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Interview with Paul Brown and Stuart Wheatman, editors of Tonto Press Interview by Marcelle Perks
Tonto Press is a new independent publishing company based in the northeast of England founded by two writers, Stuart Wheatman and Paul Brown, who know themselves how difficult it is for new writers to get their work published. They are actively seeking original fiction by new writers and you don't need to contact them via an agent. Wheatman is the author of nonfiction books The Krays: The Geordie Connection and Cage Fighter. Brown is the author of Balls: Tales from Football's Nether Region and Black and White Army. They aim to offer new writers more opportunities and a fairer deal than traditional publishers. They've released their first book, Tonto Short Stories, to international acclaim.
You've both published nonfiction with traditional publishers. What was your motivation for founding Tonto Press?
SW: I'd always wanted to be a publisher. My motivation was talking to Paul about it and realizing we both had the same aspirations, so it happened a lot quicker than I had planned. Our motivation was trying to do for writers what we wanted someone to do for us as writers-- to realize that the writer is as important as the publisher and to genuinely care about working with talented people. Long term, I want Tonto Press to be established as a publisher of quality fiction and nonfiction.
How is Tonto Press different from regular publishers?
PB: We are offering something different. Traditional publishing is a very expensive venture, so traditional publishers are perhaps understandably wary of gambling on new writers. They prefer to go with established authors or celebrity names because they are guaranteed to sell. But our business model involves much less expense and risk, so we are able to "gamble." In terms of content our books are quality general fiction, just like those produced by other publishers. What is different is that we read unsolicited manuscripts, talent spot our new writers, work with them to develop their novels, and promote them as writers upon release to ensure that they get as much as possible out of the project. We're currently looking for novels to publish and asking writers to submit the first 10,000 words.
You've published many writers for the first time in your first book, Tonto Short Stories. How can this help writers further their career?
SW: We are actively marketing the anthology globally-- to press, influential industry figures, the general public, bookstores, and agents. What the anthology does is give writers [who would not ordinarily have one] a chance… we know it is harder [to get] publishers to read your work if it is not submitted via an agent, and you can't get an agent without a track record… so we have got the ball rolling at least. We can also continue to read writers' work and publish those we have an interest in.
PB: For a start, we've physically put copies of Tonto Short Stories into the hands of agents and talent scouts. But the aim of the project was not to help these writers get an agent, but to develop them as writers. In being published for the first time, seeing their book on the shelves, and receiving praise from readers and reviewers, these contributors can feel like they've become real writers. As a boost to their confidence and their writing that's invaluable. Also, those writers that work with Tonto Press in the future will not need an agent.
The Arts Council is quite strong in the north of England and has supported you. What could/should organizations like the Arts Council be doing to support literature?
SW: The Arts Council of England has been very supportive of our first project and hopefully will be more so after the success of it. I'd be worried if they weren't supporting us because we are quite unique with fresh ideas about books and marketing. The most daunting aspect is being a new company, regardless of any individual track record, and to try to compete with other more established companies for funding. Organizations like New Writing North are also helpful. Maybe organizations should ask writers what they want and try to give it. It is tough as a writer to find time to apply for awards and funding, especially when the grants for writing are generally up to £1000 if you're lucky. That isn't even a month's wage on minimum pay to write a novel-- which just isn't realistic. People need to start investing in talent, but it needs to be sustainable. Too often arts grants are essentially wasted on projects with little value. We were determined that if we received funding we would put it to good use and make the money go a long way.
Many anthologies on the market are themed. Yours seems to be pretty open. What kind of criteria did you use when selecting the stories for the anthology?
SW: The stories were judged purely on merit. That was it. Themes are all well and good, but as you say, many anthologies are themed. Why have another? If a story captured our imagination, it stood a chance of being short listed. All the usual character, structure, and dialogue criteria were there as well as grammar and spelling. Both of us editors are also creative writing tutors, and we used our experience. We also had an open call and many international writers responded, and we published authors from Canada, Germany, and the USA.
Reading the anthology, I noted that you did not shy away from harder topics like horror and sex.
PB: The topics featured reflect the submissions received. If they were good enough they went in, regardless of genre.
You both have stories included in the anthology. Some editors avoid this on the basis that it's harder to be self-critical. Any thoughts?
SW: We deliberated over this for some time. Some of the best current short story anthologies like McSweeney's feature stories from the editors. From what I remember, it was a last-minute decision as two stories had to be removed and we decided to fill the pages with ours. We didn't think it fair to use other authors as we'd already made our final decisions on stories to use. We are still writers and will be publishing our own work. I'm very self-critical as a writer-- I enjoyed the process and I'm proud to be in amongst some good writing.
Can you explain how using technology like print on demand enables you to be more flexible as a publisher?
PB: Our books are printed to order and then distributed via the leading book wholesalers like any other books. The key attribute is that there is no set print run, saving us upfront and storage costs. Otherwise, readers and booksellers see no difference. You would be surprised how many "traditional" publishers use print on demand but don't advertise the fact.
What kind of response have you had from distributors so far? Are you using the Amazon Advantage program?
PB: We pay the distributors, so they're very happy to work with us. With booksellers obviously it's difficult for any small press to get stocked nationally, but we've had a good response from the likes of Borders, Ottakar's Waterstones, and Blackwell. Amazon and other online booksellers offer a fairly level playing field-- they don't care that we're a small press as long as our books sell. We have no need to use Amazon Advantage, as Amazon buys our books via their usual wholesaler.
The general consensus is that to be able to sell a book profitably you need to be able to produce it at a price at least five times (preferably eight times) your costs per book. Any thoughts?
PB: With POD that is impossible. Our books cost more per unit to produce than "traditional" books, but we accept that because it's the only way we could do this without a huge upfront investment.
What's the downside of being an independent publisher?
No matter how good our books are, we can't compete with the big boys on a marketing level. If our books sell 2,000 copies we're reasonably happy (50% of books allocated ISBN numbers sell less than 250 copies). We are genuinely altruistic-- we set the company up to help writers like ourselves. But I should also point out that both Stuart and I have business backgrounds, and this is being run as a tight ship with every penny being made to count.
Personally, I think that in the long run mainstream publishers will shoot themselves in the foot because they are making it too difficult to access the next generation of writers. What do you think of the future of independent publishing?
PB: It seems that mainstream publishers are increasingly going with "sure things"-- books from celebrities or established authors-- which does make it harder for new writers. So there's always going to be room for independent publishers, and new technologies like POD are helping to open the door. As for e-publishing, everything else seems to be on the web these days, and it is probably only a matter of time before the likes of Google make every book available electronically.
For further information about Tonto Press see www.tontopress.com. Tonto Short Stories is available from Amazon.com.
Marcelle Perks is the author of the forthcoming nonfiction books Incredible Orgasms and Rabbit World. She's written for Fangoria, Filmmaker Magazine, Nerve, Gay Times, the Erotic Review and Kamera and her short fiction has appeared in various anthologies, including The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 2005. One day perhaps she'll finish her novel S-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d.
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