What sort of publishers are we?
We are a traditional publisher- that means we do not charge writers for publishing.
We are rare in the degree of freedom we offer to writers. We aim to be an open door in an industry where most doors are closed and closely guarded.
A refuge for professional writers unable to find satisfactory publishers
In the past decade at least it has become increasingly difficult for professional writers to find publishers. Or, even when you have a publisher, they are often unwilling to publish your best work, and only want your more commercial output. Sometimes they keep your books in print only nominally. This distinct trend has been disastrous for publishing and writing, and has resulted in the best work being unable to find its way to the public.
The disappearance of independent bookshops makes the situation worse in two ways; it makes it harder for even the big publishers to find outlets for any less mainstream work they might have published (and so they don't publish it) and it makes it harder for small publishers to survive.
A small publisher can't do much to change it, but we can make it possible for those writers who find us, to publish their work and make it available. In effect, being published by a small publisher is barely different from being published by a company like Bloomsbury- who only promote their most commercial authors; the rest are merely listed on their online portal, or on Waterstones, and are not in bookshops; and that online-only listing is actually available through distributors, to any author, no matter who they are published by. The difference to the same author is marginal.
For that reason, we invite experienced authors to publish with us and achieve a similar result, in terms of distribution, to that now available to the same author if they are published by the big publishing houses. The difference is that we will accept the non-commercial work that the bigger publishers won't- as we know it might be your best work.
We hope that literary agents will be encouraged by knowing that a wider and deeper variety of their client's work can find a home somewhere.
We believe that vitality can only be returned to publishing by allowing authors more freedom to decide what to write- and that has to mean a wider scope in publishing than at present. The whole of literature cannot be expected to pass through the narrow portal of what accountants allow big companies to publish.
Selling books- alternatives to Amazon et al.
Another significant detail is the clear intention of Amazon to eliminate small and individual sellers, especially those who resist using "fulfilled by Amazon". 14% of their sellers are now facing suspension of their accounts due to so called "violations of policy," such as using the Royal Mail to send books to customers. It is becoming unavoidably neccessary for individuals to find alternative routes to the public, such as finding small outlets for selling books. So far it is still possible to list your book on Waterstones and WH Smith, for what that is worth.
We have recently opened an online bookshop which we hope to develop in the coming two years. It provides a simple and cheap outlet for independently published books. It gives us independence and freedom to sell books without asking corporate permission and jumping through their increasingly narrow hoops, and paying their growing fees.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for work of a professional, literary or academic standard.
Because our aim is to provide an outlet for the kind of work that is currently being neglected by most publishers with their almost exclusively commercial preferences, we will not ask you to persuade us of the commercial viability of your book, only of its quality.
Your book doesn't either have to be perfect for you to submit it to us and you don't even have to be a professional author (earning your living from writing) but you do have to write to a standard that would be called professional.
In the case of non-fiction we require that the book be well written and well researched.
We have no preconceptions as to genre or style, or even originality; we are only concerned with quality.We accept fiction and non-fiction.
We accept; all genres of fiction, history, local history, art, philosophy, politics, biography, auto-biography. We accept theatre scripts, but not screenplays.
What happens if we decide to publish your book?
We will suggest any improvements or make any editorial imput we think appropriate which you are at liberty to ignore.
We will ask you to provide a proofread final version of your book, that is ready for typesetting.
We will give you a contract and then we are responsible for the publishing of your book. We will send you the files to approve before they go to the printer.
After the book has been published we will give you royalty statements every six months. We will pay 15% royalties which, as you know, is at the higher end of what publishers usually pay.
Once you are a Levellers Press author we are likely to be willing to publish your future work, as we know that authors require continuity of support from their publisher in the long term, rather than merely one book at a time.
At present we are unable to offer authors an advance against royalties - but we pay royalties after six months. Our only income is from the sale of books and that can often be very limited.
Submissions
When submitting your book to us, please simply send us the whole thing. Please also add a short letter describing the book and your intention with it, if that is not self evident. You might also tell us a bit about yourself.
Please submit your book to levellerspress@yaho.co.uk