You have quite a varied background in writing and publishing but perhaps the most important point in your publishing career was in the publication of Winter Jasmine and The Golden Glory Has Fled. Can you tell us about these two important works?
When I was a child my grandmother, Effie M. Roberts often read me poems from her journal. She had kept this journal, all written in poetry, through the Second World War. She died when I was twenty, and left this poetry journal to me in her will. I read the complete book on the train as I went back to university after the funeral and was stunned by the range, and the depth and power of the poems. She had read only the funny or light hearted ones when she read to us. Winter Jasmine and The Golden Glory has Fled were the titles of two of the poems which seemed to sum up the deeper motifs of the collection and between them they comprise almost all the poems she wrote.
Winter Jasmine and The Golden Glory has Fled were hand bound, letterpress books limited to 100 numbered copies each, so we very quickly brought out a litho edition, called A Wartime Poetry Journal, which contains a selection from them. This is much more affordable for people who are on lower incomes but is still a lovely book with a very good selection of poems.
What made you take the decision to go down the self publishing route?
For twenty years I tried to find a publisher who was prepared to read the poems, but nobody would. They didn’t fall into any neat categories so no one would even look at them. I could see how they would appeal to all ages, from the very elderly right down to the very young, and recognized that apart from the intrinsic merit of the poems they comprised a fascinating record of everyday life from the viewpoint of a working class woman (her husband was a hairdresser and she was a housewife and mother).
This was not a common perspective as most working class women did not have time or energy to write poetry. I don’t think my grandmother would have done it if it hadn’t been for the support of her husband, as she stopped writing altogether after he died.
I then tried to publish the book with a POD company who I found on the Internet. They were total cowboys and wrecked the book, then when I tried to withdraw it, sold it and kept all profits. I realized I could do a much better job than they had, so good did come of that experience in the end.
You also took the brave step of publishing with your own small publishing company instead of the more common methods of self publishing such as the now popular Print On Demand. You also specializing in the niche topic of poetry. Was it scary taking this step into the unknown?
It was scary, but I don’t think I realized just how difficult it was going to be. I am lucky that the book does sell to schools and colleges because I now know that most mainstream publishers expect to sell less than 100 copies of most poetry books! Judging by that standard it has been a run away success as I have sold a lot of the letterpress books and hundreds of copies of A Wartime Poetry Journal. Best of all, orders are still coming in. Many people who have bought one book come back for copies for their friends, and several big suppliers recently agreed to take A Wartime Poetry Journal to sell to schools and libraries.
Visit the Fractal Publishing website to buy the outstanding book A Wartime Poetry Journal or any of the books mentioned in this interview.
Philippa also chatted to Suite 101 about her journey from being a passionate reader to setting up er own publishing company.
