Valley Press celebrates 'greatest ever week'

Dear readers,

It's been a remarkable week at Valley Press – you may want to sit down with a strong drink before reading this blog post.  Done that?  Right, on we go!

Back in July, for the first time in my publishing career, I decided to apply to Arts Council England for a grant to support the growth and development of Valley Press.  Many of my publishing heroes run their businesses with the aid of money distributed by ACE (which is originally from the National Lottery); I'd not previously felt there was any chance of me joining their ranks, but in July I decided it was time to find out for sure.  So I diligently spent a week or so filling out the form, and off it went.

This week I heard my application was successful, and I can now announce Valley Press will be recieving nearly £50,000 of Arts Council funding between today and May 2017.  I know – I didn't see it coming either!  Time to take a sip of that strong drink you sat down with, two paragraphs ago, and enjoy the official, compulsory logo, which you'll be seeing a lot of from now on:

A press release about this can be read here (two, even), and an article from The Bookseller (who broke the news simultaneously with the VP newsletter) here.  What I promised to do with the money was: publish at least twelve books in 2016, from familiar and new authors, and do an absolutely outstanding job on them; take those authors and others on a national tour (like the one we did in 2013, but bigger); construct a new website for Valley Press which works on mobiles and has a shopping basket; and carry out an extremely active search for new writing throughout 2016, to find truly undiscovered writers from every corner of society. So look out for more information on all of that over the next few months.

Moving on now; it was a lively week even before the grant news arrived.  The non-fiction books I told you about last month have gone from strength to strength – Tom Preston's second-person cancer memoir The Boy in the Mirror received a five star review in The Sun (see here), and Tom was interviewed for the most recent edition of The Sunday Times (clipping below, full article here for subscribers).
 

Kris Mole's epic travel adventure Gatecrashing Europe appeared in Brighton paper The Argus (see here), in rather photo-heavy style in the Daily Mail (see here – though approach with caution!) and perhaps most informatively in The Mirror. This kind of national press attention is unprecedented for VP books, really; hopefully a sign of things to come.

Still with me?  There are some great events coming up this week too.  Let me first tell you about three forthcoming readings in Scarborough – see the poster below for details.

There are still a couple of tickets left for Norah's reading, which is happening today (Thursday 24th). We'd love it to be a sell-out, and we'd love to see you there, so give Wardle & Jones a call!  (If you haven't heard of Scarborough's new independent bookshop, by the way, the proprietors wrote a post for this blog which is well worth a read.)

We also have a reading coming up at the weekend, in London, as part of the 'Free Verse' Poetry Book Fair.  Here comes the obligatory poster:

If you're going anywhere near Conway Hall on Saturday, this reading is a must – and there are lots of others on during the day, all free, including one with The Emma Press (outside in the square at 11am).  We have a stall too, come and say hello!  Possibly some congratulations in order...?

By way of a closing note, I'd like to acknowledge that I am just the centre of the web that is Valley Press – it's the wonderful authors who've worked with me over the last seven years, the legions of readers who've bought their books, and all the hard-working freelancers and interns who've actually built VP to the point where it deserved funding.  So a huge, huge thank you to everyone who has supported Valley Press so far.  I think you'll be sticking around to see what happens next!

All the best,
Jamie McGarry (VP Publisher)

'Poets on Bar Street' – and, meet Wardle & Jones

Today, I'm excited to bring you news of a new series of poetry readings in Scarborough, at recently-opened independent bookshop Wardle & Jones. Details of the readings can be found below, in the poster, and afterwards I thought I'd let W&J's proprietors share a few thoughts on the daunting process of opening a new bookshop. Wish them luck!  – J.M.

We are Rachel and Karl – the two halves of Wardle & Jones. 

I am the Wardle half and it's my smile you'll usually see as you come through the door. I mainly read fiction, I also love children's books and am more likely to be found perusing our children's stock than reading a book aimed at grown ups. Karl, the Jones half, on the other hand much prefers non-fiction – history, politics, philosophy – he also loves Terry Pratchett.

We decided to open a book shop after lots of talking, thinking, research and training. It is the one thing Karl and I had always talked about doing together with true excitement. I was aiming to find my sparkle again after leaving a 12-year career as a project manager. It was definitely the right decision – my sparkle’s back and we love being in Scarborough.

We opened on 20 June 2015 after a frenetic five weeks of work from both family and some of the most conscientious trades people I've ever met. There was only one major hiccup when, 10 days before opening, we were told the material for the shelves and counter was not available. Not only would it not be delivered in the next three days as planned, it wasn’t going to be delivered at all! I began contacting local joiners and carpenters and by the end of the following day I'd managed to line up a two-man team. They were new to the area and needed to build a good reputation quickly, it was a fortuitous meeting for all concerned. They did a good quality job and we opened on time, phew!

We decided on books, coffee and cake as the right combination because we'd visited other places where this mixture worked well. Two of our favourite bookshops are Barter Books in Alnwick and Mr B's Book Emporium in Bath. Mr B's doesn't serve coffee and cake but they do have lots of space and comfy nooks to sit and enjoy the books. We wanted to give everyone a place to enjoy being around books in a safe, comfy environment where there was a reason to stay longer and have a proper look.

Our challenge was to fit that into a very small space – just 30m2; serving only cake was the solution. We knew we wanted to serve freshly ground coffee, that way book and coffee lovers alike would have a reason to visit, stay – well, only until closing – and return. So we made sure there was space for an espresso machine and grinder on our carefully designed counter (thanks to Mr Jones' hidden – until now – talent for technical drawings).

Almost 10 weeks in I am enjoying life more than I have for years. I’m excited every day about the people I might meet in the shop and the thoughts, opinions, ideas and memories they might share. But I am fearful of the future too, will we be able to sell enough books, coffee and cake to stay open? Business is at best steady and we certainly need to be selling more in the coming weeks, months and years to carry on for the foreseeable future, but we're hopeful. There are a number of as yet untapped income streams – we are just starting to put together an events calendar, we'd like to start supplying schools when the new school year starts and we have yet to run any joint events with local venues.

Finally, one thing I find useful as a bookseller is to remind myself the books in the shop aren't mine, they already belong to someone else. That way I find it easy to let people look, touch, feel and enjoy the books in their own way, so hopefully they're more likely to make them theirs before leaving.

You can read more about W&J here.

New non-fiction from Valley Press

Dear readers,

Though Valley Press is officially a publisher of 'poetry, fiction and non-fiction', we've only rarely touched on that third category – until now. All being well, our next three books will be firmly located in the real world; so I'll give you a thorough briefing on one today, a bit of hype for the second ... and we'll leave the third for next time.

First, a quick story: in 2007, a man named Kris Mole flew one-way to Stockholm with a vow not to return home to England until he had visited every capital city in the mainland European Union. He set himself eight simple rules, most importantly that no money would be spent or handled during the journey, and no credit cards would be used either.

Thus, the great Euro Freebie Challenge began: twenty-three cities to be visited, 6000 miles to be covered, without spending a single penny – to raise money, in fact, for Cancer Research UK. Kris told the story of this trip as it happened in a series of blogs and articles for local and national newspapers; and of course in a book, which he sent to Valley Press.

That was back in 2011, just a few months after I'd decided to become a full-time publisher. This week – four years, two missed deadlines and a dozen editors later – I'm delighted to bring you the full story of Kris' journey, under the title Gatecrashing Europe. As usual, you can read a sample on the book's homepage, and Scarborough-based readers can meet the author on Saturday 15th August, as Kris is doing a book signing from 10am-2pm at our new independent bookshop Wardle & Jones, on Bar Street. (Thanks to proprietor Rachel Wardle for the photo above.)

Can't make the event?  If you order a copy of the book through our website before close-of-business on Friday 14th, I can still make sure Kris signs a personalised copy for you – if he's going to sit around signing books all day, we may as well make the most of it!  Just make sure you request a signature when you order, and let us know who you want it made out to.

The other book I want to mention today is Tom Preston's The Boy in the Mirror, which isn't due out until September 17th, but is already attracting some press attention. Book preview website NetGalley went so far as to call it one of 'the UK's top ten books for September 2015' in this blog post – and who am I to argue with the experts?

The book in question is an astonishingly original take on the 'cancer memoir'; the true story of a 21-year-old's battle with stage 4 advanced aggressive lymphoma, written in the second person, so the events in the book are happening to 'you'.

Those who responded to the request in my May newsletter for feedback on a short non-fiction book can now feel rather smug, having read this one first – and having helped myself and Tom perfect the manuscript, which was quite a challenge as you can imagine. If you missed out on that preview, the first couple of chapters can be read on the book's homepage now. I can promise you, you've never read anything quite like it before.

That's all for now – I've kept things refreshingly brief this time – but I'll be back in September with more news, more books, and more well-intentioned boasting. Enjoy your summer!

All the best,
Jamie McGarry (VP Publisher)

Summer update from Valley Press

Dear readers,

We've had our fair share of joy and sadness at Valley Press since the last newsletter. I'll attempt to bring you up to date below - starting with our latest book, which needs to be put in some historical context...

When I met Nigel Gerrans in 2009, he had been writing poetry for 70 years, and I had just taken my first tentative steps into publishing - bringing out two books by myself with the words 'Valley Press' on them (to add a hint of professionalism). It was whilst talking to Nigel that I realised publishing other people might be an interesting and rewarding pursuit. Later that year I published his collection Tenebrae, and a couple of weeks ago I was delighted to re-publish those poems, with many others, in a new volume - It Is I Who Speak: Selected Poems.

