Ventura has a very special new release this month: Marcia van Zeller’s Be a Good Girl Valerie, which is our first fiction release since 2020.

Why no fiction for five years? Burnt by Covid.

*Be a Good Girl,Valerie* on the shelf at Kinokuniya, Sydney

I well remember launching our last fiction new releases during 2020’s lockdown. We launched Paul Dalgarno’s Poly in a blaze of zoom frivolity with the specially written song Polyamory. A more elegant tone was set for Christine Bell’s beautiful Scottish / Australian historical novel, No Small Shame and the online event meant my Dumfries based brother could attend. Our first international book launch !

But we had spent months crafting these books, working closely with the authors on editing and design and to have them launched when bookshops were closed seemed so bleak. These books needed hand selling and the support of our amazing independent booksellers to have the success they deserved. So as we launched, I also grieved for the fact that these books did not get the platform or sales they deserved. And I lost my mojo.

Of course during lockdown the sales phenomena which is # BookTok arrived and as they say, the rest is book industry history. BookTok generated a tsunami of sales for American commercial fiction authors such as Colleen Hoover and Sarah J Maas, and the romance and Romantasy genres remain the giants of the sector.

So what can an independent Australian publisher do when faced with a #BookTok frenzy?

Find Australian voices which are strong,commercial and above all entertaining.

For Ventura 2.0, I did not want to go down the literary fiction path as I had before covid - ever hopeful for a Stella Prize or a Miles Franklin to add prestige and awards for the pool room.

So I decided to democratise the process. Rather than rely on literary agents to curate what we saw and read, we opened up to general submissions via our website. And I took bookings for manuscript assessments via my consulting arm JCA - Jane Curry Advisory.

I have read many, many manuscripts. There is always a manuscript next to my bed or on the kitchen table. I read ink on paper. Old school. (Double sided and recycled for the greenies). And after I have read the work, I zoom with the author and we have a frank and open assessment of their writing. It was the perfect tonic for a slightly singed publisher, meeting enthusiastic and aspiring writers and using my particular set of skills for the best cause.

And then along came Valerie. Thanks to Canadian born, Perth based writer and academic Marcia van Zeller who booked a manuscript assessment with JCA mid last year.

As soon as I read the opening pages, I loved the character Valerie. She was exactly the woman I wanted to read about. A mix of Helen Garner and Emma Thompson, and her social justice warrior mode was perfect for the times. It was Lessons in Chemistry combined with The Assistant. Humorous and chilling.1970s London and modern day Perth.

That manuscript is now a published Ventura book and is launched this month.

We have edited, given the book a new title, fab design and a cover quote from the inspiring Chanel Contos (Thank you Chanel). The book is in all good bookshops thanks to our amazing distributors Simon and Schuster Australia.

What a way to relaunch our Ventura fiction list. No more locked down launches, a commercial fiction list which embraces new voices with stories that entertain and enthrall.