Talking Through My Hat

Kevin Duffy is co-founder of Bluemoose Books. Having been in publishing for 20 years back in 2006, he and his wife mortgaged their house to start Bluemoose, with the aim of publishing new and exciting voices. Since then, their books have been sold in 82 countries, and had rights sold to British TV and Hollywood. He also founded the Northern Fiction Alliance, and is an author in his own right. In this episode, Kevin talks about how Bluemoose arose from his bile and anger with the big publishing houses, and changes in the wider industry. Kevin believes that, if literature is about anything, it's about finding new voices and new talent, and he's passionate about that - a passion that comes through loud and clear in our conversation. He founded the Northern Fiction Alliance to give "regional publishers" (a term he hates) a voice against the London establishment, with its bias against voices that aren't from the parts of society it already knows.