The Book Depository: What/who do you see as your primary market?

Dan Watt: We have a split catalogue, criticism and fiction. On the criticism side we have the Axis Series which publishes alternative critical titles that don’t really fit neatly into large academic publisher’s disciplinary catalogues. From larger texts on single authors to shorter critical essays on particular themes the series moves between Mayan language and Georges Bataille, the work of Bruno Schulz, literary and philosophical representations of the ant, the fragment in Blanchot, Beckett and Coetzee, to forthcoming volumes on the themes of stars and aliens in SF and an engagement with love, memory and continental philosophy. Our markets for these books are as varied as their subject matter but we want to attract a broad range of readers who want to consider literature and philosophy beyond the falsely designated academic boundaries.

On the fiction side we have a variety of titles, mostly in the supernatural/ghost/horror short story, weird tale and alternative fiction genres. These obviously appeal to an already saturated genre market. However our approach in this area is really a blend of history, myth and legend with a slightly otherworldly feel. In such a large market unless you are producing work that has a distinctive ‘flavour’ the book soon vanishes. Our new ‘Shire Horror’ series subverts traditional genre material, whilst presenting it in a recognisably British setting.

On a simpler level, I don’t know who our primary market might be. That sounds like commercial suicide, I know, and any publishing executive reading this will probably have fallen off their chair, or be reaching for the vodka bottle. But we publish each book because we want to, with little regard for who to promote it to, or indeed how to. Having always been an eclectic reader myself, passing from one writer to another through little more than a hunch or passing phrase, I have confidence that our ‘primary market’ for each title will find their way to them eventually.

BD: What are the principal challenges/opportunities you see at the moment in the business of publishing books?

DW: I think in many ways it’s easier to dwell in the margins of publishing, with the growth of blogs and the culture of genuine critical voices that has emerged recently, smaller presses fit into that kind of culture. We have always aimed at cultivating a sense of belonging to ‘The InkerMen’ and this has generated a ‘collective’ feel, for both authors and readers. A larger publishing house, however hard they try, can never really achieve that, whatever website gimmickry or mailing list ideas they come up with.

I am confident that the current growth of independent publishers will continue, and that is the greatest opportunity, both for the independent voice of readers and for publishing itself.

BD: What brings you to the decision to publish a particular title/author?

DW: Every title is different. Sometimes we start with a book idea and put out a call, or approach particular authors. We have been approached by some authors, although we don’t accept unsolicited MSS. With the Axis series we have to consider whether the work would fit better in a more mainstream publisher’s catalogue, we want author’s to place their work where it’s most appropriate. Because we do everything ourselves, typesetting, design etc., we have to be sure that our initial passion for the work will also translate into months of practical work on the finished title. This has, thankfully, been the case so far.

BD: What books are you most proud of having published?

DW: On the fiction side it has to be James Scott’s Just Maybe Stories. This is a curious mix of childhood nostalgia through the green haze of a late English summer mixed with an alternate, perhaps psychotic, reality where adolescents enact brutal retribution on each other and are variously kidnapped by owls, lured into open graves and attempt to sell their changeling siblings at market (think Lord of the Flies meets The Famous Five, set in a rural Clockwork Orange inhabited by all your favourite Grimm’s characters).

The Axis Series of criticism is harder to select a title from. The first in this series, and indeed the reason the series was first started, is Bob Brocklehurst’s Excessive Narratives, an extended essay on Bataille and the Yucatec Maya. This also includes a short play, and storyboard, exemplifying many of the critical issues Brocklehurst explores in the essay. The second title is Brian R. Banks’ Muse & Messiah which is the first comparative study of the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz, and then there is Simon King’s Insect Nations which examines the world of ants from Forel and Kropotkin to H. G. Wells and the Daleks.

BD: What books are you working on right now?

DW: In August we have a collection of short stories by James Scott, Darker Later, followed swiftly in September by an edited collection of short stories and poetry, Green and Unpleasant Land, which looks at re-imagined sites and places from British myth and legend.

In November two more Axis titles are coming out. The first is Conceptual Breakthrough, and collects two essays dealing with the concepts of ‘alien’ and ‘star’ in SF, by Simon King and James Holden, with an afterword by Adam Roberts. The second is Souvenirs d’amour: Love and the mnemotechnic of alterity, a series of letters and fragments on love, Heidegger, Cixous, Derrida (among others) and memory.

*****

These are The Book Depository's 5 favourite InkerMen Press titles: