A year since we started, it’s hard not to think in terms of lists, 4 books launched, 11 new titles commissioned, almost 10,000 books sold … But these numbers do little to reveal the work that’s gone in, the pleasure that the publishing journeys have brought, the joy of finally receiving physical copies, the pride the team and authors have felt at the five-star reviews and endorsements. The individual emails and exchanges highlighting the transformative power of a book.
Charlotte, Sue, Rebecca and I have a great deal to thank our authors and their agents for; they have participated in countless festivals, talks, bookshop appearances, workshops, gigs. They took a punt on publishing with a small start-up, but we like to think it has been rewarded.
There have been mistakes (struggles over illustrated ebook files, a terrible typo ‘navel’ for ‘naval’) and triumphs like multiple rights deals for Barefoot at the Lake and a full-page Guardian piece for P. J. Kavangah’s The Perfect Stranger.
Patrick Kavanagh sadly died in August of this year, swiftly, after a morning spent ridding the track to his house of nettles. He had no fear of the unknown and was buried next to his first wife Sally, as he wrote would happen in the opening pages of his memoir. He had celebrated signing his contract with September, ‘fifty years after it was first published!’, with a friend and a pint in his local pub, high in the Gloucestershire hills, where he now rests.
Working with such writers is a privilege, and one we share with each new reader we find.
Thank you to all our supporters and here’s to another enriching year!
Hannah
