Gwen Davies of Alcemi Books describes the working relationship between editors and authors
Gwen Davies
In the fourth of our interviews with publishing houses, we get to know Gwen Davies, editor at independent Welsh company Alcemi Books. Gwen talks to EssentialWriters.com about the difference between the London and Welsh publishing scenes, and what really gets her excited about a manuscript submission from a new writer.
What inspired you to become an editor?
I have worked in small-scale publishing in Wales for my whole career. My childhood was bilingual (Welsh speaking family in 1970s West Yorkshire) so that may have had an influence, and my parents were linguists and my father a published Welsh-language poet, so genes and environment interplay as usual. I got my first job from UCW Aberystwyth in 1985 as a writer/editorial assistant on an English Welsh cultural magazine, Planet the Welsh Internationalist.
Through working on the magazine with editor John Barnie, a poet and memoirist, I learnt how to write economically, to see where to cut nonfiction and how to better structure other people’s writing. Also I learnt not to over-revere writers, among whom I met RS Thomas (ignored me), John Tripp (hilarious) and the Australian poet Les Murray (big, red kind man who helped me staple letters).
From there I went on to manage a tiny Welsh-language publisher for children, Cymdeithas Lyfrau Ceredigion, became Literature Officer of the Arts Council of Wales (from 1995), where I was responsible for children’s literature and grants to publishers, and has a spate editing fiction for Parthian Books on a freelance basis.
This was my big break in terms of editing fiction. Richard Davies, founder of Parthian, I had met from Arts Council days.
I’d criticised the proof-reading of his novel, and he assumed I could do it better, which wasn’t hard. This led to a post with Parthian in 2003. I must give Richard credit for the way in which he modelled how to develop new writers, which he as publisher continues to prioritise.
I hadn’t done this before but I grasped how to help an author extend a novella or reduce a baggy manuscript, and I eventually learnt which authors could learn fast and whose five drafts weren’t worth wringing a novel from. Parthian’s is the model for development and promotion on which Alcemi is based.
What makes Alcemi different to other publishing houses?
The Welsh publishing scene is very different to that in London, so this probably demands separate answers, as should the issue of mainstream vs independent publishing.
In comparison to London mainstream literary publishers, we have no money for marketing or advances; we generally don’t have work submitted via agents (though this is changing); we act as agents in terms of developing the manuscript from the point of delivery, and we have a tiny staff which has to work across a spectrum of tasks, from ISBN registration to writing press releases; from pitching titles to international scouts to sending out review copies, and from developing distribution to briefing designers on covers.
In comparison to other literary publishers in Wales, we are few and work together to a surprising degree: so little money is there circulating among publishing staff across Wales that many of us freelance for each other!
We all have our specialities. Alcemi’s difference within Wales is its small size: four novels a year published to maximum impact. I try not to publish anything unless it’s got an international reach and is worth putting in for prizes and giving a marketing push.
Most other publishers end up padding out their lists with books that sell a bit more than the literary titles. Because we are an imprint within a larger general and commercial publisher, Y Lolfa, the quality can be targeted into one place.
What kind of books does Alcemi publish?
We publish literary novels. We may gradually move towards short fiction. I occasionally publish creative non-fiction if I see the right manuscript by the right author. We don’t publish poetry or genre fiction.
I always emphasise to potential authors that my tastes reflect my personal reading habits, which means that rejections shouldn’t be taken personally. As the chair of literary promotion agency Academi’s writers bursary panel, I am convinced that literary taste is one of the most subjective, a point which will have been driven hard into the hearts of shortlisted authors just having missed a prize!
In terms of an editorial vision, an Australian editor told me my list was “voice-driven” which I hadn’t thought of, but is obviously true. The fiction that catches my eye has a strong, consistent voice or voices, not necessarily first-person, but true to a narrator’s viewpoint. The books I love to read for pleasure tend to have narrative voices which are warm, ironic, naïve, innocent, naïve, compromised or damaged. I say “warm”, but I’m talking about accessibility to the narrator’s consciousness rather than jolly, upbeat characters: on the contrary, I relish dark themes, settings, black humour and violence! I go for dry, understated humour and an exploration of sexual themes too.
