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

Richard Jones (Tangent Books): We've recently restructured to add focus to our varied range of titles. So our publishing plan splits into five imprints:

Toilet Books: Pocket-sized quotes books from sporting greats. So far the series features Brian Clough, Bill Shankly, George Best, Ian Holloway, John Arlott and Jock Stein.

Naked Guides: Alternative city guides. Bristol and Bath are the first two and we have another two on the way.

No Such Library: This imprint is dedicated to the work of Stanley Donwood, Radiohead's artistic collaborator.

Tangent Books: Our catch-all imprint. At the moment we have two Tangent Books - Bash The Rich (the autobiography of anarchist and Class War founder Ian Bone) and Kate Pollard's excellent community history of the South Bristol road plan of the 1970s which saw the area of Tptterdown largely demolished to make way for a madcap road plan that was never completed.

If there's a combining factor for all the imprints it's that they share a leftfield view, a sense of humour and an almighty passion for the subject matter.

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

RJ: Globalisation. As the High Street becomes increasingly global it has (in some cases) started to ignore small independent publishers, so the (global) internet market has become an increasingly important 'shop' for us. Direct sales (art trails, festivals etc) are also massively important, so the Bristol Book Publishers group always has a good presence at major local events. There's a growing feeling among smaller independents that the book trade is becoming less important because of centralisation and globalisation. WH Smith have refused to stock titles by local publishers in Bristol for the last 12 months so we've been forced to find new outlets and have made up the significant losses suffered by the WHS local book ban. A group of 20 or so Bristol Publishers now publish the quarterly Bristol Review of Books which has been extremely well received and (as we prepare issue four) is starting to make a real impact.

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

RJ: Some of the decision is box ticking. Does it fit into the philosophy of the imprints, is it genuinely radical or funny, is there a market? But most of the time it's an emotional decision. Is the book well-written, original and passionate? Can we add value through illustration and production quality? Can we work with the author? If we are in any doubt, we either won't publish or offer to publish on a contract basis.

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

RJ: All of them. We put as much effort into a Naked Guide (which takes about two years to produce) as we put into one of the quotes books which we can do in under a month. Bash The Rich was a big challenge for us and is a remarkable book, as is Totterdown Rising which is the culmination of years of original research by Kate Pollard. There are subjects in both books that I am proud to have recorded and put into the public domain.

BD: What books are you working on right now?

RJ: We're hoping to publish the autobiography of a Big Issue seller, a Green book for children and I'm working on a community cookbook. We've also got a Top Secret project underway which I'm hoping to complete for Christmas.

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These are The Book Depository's 5 favourite Tangent Books titles: