This
is part of new series called Ten
Questions in which IS&T will be talking to small presses.
Here, Director of Nasty Little Press, Luke Wright supplies the answers.
Ten Questions
Name: Nasty Little Press
DOB: 01 September 2009
Home town: Norwich, UK
1. Who is Nasty Little Press?
Editor Sally Roe, publisher Luke Wright and in-house illustrator Sam Ratcliffe.
2. What are your goals as a publisher?
To publish entertaining poetry in beautiful books
3. What first brought you to publishing?
A shared love of beautiful books, a gap in the market and a frustration with how many small presses do not appear to be nimble enough to seize on opportunities presented to them.
4. What do you consider the role and responsibilities, if any, of small publishing?
We can take risks. We can work quickly. We don't believe we have any responsibilities but a lack of commercial pressures mean that we do not have to compromise on the quality of work we publish.
5. What do you see your press doing that no one else is?
We work with poets best known as live performers of their work. Live poets often get ignored by publishers, or they're often too busy actually making a living from their work to get it published. We help with that.
6. What do you see as the most effective way to get new publications out into the world?
We're not like other publishers. Aside from our exclusive partnership with The Book Hive we do not supply to book shops, on High Streets or online. The internet means we can cut out the middle and sell exclusively through our website and at live gigs. Our poets have fans, they can easily sell ten books a night at their gigs, often many more. Why have our books listed on Amazon for them to undercut us and take half the profit, when we provide an excellent online service ourselves. Our books have all be reviewed well too. We do send books out for review to get the word out.
7. Do you take submissions? If so, what are you looking for?
We do take submissions. We're looking for entertaining, intelligent poetry that's direct and contemporary. e-mail us on slushpile@nastylittlepress.org.
8. How hands-on are you as editors?
We do more than just correct spellings. We do not re-write the poems. There is a rigorous editing process, but we guide our poets, we do not tell them what to do.
9. Tell us what you have published this year, and what you are going to publish.
In February we published John Osborne's What If Men Burst In Wearing Balaclavas? It's been nicely reviewed in Penpusher and we'll be printing a second run soon. In a matter of days we'll be publishing Byron Vincent's Barking Doggerel. Later in the year we'll publish Martin Figura's More Words For Toilet. Some time soon we'll also see a limited edition poem with pictures, a collaboration between Luke Wright and Sam Ratcliffe. This July we'll be launching our new intros series with an intro from Molly Naylor.
10. How do you see the press evolving?
At the moment we're publishing pamphlets (up to 32pp), about 4 a year. As our authors grow our press will. We hope to be publishing our first full collections by 2012. In the meantime we're developing two new imprints – Nasty Little Intros. These are 12 page pamphlets containing a 20 minute live set. This will give us the chance to publish very new poets, investing in new talent. We aim to publish ten of these between July 2010 and July 2012. We're also developing a range of fully illustrated single poems picture books. As the press grows we'll be opening an education department, getting our poets into schools for readings and workshops.
