Press Release from BOTH Press
Following their successful Open Dyslexia Kickstarter in 2021, which led to publishing eight dyslexic friendly fiction titles, BOTH Press is launching their second Kickstarter Open Dyslexia: The Sequel with more high-profile authors than ever before, lasting 30 days and finishing on the July 4th 2022.
The Kickstarter aims to publish eight more titles of high-quality fiction from bestselling authors: including household names such as Bernard Cornwell and Peter James.
The line-up is full of many front-list authors such as Gareth L. Powell, J. M. Alvey (aka Juliet E. McKenna), Scott Oden, Snorri Kristjánsson, and James Bennett.
Peter James will also be doing an introduction for the 2022 collection.
There are very few initiatives for reading for pleasure for adults. The eight titles BOTH Press has already published are the only readily available dyslexic friendly fiction for adults in the UK and can be found in libraries and bookshops. The scale of accessibility is not nearly enough, as around 10% of the UK population deal with some form of dyslexia.
Despite Jay Blades’ (the host of The Repair Shop) unique telling of his own learning to read experience on the documentary Learning to Read at 51, which the BBC recently aired, there are still few or no resources for adult dyslexia. A glance at adult dyslexics charity websites and reading charity websites indicates there are few resources on reading fiction for pleasure for adults with dyslexia.
Dyslexic blogger Suzy Taylor who writes for Dyslexia Scotland, said:
“It is frustrating that we now have children’s books in dyslexic friendly formats. As adults we apparently do not require books in the same form.”
There needs to be a choice for people to read for pleasure, where there are books designed to be friendly to them and are not dumbed down, that are high quality and enjoyable fiction, which people can chat and socialise about with friends and family.
Darren Clarke, the director of Succeed with Dyslexia, said:
“This books shop is doing incredible things and helping people to fall in love with reading again” [and] “I love the fact and the thought that has gone through on these [titles] with the spacing, the font, with the colour of the paper and the way that the book just flows.”
BOTH Press has had many heart-warming responses of how the books have impacted their lives.
Dr. Alistair Sims said:
“Many individuals who have told us their stories do not want to be mentioned due to fear of stigma about their struggle to read. For example, a man in his 50s in Scotland had not read a book since he was a child. His partner found us and bought him one of our titles. He read it. Then called us up to order another. He was so happy to actually read. In fact the partner wrote us a letter explaining how much of difference it is making and then ordered the four more for a Christmas present.”
BOTH aims to raise £16,000 to publish eight titles. Though looking to the future, they will need more than £20,000 a year to keep publishing eight titles regularly. All funds go toward the book production/ life cycle to make them readily available. The bookshop Books on the Hill and their manager Alistair Sims, who created BOTH Press, receives no profits from the project. You can support this Kickstarter project here!
Jennie Ivins