Hercules Editions is a London-based publisher of books that combine poetry and art and archival material. It emerged from a one-off creative collaboration between poet Tamar Yoseloff and designer Vici MacDonald and evolved into a small independent press.

We spoke with Tamar about how Hercules Editions came into being, her novel approach to publishing, and how she’s working to get poetry out of the ‘ghetto’.

Hercules Editions evolved out of a personal creative collaboration between you and Vici can you tell us a bit about that first project and the journey to becoming a publisher?

Vici and I are good friends, and so I know she is never without her camera. She has always photographed things that interest her, mainly shop fronts, ghost signs, urban detritus – things that interest me as well. One day I asked her if she would ever consider showing her photographs, and she was dismissive. She didn’t think anyone would be interested, the photos were just part of her personal archive as a graphic designer. I volunteered to write some poems to accompany them, just to see where it might go. I sifted through hundreds of photos, and selected ones that spoke to me in some way. I started to write these odd, sometimes quite irreverent sonnets to match the images, and we ended up with a set of 14 poems and 14 photos. I suggested we might think about making them into a book, which we decided to call Formerly (to suggest the fleeting nature the sites in the photographs, but also as a nod to the formal nature of the poems). But when we started looking for a publisher, we discovered the project fell between two stools – most poetry publishers were put off by the perceived expense of having to reproduce photographs, and publishers of photographic books weren’t that keen on the poetry! In the end, we had one publisher who might have been willing to take it on, but the project was so personal for us, and because Vici is a terrific designer, she had a very specific vision for the book. So we decided to publish it ourselves.

Once we decided we would self-publish, we had to come up with a name for our “press”. We both live in Lambeth, and Vici is right around the corner from the plaque that marks the site of William Blake’s house in Hercules Road. So we decided on Hercules Editions. Since Blake’s project was to combine poetry and image, we thought he was an appropriate guiding spirit, but it was also a bit of a joke, as Hercules Editions sounds so grandiose, and it was just the two of us making this funny little book!

We never expected to have the success we did. The book triggered two exhibitions of the photos and poems – one at the Poetry Café in Covent Garden, one at the Saison Poetry Library in the Royal Festival Hall – and it was shortlisted for the 2012 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. It’s now in it’s second printing.

After the success of Formerly, we felt we had located a niche, and so we decided to continue the press, with a view to publishing more books that would combine poetry and visual imagery.

What do you think sets you apart from other publishers?

Vici and I come to the project with very separate and specific skills. Vici has worked as magazine editor and art director, and she has an innate visual sense of how a book should look. For the first project, we were using her photographs, but she has worked with subsequent authors to generate imagery to compliment the poetry – not simply as illustration but as an integral part of the whole piece. I have been in the literary world for many years, so I know a lot of poets, and there were some great writers I was keen to work with. Also, both of us have had some experience in the art world, and we were interested in considering the books more as art objects, so each edition is limited to 300, and signed and numbered. We are obsessed with the materiality of the book – we want it to be a nice thing to own – but to be affordable as well as beautiful. We don’t want the books to stand alone either, and so we are programming events in venues that might not be immediately associated with poetry, such as Parasol Unit, the Black Cultural Archives and the Cinema Museum, as a way of broadening audience.

You receive some Arts Council funding but you also crowdfund on indiegogo for each book, why have you taken that route, and what has it enabled you to do?

The Arts Council encourage their clients to explore multiple ways of funding their projects, and so we considered crowdsourcing as a way of securing extra income. In this tough financial climate, many publishers are going the same route – it makes sense. The revenue we make from crowdsourcing is often earmarked for the sorts of things our ACE funding wouldn’t necessary cover, like launch events. We also find that the campaign creates a buzz around the book, it allows us to offer something more substantial to our readers, so that they feel they are more like patrons, and have an active role in each project.

Crowdfunding isn’t easy money by any means, can you give us your top tips for running a successful crowdfunding campaign for a book project?

We want to be realistic in our reach. We are not asking for huge sums, so people don’t feel burdened by a request for money, especially in these times of austerity. For each book, we offer quite specific perks. We are taking our model from the old days of fine arts subscription presses: for £20, patrons can have their names listed in the book; for £35, they are sent an additional signed poem not in the regular edition; and for £50, they are invited to an event in the presence of the author. For our last book, Ormonde by Hannah Lowe, we arranged tea with the author, and she brought along a number of original documents and photographs which formed the research for her book (which is about her father’s immigration to the UK from Jamaica). For our current publication, Silents, which presents poems inspired by early cinema, we will be arranging a screening of a film selected and introduced by Claire Crowther, the author. These events give our most generous patrons the opportunity to meet our authors, and for us to personally acknowledge their very generous and valuable support.

