🎥 INTERVIEW: Staying True to Your Voice and Finding the Right Publisher w/ Debut Author Carys Sha...

What happens when the feedback and offers you receive don’t align with the book you set out to write? How do you stay true to your vision and find the right publisher to support it?

Carys Shannon’s debut novel Truth Like Water—longlisted for the Bath and Mslexia Novel Awards, shortlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award, and winner of the Jericho Writers Festival of Writing Prize—has been praised as “Welsh Noir at its best” (Philippa Holloway) and “atmospheric and evocative” (Emma Darwin).

After she finished the manuscript, Carys received interest and positive feedback from literary agents. But the changes they wanted didn’t align with the story she wanted to tell. Carys decided to represent herself and found a home with Welsh independent publisher Parthian Books, known for championing debut authors, regional voices, and literature in translation.

In this conversation, Carys will share her journey of staying true to her creative instincts and finding a publishing partner who valued her vision. We’ll also hear about her experience working closely with a small press and why that personal, collaborative relationship was the right fit for her book.

Resources & Links

• 📑Interview Transcript

• Truth Like Water 

• Cree 

• Hummingbird by Tristan Hughes 

• Mslexia Indie Press Guide

• Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert 

Topics Discussed

• 02:18 - The start of Carys’s writing journey

• 04:40 - Timelines for Truth Like Water

• 07:05 - On Truth Like Water

• 08:27 - The process of getting an agent

• 14:00 - What happened after submitting to agents

• 21:56 - On submitting to Independent Presses 

• 24:52 - The finances of publishing with Indies

• 29:19 - Marketing opportunities with Carys’s publisher

• 31:52 - Questions Carys asked herself throughout her publishing journey

• 36:50 - Community Questions

About Carys Shannon

Carys Shannon is originally from North Gower, Swansea, and now divides her time between Wales and the Spanish Pyrenees. She has had short stories published by Honno Press, Parthian Books and Mslexia Magazine, as well as broadcast on BBC Radio 4. When not writing, Carys is happiest enjoying slow time in big nature.

About Parthian Books

Parthian Books is an independent publisher based in Cardigan, Wales. Editorially-led, it publishes a range of contemporary fiction, poetry, drama, art books, literature in translation, and non-fiction. Since its foundation in 1993, Parthian has published some of the best-known works of contemporary Welsh literature