The Indiependent speaks to Nina Hervé, co-director of Rough Trade Books, affiliated with the record label of the same name. She provides us with a sneak peek of how the publishing house came to be, and much more.
Origins of the publishing house
Q: “Tell us about the history of Rough Trade Books, how did the idea come about? What motivated you to launch it? What inspired the name?”
A: “The whole thing started as a result of me working for Rough Trade Shops for the previous decade. By the end of my time there one of my many roles was book buyer and I was really enjoying working with publishers and authors on events and just decided maybe I’d like to be more involved in that world. The book world. I decided to leave the shop and talked to the owners of Rough Trade Records (the label), Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee to see if they’d ever thought about doing something more full time with the book publishing side of the business. They’d published a couple of books back in 2011, (Roy Wilkinson’s Do It For Your Mum as well as Let’s Start a Pussy Riot by Emely Neu and Jade French) and they said yes. So I then became a director of a publishing company and had no idea what I was doing so had to figure it all out on the job, so to speak…”
Day to day
Q: “Walk us through your routine, what does an average day look like for you?”
A: “We have an office in the little village where I live, so I’ll head down there and we might start the day by processing any orders we’ve had come through on the website, consumer sales are very important to us, then I’ll be reading or editing our next project, maybe a Zoom with our designer Craig Oldham, or meeting with our publicist, Kate McQuaid. There’ll be a ton of emails to read and reply to as well—about events we’ve got coming up or partnerships—all that admin kinda stuff. It’s varied though, there’s not a ’typical day’ really—which is probably a good thing for me, as I’ve always liked a bit of variety. One day I could be unloading a pallet of books into our lock-up in the rain and the next be talking to an A-list Hollywood actress about a book project. It can be quite surreal sometimes—I have several ‘pinch me’ moments!”
Indie Publishing
Q: “What does indie publishing mean to you? Why is it important? Do you have any advice for anyone looking to go into indie publishing, aspiring writers, or alternatively, for any reader who wants to learn more about the industry?”
A: “I suppose indie to me means what it’s meant to me all my life in terms of music, cinema, fashion: people doing something for themselves without the safety net of huge commercial backing—not the money so much as the implication of being owned by, say, a hedge fund company, or having a board that expect profits and a certain amount of financial kickback from the company. Obviously we want to pay our writers and everyone who works for us and to keep on publishing, so profit is important, but not to enrich some faceless board of directors. And that’s important because we can make purely artistic decisions, or at least we can keep that firmly in the front of our minds—do we love this thing we’re about to make regardless of its commercial potential? Yes? Then we can do it. My advice is to do what you believe in, corny as it sounds—I’ve no background in this world, no right, really, to think I could do what I have—and I came across some naysayers when I first started out, but I knew what I wanted to make, which is what I wanted to read, really, and what I saw people wanting to read in the RoughTrade Shops, and I just thought, ‘let’s do it.’”
Q: “Are there any other indie publishing companies you want to highlight?”
A: “I love Prototype Publishing, Makina Books and Tangerine Press—great books and people. We’ve just done the Uncorrected Independent Publishers Fair that Tangerine organise every year at Peckham Pelican and they always have great people along—I’d recommend anyone going to that to see how exciting indie publishing is.”
Highlight your titles
Q: “Tell us a little about the books you publish. Why did you choose these in particular? What do you hope readers will take away from them?”
A: “There’s a slightly off-the-cuff element to how we find books. Some are via the pamphlets we’ve published—authors wanting to work with us again or having a new idea—some come via friendships or meetings. The thing I really look for is a connection to the author as a person, as well as loving the work—we try and work so closely that I want there to be a real sense of us doing this exciting stuff together. A true collaboration. I just want our readers to take some sense of excitement away from our books I suppose. To think that here are beautifully made objects that also reflect the real lives so many of us live, not a rarified, ultra-literary version of those lives.”
Future endeavours
Q: “Can you share any upcoming projects or initiatives that readers can look forward to?”
A: “We’ve got a new book of essays and poetry from Jen Calleja coming in September which we’re very excited about called Goblinhood: Goblin as a Mode and hopefully a new Epiphany Edition from Craig Oldham—you’ll have to look those up to see what I mean—but it’s going to be a really great book I think… We also have another title coming before the end of the year, but all will be revealed on 19th September 2024 on that one. Sorry to be all secretive!”
Q: “What are you currently reading? What is your favourite book/author?”
A: “My favourite author is Will Burns. He’s my husband so that’s a given. I’ve just finished reading All Fours by Miranda July which I think is one of the best books written that we’ve not published. Hilarious, enlightening, daring and reassuring.”
Interview conducted by Marinel Dizon