Publisher's record breaking year topped off by awards success

Eye Books has been named the 2022 Small Press of the Year in the whole of the Midlands region and goes on to compete for the Small Press of the Year and Independent Publisher of the Year titles at the British Book Awards in London on May 23.

Dan Hiscocks, Eye Books founder and publisher said: "This is a massive deal for us.

"We’re tiny even by the standards of independent publishing and we’ve never entered these awards, called the Nibbies, before.

"We decided to do so to mark our 25th anniversary year and we’re overjoyed by this stunning result.

"Publishing non-fiction as Eye Books and fiction as Lightning Books, our mantra is to drive Minis like Ferraris, but getting our books into readers’ hands is always our biggest struggle, as it is for everyone in independent publishing. We hope this recognition may make that a little bit easier."

The company is also celebrating its biggest year of output and sales yet. In 2021 it published 25 books – its longest-ever list.

And it is heading for a record turnover of £250,000

"We think that’s a great achievement for a micro-press with no full-time staff or office premises," said Mr Hiscocks.

The company has made a speciality of picking up books that bigger publishers overlook, and Simon Edge’s satire The End of the World is Flat and previously self-published Nicola May were among the 2021 highlights.

Eye Books was founded in 1996, with the original aim of publishing books about the extraordinary things that ordinary people have done, often with a strong travel or geographical element to their stories.

More recently it have branched out into more general non-fiction.

Mr Hiscocks added: "As a small publisher we are able to make decisions quickly, and not by committee.

"We are small and nimble enough to take risks.

"Our working relationship with our authors is collaborative, if they want it to be: we believe in giving writers as much input as possible on covers, pricing, promotions and marketing. We think it makes us more effective, so everyone benefits."

Among the successes are comic novelist Simon Edge. Eye has published a novel a year from him since 2017, and all have been well-received, but this year’s offering, a satire on gender ideology called The End of the World is Flat, has been by far his biggest seller, achieving the No 1 spot in Amazon’s literary satires chart.

In the last week of November, Eye published the first book by lockdown viral comedian Josh Berry.

Staggering Hubris, a spoof Number 10 Covid diary of 2020, is written in the guise of Boris Johnson’s cockiest special adviser, Rafe Hubris.

Mr Hiscocks said: "We published it as parody but, just two weeks after its launched, we realised the scenes of ministers and advisers partying through the pandemic were unwitting documentary.

"With very little media support, the book reached the No 1 spot in Amazon’s politics chart even before publication and sold out of its first edition in before its official publication date."

The company also discovered a new niche completely by accident.

Adrian Bleese spent 13 years flying on police helicopters as one of only a handful of civilian air observers anywhere in the world.

Eye published his memoir Above the Law because it was enthralling and engaging, but it turned out there was a real appetite for such titles.

The book has been one of Eye's strongest sellers this year, consistently remaining in Amazon’s top 10 in both Law Enforcement Biographies and Aviation.