the brief for each themed poetry anthology. As a result, Rachel and I were spending a lot of time reading submissions which seemed only vaguely related to the brief and even less related to the kind of poetry we were interested in publishing. To be fair, in 2013 we hadn't published many books, but by March 2014 we'd published enough books that anyone who read one could form an idea of what we might like.

I felt frustrated with the people who hadn't read my brief properly and concerned for the people who hadn't given themselves a good chance of sending us poems that we might like. We wanted to continue being inclusive and running open calls for submissions, instead of just commissioning everything, so I set up the Emma Press Club, whereby everyone submitting to our anthologies had to have bought a book from our website in that calendar year, with an additional £5 fee per pamphlet submission. It's worked well so far, bringing the number of submissions down to a more manageable level and significantly raising the quality of submissions. You can read more about the Emma Press Club here.

Emma and Jamie at the 2013 Poetry Book Fair

5. Teaming up with Valley Press. And finally, the reason you're reading this on the Emma-Valley Press blog instead of the Emma Press website: the special relationship between the Emma Press and Jamie McGarry's Valley Press. We called it an engagement at first, but perhaps it can now be better compared to the twinning of two towns, in that the VP and EP remain separate while occasionally arranging a food market on their opposite number's turf. The Emma Press comes to Scarborough every spring and puts on a 'real food' fair featuring artisan cheeses and churros, and Valley Press comes to Winnersh in early December with a band of local traders offering mulled wine, biscuits and a suckling pig. You can read more about the original engagement here.

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You can find all of our books on our webshop, including some of our forthcoming titles available for pre-order.

If you want a monthly bulletin about all our upcoming publications and events, and exclusive news about calls for submissions, do sign up to our newsletter.

The Valley Press Newsletter - December 2014

Note: to keep my half of this blog alive, I've decided to post my occasional Valley Press email newsletters on here too. Enjoy!  - J.M.

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Dear readers,

As another year of flat-out publishing comes to a close, I look back on 2014 with a modest amount of pride, and a lot of hope for the future - 2015 is going to be huge. But we're not there yet. I've managed to publish two more 2014 books since the November newsletter, and I feel strangely compelled to tell you about them...

A Pocketful of Windows is an anthology of powerful, original and accessible poetry from writers in North and East Yorkshire; selected, edited and arranged by VP author Felix Hodcroft. The RRP is just £3.99, for which you get 66 poems by 36 poets; aged between 16 and 92, including familiar names and first-timers.

Though formal reviews have yet to arrive, we've had some incredibly positive reactions at the various launch events for Pocketful; and more than 300 copies have been sold so far. You'll be hearing a lot more about this book in future I'm sure - but until then, you can read a sample and more information here. 

Also out this month: a new title from our Ink Lines imprint, selected and edited by the team at Dead Ink books (particularly, on this occasion, David Tait) and brought into the physical world by Valley Press. It's a marvellous pamphlet of poems by Richard O'Brien entitled A Bloody Mess; newsletter readers can see an exclusive sample here.

If you're not a regular visitor to our esteemed homepage, you may not know that there is a special offer on the go: any two books for £12, with free postage. This won't be around for long, so head over there and make the most of it. (Top tip: when ordering, look out for a prompt that says 'Click 'add' and name your two books now' - that's the important bit.) This is the first ever 'multibuy' offer on the VP site: if it's successful there may be more in future, so there's an incentive if you needed one!

In previous years I have kept my head down and worked through the festive season - pausing only for a sip of champagne on New Year's Eve - but this year I am attempting to genuinely take some time off. This is not simply so I can put my feet up and forget about dispersing quality literature for a while; I am getting married on the 22nd December, and it will be nice to actually see the new Mrs McGarry face-to-face, rather than from behind a big pile of book proofs (which is the usual scenario).

Valley Press will close down at 5pm on Wednesday 17th December, and re-open on Tuesday 6th January; but do feel free to email and order books during that time, I'll catch up when I get back. As for everyone who is waiting eagerly for news and developments on future projects ... just hang in there folks.

All the best,
Jamie McGarry
(Valley Press Editor)

Female Friendship is a Very Complex Thing

I told a slightly silly but true story at the launch of Best Friends Forever last week, about how I first heard of the book's editor, Amy Key. It was back in 2013, when I was trying to learn more about modern poets, and my new boyfriend suggested that I might like Amy Key's work and that he could see us being friends. I replied, 'Thank you for this helpful tip and for taking an interest in my work.' Psych! No I didn't say that, I actually said 'You can't possibly assume that I would be friends with someone, because female friendship is a VERY COMPLEX THING. I can't even begin to explain it to you.' Because I am a delight to date.



Best Friends Forever

Of course, I did look up Amy Key's work and I found that I loved it, and I do understand why someone might think we could be friends (Are we now? Maybe?! Give it time! Female friendship is a very complex thing! Jesus!). But I also stand by my original sentiment, and by my general exasperation about how female friendships are often misunderstood or just not considered important enough to try and understand in the first place.

My whole life has been defined by female friendships. I met my first best friend at nursery and I used to cry from missing her if her mum picked her up before mine at the end of the day. In year 5 our teachers put us in different classes so we could learn to be apart, and she discovered football and left me behind. Secondary school, a hothousing all-girls grammar, was fervid with changing allegiances as girls grew out of some friendships and into others, while negotiating exams, our bodies, and sex. The novelties of university put my old friendships on the backburner in the first year, but I eventually came back to them and learned to value them immensely alongside my new ones. My friendships at Orion made my very boring job bearable, and the existence of the Emma Press is a direct result of my old school friendship with Rachel Piercey plus the catastrophic end of my university friendship with my two housemates (which meant I moved home and could save up money) plus the indirect result of the support of my other best friends.

One of my illustrations from the book

And yes, there were dramas with boys, but honestly they were nothing compared to all this. Contrary to what popular rom-coms from the 80s and 90s suggest, best female friendships aren't a sideshow, tacked on to fill in the bits between meeting the love interest – they're the main event. Is Mean Girls about Cady Heron and Regina George fighting over Aaron Samuels? Of course it's not! Because Tina Fey gets it, and knows that the meaty stuff is Cady's friendship with Janis Ian (and Damian) and then the Plastics, and, less in the foreground, the ruins of the friendship of Janis and Regina George.

Infinitely more interesting and frequently more lasting, female friendships strike me as much more worthy of attention than most tedious A+B=Kissing romances, which is why I was so delighted when my possible friend Amy Key emailed me last year with a proposal for an anthology of poems about female friendship. Most definitely yes! All Emma Press anthologies tackle subjects close to the hearts of Rachel and myself, so I'm pleased that our first guest-edited anthology takes a look at one of the foundations of the Emma Press. Amy has collected a truly fantastic collection of poems which celebrate the life-enhancing power of female friendships while not shying away from the darker aspects of such intensity. Her introduction is soul-baring and moving, and I suspect that soon many more women will be asking themselves if Amy Key could be their friend.

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Amy Key has written about her experience of editing the book over on her blog. You can read more about Best Friends Forever on our website and buy the paperback (£10) directly from us as well as in any bookshop (you can order it in if they don't stock it). The ebook (£5.50) is available exclusively on our website.