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“Do Different” Leads to Fiction Sales Success

UK’s Elastic Press breaks through with creativity and marketing flair

by Andrew Hook

Elastic Press is an independent UK-based publisher specializing in short story collections of mostly speculative fiction. I formed Elastic Press in 2002 after trying to find a publisher for my own collection of short stories. While I had over 40 short stories published at that time, I increasingly realized that although I believed that I was building an impressive body of work, the fact that many of these stories were in small press magazines meant that most people would be unaware of the breadth of my publishing history. However, I knew that a collection of short stories would hold more weight when it came to building a career, as not only would it showcase my work but would be a product with greater longevity than a magazine. I set out to find myself a publisher.

In the UK, bookstores and publishers have no particular interest in promoting the short story, and in some cases actively work against it. Even established authors (such as the crime writer Val McDermid) often have to turn to the small press when getting their short fiction published. After a while, I became aware that to get my short story collection out there would require publishing it myself. I was wary of the self-publishing route, knowing that critical acclaim is hard to come by when publishing yourself – often bookstores will not stock the books and reviews can be difficult to obtain. My logic was that seventeen of the nineteen stories in my collection had been previously published, and I was simply collating them in one volume as opposed to publishing work that other publishers had deemed unpublishable. An independent editorial eye had therefore already been passed over them.

Once that concept became established, I realized I knew of several other writers who had been consistently published in the UK independent press, and who must also be looking for a publisher to take on their collections. With digital printing making short print runs affordable, Elastic Press began to take shape. I decided to focus on short stories, particularly those that weren’t obviously of a certain genre, and I was also committed to publishing work by new writers. In fact, I did the three things that major publishing houses were not interested in: I published short stories of mixed genre by unknown writers! Whilst this might have been business suicide, I also knew it plugged a hole in the market and I had the confidence that I could – at least – sell books in sufficient quantities to cover my costs.

When my collection, The Virtual Menagerie, was published in November 2002 I still had a lot to learn. The cover, although vibrant, looked amateurish, and choosing the typeface Courier 10 with which to print the book was a big mistake. Yet, whilst both these factors gave the book an unprofessional look, one of the reasons for deciding to publish my collection first meant that I had the breathing space to experiment without the responsibility attached to producing someone else’s book. What I needed to do was to get it right next time.

My ten years of being published in the independent press yielded many contacts which I immediately set out to exploit, and The Virtual Menagerie began to sell slowly and steadily, generating a lot of interest in Elastic Press which, at the time, was the sole outlet for single-author collections. The Virtual Menagerie received such attention that it was nominated and short-listed for a British Fantasy Society award, alongside collections by Stephen King, Ursula Le Guin, Clark Ashton Smith, and Ramsey Campbell – all giants of the genres that they write in. It narrowly missed out on winning that award, but a target was set that proved successful in the future.

By this time I had signed up several prominent small press authors eager to have their collections published. Digital printing in the UK was proving a little too expensive to make much of a profit, but then I discovered a Canadian company called Blitzprint. Even accounting for postage costs, they were much cheaper than the printer I had been using, and also the quality of the books was more professional. Our books continued to sell well, gain good reviews, and create a buzz. However, I still felt we needed a marketing angle that would really capture the attention of our audience.

It came in 2003. One of our writers inadvertently mistyped the word “Alison” on our discussion boards. “Alsiso” was the result, and I thought it was a great title for a story. Overnight I worked on this idea, and wondered whether I could showcase all the writers I had published to date, including those who were lined up for the following year, by the gimmick of having each writer write an Alsiso-titled story. And what if I could also get some other, more prominent, writers involved? I set about canvassing stories for which the only criteria was that they had to be titled “Alsiso”, with the word also needing to be used somehow within the story. Any genre was permitted. Thankfully, each writer I approached who agreed to work on the project threw themselves with enthusiasm into their stories, and the spirit of the word was captured in many diverse ways. The Alsiso Project was published in January 2004, and as well as containing stories by many of the writers I had, or would, publish collections by, I had also managed to get contributions from Pan Macmillan authors Justina Robson and K.J.Bishop, plus successful writers Nicholas Royle, John Grant and Conrad Williams. As had become common with our collections, The Alsiso Project was launched at a formal event in London to great success. Each review championed the fresh, unusual approach to compiling an anthology, which avoided the standard genre tropes of many such books. Award-winning author Christopher Fowler provided an introduction which encapsulated what the book was about: “This is what you get when you give creative minds rules and obstacles to overcome. Freshness, originality, wit, cruelty and a certain amount of outrageous slyness.” And in 2005, the anthology won a British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology, in addition to Elastic Press winning the Best Small Press category. My hard work in bringing short stories to life had paid off.

In a market which is not favorable to the short form, where new authors are regarded as curiosities, and where bookstores are eager to shoehorn books into standard genre sections of the bookshelves, Elastic Press continues to buck the system while remaining financially viable. Having successfully carved out our market niche, we continue to publish the occasionally weird-themed anthology. The Elastic Book of Numbers (2005) collates 21 stories where each piece contains a number in the title that is integral to the plot, and we are currently open for submissions to Extended Play: a collection of music-based stories.

Of course, I knew right from the start that there was more to selling books than publishing great fiction. Marketing is the most important tool a publisher has, and my focus is on cover design and launch events. I had to produce as professional a product as possible in order to compete with major publishers in bookstores. In that regard, I wanted our cover designs to be as original and distinctive as our fiction. After four books, I knew I could no longer do this myself, and subsequently I’ve invested in the talents of a variety of artists. As such, Elastic Press is now renowned for our stunning cover designs, even utilizing the services of former DEVO-frontman, Mark Mothersbaugh, after spotting an image in his online gallery that perfectly reflected the content of one of our books. Perhaps the definitive Elastic Press cover is Steven Savile’s Angel Road, with its seemingly ripped cover exposing crumpled story pages, and a hidden poem on the reverse. Who could fail to pick that up in a bookstore?

Our launch events have also drawn us some attention. As a writer I had never attended conventions or book launches, but as a publisher I knew this was an essential part of the process, and the contacts I’ve now made at various events have led to advancements in both my writing and publishing careers. Where I come from there is an expression: “do different.” Taking this as a starting point, unusual book launches have become de rigueur for us. I launched The Virtual Menagerie by wearing a sheep mask. Other launches have seen a one-off theatrical adaptation for Somnambulists, a nature table for The English Soil Society, and bingo played at the launch of The Elastic Book of Numbers. Our most recent title, a collection of Northern of England stories by the writer, David Swann, featured members of the cast of Coronation Street – the longest running soap opera worldwide – reading from the book. Anything that grabs the public’s attention, and is relevant, is essential in promoting books.

Last year I was able to give up my office day job in order to focus on publishing and writing fulltime. With hard effort, I’ve begun to live the dream.

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For further information visit www.elasticpress.com.

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