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| ABOUT SKYLIGHT PRESS | Our website has moved to a new host server. This is an old page which still works but is no longer being maintained. Please click here to visit our current site. |
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We are a small independent British publisher based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (south west England) specialising in literary fiction, drama and poetry, advanced horticulture and the esoteric. Our niche sits somewhere just below the parapet of mainstream publishing, where we are nicely placed to issue gems of quality writing which may have slipped below the radar of bigger publishers. Skylight Press was co-founded by Rebsie Fairholm and Daniel Staniforth, with author/publisher Gareth Knight as its adviser. Rebsie Fairholm has over 20 years of publishing experience and is trained in book production, typesetting, editorial and graphic design. She worked in the production department at major educational publisher Stanley Thornes (now Nelson Thornes) for eight years before going freelance as a book designer and editor. She currently handles the design and production side of things for Skylight. Daniel Staniforth is a writer and scholar of poetry, fiction, literary analysis, and musical composition, whose work has featured in various small press publications and literary webzines. He also teaches English Composition and Literature, having served in various capacities at Miami University, the Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Gareth Knight is the author of some forty books and a seasoned lecturer within the esoteric field and an established expert on the Western Mystery Tradition. He founded the publishing arm of Helios Books in the 1960s which launched many significant esoteric books, some of which have found their way back to Skylight. Now retired, he worked for many years as a commissioning editor for Longman's (now part of the Pearson group) and served on a subcommittee of the Publishers' Association. He now sits on the editorial board of Skylight Press as an honorary adviser. Skylight Press is the culmination of a long-held dream to found a small esoteric and literary press. |
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Submissions All submissions are evaluated by an editorial committee, and are assessed solely on their merit and suitability for our list. We are absolutely flooded with fiction submissions in particular, most of which don't fall within the guidelines given here. Please have a look at the kind of work we do and consider whether your work fits our remit before submitting to us. Prospective authors should be aware that we don't have the resources for major advertising and marketing campaigns, and we trade on a more modest principle: our reputation for quality of production and content. Many prospective authors have unrealistic expectations about sales potential in small press publishing - if you're looking to be a famous bestselling author you might want to try elsewhere. Our royalty rate is decent but please note we can't pay advances. Our purpose is to support and nurture good writing. We are not looking for commercial or mainstream work, nor do we want clones of bestsellers. We're seeking quality literature in our fiction and poetry - imaginative and intelligent writing which has a special spark - and sane occultism in our esoteric list - good, responsible writing that adds something new to the topic. We're especially keen to support and encourage British writers, particularly in the literary field. The small press scene in Britain is very much smaller than that in the US, and we feel that providing opportunities for UK writers is where our resources are most needed. Email submissions are strongly preferred, not physical scripts. Please submit an initial synopsis or sample chapters to Daniel Staniforth for consideration by our editorial team. If you want to tell us a little bit about yourself that's great; we don't need a full CV. Decisions are made solely on the merits of the script in hand, and creative writing qualifications don't make any difference. While we welcome submissions from agents, we should make clear that you don't need an agent in order to submit to us. There are very few agents operating within our areas of specialisation, and so only a tiny handful of our current authors have them. We sometimes get scripts from fake agents - writers or their friends posing as agents in the belief that it will make us take their work more seriously. Please, save yourself the bother. It doesn't fool us and we'd much rather you were honest with us. Submissions received as part of a mass-mailing will be regarded as spam, including those that come from so-called submission services. Though of course the kind of people who submit their work so carelessly are unlikely to be reading these guidelines anyway. Ho hum. |
We publish ... We DON'T publish ...
And now the positive stuff about publishing with Skylight: we are independent, self-sufficient, solvent and thriving. We don't depend on any outside grants or subsidies. Our support of quality writing goes beyond simple profit factors - the books that are profitable help to pay for the ones that aren't. All of our esoteric titles (including esoteric fiction) are stocked by the Atlantis Bookshop in Bloomsbury, London. Freelancing |
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Orders Customers based in the US have the option to pay in dollars using the orange buttons. These orders will be dispatched within the US, so domestic shipping rates and timings apply. Please note you can't mix currencies within the shopping basket - so please choose one or t'other! Orders are normally dispatched the same day, but otherwise within three or four working days. You can also find all our books on Amazon and other major online retailers worldwide, or ask your local bookseller. We fully respect our customers' privacy. When you order from us we will not put your details on a mailing list or pester you to buy anything else. |
Postage and packing for UK and international orders is typically charged as follows: UK: £1.80 for one book; add 80p for each additional book Europe: £4 for one book; add £1.60 for each additional book Rest of world: £7 for one book; add £3.00 for each additional book
For US customers using the orange buttons: Priority shipping starts at $4.95. Economy rate also available. Prefer not to buy online? You're welcome to order by post. For UK orders ... Please do NOT use this address for submissions: our submission guidelines are given above. For US orders... Skylight Press USA For other International orders contact us first. |
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Publishing doesn't have to impact the environment We strongly encourage electronic submissions which avoid the wasteful printing out of paper manuscripts. |
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