This week, we’re sitting down with our very own Founder, Katherine Knotts, to talk about the what, the where and the why behind our beloved Red Press
How did you come up with the name Red Press?
Good question! It kind of came up with itself, if I’m being honest with you. Conceptually — it just fits what we’re trying to do. If you think about it, the colour red has such a rich and resonant history in human culture. And, sometimes the ideas that we hang on it are quite contradictory, which really interests me. For example: in heraldry, it’s the colour of fortitude and honour, but culturally it can stand for excessive anger and chaos. In political terms, red is most often associated with revolution and anarchy — yet in humanitarian terms it’s the very colour accompanying organisations that care for innocents in conflict and disaster situations. It’s the colour of blood, of love — and of change. To my mind, it just sums us up perfectly. It also made choosing logo colours really quite a straightforward process (am I allowed to admit that?)
What does Red Press bring to the worlds of publishing, and of social justice?
Without trying to sound too grandiose, I think that in both of those worlds we’re about game-changing ideas. Humankind is still on its journey towards a more just, more equitable, more sustainable world — and it’s really important that we share ideas with each other along the way about what we’re thinking, what we’re learning, and what we’re doing. No one person has all the answer, and so we’re got to get together to share what’s working and how to do more of it. Red Press aims to curate a library of those ideas within the world. In terms of the publishing world, the game-changing idea is that we’re a social purpose organisation, rather than one that is solely focused on the financial bottom line. The first question we ask of every manuscript coming through the door is what its potential impact will be on thinking and practice in the social justice sector. We start with the mission, and then work backwards from there to figure out the business model. It’s a different way of doing business, and it’s the only way of doing business that lines up with our values.
Red Press is now one year old. What are some of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned operating in the publishing industry in that time?
“Patience” is my very weird answer to that question. I’m very much driven by the desire to speak to the issues of the day (as you’d realise if you saw me tweeting furiously at whatever BBC Radio 4 Any Questions? panellist rouses my ire that particular week), but of course it’s hard to do that in real time when you have long lead-in times on manuscripts. At the moment, we’re working with an author to develop an anthology of voices on the culture of silence that surrounds sexual harassment. I’m hugely excited by the potential of this book to generate the kinds of conversations we need to be having, and of course I want it out there yesterday. Were I a blogger or columnist, it would be easy to simply fire things off into the world and move on. Speaking into an unjust world as a publisher is like being angry in slow motion — and slowing down is a good exercise for me. I think it leads you to say things differently, more deeply, and in a more lasting way. Don’t get me wrong: I still do fire off snarky tweets at the broadcast and print media, when so moved.
What does it mean to be a Red Press author?
It means being nurtured, first and foremost. So many of my authors come to me not as writers but as activists — and often what can make you successful in the world of activism can work against you on the page. So there’s a great deal of coaching and mentoring that goes on here, which I absolutely love to do.
What can we expect from Red Press going forwards?
Unicorns, responsible ‘voluntourism’, poverty stoplights, cultural representations of menstrual cycles, intergenerational trauma, the anatomy of silence, and the cradle-to-prison pipeline. More or less in that order.
If there was any book you wished you could have been the one to publish in this genre, what would it be?
You’re going to make me pick just one? That’s harsh! Seriously, though — in the past year I’ve been turning to books to address some pretty big blind spots in how I see the world: how I don’t see the ways in which I carry my own privilege as (insert various descriptors here), and the lived experiences of people whose bodies that don’t look like my own. Along those lines, I loved, loved, LOVED Shrill by Lindy West (Hachette). It absolutely floored me, on so many levels. And oh my days can that woman craft a brutally effective narrative arc. They should teach her work in writing classes, seriously. You’re laughing all the way up until this one moment when you just… stop… laughing. And the very real real-world consequences of everything you’ve been merely laughing about suddenly snaps into focus. Her storytelling craft is genius.
Red Press is an author-centric publisher — why was this important to you, and how do you think publishers and authors can work better together as a whole?
It’s important to me because at the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s about my authors: their ideas, their words, and how those translate into that physical artefact we call a book. I want my authors to be at the centre of the creative process, rather than being beholden to mine. Editorially, it also means respecting the author’s voice — especially when it comes to the aesthetics of punctuation. Some writers are semi-colon, others are em dash. There’s no one right approach, but as an editor I’d better make for damn sure that I know that author’s voice inside and out, so that it’s an authentic voice on the page by the end. So yeah, I really do sit my authors down to talk about things like oxford commas. It’s less like a therapy session than you’re imagining, I promise.
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Want to work with any of our authors? Email media@redpress.co.uk for more info.