Chapbooks: ancient form of publishing enjoying renaissance 500 years on

Today's chapbooks are objects of beauty in their own right: pamphlet-sized but glossy, they are highly covetable and collectable
The cover of Field by Tom Fletcher
The cover of Field by Tom Fletcher

It's an ancient form of publishing that is enjoying a renaissance 500 years on with a surge of interest in modern chapbooks.

The 16th century merriments that became the chapman's stock in trade were historically cheap, crudely made and illustrated using recycled woodcuts.

Today's chapbooks, which are enjoying a revival along with independent regional publishing, bear little resemblance to the roughly produced books of the past. They are objects of beauty in their own right, with emphasis on original design as well as being a showcase for original writing. Pamphlet-sized but glossy, and more book than leaflet, they are highly covetable, which partly explains their appeal. Some book lovers are collecting every single chapbook published by Nicholas Royle, who publishes chapbooks at Nightjar Press.

Royle says he first began to notice them a quarter of a century ago. He says their beauty and increasing appeal is the limited, signed and numbered editions.

"We produce between 200 and 300 of each title," he says. "If it sells out then we don't reprint." There were 200 of Alison Moore's haunting When The Door Closed, It was Dark published and only a handful are left.

This month, Nightjar will publish Lexicon by Christopher Burns, author of The Flint Bed, and Field by Tom Fletcher, whose first novel The Leaping was a word-of-mouth hit. Fletcher's short story, The Safe Children, was published as a chapbook two years ago and swiftly sold out.

Chapbooks are not going to be available in other formats, as downloads for E-readers like the Kindle, as Royle says it would "defeat the object of it – which is celebrating the gorgeous piece of history".

"There are people buying every single one and building up a collection on their bookshelves. You can't have a collection on your shelves of files on an iPad. These are people who care about what something looks and feels like," he adds.

When a chapbook sells out, Royle finds himself getting emails from "really determined people who go off and search for them".

There tends to be a theme with the pair of chapbooks – Lexicon and Field are linked by geography: both linked by Whitehaven as Burns lives there and Fletcher was brought up there. (They will be launched on Monday at a Words on the Water event at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick.)

Nightjar is not alone in its support of the short story as an art form. Royle praises Ra Page at Comma Press for his work promoting short stories. Comma recently published a collection of short stories by the award-winning writer David Constantine.

Page says a strength of Comma Press is its ability to develop a long-term relationship with a writer without the huge pressure to launch a first novel published too soon.

"Novels need to be crafted and perfected," he says. "There is always so much room for improvement and perfection. Comma takes the short form and hones it until it is perfect."

In West Yorkshire, Kevin Duffy, of Bluemoose publishers has published King Crow by young writer Michael Stewart.

Duffy said: "Literature and publishing are nothing if they don't invest in new writers. The big six publishers are reducing their commitment to new writers because of the massive advances they're giving the Sleb Sofa Surfers of TV land."

Duffy likens the independent publishers, such as Bluemoose, as a delicatessen whereas the big publishers are supermarkets catering to broader tastes.

Sharon Blackie set up Two Ravens Press as she felt frustrated by the homogenisation of mainstream publishing. She says: "It is only when we change people's reading habits and get them to be less lazy and more motivated will this change." Based on the Isle of Lewis, they are the most westerly publishers in the UK.

"It struck me that the market for fiction was becoming too homogenised and it was difficult to find literary fiction that was challenging."

Manchester's newest publishers is the Hidden Gem Press, set up by author and lecturer Sherry Ashworth and her husband Brian.

"It exists to publish and promote top quality readable novels unfairly overlooked by the big commercial publishing houses," Ashworth says. She speaks of the considerable amount of regional pride and burning desire to deliver novels the reading public will fall in love with, rather than eclectic literary novels or ghost-written bonkbusters by Jordan.

She says the mid-list has all but disappeared, and new, emerging writers are now getting picked up be regional presses.

Hidden Gem Press will publish Hungry, The Stars and Everything by Emma Jane Unsworth in June.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2011/mar/04/chapbooks-publishing
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