Interview: Will from Renard Press

This month, Karen and Lizzy are running #ReadIndies – encouraging us all to read books published by independent publishing houses. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got loads waiting on the shelves, and I’ve already dug into a few. But I also wanted to spotlight one of the newer names on the block – Renard Press. And what better way to do that than asking some questions of the guy running it, Will Dady. I’ve interspersed it with some of the lovely books they publish or will publish – check out their site for more info.

1.) Hi Will! Let’s start with your background in publishing?

After graduating, I took on a (distance – ahead of the trend!) marketing position for a small academic publisher, and I managed to get an internship with a tiny indie press whose raison d’être was making beautiful books, and it’s really there that I developed my love of books as an artefact in their own right. That internship turned into a lengthy Editorial/Marketing/Production assistantship, which was an excellent introduction to the independent-publishing scene, of course, where juggling plates and having to be proficient at everything is a way of life.

It’s always been a dream to start up my own press, and in this early role my mentor encouraged me to learn as much as I could, and really encouraged creativity. On the side I did a bit of freelance editing and proofreading, and I did some extra training – a course in bookbinding and a course in InDesign – and I landed a job in a bigger publishing house, largely dealing with editorial and marketing, which grew over the next five years to cover production and design and other bits as well. I continued to do a bit of freelance editorial work, as well as branching out into some web design. Then, in April last year (truly fantastic timing, I’m sure you’ll agree!) I found myself in the position to be able to set up Renard Press.

2.) What was the genesis of Renard Press and how do you fit into the publishing scene?

Setting up an independent publishing house has long been my dream, ever since that early internship, where my mentor insisted that one day soon I would be running The Great Snoring Press (after the village in which I grew up), and at the beginning of 2020 it finally started to look like it might be possible to do so. Although, of course, we had our first lockdown in April, I persevered, and spent the time creating a website, agreeing sales and distribution, bookbinding and setting up social-media profiles. ‘If you can get through this,’ said our sage new print rep, ‘you can get through anything.’

A few manic months later, Renard Press was launched, a catalogue was in print and readers started to get in touch to express their pleasure upon seeing our list. So really Renard’s emergence was very sudden! The ‘independent movement’, if it may be so called, having struggled on the high street for many years, is having a renaissance – there are armies of readers calling for fairness in retail taxes to support independent booksellers, and for inclusivity and diversity in publishing lists, which favours independent publishers, since they are better placed to take risks on literature that falls outside of the mainstream.

So, it’s against this backdrop that Renard shuffled into being, and I have been overwhelmed by the support between presses, championed by some inspirational publishers, reviewers and retailers – not to mention the advent of Bookshop UK, which is potentially great news for the industry. So there’s where we fit in – along with all of the other small presses! No man is an island – we’re part of the rich indie scene now, and we have a duty to publish well and support other independent presses and booksellers, as they support us too.

3.) How do you choose your titles? 

I’m slowly preparing a broad cross-section of genres – essays, fiction, poetry, playscripts – because I think it’s important (and, indeed, enjoyable) to read widely. With the classics, I feel publishing is a bit like ‘curating’ – even more so for a company with a subscriber model, in that most subscribers receive every book – so I like to put together the publishing programme as though I’m planning a year of reading for someone. Of course, there are a few other things to take into account – when I set up the press I committed us to keeping the gender-split of the authors in balance, for instance.

Beyond this, I like to explore authors’ lesser-known works, so if I enjoy a book I go hunting through the author’s backlist, so to speak, to find forgotten or neglected titles I think I could make something of. The literary canon, of course, in 1970, was wildly different to that of today, so I think it’s important to look at why – what was missing? Is there enough of it now? – and make sure that the press’ output focuses on celebrating these positive changes, and perhaps even adding to the canon with voices that have been lost to time.

4.) Stephen Leacock caught my eye first – how did you discover him, and how did you choose Frenzied Fiction?

I first picked up Frenzied Fiction in Any Amount of Books’ basement in the Charing Cross Road – a favourite haunt – and thought it sounded brilliant. It was! From there on I was hooked. A little later I happened across Leacock again – I’m a member of the Whitefriars Club, a literary society, and I spotted his name in the archive, in a write-up of a talk he had given about the nature of a humourist, which made me even fonder of him. Some of his other volumes of short stories are better known, but I really think that Frenzied Fiction, which was published relatively late on, represents a master at the height of his game, and it contains ‘My Recollections as a Spy’, which is my favourite of his stories.

5.) The cover designs of your classic fiction are so strong – really beautiful and striking. How did you decide Renard Press’s ‘look’, and what’s the process of creating them?

Thank you! What really drives the list is a desire to bring ‘niche’ (I hate that word) titles to a wider readership, so there’s an understanding at the heart of things that the books need to look good. Cover design has had lots of vaguely definable ‘eras’ – from the beautiful old leather-bound editions to the stunning Dent editions, the famous Gollancz dustjackets, etc., so sometimes I like the artwork to mind one of one of these eras.

I also think good design draws on good design, as it were, rather than seeking to reinvent the wheel, so a lot of the covers use motifs or typefaces from bygone eras in a more modern setting. Each cover (or series design, in some cases) is unique, but I’ve designed over 400 covers to date, so I tend to be able to crack on pretty quickly now, and I tend to know what does and doesn’t work. Of course, it’s important to get others’ opinions, and I have a faithful panel of supporters willing to give me an honest reaction.

6.) Any hints for the future of Renard Press?

Well, we’ve set ourselves quite the challenge for the year ahead, with a very ambitious programme, so job one is delivering on that. Classics-wise, I look forward to expanding some of the collections – the Virginia Woolf collection, Orwell’s Essays, the Oscar Wildes – and to ‘rediscovering’ some more lesser-known names. I’m actually drawing up the last few titles of the year, so there should be more news soon! We’ve kickstarted the contemporary fiction and playscripts lists with two incredible titles, and I’m about to launch a poetry list, too. But let’s hope for a proper launch party before too long!

7.) What are you reading?

I’ve just inhaled Kae Tempest’s On Connection (Faber), which I’m busy recommending to everyone. It’s in a lovely modern hardback take on ‘the pamphlet’ format, which the production nerd in me just loved, and as a text it’s very powerful, too. I’ve actually taken a quick break from my reading pile in favour of reading some submissions, which I love to go through – and I made an offer on a stunning novel this morning, so watch this space…! Next on the groaning TBR list is the monumental Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann, from the excellent folks at Galley Beggar. I must be the last person in the world to read it, so no spoilers, please.