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Weather Glass Books & Republic of Consciousness Prize Publishing Masterclasses
with Neil Griffiths

At Indie Novella, we know too well that the true force of change, innovation and championing truly unique and diverse voices within the publishing industry is without doubt, that of the independent and small press publisher. Hence we are really excited to have Neil Griffiths produce a Masterclass with us, with his wealth of experience as a novelist, an editor, a publisher and the founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize.

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For those who are not already in the know, Neil Griffiths is a British novelist, and the founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses. He is the winner of the Authors' Club First Novel Award, and has been shortlisted for best novel in the Costa Book Awards. In 2016, Griffiths launched the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses, to celebrate "small presses producing brilliant and brave literary fiction" in the UK and Ireland. Niel is also the co-founder of Weatherglass Books. Weatherglass was founded on a shared love of Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and a shared fear that it wouldn’t find a publisher today. Weatherglass Books wants to clear a space for the next The Blue Flower. “Running the Republic of Consciousness Prize I read hundreds of novels from small presses and loved a great many, but I did feel an absence of novels that were somehow exquisite at the simplest level: great story-telling built up from beautiful sentence-making.” Neil Griffiths, co-publisher.

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Weather Glass Rep Con Intro
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The Republic of Consciousness Prize

 

Neil set up the Republic of Consciousness Prize as a prize specifically for small presses as prizes are a key way to bring attention to the work of presses and their books. Prizes have an impact on how the media talk about certain books, bringing booksellers and literary editors invovled. You are curating shop window space in book shops for small presses. In 2016, the Big 5 publishers had a huge amount of control on bookselling and literary editors, but the work coming out of small presses was more exciting. Indie Novella sees Neil and the RoC Prize as true pioneers when it comes to leveling the playing field.

 

Weather Glass Rep Con Presses
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Over the last 8 years the Prize has grown to reach the majority of independent presses and small presses and has seen winners from indie presses who have gone on to household names. To qualify for the Prize a press previously had to have 5 or fewer full time staff working with them. However, as the Prize has been established this has now evolved to an eligibility criteria of 12 or fewer books a year, meaning publishers like And Other Stories and Fitzcarraldo Editions (twice winners) are now not eligible, which is fair as they are probably too big.

 

Weather Glass Rep Con 3 judging
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The Prize is judged by 3 judges from different parts of the industry and different communities. Small presses really champion diversity in literature by the niches small presses by their nature focus on, therefore we try to have diversity in the judging panel through the life of the Prize. The goal is for the judges to represent the depth of the small press community. The longlist should represent the best of the bredth of the small presses, and represent small presses as a community. The shortlist

 

Weather Glas Rep Con Last
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The best moments of Prize have been giving away £100,000 in cash to small presses plus the bump in sales of their books from the attention. The Prize has enable Neil to discover so many books and writers that he would not have previously discovered, and getting the opportunity to give those books that visibility has been amazing. Small presses are a more solid and secure part of the UK literary scene and we played a small part in that.

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Creating Weatherglass Books

Weather Glass Idea
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The idea for Weatherglass came from a text from co-founder Damian Lanigan who asked what are the barriers to entry to a small press. I said they were, a, knowing what one’s doing and, b, money, as anyone can start a small press but to do it successfully can be challenging. We started Weatherglass 3 threes ago and by then I had contacts across the industry which made starting a small press easier than if you went in cold. Prior to the text we were talking about Penelopy Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and how that would struggle to find a publisher today – it is almost the perfect short literary novel. We started to unpack what was happening in UK publishing. The Big 5 were being more risk adverse and the small presses were looking at new modernism. And so it felt there was a gap where you could write a piece of brilliant literary fiction but still not have a place to submit it, so we thought we would try to create this space.

 

Weather Glass Submissions
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The Submissions Process

 

Most small presses will have submission windows – two months at the beginning of the year and then at the end. Small presses get hundreds of submissions and reading submissions is the most tricky part of the publishing process. This year Weatherglass launched the inaugural novella prize. 
 

It is difficult for authors as publishers often do not have time to reply, but so many books do come from the submission window and also we spent a long time working with those authors on developing the books. Agents want to work on novels which are pretty finished, but small presses like to work with writers on works in development which are 60% finish and spend time taking them to finished.

 

Weather Glass Big 5 or SPress
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The Agent Route vs Small Presses

 

Authors need to think really hard about what kind of author they are and what kind of writing life they want. There is the old world way of doing things which is write a novel, submit to an agent, agent tries to get you a publishing deal with a Big 5 or big indie. Agents also make their living through large advances and only those can pay those large advances, and will be unlikely to go to the small presses. The problem is if you get publish with the Big 5 and your first book does not do well, you will not get another deal. Some writers will be happier submitting to small presses and find a press they can feel at home with and will commit to them even on modest sales. Literary fiction can see tiny sales, however tiny sales to a small press is still good and therefore a small press can commit to you as a writer even if your first books don’t do massively well. With a small press you can build a life in writing with them.

