Hello!
I hope you aren’t feeling too desperate about the state of British politics. Or any more desperate than is strictly necessary, anyway. I hope too that we can still take some solace in truth, in art, and in friendship. So! Hello again, friends. I'm glad to be able to write to people who care about literature - and to know that you are all over Europe and the world.
And we'll keep on buggering on. The world turns. People still write books. Those books are still profound, and beautiful and funny. And we'll still try to sell them. To you! We still have capitalism!
*Excuse me*
*Shoots own face off*
*That's better*
*A bit, anyway.*
Where was I?!
Oh yes.
Today Elly and me feel especially proud to be working with an author based in Paris, who is truly a citizen of Europe (for now!) and who is a wonderful ambassador for any nation. He’s called Adam Biles and he’s gone done
an astonishing book:
Mmmm
Just look at the marks the illustrations have made...
And these pages!
We got boxes of them!
Those are the paper proofs that we’re currently checking furiously for errors, and sending out to reviewers. Look at those pictures! This one is unlike anything I’ve seen. Adam’s done a very brilliant thing. And you can tell that even before you start digging into his gorgeous prose and his warm-hearted, humane, uplifting story. We’ll be sending copies out to Galley Buddies in just over a month now - and there are still a few
of our limited supply of black-jacket editions available in our shop. The new beautiful mass-market paperback is in the pipeline too and I’ll let you know when we’re ready to take pre-orders on them.
Our other bit of BIG NEWS is that we’re opening up our
Short Story Competition again. This is an international competition, open to anyone, anywhere.
Hundreds of stories were sent to us in our wonderfully successful first year (2015/2016), and we're hoping for even more this time around. It was just a great way to spot new talent, engage with new writers - and a fine way to introduce readers to new voices, too.
This year, we have a new set of judges. We're proud to say that Sarah Crown, Alex Pheby and Chris Power will be joining Elly and me.
We're raising the prize money to £1000 - and we're keeping the alternative prize of year-long editorial support, which is what our 2015/2016 winner, Ríona Judge McCormack, chose. Working with Riona on her first novel has been a delight. She's a serious talent, and since she won the inaugural GBP Short Story Prize we've been thrilled to watch her go from strength to strength: back in May, Riona won the prestigious Hennessy Irish Writers Award, and she's also now on board with Jack Ramm at the Eve White Agency (an excellent agent at a super, conscientious company).
Entry will still cost £10. We wish we could do this for free, but alas... This is our lifeline. We have tried to help things along in other ways though: this year, there will be 25 free entries available to those on low-incomes (offered on a first-come, first-served basis - and after emailing
elly@galleybeggar.co.uk). The longlisted and shortlisted stories will still be offered online at a price of £1 each (out of a firm belief that good writing deserves payment) - but 50% of the income from these publications will now be passed on to the authors. (As to where the other 50% goes: that's for the short story covers, and distribution costs. There isn't much change after that...)
... We can't wait to get rolling. The prize has been one of the best things we've done. It was exciting, invigorating - a fantastic way of confirming our faith in the talent out there. We're also happy to say that quite a few of the other writers on our shortlist of last year, as well as Riona, have gone on to find agents and publication deals. (Including Gonzalo Garcia, one of our 2015/2016 longlistees whose terrific debut - We Are The End - we'll be publishing in 2017.)
Deadline is 30 September! Go to it!
Elsewhere, we’ve got this fantastic
Single in our shop this month. It’s a brilliant, angry, hilarious and sweetly sad story from SN Rasul, who is a credit to our sadly shrivelling nation.
Here's the blurb:
SN Rasul writes about boredom without being boring, about hatred without being hateful and about working a really shitty job without being, you guessed it. Both Sides Now is short, sharp and angry and it will stab you just where you need stabbing. It announces a fine new talent - and a distinctly unsatisfactory world...
Finally, I’m afraid to report that I haven’t heard much from Jeff Bezos in the past few days. I’ve been too busy looking at the news and screaming. I did think of riffing on the fact that Nigel Farage, our eggburp poundstore mini-Hitler, is just the kind of person who used to love Mr Blobby*. But no one needs the images that conjures…
LA LUTTE CONTINUE!
Fondly,
Sam
* I nicked that joke from the great
Catherine O'Flynn on Twitter. I told you we needed writers.
As usual, I'm also going to use the end of the newsletter for a few more adverts, where you can safely ignore them, or kindly indulge me, depending on your fancy:
Firstly, please join The Singles Club so we can pay writers to write. Here's the blurb:
We have a fantastic subscription system set up for our Singles Club so that you now only have to make one payment to get hold of 12 stories. But how to go through the ins and outs of paypal payment systems without boring the dirtbox off you, I don't know. Probably the best thing to do is to head over to the relevant page on our site, where I've tried to give a brief, but to the point explanation, and to take it from there. The important things to know are that:
(1) Subscribing saves you the trouble of going to the site every month to get your fix of superb ebook literature – we'll just email you the files every month.
(2) Subscribing (so long as enough people do it) will enable us to start giving our authors money up front on for each story. Yes! We are going to pay people to write short stories. It's like the golden days of the 1920s. Only they'll be in electronic book format instead of Strand magazine… Anyway! You get the idea. This is a mighty fine way to keep authors doing what they do best – entertaining you.
(3) It costs £12 a year, or £1 a month, or less than a meal in Pizza Express. (Unless you have a voucher.)
Secondly, please be our friend! Become a Galley Buddy. It's a good deal for us, and a great deal for you.
Thirdly, to donate to Galley Beggar Press and earn yet more of our gratitude, click here.
Fourthly, go on, buy a postcard set. They're lovely:
Fifthly: I've mainly just been watching
the best thing on the internet. Jacques Brel singing Ne Me Quitte Pas and shredding his soul on screen. Brexit made me understand a little better how he feels.
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