20 - When Passion Meets Business, with Daphne Tonge

Publishing Rodeo: The Good, The Bad, and the Bloody Ugly

In 2015, Daphne Tonge started a small "book crate" subscription service out of her London living room, with a tiny pool of subscribers. Today, Illumicrate is a well-known specialist retailer, with a thriving fanbase and strong industry presence, which has laid the groundwork for Daphne's next co-current venture: Daphne Press, an independent publishing imprint run on the same values and with the same marketing savvy. In this detailed, question-loaded interview, Daphne kindly joins us to talk the nitty-gritty of building not just one, but two industry-shaping small businesses, and how it might impact genre fiction in future.

• The founding of Illumicrate, and Daphne’s story
• A bit about book production, what they can or can’t do
• How does IC choose and acquire books for its crates?
• What IS a crate book – is there such a thing?
• Buliding a book community
• “Social media doesn’t help” but it does?
• Crate market in the usa – why so small?
• UK versus USA book culture
• Setting up an independent press, makign the leap from Illumicrate to Daphne Press
• The importance of editors, and why Daphne wanted to get that exactly right
• What exactly do trad editors DO? Scott breaks it down.
• Editors jobs are complex and very poorly paid
• Why Daphne doesn’t acquire world rights atm (it’s a good and noble reason!)
• What Daphne looks for in author submissions
• Daphne’s surprising tip for how you best catch her attention with your submission!
• Why Daphne Press doesn’t currently accept indie submissions (but hopes to in future!)
• Daphne’s love for indie books and authors generally