INTERVIEW: BARRINGTON STOKES PUBLISHERS 2

SquareOne Features

by Karen Combe

Part Two

Crime writers and male interest subjects seem to dominate the 2007 catalogue somewhat, but Murray insists this is what reader's want: "It just so happens that the authors who are interested in us are crime writers, and we are looking for good authors. Ninety per cent of our readers are male, so many of our titles do have male leading characters. But we do have some titles such as No More Victims by Natasha Cooper and One Mistake by Joanna Hines, with female leading characters that will appeal to all readers."

Zanily titled gr8reads, for ages 12-16 but with a reading age below eight, deals sensitively with the grown up issues of pregnancy, love and serious illness. But in Deadline, by John Townsend, a terrorist intent on blowing up a plane en route to Washington with a portable anti-aircraft missile system gets his comeuppance and ends up well and truly splattered, definitely a story with a moral.

Classics are beginning to appear to balance out the range and exciting themes continue to keep reluctant readers interested. Murray is very keen to push forward in this direction and says: "This is a project we approached in conjunction with City Literature earlier this year. Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped was adapted into a graphic novel by comic artist Cam Kennedy (better known for his work on Batman), with writing partner Alan Grant and was really well received. The next classic Jekyll and Hyde will be even better. It's got the perfect story for us and is it's due out in 2008."

They are pleased to say that their books are reviewed on a level playing field alongside mainstream books and Brown is clear about their position in the publishing world. "We were the Independent Children's Publisher of the year in 2006 and the books and the company are always received well. We do have much smaller book runs compared with large publishers, and are not seen as competition as we are a specialist publisher with schools constituting a quarter of our market. We don't accept unsolicited manuscripts, though people do send them in believing it is easy to write in this style."

Barrington Stoke continue to flourish, and unlike most other publishers are not restrained by what publishing guru Steve Ferris refers to as 'fashion, trends and crazes.' No doubt in their tenth anniversary year they will continue to forge ahead in their own unique direction. Murray says: "To celebrate our anniversary we are having a bumper publishing year with a new series Solo for really struggling readers and extra print runs from all our ranges. We will back at the Edinburgh Festival again with a theme relating to our new projects and of course we will be having a big party."

Seven of their authors are long listed for various prestigious book awards including James Lovegrove, author of Kill Swap, who is long listed for the Manchester book award 2008, will be celebrating too.