Weekly answers to regular questions and top writing tips from an independent publisher.
Five things that we (and every other indie publisher we’ve met) are looking for beyond fabulous and edited writing.
1. A good person. I’m serious. We are looking for writers that we would like to call friends (and often do) because what you say, as well as the respect you give your fellow humans, reflects on us. In short, no haters.
2. Reality. You are submitting to an independent press, not a multi-conglomerate, meaning, there is a limit to what we can do. Your book won’t be in airports or grocery stores and we (probably) can’t make you mega famous, sorry. However, we can offer beautiful books and an attentive relationship with people who care about literature.
3. A balanced ego. Ah, the ego. We all have one, especially creatives, and if it’s blown out of proportion (or barely visible) it makes working as a team exceedingly difficult. So, please, don’t tell me that reading your book will be the best day of my life. That was giving birth to my children, thanks very much. Equally, please don’t apologise for submitting/writing/making me read your book. You wrote a book! That’s amazing! Shout your achievement from the rafters and stand proud.
4. Proactive attitude. Someone who is enthusiastically engaged with literature and writing. Don’t worry, we care about passion, not followers, and absolutely love it when a submitter is already waving the banner of creative fellowship. It makes us forgive typos.
5. Camaraderie. Like I said, you are submitting to an independent press, not a multi-conglomerate, meaning, we are freelance writers and artists too. A little nod of support and acknowledgement goes a long, long way. Engage with us on Twitter, Insta, Facebook. I mean, you are submitting to us so you must like what we do, right? The support has to be mutual.
You might be thinking – why is this information important? Isn’t great writing enough? Well, to a degree, yes, but I receive beautifully crafted stories and poetry all the time. I would happily publish at least ten out of every one hundred submissions I receive. And we publish two or three books a year, so personality counts, in fact, after the initial whittling down, it’s often the final deciding factor between two exceptional manuscripts.
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Good luck,
Gret Heffernan x
Gret Heffernan is the Editor-in-Chief of www.backlashpress and author of The Sculptor and Dark Ansley, Book One and Book Two
Have a question or a topic you’d like addressed? No problem, just DM us on @BacklashPress Insta or Twitter and we will endeavour to give you an answer.
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