WELCOME ...
... to Two Ravens Press, an independent publisher of contemporary British and international literature based in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. Two Ravens Press is run by two writers with a passion for language and for books that are non-formulaic and that take risks. Our books have been longlisted for, shortlisted for, or have won a number of major literary awards, including the international IMPAC award, the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year, The Saltire Society Book of the Year, the Saltire Society Homecomings Award, the McKitterick Prize, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, and the inaugural Robin Jenkins Literary Award.
Two Ravens Press burst into existence in November 2006, published its first book in February 2007, and since then has gone on to publish a significant amount of contemporary literary fiction, nonfiction and poetry: we'll have published 52 books by the end of 2010. During that time we’ve learned many things: that the market for the kind of challenging, innovative and risk-taking books we publish is very small, as is the appetite of the national newspaper review pages for such books. We’ve learned that the publishing business is one of the strangest businesses in the world, and that it’s close to impossible as a small literary press to as much as break even on the kind of books we’ve been publishing, especially while operating on a full-scale business model (heavyweight distribution, publicity, the courting of High-Street and independent retail outlets...). We’ve learned that the book retail environment is seriously challenging in this country, and that the last thing any small publisher needs is a ‘3 for 2’ or similar promotion with a High-Street retailer unless they secretly hanker to be in the bankruptcy courts. We’ve learned that public funding of any kind (grateful as we have been for what we've received) comes with strings attached and that many of those strings are attached to the business reality of a parallel universe, not this one. And so, three and a half years on, Two Ravens Press is transforming itself in order to survive and in order still to provide an outlet for the increasingly neglected kinds of work that we love. Please read the ‘About Us’ section of this website for more detail on who we are, how we operate, and what we are interested in publishing in the future.
Use the menu bar above to browse our author pages (including interviews, photographs ...) or to browse our books by category and read extracts from them. Books can be purchased securely online with a credit card or your PayPal account, at a minimum 20% of retail price, P&P-free (in the UK; a small charge applies overseas). All new books can be ordered from this website only one month ahead of publication date.
If you're a trade customer, you can download Advance Information Sheets for our 2009 and forthcoming 2010 titles from the relevant book pages.
Now available: Two Ravens Press e-books!
Our e-books are available from this website at around half the cost of the printed book. Click here to browse.
What they say about us ...
'Two Ravens Press are prepared to take risks and as a result are one of the most interesting publishers around'
SCOTT PACK, THE FRIDAY PROJECT
'The most talked-about publisher in Scotland' PUBLISHING NEWS
'Two Ravens have been creating a stir since they started in 2006, and in a time when major publishing houses are full of doom and gloom, the small independent press has been a beacon of light in the darkness, publishing quality work on a tight budget to considerable acclaim.'
DOUG JOHNSTONE,
HI-Arts' 'Northings' Magazine
TWO RAVENS PRESS BESTSELLERS
A WILDER VEIN
Linda Cracknell (ed), Robert Macfarlane (Foreword)
Available now at
£2 off cover price: £8.99
(P&P free in UK; £2 overseas)
Featured on BBC Radio 4's Excess Baggage programme, Saturday Nov 7, 10am
Recommended by The Independent as a 'best book
for Christmas'
VANESSA & VIRGINIA
Susan Sellers
Available now at
£2 off cover price: £6.99
(P&P free in UK; £2 overseas)
Also available as an e-book, priced at £4.50
Featured in the UK literary bloggers' 'Not the TV Book Group' project.
New York Times 'Editor's Choice', May 23 2010.