Books by and for independent women

Foyles Indie Alliance Weekend

In a world where our politicians no longer value the arts and big business rules all, it’s reassuring to see that independent publishers are going from strength to strength. This is due in part to the efforts of the Independent Alliance, a self-described “intellectual think-tank” of ten UK publishers and their international partners “who share a common vision of editorial excellence, original, diverse publishing, innovation in marketing and commercial success.” Or, as Faber’s sales and marketing director put it on Saturday, “we are businesses that serve the book, not vice versa.”

Last weekend they teamed up with Foyles bookshop for the Indie Alliance Weekend, where thirty-three authors and ten UK independent publishers shared their expertise with a roomful of bibliophiles. From a celebration of female historians to a speed-dating-style brunch with some of the event’s authors, there was something for everyone. Hay-on-Wye, eat your heart out. As a writer, Indie Alliance was encouraging; as a reader, it was downright inspiring. My ‘to read’ list – which itself rivals in length #17, War and Peace – got longer with each panel, and I found myself spellbound by subjects I’d never considered reading about.

For me, the unexpected highlight of the event was the first panel – a discussion about independent publishers in the age of the e-book. Hannah Griffiths of Faber noted that publishing is “full of romantic souls whose jobs are shifting”, and Canongate’s Dan Franklin noted that the publishing and gaming industries have more in common than ever before. If under-25s in Japan – a group of early-adopters if ever there was one – are more likely to read books on their mobiles than in paperback form, what does that say about the future of publishing? A tangent imagining Seamus Heaney on Twitter had the audience in stitches, but the general tone was serious. Digital publishing is one area where independent publishers have the advantage over their larger competitors. They are able to give a book a unique marketing strategy instead of a ‘one size fits all’ approach, and some of the ideas mooted suggests that the future of independent publishing is going to be very interesting indeed.

Whether or not you should ‘write what you know’ was the next subject of debate, and all four authors proved the maxim wrong. Emma Craigie’s Chocolate Cake With Hitler, an account of the last days of the Third Reich from the point of view of Goebbel’s 12-year-old daughter, sounds like a must-read, and Margaret Elphinstone’s novel about prehistoric Scotland is a tour de force.

As an aspiring crime novelist and lifelong Dalgleish fan, there was no way I was going to miss P.D James’ presence on Saturday’s third panel. But it was Philip Kerr who made the event sparkle, a witty raconteur who confessed that he got into crime writing by accident and likens his writing process to method acting. “I like to think of myself as Robert DeNiro,” he said, “for obvious reasons.” Adam Creed’s self-confessed “penchant for the dark side” drew him to a life of crime writing, and James is fascinated by the “imperfect justice” offered by her famous detective. This was a lively debate – at one point, I though that James and fellow novelist Elizabeth Wilson were going to come to blows – but the part that will stick in my mind is Kerr’s calm assertion that “most of the murderers I’ve met have been jolly and good company.” I’m not sure I believe him, but it was strangely reassuring.

Earlier this year, historian David Starkey criticised the “feminisation of history”. If he thought he could get away with that kind of casual misogyny, he was reckoning without the History Girls. Sunday’s first panel was a witty reposte to Starkey. Rachel Hewitt, author of Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey, described Starkey’s view of history as “a series of actions by dead white men”, and whilst she and Kitty Ferguson have recently written books about exactly that, Helen Castor’s She-Wolves and Lisa Hilton’s The House With Blue Shutters offer a different take on historical events.

Actress-turned-author Emily Woof, the Guardian’s Laura Barton, Anne Peile, Alice Smith and Deborah Kay Davies, (who might actually be the funniest person I’ve ever met) discussed life as a first-time female novelist on the Debut Divas panel – and, despite the name, there wasn’t a Jimmy Choo in sight. From Peile’s “coming-of-age sex tragedy” to Barton’s “dreary Northern love story,” we were introduced to some exciting new voices in women’s writing.

Other panels included a discussion about the role of the counter-culture in literature, how to write non-fiction, and writing memoir. Hopefully this is just the first of many such events and the Independent Alliance will be taking their show on the road to indie bookshops all across the country.The message of the weekend was clear – it’s not how we read that’s important, or even what we read. It’s that we continue to do so in whatever format we choose, that we support publishers that love books, not conglomerates that just happen to publish them.

Post by Kaite Welsh

(Image via Sizemore’s Flickr photostream)