#MeetMeOnMonday-Scott Pack

Today, it is my absolute privilege to bring you up close and personal with the amazing Scott Pack.

Former Waterstones head buyer and Harper Collins senior editor, he is now Editor-at -large at Eye Books,associate editor at Unbound as well as a publisher and author. He also runs sell out pubslishing Masterclasses with the Guardian,which covers writing letters of submission, polishing manuscripts and getting your author’s pitch just right.

‘Weightless Fireworks’ his book of haikus is available in hardback and ebook editions .

He has also written ‘How To Perfect Your Submission’ as well as the forthcoming release,Tips From a Publisher so if anyone knows publishing, inside and out, it will be Scott!
I am truly grateful to him for taking the time to answer my questions, and hopefully some of yours, about what goes on in independent publishing.

What route did you take into publishing?

My route into publishing was not typical. I started my working life as a sales assistant in HMV record shops and ended up at their head office as a buyer. When HMV bought Waterstones at the end of the 1990s, I was sent over to help Waterstones (which still had an apostrophe back in those days) set up a bigger and more commercial buying department. I was there till 2006 when I left to move into publishing, spending seven years or so has publisher of The Friday Project, an imprint of HarperCollins. For the last few years I have been a freelance editor and one of my roles is as editor-at-large for Eye & Lightning Books, which is why you are chatting with me today, I guess.

How important is being an indie publisher to you?

I have worked at one of the biggest publishers in the world and at some of the smallest. They both have their advantages and disadvantages but I much prefer working with an indie. There might not be the same budgets, or economies of scale, or industry clout but there is also very little of the politics, or pointless meetings, or bureaucracy that comes with a big company. All editors want to stay true to the literature they love but I think indies, despite financial and other constraints, are in a better position to do that. So, it is very important to me.

What is the biggest challenge in being an independent publisher?

Getting buggers to read our books! If Waterstones or the literary editor of the Telegraph receive a debut novel to consider and it has come from Picador or Fourth Estate or Jonathan Cape then the chances are they will find the time to read it. And rightly so, these are long established literary imprints with fine records. But if the same book by the same author is published by an indie then many of the people who can help make it a success will never get round to reading it.

What is the biggest reward?

It has always been, and will always be, finding out that someone has read and enjoyed a book you have helped to publish. Perhaps all the more so as an indie as it is harder to get it into their hands in the first place.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to submit a manuscript to Eye/Lightning?

Well, if I were being mercenary and selfish I’d suggest they read my excellent ebook, How to Perfect Your Submission , based on my Guardian Masterclass of the same name. It outlines all the Dos and Don’ts of the submissions process.

However, such a blatant sales pitch is beneath me so instead I would advise them to check out our website and read a few of the books we publish. If you can see why we wanted to publish those books, and recognise some of the qualities of your manuscript in them, then perhaps we might be a good home for you.

What does the future hold for you as an author?

I have two books to write in the coming year. One is a big Tips from a Publisher omnibus which Eye Books will be publishing in January. It is intended as a one-volume guide to everything an aspiring author wants to know.

The other is a project I can’t reveal yet but it will involve a lot of reading and should be a lot of fun.

Once those two are out the way, and they are both non-fiction, I have a novel I want to write.

What does the future hold for Eye/Lightning?

Well, in the short term we have some wonderful books to come during the remainder of 2019 – classic Scandinavian crime(, a novel from one of New Zealand’s greatest literary voices(see below for more!), the next in Nicola May’s bestselling ‘Cockleberry Bay’ series and others – but we are also lining up our 2020 titles and putting the finishing touches to them. We also have two very exciting announcements to come about new lists. So watch this space.

Well!

One of my most anticipated releases of 2019 is the subject of last week’s #FlashForwardFriday,‘The Imaginary Life Of James Poneke’ by Tina Makereti , available for pre-order NOW as well as Scott’s book which is out in January,and will be an invaluable resource for writers ,also available for pre-order.

He gives some absolutely brilliant advice, the main one being read the output of the publishers you are approaching.

It is astonishing, even as little , teeny fish in the blogger pond , how many people do not read your submission policy and then get offended when you say ‘Sorry, but I don’t read this genre, I cannot review your book’ .I cannot begin to imagine how many manuscripts Scott wades through whose authors could save themselves time, and expense and heartache by reading submission policies, taking a good , long look at what is published and then submitting.

Also, read indie!

I cannot emphasise this enough, hopefully reading blogposts like this and those of amazing indie promoting bloggers which will feature in an upcoming post, will encourage you to look further afield, notice the emblems on the side of books, spread your bookish wings and try to subtly rejig tables/shelves in book shops so that indies face outwards in prominant display., ahem, but that’s just me (don’t take that advice unless you want to be followed around a bookstore…).

Embrace the indie books, sign up to their newsletters, tell them you like them on social media (links below) leave reviews-all of this helps!

*The lovely folk at Eye and Lightning have given me a 30% discount code for books bought during August using the code RACHELREADIT -go fill your shelves!*

Links-https://player.fm/series/what-editors-want/scott-pack

https://extraordinarybusinessbooks.com/episode-46-crowdfunding-with-scott-pack/

Twitter @meandmybigmouth

@EyeAndLightning