I am a literary translator of fiction from Welsh to English, so try to keep slots for Welsh-English translations: so far we’re planning one set in Cardiff’s underbelly; one of last autumn’s titles started off as a translation by the author of an Eisteddfod-winning short novel, and morphed into a totally different full-length novel (Twenty Thousand Saints), for which its author, Fflur Dafydd, has just been appointed the Oxfam Hay Emerging Writer of the Year.
The novels I’ve published so far are set in places as varied as Goa, Chester, the north-west Wales coastline and Bardsey island; west Wales; Greece; Weimar Berlin; the mid Wales marches; an unnamed mysteriously black and white Scottish castle town, and central London.
There are no restrictions on settings, but we are prioritising authors from Wales at the moment. Styles and narrative voices have varied from cool multi-narrative viewpoints (Gee Williams’ masterly Salvage, which was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction); hallucinatory and sensuous, in Penny Simpson’s The Banquet of Esther Rosenbaum, humane, witty, sane and philosophical, in Fflur Dafydd’s Twenty Thousand Saints, and a dash of Music Hall panache combined with zany slapstick comedy in The Sleepwalkers’ Ball
In the pipeline we have strong male first-person viewpoints from Tyneside and the world of eco-terrorism; epic historical drama covering the Croatian wars of the Thirties and Nineties (the emphasis on lush imagery, characterisation and “exotic” settings carry this novel away from historical genre), and a satire on New Age commercialism and the expat business community in Bangkok.
What happens to a submission once it reaches your offices?
Unfortunately it will sit in a pile for a while, but we do aim to give a reply within 12 weeks. Email submissions are fine (three chapters plus synopsis), but I will print them out and usually take them home to read in an environment that replicates a leisurely reading experience (in bed, on the kitchen table with the children around me, on the bus; usually in the school holiday period, if writers wish to take note and time their submissions to the seasons…).
After all, you won’t be reading the novel on a glaring screen in an office - that only adds anxiety to the whole process, which should never come into reading. I use a trusted reader when the pile gets too high, but still read most submissions with potential myself, and don’t decide on the basis of reader reports, because of the subjective nature of literary taste.
I scan a manuscript’s first paragraph for key words such as “Arthur”, “dragon” and names like Grundlewigger, to filter out any Celtic twilight and Hobbitophilia; or for adjectival overload (”The dazzling, deepest darkness”); chauvinism “the cut of her skirt was tight and high”), and emotional showing not telling (”his cyber-porn habit had its roots in the Christmas Eve of his eleventh birthday when his father left, although the way his mother controlled his eating habits had also sown evil seeds”). If I like a narrative voice and it is free of the above, I will request the whole manuscript and take it home.
What do you look for in a submission?
A balanced structure; distinct, controlled and consistent voice; warmth; psychological perception; strong settings; originality; authenticity and humour.
How can a new author get past the slush pile?
We specialise in new authors and don’t rely on agents unless they happen to come to us. Instead we read submissions ourselves, so the slush pile is not a big issue for writers submitting to us, if they can be patient.
New authors have pretty much a similar chance as established ones: I will read with an open mind, although it is true that I’ll accept immediate submission of a complete manuscript from a known or established author, whereas it is the three-chapter-rule for unknown authors, I’m afraid.
How do you prepare an accepted manuscript for publication?
It will sit and wait for its publication slot for a while: this could be up to six months. This is good in that it creates a time lag between my first reading and my second reading/creative edit.
I do the creative edit in the same relaxed home experience as the first reading, and will look out for problems and strengths in the following areas: structure, character, setting, atmosphere, pace, length, style, consistency, likeability and prominence of protagonist, themes, perception, size of cast (aiming for a core of four main characters), language and rhythm, repetition - all the usual keys of good novel-writing.
If it is an inexperienced author, I may support them through three or four drafts before the manuscript is finally accepted. I’ll try and leave another time lag until the line-editing stage, because unless a title is fantastic, it does get boring to repeatedly read a book.
