Some publishers are just being Honest

Rebecca Myers and Aaron Butterfield
———————————–

**In a market monopolised by big players like Penguin and Random House, independent book publishers need to fight to stand out. One company doing its fair share of pushing and shoving is UK-based Honest Publishing, who pride themselves on publishing ‘original voices’ and only working with authors who are producing ‘high quality literature’, providing ‘an audience for unique writers neglected by the mainstream’**.

With novels like _50 Shades of Grey_ and _Twilight_ frequently topping the Best-Sellers lists, is Honest’s philosophy a welcome break from the mass-production mentality of book publication or is it nothing more than elitism and indie-snobbery? Rebecca Myers speaks to Honest’s co-directors to find out.

**Rebecca**: Do you think that, despite your exclusive nature, your concept at Honest is an accessible one?

**Daniel Marsh, Co-Director, Honest Publishing**: Yes, it has to be. Some of our books are challenging reads, but always with a purpose. And I think others you could read in the space of a day. It’s not about being exclusive; it’s about being distinctive and original, without ticking the formulaic boxes along the way. We’re not fans of admin.

**R**: You state that “honesty and integrity” must be at the heart of the literature you publish. What constitutes “honesty” in this sense, and how do you distinguish that from, say, opinion?

**DM**: Honesty can be confusing; it’s often regarded as warm and fluffy like ‘good’, ‘nice’ and ‘wholesome’. The truth is, most honesty in the world is brutal; it tends to be the very thing that you didn’t want to hear or see, or the thing you always knew but never wanted to say out loud. Of course, not saying it doesn’t make it any less true or honest. Honesty in this case, is warts and all. An opinion can be honest, and honesty can also be nothing more than an opinion.

**R**: What would you say to critics who might suggest you were elitist for publishing explicitly – and solely – “high quality” literature?

**DM**: I don’t think there’s any point in going into anything if you don’t want to produce a high quality product. That’s all we mean; high quality words put together with care and intent. Our books aren’t elitist or particularly ‘high-brow’ – they are for people that love words. And if anything we’re champions of the anti-literary-snobbery movement (if that exists… it does now). You don’t need to cross all your Ts to be an Honest author. Take the book Homegirl! for example, which uses mostly American slang. The author Ryder Collins is very creative with her use of grammar. It aint textbook nosir.

**R**: There are only 7 books listed on your website. Do you ever worry about the limitations of being so specialist/selective?

**DM:** The business has only been going for a couple of years and so we’re gradually building our titles catalogue. We’re quite picky and so this has taken some time. We are specialist, but we need to be niche in order to exist. There’s no point in us trying to be Random House. They are the Coca-Cola, and we are the freshly squeezed lemonade stall with a hand-written sign outside the village hall – homemade, refreshing, with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

**R**: How accessible are Honest for students? What have you got to offer students that you think is unique?

**DM**: Most students appear to like what we’re doing. A big part of the Honest Publishing agenda is to question and to challenge the status quo – something I’d like to think a lot of students would get on board with. Our approach to publishing is what makes us unique; we’re not aiming to produce disposable reads that sit neatly next to flip-flops in your suitcase, we’re looking to produce literature that you’ll remember indefinitely.

**R**: The big question: the e-book. You publish e-books yourselves: how do you stand in terms of e-books? Do you not worry that they will overtake the paperback?

**Bogdan Tiganov, Co-Director, Honest Publishing**: I think in order to survive as a business, publishers need to keep up with the trends. Okay, eBooks are more than trends – they’re here to stay. People want their information to be portable. But eBooks, as far as I’m concerned, still can’t emulate that book feeling. I don’t worry whether the eBook will overtake the paperback. Any form of reading is good these days.

**R**: You are stocked by independent bookshops. What do the problems that these bookshops face mean for your company?

**BT**: Publishers, especially small publishers, face problems all the time: how to get noticed, how to stand out, how to get read, how to sell books. It does mean that there are fewer available bookshops that will be willing to stock our books. But then again, if readers want to purchase our books they’re all available online and can be ordered through our distributor, Turnaround (UK).

**R**: Your website and your ethics give the company a sense of close-knit community, a much more personal experience for the buyer. Was this your aim from the start?

**BT**: We have sold our books in markets and festivals so we’re willing to approach readers who may not have thought they were interested in what we do. If people don’t want to read then publishers should take the books to the people. Take the philosophy along too, because people want to see that real human beings run a company, not a bunch of terrified robots.

**R**: What do you see for the future of Honest? Where would you hope to be in five years time, for example?

**BT**: I see a yacht. I see frequent trips to exotic places, a gold cane and the best cigars. Quite honestly, I would like Honest to become a recognised name in the independent publishing world. I want people to know that we publish the edgiest books out there. And the gold cane… I want the gold cane.