What do you think are the main challenges facing writers – and poets in particular – today?

The challenge is always how to sell books, how to get the material out to a wider audience. The Internet and social media are extremely valuable tools, and extend the reach of public events. I still feel that public events are the most exciting way of promoting poetry – there is nothing as exhilarating as seeing a great poet read his or her work live – but we also want to be able to broaden our scope to those outside of London. Poetry is always going to be a minority activity, so it is important to bring it into other spheres.

What next for Hercules?

As Vici and I are very much part-time, the press will always have a relatively modest output. We are still taking things on a project by project basis, but we are thinking about doing some larger-scale events in the future, perhaps a weekend-long arts festival, where we would invite visual artists, filmmakers, sound artists and musicians to participate. In the meantime, we are looking forward to the launch of Claire Crowther’s book Silents at the Cinema Museum (a wonderful hidden gem in London) on 21^st May.

You can find out more about Hercules Editions, and buy the books mentioned in this interview, on their website.

Hercules Editions is launching their new book, Silents by Claire Crowther, at the at the Cinema Museum, London on  Thursday 21st May.  All are welcome, but reservation is essential – details here. 

The publishing industry has undergone many changes over the last few years, many of which can be attributed to the disruptions brought about by digital technologies. Alongside the rise of self-/ indie- publishing we are also seeing new types of publisher emerge, publishers who are turning traditional models and methods on their head and finding new ways of doing things. In our ‘New Publisher’ series we interview some of them about their approaches and what they hope to achieve by doing things differently.

We speak Lucy Chamberlain of Legend Press

1. Can you tell us a little about Legend Press and how your work differs from more traditional publishing models?

Legend Press was founded in 2005 by entrepreneur Tom Chalmers aged just 25. We are a traditional publisher, focused primarily on publishing mainstream literary and commercial fiction. We also run a newly re-launched non-fiction publisher Paperbooks and successful business book imprint Legend Business.

I think what sets us apart from other traditional publishers is the passion and drive we have to work differently and rebel against the sometimes stuffy nature of the book publishing industry.

We are a young, dynamic and committed team, who are passionate about creating fantastic and individual books that really stand out in the market. Our boss Tom has been shortlisted for UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year, UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur of the Year, UK Young Publisher of the Year and for the Enterprising Young Brit Awards. Myself and our Commissioning Editor Lauren Parsons have been working at the company since 2008 and it is the shared commitment to the company brand that really drives the company. We believe in our books and hopefully our passion is infectious!

2. What does Legend Press offer writers and readers that other traditional publishers don’t?

We are passionate about championing new and high-profile authors and ensuring that the book remains a product of beauty, enjoyment and fulfilment. Our list is varied, from strong commercial crime writers to literary authors who take risks and push boundaries.

We work very closely with our authors throughout the publishing process: through editing, design, publicity, events and sales. We publish a select list of novels each year, so unlike larger publishers every book really counts. We really get behind every novel we publish and approach each book individually according to their readership, to ensure maximum exposure and longevity. We are keen to develop the career of our authors and provide great author care to help our writers develop and evolve with each book.

3. Publishers have traditionally acted as cultural mediators. Self-publishing has challenged that role. What do you think is the main purpose of publishers now? And do you think that there is still a need for cultural mediators?

As a traditional publisher we may be biased, but I truly believe that publishers offer invaluable skills that many self-published authors do not recognise: from one-on-one editorial advice and direction, access to global sales channels, the knowledge to sell the book’s rights internationally and from my perspective, as a publicist, the ability to pitch the book and the author to national and global media. That being said, I think there is a lot traditional publishers can also learn from self-published authors, and sadly more traditional publishing houses are often too stubborn and self-congratulatory to recognise this. There are many talented self-published authors out there and that is why we have run projects in the past, including our recent competition with the Guardian to find the ‘Best Self-Published Novel of the Month’.

4. What do you see as the main opportunities and challenges for writers today?

I think many traditionally published authors can learn a great deal from the big-hitters in the self-publishing market. No longer can authors be reclusive and unwilling to interact with their readers, it is important for authors to be working closely with their publicist to maximise potential, not wait for literary editors to sing their praises from the get-go. There is so much potential to be gained from social media platforms including Twitter, blogging and Facebook, where authors can speak directly to their audience.

On the other hand online activity also presents major challenges for writers: in seems obvious to say but authors must actually remember to write, and juggling the time between the two can often be difficult. Readers will not wait forever for the second and third novels and this is what many authors need to be aware of.

