The Conrad Press was founded at the end of 2015 by writer and literary agent James Essinger. The Conrad Press is named in honour of the great Anglo-Polish writer Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), who spent the last few years of his life in the village of Bishopsbourne near Canterbury and is buried in Canterbury.
What genres do we publish?
The Conrad Press is interested in publishing all kinds of fiction (including contemporary, historical, fantasy, LGBTQ, YA/children’s fiction), and general non-fiction including – but not limited to – memoirs and biographies.
We also publish poetry collections, playscripts and screenplays.
Please note that we do not publish books that have large numbers of illustrations and/or photographs (in practice about 20 per book is our maximum) and we do not usually publish books shorter than 15,000 words in length.
Why Use The Conrad Press?
The Conrad Press is run by writers for writers
We’ve been there ourselves, we’ve written books, and we know about the unfairness and frustration of being just another ignored manuscript languishing on a slush pile. We’ve experienced the automatically-generated rejection letters.
We know how important your book is to you. If we decide to offer for it, we will publish it well, we’ll make it look great, and we’ll give you every chance of starting a successful literary career.
Lower and transparent costs
All our costs are completely transparent. If we make you an offer for your book all costs will be detailed in your offer letter. Our costs are also considerably lower than other ‘author contribution business model’ publishers.
You can earn more from your book
The Conrad Press business model allows authors to earn considerably more from their books’ success than the traditional publishing model.
We can get your book into Waterstones and other major booksellers
Unless your book becomes a bestseller, we can’t promise to get you into every branch of every major bookshop chain, but we can help get you into your local book shop or perhaps a location relevant to your book’s story.
When you’re published by The Conrad Press, your book’s details will appear on all computer systems of every major UK bookshop chain as well as many independent booksellers’ systems. And we’ll get you onto Amazon.
Your book will be printed by Clays
Conrad Press books are printed exclusively by Clays – the UK’s largest book printer. Clays has been in business for over 200 years and prints about 500,000 books every day, including weekends. They print almost every UK bestseller, including the Harry Potter books.
Clays are also our distributors. This means that you can also benefit from Clay’s highly successful distribution system to distribute your book around the country.
You’ll also benefit from being a member of The Conrad Press author community
You will be joining a thriving community of Conrad Press authors, giving you the opportunity to communicate, share ideas, and develop your contacts in the literary world.
We use outstanding designers and typesetters
Our authors tell us that the collaborative cover-design process is one of the most exciting and enjoyable experiences of the process, (second only to receiving copies of their finished, printed book!)
We are privileged to work with Charlotte Mouncey www.bookstyle.co.uk and Rachael and Nat Ravenlock https://www.thebooktypesetters.com/. To see examples of our book covers, click here
Your lead-time to publication is speedy, if you want it to be
We can get your book published within three months, if you wish.
We’re well-connected with valuable international contacts
For us, it’s not just about creating your physically-published book. The story of your manuscript doesn’t end there. Our vision is to take your story as far as we can.
We have a close collaborative relationship with a major US-based literary agent who sees all our books and represents many of them with a view to selling them to US publishers. Success here would lead to a ‘traditional’ deal, that is, a deal where you would be offered an advance by the interested US publishing house.
We’re also in everyday contact with Hollywood producers, Netflix, and other screenplay producers offering them ideas and manuscripts to potentially develop on-screen.