Oldcastle Books launches digital-only genre fiction imprint

Independent publishing group Oldcastle Books is launching a digital-only sister company, Verve Books.

Despite the widely reported flatlining of the e-book market, many publishers of genre fiction are still seeing success in the format. It has proved to be a significant revenue stream for Oldcastle Books—whose imprints include award-winning crime fiction list No Exit Press, cinema and popular culture imprint Kamera Books, and pocket-guide travel list Pocket Essentials—with some 50% of its revenue coming from digital in recent years.

The new company will be fronted by Oldcastle editorial and rights manager Clare Quinlivan and publicity manager Katherine Sunderland. The pair say that, despite there being increased competition in digital publishing, with fewer barriers to entry and new publishers springing up all the time, there is still a great deal of potential in the market with "the right offering".

Quinlivan said: "Space on the Oldcastle lists is very tight [it publishes 30 titles a year], so setting up a digital-only company makes sense for us as it gives us the ability to diversify our offering, broadening into wider commercial genres, while also meaning we can work to closer timelines and react and adapt more quickly to develop author brands." According to the pair, Verve Books is "born out of a love of brilliant, page-turning fiction", and is keen to publish stories that "can’t wait to be told". The company will focus on genres that typically do well in digital: crime and thrillers, historical fiction and commercial women’s fiction. Quinlivan and Sunderland say they are confident in their ability to spot a good crime and thriller title. "With our experience working on No Exit Press, I’d say we know the crime and thriller market pretty well," said Quinlivan. Last year, No Exit title Dodgers, written by Bill Beverly, won Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at The British Book Awards.

The company is hoping to re-create this success with its first title for publication, The Righteous Spy, an espionage novel by British author Merle Nygate (pictured below). The manuscript won the Little, Brown/University of East Anglia Crime Fiction Award last year, and will be the first book by a graduate from the university’s Crime Fiction MA course—which launched in 2015—to be published. World English-language rights were bought by Quinlivan from Jon Elek at United Agents. "There are surprisingly few female authors writing espionage novels and we’re delighted to launch Merle into the genre," said Quinlivan.

Nygate, a screenwriter, script editor, lecturer and novelist, has worked on BAFTA-winning TV, New York Festival audio drama and written original sitcoms. She has also worked on comedy material for the BBC, commissioning as well as writing and script editing across multiple genres.

Nygate said: "Espionage is politics, and politics is currently moving like a runaway train, so digital, with its short lead times, is the perfect fit. Researching and writing The Righteous Spy has been the most intense creative experience I’ve had. Inhabiting the minds of diverse characters who are doing bad but think they’re doing good has been fascinating and, I think, timely."

Verve is open to submissions from published and unpublished authors of commercial fiction. Quinlivan and Sunderland say each book will be approached with "vigour, spirit and enthusiasm". To this end, the list will be tightly curated, publishing "just a handful of quality titles" in its first year, which will enable it to pay greater attention to each title and craft bespoke marketing and publicity campaigns for them.

Asked if they will be hiring any new staff, Quinlivan said: "Not right now—another reason for keeping the list to a small number of carefully selected titles is so that it can be managed in conjunction with our work for Oldcastle."

The publisher’s titles will be available on Amazon and from other digital retailers, and in the long-term will also be sold directly from the press’ website.

Oldcastle publisher Ion Mills said: "Oldcastle Books has been in publishing for more than 30 years and has always been keen to adapt to market changes. It makes complete sense for us to launch a digital-only sister company. Clare and Katherine are a fantastic team, each offering a keen editorial eye and handling of the digital market. Their first acquisition is a brilliant one and I’ve no doubt they will continue to discover more talented authors."