WRITERS’ NEWS
http://www.writers-online.co.uk NOVEMBER 2019^93Burning Chair was set up in the summer of 2018 by two friends:
Peter Oxley, an indie author, and Simon Finnie, a digital marketing
professional.
‘The short answer to what we publish is great books – we have a
strict rule of only publishing the kind of books that we love and would
go out of our way to read,’ said Peter. ‘The slightly longer answer is
that genre fiction is our real passion, as opposed to literary fiction.
Our main sweet spot at the moment is thriller/suspense and YA sci-fi/
fantasy, but we are also open to most types of genre fiction – with the
exception of romance. Not because we have anything against romance,
but it’s not a genre we read, and so we just don’t feel qualified to make
judgements on what’s good or what we could really do justice to, in
terms of editing, marketing and promotion.’
Burning Chair is looking for
unputdownable reads. ‘We came
up with the name “Burning Chair”
because it encapsulated what we
wanted to produce: books so great, so
insanely readable, that your chair could
literally be on fire and you wouldn’t
notice! Whilst that’s us being slightly
flippant (please don’t try it at home,
folks...!) the principle holds: if the
book and the story is a good one, then
we’re going to be interested.’
Burning Chair was set up to create
opportunities for new voices. ‘The
one thing we kept seeing, time and
again, was that great stories were
being lost to the world because they
couldn’t find the right home,’ said
Peter. ‘We felt that there was a space
in the market for a publisher which
took the best of indie publishing
- the nimbleness, the cutting-edge
marketing, the author-centric model - while also providing authors with
all the backing and support (financial
and otherwise) which they’d expect
from a publishing deal.’
Peter is proud of the way indies
have shaken up the publishing world.
‘Along with so many other great
indie publishers, we see ourselves
as disruptors. But, in a British sort
of way, rather than shouting about it and banging the drum about
how disruptive we are, we’re just quietly getting on with it. Polite
disruption, if you will...’
At this stage Burning Chair is focusing on quality rather than
quantity. ‘We’ve made a conscious decision to be picky in terms of
who we work with, even if that means sacrificing numbers, so that we
can really give our all to every one of our authors. We believe that the
strategy’s paying off: we’re insanely proud of every one of the books
we’ve released, and long may that continue.’
Peter is happy to receive submissions. ‘If your story is an insanely
readable, just-can’t-put-it-down, guilty pleasure type of story, then we
might just be the home for you,’ he said. ‘We want authors to send us
a book that excites, intrigues, and grips us: in short, something we can
get passionate about. We also want to feel how passionate the author is
about their idea and the story which springs from it, and how obsessed
they are in getting that story out to the world.’
Burning Chair has embraced the indie and digital revolutions
to keep costs down and give its books and authors the maximum
amount of exposure. ‘We keep our overheads low. Our marketing is
predominantly digital and very focused so more cost-effective. And we
only do print on demand when it comes to paperbacks, so there’s less
wastage and losses due to returns and unsold stock.’
Submit a completed manuscript and carefully worked synopsis.
Burning Chair publishes in print and ebook and pays royalties.
Website: http://www.burningchairpublishing.comIn the hot seat
UK GENRE FICTION MARKET
Tina JacksonOff Assignment is a print, zine and audio market for ‘travel
journalists, essayists with a sense of place,
reporters with swollen notebooks, poets who
wander, food writers with street cart taste – to go
rogue’.
Off Assignment has a taste for offbeat places
and a keen interest in ‘the atmosphere of the
street, the feeling of the people, the gossip of
the town, the smell; the thousand, thousand
elements of reality that are part of the event’.
Slots needing writers include: Letter to a Stranger,800-1,200 to a stranger you met who holds a place in your
memory; Behind the Feature, 1,500-2,500 on things
that happened while you were on assignment; No
Equivalent, 500-700 words on untranslateable
words; Under the Influence, 800-1,200 words on
pilgrimages inspired by another writer or artist; and
interviews.
Email pitches or queries to: offassignment@
gmail.com Response time is ‘at least four weeks’.
There is ‘modest’ payment for first worldwide rights.
Website: http://www.offassignment.comTravellers’ tales