Publisher's Diary: Dambusting
Another apology tour, and some last-minute subs advice
Don’t worry, no books were harmed in the making of the above photo – I added them later in an attempt at staying on topic (or perhaps to illustrate a metaphor). That sea is 100% real though.
It’s another apology blog today, but this time not for a lack of newsletters – the apology is for lack of progress on everything else. There’s been drama in every department at VP over the last few weeks, and at one point we were more than two weeks behind with post, emails and production. So, my sincere apologies to anyone waiting for a book, a reply, or indeed progress with your publication.
The good news is, we have already started to catch up. See photo of Friday’s post pile below, all double-checked and marked for tracked delivery. By the time you read this, they will be Royal Mail’s problem – not poor overworked Lindsey, queen of the postroom at VP HQ. (A big thank you to both!)
Dramas in that department included us accidentally ordering 300 padded envelopes that were too small to fit any Valley Press book, and then – after congratulating myself on finding a seemingly identical product half the price of official Jiffy(TM) ‘green’ padded bags – we started getting reports of customers receiving empty bags in the post, politely enquiring what the significance was. The glue on the cheap bags had not survived the journey; there were stray copies of books from our winter sale jammed in postal mechanisms all over the country. (Did Geoffrey Faber ever have to deal with this…?)
So, apologies to everyone affected by that, and of course to Jiffy for my ill-fated dalliance with their competitor – may my wallet never wander again.
Then there’s our digital correspondence: it’s totally out of control. The Valley Press inbox this past Monday was one of the worst I’ve ever seen in my fifteen-year career. A quarter of it was your submissions, of course (thank you!), which are building up nicely, albeit mostly unacknowledged. I decided I have to read every word in each email personally, and at least two pages of the attached document, before confirming receipt; fair enough, right? Except, due to post and production dramas, I fell further and further behind – so then we had everyone’s second emails wondering if their submission had been received, which as I write this, are also mostly unreplied to.
The third quarter of the influx was due to the various production issues I mentioned; I won’t go into specific details here, but for those of you invested in that area, I will be writing a fresh schedule before the end of the month, with lots of room for slippage, so we can all get some reliable dates in place to count on. I haven’t forgotten my New Year’s resolution to be more professional – but a late-January lapse is very much par for the course, I’m told. If you’re back on track by February 1st, it still counts!
The other quarter of emails were just the standard flotsam and jetsam that pours in daily to any publishing house; but they mustn’t be ignored either, as many of them are a few polite replies away from a box of books being sold, or a useful publicity opportunity secured. Regular correspondents will know that Lindsey often replies to emails too; but of course she was busy with the Jiffy avalanche … and has a whole separate, full-time creative career of her own to take care of! So, as of this Thursday, we have been joined by Tim, a virtual assistant specialising in publishing, who has immediately rushed over to the crumbling email dam and started to plaster over the cracks. I’m still showing him exactly where they are, of course, and where we keep the cement, but I think there’s a good chance we’ll be up to date by the end of Tuesday.
So, all’s well, or soon will be! I know some of you will be debating whether sharing all this is necessary, but I’m a huge believer in transparency and owning your shortcomings. To me, that’s how you earn the right to trumpet your triumphs, when they come. (Any day now…)
I’d also like to note that I am writing this at 11pm on a Saturday night, in the middle of a busy weekend with my nine-year-old (whose social life would put any of yours to shame). Authors, readers, subscribers to the blog: I have let all of you down at one time or another, if not this month then the last, or the one before that. I will likely do so several more times before 2026 is over. But it’s not for lack of trying, and it’s certainly not because I don’t care.
I’d like to end with some brief advice for submitters; extremely timely for anyone who has waited until now to send in your work – remember the window closes 31st January at 11pm GMT – but I’d also welcome a follow-up email from anyone who wants to add to their entry, based on what I’m about to say. (One more couldn’t hurt, right?)
I asked for six pieces of information in your submissions email, and I’m pleased to say almost everyone has included all six. Thank you! However, a majority of your answers to my request for…
A note on the ideal audience for your book, and where we might find them.
…have fallen some way short of the mark. I’ve only read entries up to 10th January so far, but multiple people have suggested: “anyone who loves a good read!” “people over the age of 18!” “people who love to visit bookshops!” You must try a little harder than that!
There have been some great efforts too, of course, and it’s really my fault for not being more specific. The perfect answers have mentioned a specific sub-group of literary readers who would respond to the submitted work (‘fans of...’), then also highlighted very specific and provable examples of an audience unique to the author who is submitting, e.g. blogs, regular events, social channels, local bookshops, connected businesses. I’m not so cynical I can be swayed by those facts alone, but taking on a book is a huge risk, and each nugget of info you can add to your answer reduces that feeling; it could make all the difference when I am making the tough final decisions.
There you go, anyway – I’ve said my part, do with it what you will! I look forward to writing to you again with better news, in more peaceful times, about all the wonderful new books we’ve been working on that are about to come out. If you still need to buy a book before your submission, don’t sleep on the coming soon section; there’s some amazing stuff there, all due in stock before Easter.
Thanks, as always, for reading, and your patience. Take care!