 Having worked in the business for twenty-five years, I know that, unless you happen to be a corporate giant, making money out of publishing is not easy. However, a local business appears to be bucking the trend.
Leicester-born, 27-year-old Tom Chalmers runs his book publishing company, Legend Press, from his offices on Northwold Road. Concentrating on fiction (a notoriously difficult category in book publishing), Tom published his first book – a collection of short stories entitled The Remarkable Everyday – last year, and the book achieved a five-star rating on Amazon.
An enterprising man, with a sharp eye for marketing and networking, Tom has now launched a novel list, which is complemented by the continuing short story series with which Legend Press began. The sequel to The Remarkable Everday is due out next February – the stories have been selected, and the book is already generating interest in the book trade.
White Summer, published last May was his first novel, and is written by a debut author, Luke Bitmead (see review above). The book has sold well throughout the UK, and received excellent reviews. The author is just completing a nationwide book signing tour and further events have been booked for later in the year. A sequel will be published around the middle of 2007. Buoyed by the book’s success, Tom published his second novel. Salt & Honey, by Candi Miller, is set in southern Africa, and depicts a young girl being displaced from her Kalahari desert-tribe. The book is being promoted by Waterstone’s and Borders, and has received film, translation and foreign rights interest, as well as widespread media coverage. He has also held a couple of charity events in conjunction with Survivial International, as the novel helps to raise the profile of the Bushmen in southern Africa.
In addition to this, he has carried out a university speaking tour, with the focus on publishing and creative writing. This was a big success, and he is currently in process of arranging another tour for the next academic year. He is also involved a lot in writing communities. He has just been signed up for a series of articles for Writer’s Service and often provides interviews and articles for a range of writing publications and groups as well as talking at events. On top of this, he also works in career advice and CV clinics. Tom plans to double his novel list next year and then double again the following year, and he is also considering the possibility of launching an educational list as well as a reference book list.
He describes his current publishing philosophy as ‘cutting-edge contemporary fiction appealing to the modern reader’. It certainly seems to be working, and with his determination and energy, Legend Press seems set to flourish in the seemingly cosy but actually deeply competitive world of book publishing.
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