Hellooooo!

So I was contacted by Vicky Brewster who I’ve known a few years on twitter about a new initiative Books Outside The Box which they’ve launched to merge books with gifts. This isn’t a paid ad but something I thought people may be interested on so I asked a few questions.

So how would you book tempt using Books Outside the Box?

One of the things we really wanted to promote with Books Outside the Box is that it’s perfect for people both new to genre fiction and who have been here a long time. We’re aiming to select quality books that, for whatever reason, fly under the radar – either because they’re lesser known works from established authors, because they don’t have the marketing budgets of some of the larger presses, or perhaps they’re lying on the border of genres and are overlooked. All of the books we select are favourites so we know the stories well and can speak for the fact they’re cracking reads. We’re also providing a subscriber-only Discord server to chat about the books, so you avoid that annoying situation of having just finished a book you love and having no one to talk to about it.

What led to this idea?

This is actually all your fault, Womble. I had the idea after you were looking for recommendations for sci-fi and fantasy books for people new to the genre, and I noticed no one else had chosen my go-to recommendations. I did a bit of research on people who might be interested in a subscriber box and whether they had read these favourites, and I spotted a gap in the market.

What are you starting with and why? How are you going to select books in future?

We are starting with The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber and Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski. The Book of Strange New Things is just about my favourite book ever. It’s such a fascinating exploration of humanity and faith and language, and how all of those things intersect, while also being a really strong love story and one of the most interesting take on aliens I have ever seen. While Six Stories is a cracking, tense thriller with possible supernatural elements – and it’s that ‘possible’ that I love about Matt Wesolowski’s books, the fact that you never really know.

The first criteria for choosing books is obviously that we love them, but we’re also aiming to promote #OwnVoices and LGBTQ+ authors, books produced by independent authors and small presses, collections of short stories overlooked by mainstream retailers, and other great books that have somehow passed under the radar.

How do you match book to gifts?

We’re really excited to be partnering with the Haunted Bouncy Castle for our boxes, and are also hoping to feature artwork by other independent artists who work in the SFFH genres. We want to provide gifts that are unusual and work well with our speculative, spooky books. Where possible, we will also be providing extras from the authors. Our first box includes signed bookplates and a letter just for our subscribers from Matt Wesolowski.

Where can people find out more?

You can find out more or subscribe directly at www.thebooksoutsidethebox.com . We’re also all over the social medias with @BooksOutside on Twitter, @booksoutsidethebox on Instagram, and facebook.com/BooksOutside. I’m not brave enough to try TikTok yet …

If there was one book you wish everyone could read what would it be and what is the ideal gift to match it?

As I’ve said, The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber is my go-to recommendation for basically everyone – I even passed a copy on to my non-SFFH reading mother-in-law recently and she couldn’t put it down. The ideal gift to go with it would be an artist’s impression of the Oasans, the book’s alien race whose faces are described as being like two foetuses side by side. It would be a tough call and maybe not very pretty, but I like to think grotesquely fascinating. Maybe in a future box!