Editor Interview: Henshaw Press Short Story Competition

Crime and mysteries.

Related to our area (crime, mysteries, etc), I admire indie authors who have managed to amass a large audience of readers and who are able to make a living from their publishing, so authors such as Rachel McLean, Simon McCleave and JD Dalgleish. I also admire other indie presses who have published brilliant crime novels over the years, from the UK and in translation, publishers such as Orenda Books and Corylus Books. Crime fiction has a bit of a reputation (similar to romance) for being low-brow and non-literary but there are some very talented literary crime writers out there such as Chris Whitaker, Christopher Brookmyre, Graeme Macrae, Callum McSorley and Robbie Morrison.

My personal favourites, as a reader, don't actually write in the genre we publish. I am a big fan of Japanese literature and my all-time favourite writer is Haruki Murakami. I'm also a big fan of John Irving, who to me is one of America's greatest storytellers of all time. Other than that, I also like Scarlett Thomas, Ali Smith and Kate Atkinson. There are so many others I could name - I own over 4,000 books!

My co-director and I only publish books that we both love. We read every submission independently of each other and come together with the verdict. We want the story to flow to the extent that we aren't aware we are reading a submission - we are just reading a great story. We hope that the books we publish appeal to fans of genre crime fiction but also give them an extra literary punch. We want our readers to come back for more. We've had books shortlisted for Bloody Scotland and the Crime Writers' Association dagger prizes so we hope our instincts for good writing are right.

Read the submission guidelines to see if we are suitable fit, also to see if we are currently open to submissions and to find out who we are. Then address us by our names and be concise and interesting in your covering email. Just be yourself. Don't try to impress us too much. If we are to work together we all have to get along so that's more important than your writing CV.

The first three chapters of the book and one-page synopsis (with no typos) in Word, formatted simply, along with a covering email that addresses us by our names, introduces the essential facts about the author, explains why they are submitting to us, introduces their book in as few words as possible and explains why they think we'd work well together.

They don't read the submission guidelines on the website. Unfortunately, it's an instant no if it is clear they haven't. I will happily give them advice on how to approach other publishers but it is very likely a rejection from us. We also get addressed as Dear Publisher, Dear Sir, To Whom It May Concern. I'm afraid it is a no in those cases as well as a potential published author can find out all about us on the website - we aren't a nameless, faceless publisher. We are a small indie press run by two people.

We want to know who the submitter is, what drives them to write, what they are passionate about, why they want to work with us and why they think we might all be a good fit for each other.
A list of previous publications isn't necessary, but we do like to see their highlights and they don't necessarily have to be the most prestigious awards and publications. It can be something that relates to crime and thrillers, or to another of our authors. We don't need to see a long list of everything the writer has written, just anything relevant to the submission.

We tend to know quite quickly. We ask for the first three chapters as part of the initial submission. If we like what we read, we will ask for a full manuscript. I can only think of one occasion where we have rejected an author based on the quality of the submission after asking for the full manuscript.

We do have to consider whether we think a potential publication is commercially viable or not. We did once have a submission of a brilliant book set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. I loved the book, it was so well written with beautiful prose, but I had to be honest with the writer and tell her that I didn't think we could do the book justice in terms of marketing and reach. So that wasn't a rejection of the quality of the work, it was almost a case of us telling the writer that she should reject us, not the other way around.

Every day is different. I wear so many hats, running Hobeck Books is only one of my hats. I am also a freelance publishing project manager and editor so I could be working on a copyedit, managing spreadsheets for Oxford University Press, updating listings in Bloomsbury's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook (one of my regular freelance gigs), or I could be helping clients to get their self-published books into print, talking to printers, cover designers or translators. I love my job - it is so varied. If I am working on Hobeck it could be copyediting one of our future publications, creating assets for social media marketing, working out royalty payments, briefing cover designers or recording our weekly podcast with my co-host and co-director (we interview a different people involved in publishing or writing every week). On top of all that, I run the Henshaw Press Short Story Competition, which is a charity competition that runs four times a year.

All submissions to Hobeck Books go through a structural edit, a copyedit and then a proofread. Submissions to the Henshaw competition are not edited at all. Every three years or so Hobeck Books puts together the winning Henshaw stories and publishes them as an anthology - all profits going to the charity. The winning entries go through a light edit for style (i.e., grammar and house style) and a proofread) before publication.

Absolutely, we will nominate books we publish through Hobeck for Bloody Scotland, Crime Writers' Association daggers or the Walter Scott Prize to name just a few. If one of our writers requests we enter a book for a prize, however big or small, and so long as we can afford the entry requirements, we will do it. We are very much in favour of prizes (after all, we run one ourselves!).