Indies reprint as Man Booker nominations prompt demand surge

Independent publishers say being longlisted for the "game-changing" Man Booker Prize has drastically increased demand for their books, and has come at a particularly good time because of Brexit pressures.

Earlier this week it was announced that Oneworld, Saraband and Salt had been longlisted for the prestigious £50,000 prize, alongside fellow indies Granta and Faber.

Publisher of last year’s winner A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, Oneworld is in the running once again with “biting satire” The Sellout by Paul Beatty which won US prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, in March. Juliet Mabey, publisher at Oneworld, told The Bookseller that she was “delighted” with the longlisting and had been "inundated" with requests for extra stock.

"Our distributors in Singapore and Australia both immediately ordered an extra 2,000 copies", she said. "Amazon in UK ordered another 600 copies, as they were out of stock by yesterday afternoon, and so on. We've just gone back to print for an extra 15,000 copies.”

“Given Brexit, it couldn’t have come at better time, as racism has raised its head in ways we haven’t seen for decades”, Mabey said. “The longlisting will help to ensure a wider readership for The Sellout both here and abroad.”

She added: “For indie publishers, being longlisted for a prestigious prize like this offers very welcome extra support from reviewers and the book trade, which not only generates additional sales for their book but affects the profile of the publisher too, which is fantastic. Winning the prize last year with Marlon James we know all too well what a transformative effect this prize can offer independent publishers.”

Scottish independent publisher Saraband, which was named first Saltire Society Publisher of the Year in 2013, is longlisted for His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. The title is published under the publisher's crime, mystery and thriller imprint Contraband, which was launched in 2014.

Publisher Sara Hunt told The Bookseller: “To say we're over the moon doesn't even begin to describe how delighted and thrilled we are! Graeme is the nicest person you could meet, and we're glad to see that our conviction that's he's a stellar literary talent is now shared by these prestigious judges. (Thank you, judges!) We were celebrating last night, and the champagne was flowing!”

Hunt also spoke of the “extremely brisk” demand for the book that comes with the longlisting: “We were out of stock within hours of the announcement and have new stock due in next week", she said. "Graeme seems to be attracting a huge amount of interest, and everyone wants to read it. They're in for quite a treat.”

Hunt said: “This particular prize is life-changing for the author and a real game-changer for the publisher. We've entered this book for every prize it's eligible for. For this prize, all the judges read all the books, and the longlist demonstrates that there are no favours for big names and big publishers. Indie publishers slog away at slush piles, juggling short print runs, press, marketing and everything else, shouting from the rooftops about the books we love – and to achieve a Man Booker longlisting makes all the years of doing this feel more than worthwhile! Of course, finding fantastic writing and brilliant but unrecognised authors is a thrill in its own right. But this is on a new level of thrill!”

Also longlisted is Norfolk-based Salt Publishing, which has been nominated for its title The Many by Wyl Menmuir. Publisher Chris Hamilton-Emery said that it is "an extraordinary moment” for the publisher. "This is our 17th year in business, and we've had two Man Booker nominations in the past four years. It's exhilarating, rewarding, exhausting, entirely unexpected and emboldening", he said.

Salt is also selling out of its nominated title: “We printed 1,000 copies and have sold out", Hamilton-Emery said. "We think we can sell another 5,000 and have just ordered the reprint for those. If we get shortlisted, who knows perhaps [we will have] five times that amount in print.”

Hamilton-Emery told The Bookseller that the longlisting “couldn't have come at a better time". He said: "We've a tremendously experienced team in place now. The new shape of the business is bedding down, we've a brilliant list of new titles coming through and this will draw more attention to our authors and reignite interest among readers. Sales are excellent, but cash is always tight, especially during the summer months, but the sales have been significantly improved since joining the crack team at PGUK, we just have to wait for the cash to arrive. You hold your breath, tighten the belt and graft, night and day. We're expecting this year to be a stellar year for Salt. With this longlisting, it's going to be even better.”

He added: “There are so many prizes, and so much opportunity for independents to garner attention, but the reality is that only a handful of prizes stimulate readers to buy. The Man Booker is the best of the bunch, it's transformative, fantastically well-managed and will help us to draw attention to the entire list again. We know we're doing things right, a prize helps communicate that to a much wider range of booksellers, collaborators and, of course, readers.”

It proved a double celebration for Salt this week, with Paul McVeigh's The Good Son also shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize.

Fellow independent publishers Granta and Faber were also longlisted, for their titles Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Canadian author Madeleine Thien (Granta) and Hystopia by American author David Means (Faber)

The prize shortlist will be announced on 13th September, and the winner will be named on 25th October at a black-tie dinner at London’s Guildhall, as broadcast by the BBC.