 

Weather Glass Critical Path
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Taking a book to market

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The process to start is you and your editing sending drafts back and forth, getting the manuscript to the final draft. The process at Weatherglass is that when we feel a draft is finished it goes to the copy editor. They are there to check everything from syntax to grammar to consistencies and checking dates, they are checking every aspect of the book. The editor and the author is to get it to 97% finished but it is the copy editor who gets it to 99%. The copy editor will check with the author whether they have done things deliberately, then they will create a style sheet with all the idiosyncratic elements of the text. It will then get typeset – in parallel we will have a cover and a blurb – we will then print up 100 to 150 copies for uncorrected proofs, known as Advanced Reader Copies, which are there to send to all the literary editors, other writers for endorsement and to booksellers. While this is happening it goes to the proofreader to get the final copy. 4 or 5 months out from publishing we are sending our proofs to likeminded writers, hoping they will say something nice about the book which we can put on the cover. We’ve sent it to literary editors so they know it is there when we start hammering on their desk three months out. Essentially two months out, my hope is that 2 people would have endorsed it and have the package to go to printing. Then it is working out what your print run will be, which is the toughest part of the process. Printing is all about economies of scale. If your print run is too low then to print then to print another run is going to cost likely a third more. You are thinking what can you afford to print and sometimes you get it wrong, but you make a decision and it goes to be printed while you go and try to get as many reviews as you can and you get your writers to go in and talk to their local bookshops and ask them to stock it. And when the books are in the bookshops, you get your writers to go in and sign them as signed copies sell.

 

Weather Glass Publish Proc
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How long does it take to get a novel up a publishable standard?

 

We’ve had books that come in 60% done but in an author’s heart of heart they do know its not perfect. If you set a publishing date that publishing date is arbitrary, you have no idea how long it will take to get right. The author may have a fulltime job and caring commitments so things can take a while. Publishing is all about missing deadlines. But then there are Waterstones and distributors who want information a number of months out. The key is to set dates with wriggle room and be flexible and know six months out from the publishing date if you are unlikely to reach that date. It gets much harder the closer you get and we’ve had books that pushed those deadlines far too close. But deadlines, wriggle room and knowing where you are six months out.

 

Weather Glass How to Work with Authors
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How do you work with novelists?

 

Publishing is changing enormously, people say in the Big 5 editors are more like marketers. For us, the key thing is you read the book, you fall in love with it, you have a conversation with the writer and you only move forward if you both have a shared vision for the book. As an editor you will be almost as close to the text as they are. In nearly every book the writer and the editor has a wobble and will think it will fall apart. You will have to remove things which will cause it to fall down and have the author work to put in back together in the stronger form. The editor will need to insist on certain things for the book to be publishable so they can back it completely.

 

Weather Glass Editing Process
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The only books I will edit will be books I completely love. Editing is an iterative process, you take two steps forward but take one step back. You have to be prepared to make big decisions and reverse them, and the writer has to be prepared for that. Apart from that it is also organic as the text throws up unique questions and queries. I like to line edit the text from an early stage and put a lot of queries in the margins, rather than give general notes, giving them clear directions on the document.

Weather Glass Author Editor
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The Author-Editor Relationship 

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It has to be collaborative, but it is still the author’s book. While the editor is editing it feels like the editor’s book so the editor needs to be careful on that. An editor starts off tentatively, but as they grow in confidence in knowing what the author wants to do then they can be more interventionist, so towards the end of the process that is when the editor really steps in and makes big suggestions and cuts. But the author would assume it will be the other way around and it will be more interventionist at the beginning and then less and less as you get toward the final draft so there is conflict and surprise as we get near the deadline and you start cutting whole paragraphs. It is almost the pressure of going to print you know what needs to be removed and change and that does cause a writer to panic at times. But this happens nearly all the time. You see it clearly towards the end. 

Weather Glass Advice
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What advice would you give authors wanting to work with an independent publisher?

 

The key thing is know yourself as a writer, decide what writing life you want, and work out which presses you have an infinity with. Read the books they publishing and subscribe to their books to get to know them. With independents, you can see them at book fairs and engage with them over social media, but you need to believe your sort of writing will suit them. Don’t think all small presses will suit your work. If you can find 5 that will publish you, get to know there work and what they are looking for, so when you are ready to submit, you feel confident they are the right one for you and you are then on their radar.

 

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