projects. Nickodemus feels this laser focus on marketing both Percy’s novel and the press’ backlist has “done wonders for us”. She expands: “It does reflect how small businesses are so oſten held back by marketing capacit when larger companies can have whole teams dedicated to it. We are much more recognised and trusted now, by read- ers, bookshops and distributors alike, and all of our books have travelled much farther afield than before. But they are the same books of the same qualit... we just didn’t have the time to promote them before.”


She believes the landscape for micropresses generally is difficult, as “you really do need money in order to make things happen”. However, she has noticed a shiſt in the amount of respect given to small publishers in recent years, which she hopes will “inform allocation of grants or funds when available”. She continues: “The publishing industry has become slightly more open-minded about who it will work with, and what books it will stock too. This oſten comes from other micropresses making waves before us—such as 404 Ink and Charco Press. There is a long way to go though, and Brexit shipping logistics and tax peculi- arities have been a big setback for small presses.” She adds that the problem of finding cashflow for print runs leaves micropresses in “an endless cycle” that oſten sees them relying on preorders, grants and crowdfunding.


Taking off


On a more positive note, she feels Scotish fiction is “having a moment”, saying: “From [Andrew O’Hagan’s] Mayflies winning Waterstones Scotish Book of the Year to [Douglas Stuart’s] Shuggie Bain winning the Booker, there seems to be more of an eye on Scotland than at any other time in our careers.” Duck Feet is part of this tranche of authentic Scotish stories gaining acclaim and accolades, with Percy—who grew up in Renfrew near Glasgow— saying in their Scotland National Book Awards speech: “Of all the literary awards, this is the one I most hoped to win because Duck Feet is a book about being Scotish and grow- ing up in Scotland.” However, according to Nickodemus, Monstrous Regiment could not have published it without Scotish Book Trust’s Scots Language Grant. The episodic novel, which takes place in the


Monstrous Regiment titles


The Bi-ble: Personal Narratives and Essays about Bisexuality Lauren Nickodemus & Ellen Desmond (eds) Out now, £9.99, PB, 9781916117907


mid-Noughties and is narrated in a Renfrewshire dialect, began life as a series of short stories following the lives of working-class girl Kirst and her friends during their time at high school. Monstrous Regiment approached Percy about publishing them together aſter commissioning a story for the Monstrous Regiment Literary Magazine, and later realising that the writer had been publishing various snippets set in the same world online and in anthologies and magazines across the UK for more than 16 years. Nickodemus says: “Aſter reading the manuscript straight through, we knew we had to have it. We knew it was something special and were quite surprised no-one had noticed that the litle successes these stories had racked up already amounted to something quite impressive.” Despite their eagerness to publish it and their confidence that they knew how to market it, they did not have the money at the time to pull it off, which is where the grant came in. “It was an awful feeling to be siting there with something amazing and the right skill-set and plan to make it happen but none of the funds… it must happen a lot,” reflects Nickodemus.


The Bi-ble: New Testimonials Lauren Nickodemus & Ellen Desmond (eds) Out now, £9.99, PB, 9781916117914


She describes the success of the book as “almost a relief”, explaining: “We still feel we owe Ely Percy so much for trusting us with what we really believe is a brilliant book. Bearing in mind Duck Feet has been around a lot longer than our press, it was no small thing for Ely to let us small fries have it.” Percy clearly sees things differently. In their Scotland National Book Awards speech, they thanked Monstrous Regiment for “taking a chance on Duck Feet when no other publisher would” and described winning Book of the Year as a “massive milestone in my career” that “exceeded all expectations”. They later told me that working with the team has been “a delight” and that they are “very, very happy with how Duck Feet turned out”. Nickodemus says of the recognition the novel has received: “We hope it really points towards what other small presses like us are probably doing out there too, as this is likely the tip of the iceberg.” Looking ahead to the rest of this year, Monstrous


So Hormonal: A Collection of Essays on Hormones Emily Horgan & Zachary Dickson (eds) Out now, £11.99, PB, 9781916117938


Regiment aims to bring out one or two projects “though they may be smaller scale than whole novels—possibly in the shape of novellas or short non-fiction”. It hopes to make an audio version of Duck Feet and will be bringing back its first book, 2017’s The Bi-ble: Personal Narratives and Essays about Bisexualit, which has been out of print for a while. It intends to start distributing e-books and to host an in-person launch for 2020 anthology So Hormonal, edited by Emily Horgan and Zach Dickson, which is “overdue its moment in the sun”. Nickodemus says: “The time for us to grow is here,


Duck Feet Ely Percy Out now, £8.99, PB, 9781916117921


NICKODEMUS AT THE EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL


TheBookseller.com


really, but we are in no rush and are happy to be cautious about ironing out what that might look like for us.” Along with wanting to find more securit and a beter work/life balance, ultimately the aim is for the company “to keep going!” Longer-term, she predicts that the press will probably bring out fewer projects than might be expected, but “we intend to give the ones we do work on 100%”. She continues: “That’s what we did with Duck Feet in 2021 and we think it paid off—as well as it being fairer to us, it also enables us to do beter justice to the authors we work with.”


11


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64