The idea is simple enough. A bi-annual literary compendium containing prose, poetry, and literary non-fiction. It would be produced in paperback book not pamphlet form, and probably run to about 200-pages long. Significantly, the bulk of the content would most likely come from writers capable of crafting high-quality material yet who are struggling to get published; they could be based anywhere in the world as long as their work is in English.
Importantly, it would not be ‘vanity’ publishing where contributors have to pay to get their material printed.
Perhaps that sounds a little like a throwback to an earlier if not simpler age; perhaps it’s a little old-fashioned. But I have a vision of a producing a new Granta-like collection (though with a greater balance of poetry) that could offer writers a means to have their work reach a wider audience. I have the mechanism to produce such a book through my own imprint, and I have the skills and experience needed to deliver the end product having published a number of books in the last few years.
On my side, all I need to find is time – and steel myself to reject far more material than I accept!
The outstanding questions are binary ones, and the most fundamental I need to answer: is there room in the market for such a book?
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Please do not attempt to send any material! At this stage, this is just an idea I’m floating!
Ian Gouge - Writer 