I will try and meet and/or get to know the author a bit and discuss their role models for the novel, themes and what they are aiming for - getting them to agree with my blurb usually teases out such themes.
An external proof-reader will copy-edit after typesetting - the author will see a copy at this stage, check for mistakes and hopefully resist any re-writes!
What is your favourite part of this process?
The occasional experience of finding an author who doesn’t need to be creatively edited!
At the other end of the scale, however, my own creative buzz from my job comes from working with a promising new author who still needs improvement, is on the same wavelength, trusts me, and is open to suggestions.
You can surmise from this that an editor is ultimately a frustrated author… but I do know when to stop meddling, and my own work as a literary translator makes me sensitive to how vulnerable an author can be during the editing process.
I also enjoy just meeting the authors, exchanging ideas, book recommendations, feeling part of the literary world… It’s a bit maternal, actually - I do feel that they are my “family” of authors.
What is the most challenging part of it?
A difficult author (usually not the top class ones - they are pussy cats because they are secure in themselves) who argues every comma and adjective lost to the blue pencil. Even worse, the ones who don’t even see the point of an editor!
And getting back to the maternal theme, commiserating with an author who doesn’t get a prize, gets a bad review or worst of all, may face annihilation by the marketing department due to poor sales.
Whose writing has excited you recently?
Fflur Dafydd, whose Twenty Thousand Saints just got her the status of Oxfam Hay Emerging Writer of the Year. Her character of Sister Viv, the lesbian pretend-nun on Bardsey island who is host to her sect’s annual conference of hermits, is not averse to stealing rhubarb, and buried her head in the political sands for twenty years for the sake of her ideals, is the perfect example of a warm protagonist in a multi-narrative novel. Viv drives the suspense because the reader falls in love with her, borrowed habit and all!
I have only just discovered Raymond Chandler, whose fantastic Farewell, My Lovely I bought in the crime and horror shop at Hay this spring. The reason I’d avoided him was prejudice: I tend to avoid genre crime. But my God! What a stylist!
His description of surviving being doped in the phoney Forties rehab centre is a gem of surreal writing in a setting of hardboiled clichéd-crime writing (which I also fell for, despite its over-familiarity).
Then my old favourites of the naïve and kooky voice: DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little
Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex, an epic American immigrant story told by a superbly empathetic hermaphrodite narrator.
Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (again, I’m afraid, that maternal heart-twang reaching out to the autistic boy who can’t fathom his mother’s hatred for his father: an easy storyline dressed up in the even-easier genre of detective novel but laced with beautifully-perceptive motivation).
And lastly, Hayley Long’s Kilburn Hoodoo (another adolescent naïve narrator) set in the west African quarter of Brussels and north London in the world of failing pupils, voodoo magic and school league tables.
Hayley started off with fellow small Welsh publisher Parthian, and is about to make it big with Macmillan who are publishing her first novel for teenagers this month, Lottie Biggs is (not) Mad.
What are the main challenges for an aspiring author?
Enduring working below the breadline before you give up or get a film option. Understanding genre. Many literary writers, because they may not read genre, do not seem aware of its influence on our culture. Even if you hate the genres, you need to know they are there, whether in order to avoid them, imitate them or just play with their boundaries.
Maintaining self-belief despite the indifference of most of the world in literature. Making time for writing if you work in a demanding job including caring for children or parents.
Not letting your ego carry you off into Pratland (because your editor may tire of you!). Not getting isolated and depressed, especially if sales or reviews are poor.
Staying realistic - it’s only a book!
What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?
Get a part-time job to enhance or reduce your life-experience (see above re jobs and childcare!). Read - that is just as important as writing.
Research a publisher’s list and website before submission. Don’t oversell yourself in a submission letter - editors tend to be quiet people who don’t like boasting. Don’t get too up yourself, but carry on believing!
For further information, please visit www.alcemi.eu
Other publishing houses interviewed for this series include Parthian Books, Tonto Books, Dedalus Books, Gomer Press, Trapdoor Books and Seren Books, The Friday Project, Chicken House and Wild Wolf Publishing
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