Simon Hicks of Seren Books talks about the value of marketability in book publishing
Simon Hicks
For our seventh interview in our series on publishing houses we talk to Simon Hicks at Seren Books, an independent literary publisher specialising in English-language writing from Wales. The company aims to bring Welsh literature, art and politics before a wider audience. Simon tells us why writers with sales acumen have a better chance of seeing their manuscript published.
How did you come to work for Seren Books?
I was a copywriter in a design agency with lots of industrial clients and I saw a small advert in the Western Mail. Publishing seemed more interesting than profiled steel cladding.
What is your role with the company?
Design. Marketing. Sales. Packing up books in boxes…
Did you receive any formal training?
No, though I have been on various courses since joining.
What makes Seren Books different to other publishing houses?
The breadth of our list: poetry, fiction, art, biography, criticism, current affairs, and general interest. For a small publisher, we cover a lot of bases.
What kind of books does Seren Books publish?
We’re a literary publisher specialising in English-language writing from Wales. The company was set up to give a platform for Welsh writers, which is why the list is so broad. We bring out 25-30 new titles a year, and have been in existence for about 30 years.
What happens to a submission once it reaches your office?
It’s given to the appropriate editor - fiction, non-fiction, poetry - who look at it in the first instance. For non-fiction, if necessary, we get an external reader with the relevant expertise to give a report.
Books the editors think worth publishing are presented to our Board at quarterly intervals, and then the decision whether to publish is made. Most get rejected before they get to this stage. We receive about 150 fiction submissions a year, and publish around six.
What do you look for in a submission?
Some indication that the person sending it knows something about Seren Books and the types of books we publish.
If an author knows ways of selling their book (in addition to having excellent quality of writing) that helps too.
How can a new author get past the slush pile?
By being good. Not relying on gimmicks. Sending neat and tidy typescripts by post only - no email submissions.
Once you have accepted a manuscript for publication, how do you prepare it for publication?
There is an editing process between editor and author. Then there’s design and typesetting - mostly in-house, though the fiction is typeset by freelancers - and we put some covers out too. Then the manuscript is proofed, and finally it goes to the printer.
What is your favourite part of this process?
When a book arrives from the printers and is suddenly ‘real’ - with an authority that proofs just don’t have.
What is the most challenging part of it?
I don’t get involved in the editing process so I can say the hardest part is selling.
Whose writing has excited you recently?
Cormac McCarthy, though he’s not published by Seren.
From our list Once, Andrew McNeillie’s memoir of his 1950s childhood, is beautiful and profound. It makes me want to spend more time outdoors.
What would you say the main challenges are for an aspiring author?
Finding time to write if they work, or money to live if they don’t.
What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?
Read. Know what the competition is up to.
For further information, visit www.seren-books.com
Other publishing houses interviewed for this series include Parthian Books, Tonto Books, Dedalus Books, Alcemi Books, Gomer Press, Trapdoor Books, The Friday Project, Chicken House and Wild Wolf Publishing
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Sigh. And so it goes. Writers today have to have SO much focus on marketing etc. that the writing is becoming the second thing. It’s backward.
A friend said to me once, “Why don’t you just give your manuscript to a publisher and get them to publish it?” I laughed and asked him, if he had a design for a car he would like to drive, and took the design to Ford and told them to build it, would they not just laugh in his face?
After that though, I realized, publishers are really just commercial businesses whose bottom line is money, just like any other businesses. They aren’t gods who know all the good writers from the bad. Some people will read anything and love it! People who are rejected by publishers are not necessarily bad authors. They simply didn’t attract the money-focussed editor. Somebody out there might be sitting back “praying” to get your manuscript.
Self-publishing is not a shameful way to go for an author.