Edited by the poet's long-time friend and collaborator Felix Hodcroft, this new publication collects the very best of Nigel's work across the decades; including some poems never seen anywhere else before, dug out of the archive and pieced together from various drafts and typescripts. It's been a real labour of love for all involved; a volume which we hope will be read and enjoyed for decades to come. Find out more and read a sample here.

Onto other news now, and there was a flurry of excitement at VP HQ last weekend, when our March novel Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space was recommended by William Boyd as a 'summer read' for 2015 in The Guardian. In case you can't quite make it out from the image, he said the following:

“Nora Chassler’s extraordinary Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space breaks all moulds. Set in 1980s New York, it is a triumphant vindication of the edgy, eccentric demotic as a compelling narrative voice.”

Not bad eh? Thanks to VP poet Mike Di Placido for supplying me with a copy of the paper, running home to get it after encountering me in the Post Office queue - whilst simultaneously purchasing and cooking some garlic bread. (I expect that's how Bloomsbury's press department handled this item too.)

The next thing I should mention is the reading group I organised via the last newsletter, which turned out to be a great idea; very useful indeed. The volunteers seemed to enjoy it - a little too much, even, as they were very nearly locked in Woodend overnight! I'll run another one at the end of the year, and allow a full day for the group to work through the envelopes and make its recommendations. Unless everyone pictured above wants to come back again (there are only five seats!) I'll need some new volunteers, so keep an eye out for that.

So, you may ask, what does this mean re: submissions? As of 6:57pm last night, I have settled the Valley Press publishing schedule for spring 2016 (in pencil - but a thick, black pencil that is hard to rub out). What this means is, if you submitted during our window that ended in June, and I haven't expressly emailed you by now saying you're in, you didn't make it.

I still plan to write to all the submitters individually, but as that's going to take several weeks, I thought a general announcement here would be helpful and not considered too rude. Huge thanks to everyone who sent their work in, it was by far the strongest six months of submissions we've ever received - absolutely top notch. I've been turning down bona fide TV stars, writers of bestsellers, people whose last four books were published by Random House ... it's beyond belief, really.

All of the above made me stop and think what a long way Valley Press has come, since the humblest of origins in 2008; and how it couldn't have happened without all the people who have helped out along the way. My week became a lot more poignant yesterday when I heard that Jenny Drewery - a lynch-pin of the Scarborough cultural scene, and the best proofreader ever to pick up a red pen - had passed away. Jenny worked frequently with Valley Press; if you've read pretty much anything we published between 2012 and 2014 you will have benefited from Jenny's invisible and meticulous work. She was also a wonderfully warm and encouraging personality, and will be much missed. Her friends and family have set up a page here where people can donate in her memory; I'd be delighted if any newsletter readers wanted to contribute.

There are just a couple more things I must mention in this newsletter (ridiculously long as it has already become): you have until 3pm on Wednesday 22nd July to listen to the radio version of Humfrey Coningsby on BBC iPlayer, which you can do here - well worth 45 minutes of anyone's time. Also, for the first time in four years I am doing a 'solo gig', in Covent Garden on Monday 20th July (this Monday!); all details available via The Emma Press. (N.B. I'm also reading at the event listed on Tuesday, and would love it if any VP fans dropped in.)

I think that's everything for now - thanks for reading, as ever, and look out for more news very soon.

All the best,
Jamie McGarry (VP Publisher)

Eve Lacey on the 'Anthology of Sea' Submissions

Eve Lacey

Eve Lacey is currently editing an anthology of poems about the sea for the Emma Press. With just six days left in the call for submissions, we asked her to share some of her thoughts about reading the submissions and preparing to make the final selection. Submissions to The Emma Press Anthology of the Sea close on Sunday 21st June 2015 – read all the guidelines here.

* * *

One month since the call for submissions was released, and with only a week left until the deadline, my inbox has filled with sea. I read the poems more or less as they arrive, and sort them into groups to return to later. This involves spreadsheets and colour-coding, and I won't dwell too long on the individual poems until I have got a sense of the whole.

An anthology can be picked at in parts, but should also have a meaningful structure if read cover to cover in one sitting. In the early days of book-making, when parchment was a precious resource, Medieval readers created compendium texts of their favourite sections of verse, instruction and scripture, handpicked and hand-arranged, then bound together in a pocket library. From bestiaries to Bibles, anthologising is primarily concerned with weight: balancing one text against another, and condensing it all into one volume. Such assessment and consideration demands an economy of verse – like a poem writ large, each section must earn its place.