5. What advice would you offer to writers weighing up their publishing options?

Research, research, research – if you would like to get your work traditionally published make sure you find a publisher that will be a great home for yourself and your book. We still accept unsolicited submissions and we often get approached by authors who submit with a scattergun approach, not knowing anything about what we publish or how we work. Ultimately you need to be happy where your book is placed, and you can only be happy if you research.

6. What’s next for your company? Are there any exciting developments that you can share with us?

We have an exciting and varied publishing list for 2015 and we are looking forward to sharing the books with our readers. Key highlights of the year include the return of our best-selling crime writer Ruth Dugdall. After a two year hiatus we are thrilled to be publishing two stunning new novels Humber Boy B and Nowhere Girl. In terms of our overall business we have lots of exciting new projects in the pipeline including: Books & Beans – a new initiative to work closely with businesses in our local area of Shoreditch. We are currently broadening our export channels to Central and Southern Europe, USA, Canada and India, and working with subscription companies on the digital side of the business. Last year we ran an project with Virgin Trains with an on-board giveaway of books, and we have lots more secret projects like this in the pipeline, so watch this space!

Other interviews in our ‘New Publisher Series’:

Scott Pack at The Friday Project

Tom Chivers, Director of Penned in the Margins

Matthew Crockatt of And Other Stories

Nikola Richter of  Mikrotext

The publishing industry has undergone many changes over the last few years, many of which can be attributed to the disruptions brought about by digital technologies. Alongside the rise of self-/ indie- publishing we are also seeing new types of publisher emerge, publishers who are turning traditional models and methods on their head and finding new ways of doing things. In our ‘New Publisher’ series we interview some of them about their approaches and what they hope to achieve by doing things differently.

We speak to Scott Pack of The Friday Project:

We are an experimental imprint of HarperCollins. We look at all aspects of the publishing model and see if we can adapt/evolve/subvert them for the benefit of authors, readers and our good selves. We offer profit share instead of the normal royalty/advance deals. We have been at the forefront of ebook pricing strategy. We were one of the first publishers to offer free content. Lots of stuff.

More risk?! Ha, not really. I believe we offer most of the benefits of traditional publishing but without being tied to the old school way of doing things. We don’t have to convince a room full of people from different departments that we should acquire a certain book – when you are not paying an advance it gives you a bit more freedom in that regard. We can work with retailers and their need to have books presented in a certain way several months ahead but we can also bypass that and bring books to market in a very short timeframe. Our bestselling book, Confessions of a GP by Dr Benjamin Daniels, had zero review coverage, no publicity and very little retail support and yet we are knocking on the door of half a million sales in print and digital. I suspect that if we were stuck in the traditional model then we would never have achieved that level of success. We also believe publishers have to evolve as the market evolves. Publishing used to be all about the first few weeks after publication date but now a book can become a success months, even years after it is published. That creates all sorts of issues but also loads of opportunities.

I do think the mediator thing is shifting somewhat. Readers are an intelligent bunch—they must be, they are reading books after all—and they know that publishers do a great job filtering out books that aren’t good enough or aren’t ready to meet an audience but they also know that many great books don’t make it through those filters. Many of them are reading a mix of traditionally published and self-published books now and enjoying both.

Also, many of our presumed cultural mediators—critics, book review pages, arts media—focus on a fairly small pool of books, authors and genres (not their fault, they don’t have much space or time to do anything else) whereas the readers they service tend to find their books from a larger pool of recommendation so are turning to bloggers, twitter and elsewhere. So that is changing too.

The main thing publishers can offer authors now is just what the name suggests: publishing. Writers who self-publish also need to be project managers, they need to organise and approve copy edits, cover design, proof reading, metadata etc. as well as turning their hands to PR, marketing, accounting and the like. Publishers have experts in all of these areas, writers are by and large not great at all these things. Publishers give writers time and space to write and then help them create the biggest possible platform for their work. Some writers will not need that, and it is great that they now have an option, a viable option, to publish their work themselves but I suspect most writers will still want the support that a traditional publisher brings.

The big opportunity is that you can get published even if no publisher is interested in your work. How exciting is that?

The big challenge is actually the same thing. It is a lot of work to publish your own book and as so many people are doing it it is harder to get your work discovered.

Research and read. I still get submissions from writers and agents who clearly have no idea about the sort of things we publish. Do your homework. Target the agents and/or publishers who are the best fit for your work. The best way to do that is to read lots of books and the ones that resonate with you are the ones to investigate – who published it? who was the editor? who was the agent?

