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 in return the author receives a higher-than-usual royalty (income from sales) and/or a box of copies to sell themselves. Books accepted as 'hybrid' projects will be treated exactly the same as any other Valley Press publication, with the only differences being those 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 was 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 project 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, via the means described in Q2. To make this happen without spending your own hard-earned money, you might like to try crowdfunding to raise your half of the costs; if your book is accepted, we'd be willing to commit to publishing your book in advance, subject to the success of the crowdfunding, 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. It's our belief that twenty-four books a year is the absolute maximum number of titles that a press of our size could (or indeed should) be producing, and we already have many titles underway.

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

A: Get in touch via email, introducing yourself and your proposed publication, and attaching either the full manuscript or a sample if you prefer. Please use the words 'Re: Hybrid Publishing' in the subject line or very early in the email, so we can tell who has read this section and who hasn't!

For fiction submissions, please write to sam@valleypressuk.com initially; for non-fiction, poetry and anything too weird to categorise, write to jamie@valleypressuk.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

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'.