Stonecurrent Press is now live.
Starting an independent press was not part of a long-established plan. But Stonecurrent Press is now live. Its opening catalogue contains four books spanning historical fiction, politics and philosophy, communication, and creative practice. In time, the list will extend beyond my own work. The press is already accepting submissions from other writers, with the current submission window remaining open until 14 November 2026.
But why establish another independent press?
Part of the answer lies in the difference between writing a good book, finding readers for it and persuading the publishing industry to invest in it. Those things overlap, but they are not the same test.
Three different readers
A literary agent and an ordinary reader may respond to many of the same qualities, but they are not reading in the same way and they are not making the same decision.
A reader is principally asking:
Do I want to keep reading this?
An agent is asking something closer to:
Do I want to keep reading this, can I sell it, and am I prepared to invest considerable unpaid time trying to do so?
A reader may forgive a slow opening because someone recommended the novel. They may continue through some initial uncertainty because the period, setting or central character interests them. Having bought the book, they have reasons to give it time.
An agent confronted with dozens of submissions has none of those incentives.
There are really three readers involved in traditional publishing.
The ordinary reader reads primarily for experience: story, emotional involvement, language, ideas, atmosphere, identification, escapism, historical interest or some combination of them.
The literary agent reads both as a reader and as a commercial intermediary. Alongside their response to the writing, they must ask what the book is, who might buy it, which editors might want it and whether its attraction can be communicated quickly.
The commissioning editor faces another set of questions. Does the book fit the publisher’s list? Has the company recently acquired something similar? What will the sales department think? Can publicity build a campaign around it? What level of investment might be justified?
This produces an uncomfortable but important consequence:
A manuscript can be rejected by an agent even when the agent believes readers might enjoy it.
That is not necessarily contradictory. The agent is not deciding only whether the book is enjoyable. They are deciding whether they can persuade a particular part of the publishing industry to invest money, time and attention in it.
What rejection actually tells us
This distinction matters because writers can easily treat rejection as a definitive judgement upon the book.
Suppose a novel receives fifty rejections. That number alone cannot tell us whether:
- The manuscript needs substantial improvement.
- The opening does not represent the strength of the complete novel.
- The submission package is ineffective.
- The work is good but difficult to position commercially.
- The wrong agents were approached.
- The market for that kind of book is temporarily weak.
- The manuscript is competent but insufficiently distinctive.
- Several of these things are true at once.
The useful question is therefore not simply, “What is wrong with my book?”
It is:
What, precisely, does this response tell me about the book?
Some feedback reveals a genuine reader problem. If an agent cannot understand what the central character wants, readers may experience the same difficulty. That deserves serious examination.
Other feedback reveals a market problem. If a particular form of historical fiction is currently difficult to place, rewriting the novel may solve nothing.
And sometimes the requested change would turn the manuscript into a different book. A writer must then decide whether that change would genuinely improve the work or merely make its commercial proposition easier to describe.
Distinguishing between a reader problem, a manuscript problem and a market problem is one of the most useful things a writer can do when interpreting rejection.
Why start an independent press?
Stonecurrent Press has not been established because commercial considerations are irrelevant. Publishing requires editing, design, production, distribution and marketing. A press that ignores its readers will not survive for long.
But commercial positioning and literary value should not be treated as synonyms.
A strong book ideally works as writing, appeals to its intended readers and can be published effectively. These are connected tests, but they remain different tests.
The danger is that writers begin constructing manuscripts around what they imagine agents want: an immediate hook, instantly articulated stakes, compressed exposition, familiar comparison titles and an easily recognisable proposition. Much of that advice can be useful. Taken too far, however, it encourages manuscripts to resemble one another.
A publisher needs some evidence that a book can find a readership. It also needs a reason why this particular book should exist.
Too unfamiliar, and a book can be difficult to position. Too familiar, and there may be no compelling reason to publish it.
Stonecurrent Press exists to occupy that difficult space: to take reader experience seriously, to apply professional editorial and publishing discipline, but also to remain open to worthwhile books that do not arrive in the most immediately marketable form.
The opening catalogue begins that process. Its first historical novel, William: A Cumberland Rebel, follows a young Cumbrian labourer drawn into the Jacobite rising of 1745. It is also the beginning of The Cumberland Chronicles, a sequence following generations of one family as national and international events intrude upon ordinary lives.
Alongside it are books concerned with individual freedom, effective questioning and disciplined observation. Different subjects, but connected by an interest in ideas, history and the lives beneath larger events.
Stonecurrent Press is at the beginning of its development. The catalogue is live, submissions are open, and there is much more still to build.
Explore Stonecurrent Press:
stonecurrentpress.co.uk
Submission information:
Stonecurrent Press submissions