Renard Press
They are so beautiful I’ve just bought the George Orwell bundle, all I did was have a quick look at their website to check that everything was still OK but a great cover will always get me spending.
Website: https://renardpress.com
Facebook: @therenardpress
Instagram: @renardpress
Twitter: @renardpress
In their own words…
When did you start publishing?
Renard Press officially launched in June 2020; our first titles – Phillis Wheatley (poems and a memoir), A Room of One’s Own (Virginia Woolf), Dracula’s Guest (Bram Stoker), Bars Fight (Lucy Terry Prince) and A Letter to a Hindu (Leo Tolstoy) – will be published in October and November, and then we will publish a title a month from January 2021.
What made you want to start an independent publisher?
Having worked in independent publishing for the best part of a decade, I’ve been constantly amazed by the resilience of the sector. However, particularly in independent publishing, I think there’s a need for more diverse, more niche lists of books to flesh out the literary canon, and, having learnt or taught myself many of the processes needed in a modern publishing house, I thought it was time I set up Renard.
What genres do you specialise in?
Renard Press publishes classic fiction and non-fiction, theatre and poetry, as well as some contemporary titles.
Where are you based?
Given that the launch is in the middle of a pandemic, we’re currently working from home, but Renard is a London-based press.
Do you have a submission window, if so when?
We’re open to unsolicited manuscripts.
What is your submission procedure?
We’re currently considering both non-fiction and fiction with a literary bent; we aren’t currently commissioning poetry, as we don’t yet have the right context, but look forward to welcoming poetry submissions in the future. In order to spare a few trees, we do ask that all submissions are sent via email, and we ask that a completed cover letter is sent to tell us what we need to know, and to help us in anonymising submissions.
Who are you (team photo if possible)? and what was your background in the book industry before this venture?
The Press is headed up by Will Dady, who was previously editor and designer at Alma Books, and before that, he worked for the academic press Frontinus, as well as the London-based independent Serif Books.
Talk about some of your books if possible, upcoming, favourite?
By way of a nod to one of the greatest pioneers in independent publishing – and one of the Publisher’s heroes – we’ll be starting off our classics list with A Room of One’s Own. Since we are launching in October 2020, which is Black History Month, we’re publishing two titles by African-American authors: Bars Fight, a ballad, the first known work by an African-American author, and the poems of Phillis Wheatley, along with a memoir, which includes the first volume of poetry by an African-American author ever published. From there on, we’ve got the next eleven titles picked out, which consist of some lesser-known works by literary giants, as well as some by undeservedly forgotten authors, including Saki, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and Leo Tolstoy, as well as neglected greats, such as Aphra Behn, the Restoration playwright (and spy), who was the first woman to earn a living by her pen. In Aphra’s words, ‘Variety is the soul of pleasure’.
