London's small book publishers
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By Kate Riordan. Photography Rob Greig
Posted: Mon Feb 26 2007 
Short Books
As the name implies, the founders of Short Books originally intended to produce only books that were, well, short: around 40,000 words long and compact enough to fit in your pocket. Initial releases covered a disparate selection of engaging non-fiction topics, from Camilla Parker Bowles to the Soham murders. They should have been great successes but sadly the literal-minded filing systems of chain book stores was their undoing. Aurea Carpenter, who founded Short with fellow ex-journalist Rebecca Nicolson in 2000, remembers popping into one of the major bookshops and being crestfallen to find ‘British Teeth’ – William Leith’s darkly humorous analysis of our fixation with all things decrepit – in the dentistry section. Feature continuesAdvertisementThough it now focuses on standard-format books, Short’s still a broad church: its roster includes Francis Gilbert’s horrifying classroom memoir ‘I’m a Teacher, Get Me Out of Here!’, gift-orientated books such as Harry Mount’s bestselling love letter to Latin, ‘Amo, Amas, Amat… and All That’; and lifestyle titles such as Nina Grunfeld’s ‘The Big Book of Me’ and Time Out health columnist John O’Connell’s ‘I Told You I Was Ill’. They no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts because it would leave them no time for anything else.
New for 2007 is a foray into adult fiction, a move which the team say feels like a natural progression as they love reading fiction so much. They’ll begin with five titles which couldn’t be more different, from an Icelandic saga to an ‘anti-chick lit’ dark comedy.
On the whole, the work at Short is done by committee, with everyone mucking in and deliberating over cover designs and typography. They produce between 12 and 15 titles a year. Short excels at publicity, thanks partly to the impressive contacts Carpenter and Nicolson built
up in their previous lives as journalists. Newspaper serialisation is often arranged six months before a book goes on sale.
External support comes in the form of the Independent Alliance, overseen by Faber & Faber. Members – which include Canongate, Atlantic and the hugely successful ‘indie major’ Profile, in a corner of whose Clerkenwell office Short camps out – get the benefit of Faber’s established sales and distribution network, whereby their reps sell Short’s books on to retailers in return for a percentage of their profits.
Bestseller ‘Amo, Amas, Amat… and All That: How to Become a Latin Lover’ by Harry Mount (100,000 copies).
Short Books (020 7833 9529/www.shortbooks.co.uk).- Add your comment to this feature
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16 comments
hi there
this is 'starlite' a poet; just finished my first novel, though,
already published two poems books.
'true poems' and 'life is a sword, keep fighting'
with an international company.
is available online (amazon) or free from the library.
don't give up, bye.
I am a young writer and i wish if you can publish a book i have written, over 1oo pages and autobiography of my life, thanks.
Good day sir
i am a writer i want to get my books published but i dont know if you do sell for writers. i will like to ask three question.
1 What does it take to publish
2 will you sell the books your self
3 what is the royalties share like
Please tel l me other things i need to know.
Bogapani1 is the title of my book. i want to sell the copyright @1720000 USD. It is the story of the down troden mass,livinng in a remote tea garden of Assam.
1.Is it necessary to have an agent to submit a novel to you?
2.If not,what are your submission requirements?
Many thank and kind regards
Patrick F Nash
writing is a art and to be a artist patience is needed. ©
Now I am going to make you laugh, I have about 30 novels and I am writing, but I am not a published writer because, publisher don't like my story, as I am muslim.
Time will come and the gloomy moon will shin. ©
I also write poems.
I have just completed a book. It's based on the seemingly unending religious crisis in the city of Jos, Plateau state of Nigeria. I am currently seeking a publisher for the finished work and I have no doubt that i will find one in spite of the avalanche of rejections i hear every day that tumbles down on new and previously unpublished writers. No one is immune to rejection anyway except if you are not a writer. But it shouldn't kill our spirits.
I have a book ready for publication Can you help
i complete six novels(60, 200+,200+,86,71,61, on DTP pages respectively) on world peace and innumerous poems and novels. if u read that that works r not world standred u will desrtoy it with abusing. i m journalist by profesion. kolkata, india.
mobile:0091 9333111543
Hi!! i just completed my book. Its a fantasy book, and I want publishers to publish my book, am searching from a publisher, from quiet a while I really hope i get a response from here...
I have just finished writing a fantasy book and im looking at publishers at the moment, i have had a few interests but i thought maybe you would like to read it if you wouldnt mind? I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards
Jade.
surely you are a good publisher, though, would like to know more
about you, i;m still waiting to publish my poems book, tell me more.
There is also Other Criteria - a fantastic Art Publishing Company - www.othercriteria.com - web based and with shops on Bond Street and Hinde Street in London.
You are best visiting Hinde st to get a better selection of books, posters and small, affordable artworks!
The Swedenborg Society on Bloomsbury Way has been an active publishing house since 1810. Still publishing GREAT books of essays discussing the influential ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th century philosopher and mystic, who inspired Blake, Yeats, Baudelaire, Dostoyevsky among others. Their books boast v. attractive and modern production/artwork also. See www.swedenborg.org.uk or visit the bookshop in Bloomsbury, just around the corner from the British Museum.
I believe that there is still room for plenty. Rejections should be working as the catalyst to boost the energy in you to move forward with your dream. Any writer who takes in rejections as a stepping stone to sucess and still keeps on trying till he gets his work published will ultimately prove to be a Super Hero.