The Mermaid of Black Conch, by Monique Roffey, won the Costa Novel award and then carried off the overall Book of the Year. It is published by Leeds-based independent publisher Peepal Tree Press, which specialises in Caribbean and black British fiction, poetry and non-fiction.
Interviewed on You & Yours, Peepal Tree Press operations manager Hannah Bannister said: “It’s been amazing. We released the book into lockdown, and having done what for us was actually quite a big print run of 5,000 copies.”
She described the “abject panic” when bookshops were then forced to close. The publisher regrouped and started selling the book online instead.
“As of yesterday [11 March] we have shipped 24,000 copies – it’s like someone took all our numbers and added zeroes to them,” she said.
Bannister said the publisher’s long-standing relationships with its print supplier had stood it in good stead in being able to meet demand.
“We always print in the UK, so we didn’t have any supply chain issues related to Brexit or Covid. We have a fantastic printer in Imprint Digital, who print on a little farm in the south-west.”
Peepal Tree Press is Imprint Digital’s longest-standing customer.
Imprint printed the first batch of 10,000 copies of the paperback digitally, prior to a longer litho production run at Ashford Colour Press that was needed to meet demand due to the Costa win.
Imprint Digital director Keith Sutherland said he was absolutely delighted at the book’s success.
“Peepal Tree is Imprint Digital's oldest and most loyal customer and this loyalty is a consequence of the service that we offer. On this and similar titles reprints of 1,000 come in in the morning and ship out in the afternoon. Obviously the unit cost is higher than with conventional offset printing, but major savings come through minimising inventory and risk,” he explained.
The paperback has French flaps, which is a popular choice among Imprint’s customers.
“I believe we have the only Horizon BQ470 in the country with the necessary attachment,” Sutherland added.
Imprint is located in a rural location to the north of Exeter. The firm has sales of around £1m and employs 10 in a mixture of full- and part-time roles.
Its plant list includes two Canon Varioprint 6000 digital presses, Ricoh and Konica Minolta sheetfed digital kit, plus a raft of finishing kit for PUR and case binding.
Peepal Tree Press typically publishes around 20 books a year. Bannister has just received review copies for the publisher’s upcoming summer book release, Fortune by Amanda Smyth.
