Jim Brown, The Man From LL-Publications, Publisher of The Great Right Hope

MJ: A big hello to Jim Brown, head honcho at LL-Publications, publisher of The Great Right Hope.  Glad to have you here, Jim.

JB: Great to be here! Actually, I half expected Sid to make an appearance. How is the Man of the North doing?

MJ: Sid is battling his way through the sequel, right now.  He’d be here, but the Big Man doesn’t trust the Scottish. It’s the kilts. The Great Right Hope hits the shops on 1st August, what was it that made LL-Publications decide to take a chance on Sid Tillsley, Middlesbrough’s most famous hero?

JB: It’s all Mark Jackman’s fault, really. Not satisfied with writing a truly hilarious story, he did insist on keeping up contact, being civil and patient, until eventually he wore us down!

MJ: Yes, ironically, some have referred to me as an annoying prick before.

JB: Seriously, though, it was all down to the humour of the piece.  The Great Right Hope is simply an astonishingly funny story, unlike anything we’ve seen. We like “different”, you see? And in Big Sid we have the most unlikely (anti)hero ever in literary history!

MJ: “Most unlikely hero in literary history!” I like the sound of that.  Take that Shakespeare, you arse! We’ve got a big LL-Publications author’s day in Geordie-land.  Can you tell us a bit about that?

JB: All being well, the cream of LL-Publications (that’s yours truly, editor/author Zetta Brown, authors Mark Jackman, Peter Ashley, Tony McGuin, and colleague Ellen Dean will descend upon the Borders bookstore in Gateshead near Newcastle, UK., for a day (August 23rd) of book-signings, chat, and screaming groupies. We hope to leave with our clothing intact…

MJ: I hope so, too.  The groupies are getting a little much, if I’m honest.  Tell us about LL-publications, when and why did you breathe life into the business?

JB: I breathed life into writing and publishing after I almost stopped breathing life into myself! Many years ago I suffered a heart condition and was ordered to rest completely until my body had recovered. That meant five months of doing absolutely nothing physically; even walking twenty yards left me breathless and sweating. And so I started writing, out of sheer boredom. Somehow, lord knows why, I found I was quite good at writing smut, especially comic smut. I had several shorts stories published online, and it was while part of an online readers group that two important life-changing events occurred:
 
1) I started a tiny part-time publishing company, and
2) I met my wife, Zetta
 
A publishing company is not something that suddenly appears, especially when, like myself, you’re starting at the very bottom of the pile knowing very little about the publishing industry. It’s taken a long time to build, because I’ve kept it part-time while growing contacts and forming good relationships with great authors and other notable people in the industry. With the additional help from Zetta – who is by far the perfect example of “Behind every man stands a great woman” (Her version is, “Behind every man stands a great woman – with an air freshener…”), we have built very steadily in the last two years. We have stuck solidly to our principles of publishing good books. Not everyday light reading, but original, creative, different stories. We love “different”. We could have formulated a plan to publish everything half-decent we received, especially when we turned full-time, but we will stick rigidly to only publishing works we think fit the “original and creative” label.
 
Nowadays, in addition to publishing full-time, Zetta and I offer services to other publishers through http://www.jimandzetta.com: editing, proofreading, typesetting, and ebook converions.

MJ: You recently gave LL-Publications a brand new makeover.  What thangs have you got going on?

JB: We’ve undergone a wholesale makeover this year, with the introductions of two official blogs as well as the revamped websites and an additional publisher and author services website at http://www.jimandzetta.com. The blogs (http://llpublications.wordpress.com, http://logicallust.wordpress.com) already have some fantastic content, and we have some great interviews lined up in the coming weeks from authors and other industry personalities.

MJ: Apart from yours truly, what other authors and titles do you have in your stable?

JB: We have GREAT books and stories, from some of the world’s best genre fiction authors as well as authors you are going to hear a LOT more of – like horror author Ben Larken, whose debut novel we published - PIT-STOP - which won the 2009 EPPIE award for Best Horror; like Sci-Fi supremo Darrell Bain, whose works have won awards left right and centre. He has BARK! and a short story duo published with us. As well as an award, our books have been getting regular FIVE STAR reviews from established reviewers and the reading public. Look out too for our latest release; Peter Ashley’s  A HUMAN REACTION.
 
Also watch out for some stunning books to come, like Mark’s follow up to THE GREAT RIGHT HOPE, Ben Larken’s second novel THE HOLLOWS, an anthology by Darrell Bain, a wonderfully written mystery by M. Millswan, plus plenty more on the romance/erotica imprint.

MJ: What are your long-term goals for LL?

JB: The goals are two-fold: One, is to naturally grow to be a reputable business that can represent authors fully, providing them with a slice of income from royalties they receive, and providing me with a living, of course. Two, is to become known to readers as a publisher of damn good books to read.
 
Neither one of those is easy. In any economic climate, unless you have that wonderful invention or patent no-one else has, you have to face competition and competition in the book industry is fierce. Readers are simply spoilt for choice, and to build a reputation on both counts requires honesty and integrity. I want authors to come to us to have their books published, and readers to come to buy them.
 

MJ: If you could give an author one piece of advice for getting their work published, what would it be?

JB: Be professional. As an author, to get your book published you need to deal with professionals, be that publisher a large outfit or a smaller independent. If you don’t, or won’t, be professional in your undertaking, you will quickly find that you’ll be passed by in favour of those that do. Publishers and authors now need to work together with a common goal. That requires team-work, and a professional outlook.

MJ: Cheers Jim.  Professional, that’s me all over, baby.  Now pull my finger. 

Seriously, pull my finger.

Drop Jim a question, or check out the rest of what LL-Publications has to offer on their website.