Opening New Vistas

MOIRA FORSYTH describes the successful launch of the second issue of the Sandstone Vistas series

CAN YOU REMEMBER the first book you read, all the way through? Mairi can. She remembers it well because she read it so recently. Mairi is in her thirties. Her first book was Blood Red Roses, by Lin Anderson.

Blood Red Roses is a novella commissioned by Sandstone Press for the second issue of the Vista Series. The Vistas are books created for people like Mairi who come late to reading, and have until now found it impossible to get hold of adult stories, rather than children’s books.

I know this because I met Mairi at the launch of the three new Vistas at the Nairn Arts and Book Festival in May this year. You know that surge of excitement when you realise the work you’ve been committed to has made a real difference to someone else? That’s what I felt when I listened to Mairi. Yes, it works, we’re doing what we wanted to do.

We have sold the series (now six in all – look on the Sandstone website for details) through adult learning organisations, library services and schools as well as bookshops. Just the other day I had an e-mail from a teacher in Edinburgh to say he had read Des Dillon’s The Blue Hen and intended to order all six Vistas for school immediately. That’s the kind of impact these novellas can make.

The first thing we care about is quality. That’s why we’ve commissioned the best of Scottish writing – from Lin and Des, from Isla Dewar, Margaret Elphinstone, Muriel Gray and Suhayl Saadi. We’ve already begun planning the next three for publication in Spring 2006, and they will be equally good reads.

We’re finding the Vistas appeal to schools as well as to adult literacy tutors and students – they’re ideal for the English curriculum at Intermediate 1. What they do is present good prose in clear, plain language.
These Times, This Place is our first venture into non-fiction, a selection of Muriel Gray’s Sunday Herald pieces re-written for emergent readers. This does well in school because the articles raise controversial contemporary issues. It was quite a challenge for me as an editor to rework Muriel’s punchy prose in language our readers would find accessible, while retaining the original’s powerful opinions and uncompromising views. To keep the flavour without diluting it!

It’s never enough for us to like the new Vistas ourselves – we have to make sure the readers we’re targeting both like and approve them.

Lin Anderson is fast becoming a popular thriller writer, and having recently read Torch, I was fascinated to see how she would produce a prequel to her first novel, Driftnet, centred on her key character Dr Rhona MacLeod, a forensic pathologist.

The dramatic opening came to her when she was walking down Princes Street late at night, and met a hen party, all dressed as devils, with horns and tails. I know, she thought, I’ll start with a hen party – and I’ll kill the bride! And that’s exactly what she has done in the pacy, page-turning Blood Red Roses.

It was an equal pleasure to work with Margaret Elphinstone, well known as a historical novelist and academic. Margaret is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde.

The novel she sent me, Gato, is a haunting love story, set in a mill in medieval England, with a child narrator whose lonely, poignant voice captures the reader from the first page. Margaret grasped from the outset how to write for emergent readers – what we discussed was not language but plot and character.

But it’s never enough for us to like the new Vistas ourselves – we have to make sure the readers we’re targeting both like and approve them. That’s why every manuscript goes to sample groups before final proofing. Our funding partners and supporters, Highland Council and the Literacies Initiative, make these links with readers for us.

So far, we haven’t had to make any changes, but because we are constantly aiming to break new ground, we will always try the books out on readers first. Some of their comments are on our order leaflets, and we’re very glad to have their endorsement.

This year, we’ve launched the new Vistas three times. We believe in celebrating at Sandstone! The first was in Dundee, at Ottakars, where Lin read from Blood Red Roses, and stepped out into the sunshine of the city square afterwards to meet Alex Salmond electioneering. He was just as interested to meet Lin as she was to meet him: he had heard of her Braveheart website and wanted to know more.

Our second was in Nairn, to an excellent festival audience of around 80 people. Lin and Margaret read, and answered questions, and the lively discussion continued over wine afterwards. We sold lots of books too, with the tremendous support and co-operation of George Gray, of the Nairn Bookshop. George not only took charge of book sales, he also organised invitations to the event, and dealt with publicity.

The third launch was in Borders’ in Glasgow, with a small but interested audience. We can’t speak too highly of both Ottakars and Borders in promoting and supporting the events. We don’t sell a lot through bookshops, but it’s good to have a presence in the major chains. The Vistas are just as effective as ‘quick reads’ as they are for adults coming to their first full length books. They can last a bus or train journey, a long wait at an airport, or a restful Sunday afternoon.

The next issue of the Vistas has already been commissioned, and again we’re coming up with something new – autobiography and science fiction, as well as contemporary fiction. It’s too soon to give more away – but watch this space. Vista 3 is coming to a bookshop – and a website – near you by Spring 2006.

One final word – Mairi is reading full length novels now, and getting through them fast.

Moira Forsyth is a Director of Sandstone Press Limited, and Series Editor for the Vistas, books produced by the Press for emergent readers. She is also a writer who has published two novels, and poetry and short stories in magazines and anthologies.

© Moira Forsyth, 2005

Link

• Sandstone Press website