Lunch-hour lingo

A recipe for success

Publishing luckily isn’t an industry with too much lingo; perhaps we all understand the value of clear communication too much to rely on a slew of TLAs. Saying that, dinkus is the best word (and perhaps the best part) of publishing. And I can never quite get my head around verso and recto; in my defence, I still haven’t mastered left and right (this is probably not a very strong defence).

The page in a book that is most full of lingo is the imprint – that collection of words and numbers, usually up the front of the book, sometimes at the back, that tells you a bit about the publisher and the edition and the copyright, all the juicy stuff.

If you care to read any of our imprint pages, you will notice a small addition: a recipe. There is an old thought in publishing that books with recipes in them always sell better, so it’s our form of a good-luck charm. Also, we like food.

We both also like pretty books. After all, we came into the publishing world at Wakefield Press, renowned for very beautiful books. We have our first foray into illustrated non-fiction (i.e., books with colourful pictures) this year, with Stavroula Ademeitis’s guide to Australiana kitsch. Anyone familiar with Stav’s work as Frida Las Vegas will know how glorious that is going to be. And we’re excited to look for a bit more – something arts and crafty (and not too finicky), or a giftable guide to South Australia. Or maybe, just maybe, a cookbook.

Emily

Not all pink

What are we reading?

• Margot has finally gone down the motherhood reading hole: Sheila Heti, Rachel Cusk, Matrescence. Send help.

• Emily has enjoyed a summer of narrative non-fiction, highlight being the much-awarded Bullet Paper Rock by Abbas El-Zein.

Some fun shorts

What are we reading online?

• Some of our favourites are on fire with DIY publicity advice and everything being unnecessarily difficult.

• ‘Your attention is all you have.’

• Guardian pieces on the romance boom (of course) and seemingly sudden backlist hits (still hoping Hanrahan hits the bestseller list).

Behind the press

What are we doing for Pink Shorts?

• Planning our editing for fiction and non-fiction sessions for February – close to booked out! More to be announced. If there’s another time or topic you’d like us to schedule, please let us know.

• Beginning work with some wonderful partners on brand voice workshops, technical writing workshops, publishing talks, custom books and beautiful newspapers. Collaborative creative work is the best.

• Connecting with small publishers and agents across the world as we start to explore more rights opportunities for our books. Collaborative creative work is, indeed, the best.