At this early stage the only question is whether I want to read a poem again, and again, and again. We have had submissions from the UK to Australia, from the Philippines and in translation from Portuguese. Perhaps unsurprisingly, writing on the sea frequently returns to the same motifs – the most common words have been flotsam and jetsam, but I've had lots of fathoming too – and similar sentiments recur with tidal regularity.

Next, I'll experiment with different orders and discover how the anthology should read as a whole. This is one of the most exciting parts, because it cannot be planned in advance. The trick is to find the balance between variety and thematic strength, and arrange poems so that they make more sense next to each other than they would alone.

I have learnt so much, in subject matter and form, from the submissions that have already arrived. But the theme is giant, and we want to do justice to its breadth. The poems arrive like messages in bottles, and we'll be collecting sea stories and castaway verse until the end of the week.

* * *

About the author: Eve Lacey is a writer and the editor of Furies (For Books' Sake, 2014), an anthology of contemporary women's poetry. She is also a librarian, a longlist judge for the Commonwealth Book and Short Story Prizes, and web editor for Thresholds: Poets in Residence at the University of Cambridge Museums. In 2012 she was awarded the David Almond Fellowship from Newcastle University and Seven Stories Museum to conduct archival research on disability in children's literature. Her work is published by the Emma Press, SALT, Textual Practice and The Next Review, and featured in Rebecca Goss's 'Heart Poem' series.

News, books and opportunities from Valley Press

Dear readers,

It's been a couple of months since I was last in touch - how have you been? Right, now the small talk is out of the way, I'll get down to business ... I have a lot to tell you, but I'll start (as ever) with our latest publications.

Both of the books pictured here were released on the 24th April; so I'll introduce them in alphabetical order. First we have Jonathan Davidson's Humfrey Coningsby, a short collection of "poems, complaints, explanations and demands for satisfaction" inspired by the (continuing) life of a 16th century Shropshire Lord.

Twitter has been getting quite excited about Humfrey, with the words "brilliant", "wonderful" and "lovely" being used to describe it in one 24-hour period. Our own Kelley Swain nicely summarised it as: "Sir Harry Flashman meets Sir Geoffrey Hill. Superb, a must-read!" And your Coningsby experience doesn't have to end with the book; Jonathan has also written a radio drama on this subject, currently scheduled for broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 24th June, from 2.15pm. Should be well worth a listen! Check out a sample of the book here to see what the fuss is about.

Then there's Life Class, the second collection by one of our most distinguished VP poets (and noted artist) Jo Reed. Jo designed her own cover for this book, basing it around a portrait of herself by renowned graphic designer Ken Vail, and the interior of the book is just as unique and intriguing. Never trivial, Jo's poetry deals in memory, myth and magic; often combining unvarnished reality with breathtaking flights of imagination. A Scarborough-based event around Life Class is in the works; keep an eye on the book's homepage for news on that, when we have it.

Onto other matters now: near this sentence you should see a picture of the VP/EP stall at the London Book Fair - we had a marvellous time and hope to go back next year. You can read Emma's charming summary of our experience here.
 
I'll be back in London this coming Wednesday (27th), for the official launch of Richard Barnett's Seahouses, which is taking place at Blackwell's Holborn from 6pm. Hope to see you London Valley Press fans there!

I know many newsletter subscribers are anxious to hear about the submissions process, so here we go: our search for great new writing to publish in spring 2016 is about to come to an end. The details are all here, in case you've missed them, and the deadline for us receiving your work is 5pm on Friday May 29th. If you've almost got something together, but can't make that, don't panic! I'll most likely open submissions for autumn 2016 that very same day (with the same requirements), so only rush if you need a decision soon.

I'd actually like to request some help with that decision: I'm looking for fans of literary publishing to meet me in Scarborough one day in June, to read through a selection of submissions and give me some feedback. If you're interested in attending this, reply to this email and let me know; we'll discuss exact dates and times once I have five or six volunteers. If you've submitted something in the last six months, I'm afraid you're not welcome at this meeting - but the rest of you are.

I'd also like a few volunteers to read a forthcoming VP title, due for publication in September - it's prose, non-fiction, on the short side at just 70 pages; I'm looking for general feedback and answers to a few specific questions, which I'll be asking after you've read it. Again, if you're interested in helping out, please reply to this email and let me know. (You won't have to come to Scarborough for this one.)

Finally, I'll end by directing you to a couple of wonderfully detailed and eloquent reviews of our March novel Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space; one from 'Scots Whay Hae' and one by R J Askew. I also loved this short blog about the book by our sales agency's director Sheila Bounford. And very finally (sorry for going on so long!), thanks to Jim Hinks, a remastered version of Dame Judi Dench reading Sue Wilsea's short story 'Paper Flowers' is now online here. Would be a great way to spend 20 minutes of your bank holiday! (In addition to all the minutes you've spent on this newsletter...)

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

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