Valerie Brandes struggled to find an entry-level role in publishing – so she started her own press

IT was a sense of rolling up her sleeves and creating the job she wanted, rather than wait for another interview, another application and another possible rejection – and Valerie Brandes’ own publishing house has helped change an industry.

North London based publisher Valerie founded Jacaranda Books in 2012, a Black-owned publisher with a focus on trying to diversify and increase the range of authors who could get books on shelves.

“It began as a very personal journey,” reflects Valerie.

It was partly down to a lack of opportunities in publishing that made her stop and think – why not create the publishing house she’d like to work for?

“I had been living in the United States and upon returning to London, as a woman with two children and nearing my fifties, and having taken the MA in publishing studies at City St Georges University, London, I was still struggling to find an entry-level role,” she recalls.

“Out of sheer necessity and a deep desire to be part of the publishing industry I made the decision to start my own press.”

Valerie had enjoyed what she now looks back as something of a Golden Age for female writers, and was concerned that there was a lack of new voices coming through.

“The initial gap was personal,” she reflected. “I could not find new books by Black writers and having experienced the somewhat golden age of Black authors being published by Allison & Busby, the Women’s Press and Virago in particular, it felt important to try to revisit that exciting world of books and authors.

“Industry-wide, there were deep concerns that there was a distinct lack of true representation from mainstream publishers, and that the industry needed to address that but somehow couldn’t. With Jacaranda I made a very bold and intentional decision to be the direct answer to that, sadly still ongoing, question.”

And Valerie has the wonderful job of sifting through manuscripts and finding voices she wants to share. Jacaranda’s book lists include authors who have made a mark globally but had previously had little traction and opportunity in the UK: in 2017, Jacaranda published Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin, and have also championed works by critically acclaimed authors including Bernice McFadden, Fiston Mwanza Mujila.

“Honestly – most of the time the book chooses me!,” she says. “One very important aspect of what I have shown over the years is that when we ascribe the term Black to any endeavour what is automatic and clear is that this is an expansion of ideas and output.

“The manuscripts that have come to me over the years run the gamut of genre and narrative style, and it’s the ones that insist on me that I then go on to choose. The reader is very important in commissioning decisions. The idea that Black people don’t read or buy books was one that was prevalent at the time, and it was in service to that neglect that many acquisitions were made. I would think of family members, friends and how they would love these characters showing up in these brilliant ways in books that just were not available to them and over the years that has shown itself to be a very astute way for me to have built the brilliant list we have.”

And as for favourite books that have helped shape her as publisher and would feature on her desert island reading list?

“The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Going To Meet The Man, by James Baldwin, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte,” she adds.