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'Queen bees' making a cottage industry out of their writing
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent20.11.09
Six women writers intend to revolutionise the book trade from their homes.
They have set up a publishing company called Queenbee Press and the first collection of their short stories is being released next week.
By cadging help with design and photography from friends and finding a publishing-on-demand company to do the printing, they estimate that set-up costs have been £1,500.
Although the royalties from their first effort, The Leap Year, will be small, they feel the model of publishing they have established could help more women get into print.
The venture was the idea of author Miranda Glover, 41, who established her group of writers when she moved from London to just outside Oxford and missed the literary companionship the capital can offer.
She recruited Lucy Cavendish, Jennie Walmsley and Rachel Jackson, who work in journalism, American part-time writer Alexa Hughes Wilson and modern languages teacher Anne Tuite-Dalton, from France, who all live and work in and around commuter-belt London. They called themselves the Contemporary Women Writers' Club.
"I thought we needed a structure so I set up a programme and we would meet together at my house and work on small writing projects," said Ms Glover.
While spending a few days together in France they decided to create a book of short stories on connected themes. Each wrote two stories set in a different country they knew.
They decided to publish it themselves because of the problems they saw in traditional publishing.
"The industry isn't courting new women's writing," said Ms Glover. "Established writers are losing their contracts because you can't compete with Katie Price. There's a space that isn't really being filled. We thought if we set up an imprint [a brand name under which work is published], we could also sell published books and publish other works. It creates an opportunity for emerging writers to have their voices heard. This wonderful around-the-kitchen-table philosophy is a serious thing."
The venture has won endorsements from writers including Kathy Lette, Rosie Boycott and Victoria Glendinning. Ms Glover, a mother of two, said she and the others were not knocking conventional publishing. She has had three novels published with Transworld, with the latest, Meanwhile Street, released this year.
Ms Cavendish has had two novels published and Ms Jackson is working on her first, having signed to agency Curtis Brown.
The Leap Year is published on Thursday at £6.99. It is being distributed to smaller booksellers or can be bought online.
