It’s been way too long since I’ve been in touch! Busy would be one reason, we’ve been promoting our new memoir Fish Town, like mad, and happy to say over 20 reviews have come in since I last wrote. I’ll post some links below and I have lots of other news too.

First I’ll start with this: We have landed on a Top UK Indie Publishers list! I am delighted beyond belief (and slightly flabbergasted) for two reasons. First, wow, how’d we get on a list like that? And second, one of my all-time favorite UK publishers is also on the list: Galley Beggar Press. I’ve admired these publishers since I first started Guts in 2019. Frequently publishing award-winning titles like Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport and Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, they are definitely worth checking out. They lean towards fiction, although these days I don’t really know that the word fiction actually means all that much. Sometimes I think it just means – I’d rather not call it nonfiction. At any rate, you can check out Galley Beggar here: galleybeggar.co.uk

And here's an excerpt from the Top UK Indie Publisher article by Books & Bao:

“...two memoirs by two working class Scottish men who have unique perspectives on youth, work, and politics. These voices are rarely heard in today’s political climate but, thanks to Guts Publishing, they have a platform of their own.”

It’s such a rush and an uplift to hear that we’re making a connection with the world. Amazingly uplifting. We’re doing it. And loving it that our Scottish audience continues to grow.

Just yesterday another Fish Town review came in, this one by Into Creative which I have to say really nails it: “Fagan’s Japan is a contrast of natural beauty, superficial politeness, humorous incidents and controlled restraint mixed with an underworld of racial prejudice, public sexual abuse, lechery, twisted morality, corruption, porn and petty jealousies.”

The full review is here: intocreative.co.uk/fish-town-by-john-gerard-fagan

And there are many more reviews on John’s twitter feed: @johngerardfagan. He’s a prolific tweeter by the way.

Sending enormous thanks to our reviewers and everyone who’s bought a copy of Fish Town! If you'd like to get your copy, here's the link: gutspublishing.com/product-page/fish-town

Other things we’ve been up to - Katy Dadacz (my assistant) and I have been updating and streamlining our services which we’re now simply calling Publishing Coach. This mainly came in response to all the submissions I’ve been reading over the past two months – often with writers sending novels or fiction, and many sound interesting but are just not our genre. Or there have been memoirs that have a solid start but need development. And so we decided to offer the Publishing Coach service for those who need or want objective and constructive feedback. And, just to say, this doesn’t mean we would be able to publish your work, in all honesty we couldn’t do that, but we would love to help you on your journey. We also offer advice on how to pitch and package up your manuscript (in any genre) to present it in the best possible way to publishers and agents. 

For more details here’s a link: gutspublishing.com/publishing-coach

And here's a post I wrote last week with some tips for pitching, including sample pitches that landed publishing contracts: gutspublishing.com/post/pitching-tips-for-writers

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch: gutspublishing@gmail.com