Also, apart from a very few old school editors most publishers are happy to consider authors and work that has been self-published as an ebook. If your attempts to go down the traditional route do not meet with success then do go online and prove them all wrong, then they might just pay attention.

Blimey, we have a great line-up in the next 18 months or so. Biographies of Super Furry Animals and THE THE, remarkable new novels from Niven Govinden and Janina Matthewson, some really interesting digital projects and we are moving from Hammersmith to a posh new building next to the Shard. It is all going on.

Other interviews in our ‘New Publisher Series’:

Tom Chivers, Director of Penned in the Margins

Matthew Crockatt of And Other Stories

Nikola Richter of  Mikrotext

The publishing industry has undergone many changes over the last few years, many of which can be attributed to the disruptions brought about by digital technologies. Alongside the rise of self-/ indie- publishing we are also seeing new types of publisher emerge, publishers who are turning traditional models and methods on their head and finding new ways of doing things.  In our ‘New Publisher’ series we interview some of them about their approaches and what they hope to achieve by doing things differently.

We speak to Tom Chivers, Director of Penned in the Margins

1. ​Could you tell us a little about Penned in The Margins, and how your work differs from that of more traditional publishers?

Penned in the Margins creates publications and performances for people who are not afraid to take risks. Our uniqueness lies in the combination of publishing and live event production. We commission touring work that spans spoken word, theatre and multimedia, and this sits alongside our publishing programme. Sometimes the two have a direct link – for instance, our current show The Shipwrecked House by Claire Trevien is a one-woman theatre piece that transforms her poetry collection for the stage. We are always looking for opportunities to invent new and different forms for language and literature. Although this approach sets us aside from many existing publishers and is obviously set in the context of new developments in technology and performance, I do not see it as especially radical. In fact, I hope that our company stands for some of the best things about ‘traditional’ publishing, namely quality editing. We edit all our books extremely closely, and take pride in the close and sustained relationships we build up with our authors.

​2. ​What led you to set up Penned in The Margins?

I set up Penned in the Margins in 2004 as a series of poetry readings in a converted railway arch in south London. I had just graduated, was working for an arts consultancy and making my first forays in London’s poetry scene. Two years later, I decided to quit my job to see if I could run the company professionally. I felt that there was an opportunity for someone like me to make an impact, to bring together different genres and art forms into something that audiences would love. It was all sketched out on the back of an envelope – a ‘live literature agency’ that would combine books, events, touring and consultancy projects. Beyond that, the company has never had a formalised plan or structure. But eight years later and, give or take, I am still doing what I set out to do.

​3. ​What do you see as the main opportunities and challenges for writers today?

I think we all know the challenges – shrinking shelf-space, shrinking margins, and big publishers taking fewer risks. For many authors, these are poor conditions in which to thrive. But on the other hand, there are great opportunities brought about by technological change: we, as individual writers, can build a readership, develop communities and disseminate work with much greater ease than ever before; and a whole new generation of publishers – small, agile, savvy – is springing up to forge ahead in uncertain times. There are now so many more ways of being ‘a writer’. For instance, as well as publishing my poems in books and pamphlets, I also make audio and perambulatory work. It all stems from the same impulse, but by working across different art forms and media I can find different audiences.

​4. ​What advice would you offer to writers and poets weighing up their publishing options?

Before you do anything, ask yourself the difficult questions. Why are you writing? What do you want from it? Who will read your work, and why? How could you best disseminate your writing? There are so many ways to be a writer nowadays, the traditional route (agent then publisher) may not necessarily be the answer. When you do come to submitting to publishers, do your research properly. There’s nothing more annoying than a covering letter that spells your name wrong, or a manuscript that is so widely divergent from your list or stated aims as a publisher that its author has clearly never read any of your books.

​5. ​What’s next for your company? Are there any exciting developments that you can share with us?

We have just been selected as an Arts Council NPO (National Portfolio Organisation) for 2015-18, which is both a great honour and an opportunity to build a stronger and more sustainable company for the future. In particular we want to raise the quality and number of our performances and new commissions across all art forms and media. For instance in 2015-16 we are producing a major new site-responsive piece called Fair Field, which is an updating of the medieval epic Piers Plowman for the twenty first century. It will exist across different locations and platforms, taking in perambulatory, audio, literary, installation, digital and theatrical forms as the shifting narrative suggests.

Other interviews in our ‘New Publisher Series’:

Nikola Richter of  Mikrotext

Matthew Crockatt of And Other Stories

Scott Pack at The Friday Project