Working With Publishers

Lamorna Elmer at Granta commissioned the first Story Machine Productions event, bringing to life Leslie Jamison’s brilliant addiction memoir The Recovering. Here she reflects on the experience of working with Story Machine Productions.

‘Story Machine Productions are doing something that almost no one else is – creating events without the presence of an author with the book itself firmly at the heart.

It’s always a challenge to promote a book without author events, and the costs of bringing over international authors is so often prohibitive. It’s brilliant that intelligent, thoughtful and engaged programmers like Sam Ruddock are thinking of new ways to breathe life into literary events – there’s something very modern about these immersive, participatory experiences, and it seems like they are blazing a much-needed trail.

Working with SMP is a breeze – they handle the logistics, and keep us in the loop always so that we can share the exciting project with the author at every step of the way, which I know is really appreciated.

As experienced programmers, you know that they wouldn’t suggest anything they didn’t think could work, and the audience responses so far have been excellent.

They are also always thinking about how to sell more books, which is always the aim at the centre of any publicity campaign, so you know you can trust that they’ll be pushing your product and introducing it to people who will go on to love it who might never have discovered it.’

Lamorna Elmer, Senior Campaigns Manager, Granta

See more about Whiskey & Ink, here.

To find out more about commissioning Story Machine Productions to bring to life your book, click here.