Section A: Submissions & New Projects

Q1: Is Valley Press open to submissions and/or are you currently taking on new work?

A: The answer, for the first time in several years, is 'yes' – with a fairly significant 'but'. We are currently open to submissions for 'hybrid publishing' projects only; for more on what that means, see below.

Q2: What is 'hybrid publishing'?

A: It's a relatively new model combining the best parts of traditional and self-publishing; publisher and author contribute half the production costs each, make key decisions about the book together, and receive an equal share of income from sales. Books accepted as 'hybrid' projects will be treated exactly the same as any other Valley Press publication, with the only differences being the three described above. If you'd like to find out more, the Wikipedia article on hybrid publishing is extremely thorough and informative.

Q3: Why have you made this decision?

A: Publishing books is an expensive business; at least, it is if you're aiming for a professional standard of editing, design and production, and hope to see the finished books on the shelves of major bookshops. Previously, we have asked Arts Council England to cover half the costs – but after a few golden years working with them, our most recent bid has been revised and rejected three times, so it looks like that door is closed for the time being. We also fund new projects through sales of previous books, but this can be very slow; it can easily take 18 months for a book to break even, we'd manage only a few new publications a year relying on this method. So, we've decided to give hybrid a try.

Q4: How much does it cost?

A: Costs are different for each project, depending on genre, word count and ambition – but as we revealed in this blog post, the overall cost for a VP publication typically varies between £2000 and £5000, so your contribution would be half that. We would aim for you to recoup your investment (and us to recoup ours!) during the first print run; that might involve higher-than-usual royalties, a big box of copies for you to re-sell, or both. To make this happen without spending your own hard-earned money, you might like to try crowd-funding, which is currently a very popular pastime; we'd be willing to commit to publishing your book in advance, subject to the success of the crowd-funding, so you could put our name on your bid.

Q5: Does this mean I'm definitely getting published, if I can raise the funding?

A: No, sorry! We'll still only be able to take on a handful of these projects, otherwise we wouldn't be able to give them the kind of careful attention they deserve. So, behind the scenes, there will still be an element of competition and curation involved before a project is taken on.

Q6: I'm interested, what do I do next?

A: Write to us via the contact page describing your project, and we'll take it from there. Thanks!

Section B: Purchasing books

Q1: What's the best way to buy a Valley Press book?

A: Buying paperbacks and hardbacks through our website (start here) is a fantastic way of supporting VP and funding our future publications – plus, we offer a 10% discount for everyone who buys direct (see next answer for details). That being said, it's also a great idea to support your local independent bookshop... and to be honest, we love UK bookselling chains Waterstones and Blackwells too. You can't really go wrong.

As for you-know-whoazon, we're happy for you to make up your own mind about supporting that particular behemoth as far as physical books go – but our ebooks are only available through their Kindle service at present, as they have almost all the readers and the best publishing tools. Our audiobooks can be found on the iTunes and Audible stores; see the relevant book page for links to these digital editions, where available.

Q2: Are there discounts for buying direct?

A: Yes, recipients of our email newsletter get 10% off everything by default. Just enter your email address on the basket page to confirm.

Q3: Are there discounts for buying in bulk?

A: Absolutely. Discounted rates start at 20% for orders of 5+ copies, and the discount grows as your order does (see below for the exact levels). To place a bulk order, get in touch via the contact page and select 'my query relates to purchasing books'.