White Ladder Press publishes practical lifestyle books with a broad appeal and a quirky angle. We launched our first title in 2003 and we publish 15 or so books a year, all of which we enjoy and believe in. By producing only a small number of titles we can give maximum attention to each one. We publish one title a year in conjunction with a charity, and donate all our profits from it to the charity concerned.

Our mission statement says: We want to teach old dogs new tricks, by presenting a new angle on everyday living. We want to intrigue, entertain and be useful at the same time. And we want to use our mainstream business to benefit good causes, so we'll do that too. We'll have fun or there's no point being in business, and we'll give fun to everyone else around us - our customers, our partners, our suppliers... even our postman.

We're proud of being a small, independent publisher as it enables us to publish a select few high quality books which we really care about. Of course, we're not the only small publishing company that's big on quality. If you'd like to find out about a few of our favourite fellow small publishers click on the small publishers link on the left.

Who are we?

White Ladder Press was originally set up and run by two of us: Richard Craze and Roni Jay. Both of us were professional writers for ten years before setting up White Ladder Press. Sadly, Rich died in August 2006, leaving me (Roni) to run the business and bring up our three young boys on my own. White Ladder owes an incalculable amount to Rich's input in the first few years; it's still very much his company. There's more information about both of us below.

Roni Jay
"I started my career as a stage manager in the theatre for several years before switching - not entirely logically - to PR. I worked as a PR manager and then a freelance writer, writing anything I could get paid to write such as press releases, sales brochures, annual reports, corporate newsletters and training manuals. This led on to writing books.

"I have written over 60 books on a range of subjects, the principle being that if you can write well, you can write about anything; the research is easy. Many of my books are on management and business topics (as Ros Jay); other regular subjects include parenting, gardens, mythology and cats.

"I have two names - Roni Jay and Ros Jay - an arrangement I deeply regret and for which I can offer no really satisfactory explanation."

Richard Craze
Before being a publisher Rich was a full time writer with over 60 books published on a wide range of subjects including business, astrology, alternative medicine, Chinese culture, sex and humour (not all in any one book though). Before being a writer - although that was what he always wanted to do - he did many jobs including being a casino general manager, business consultant, cave guide and stress management consultant (again never all at one time). He was married twice and had six children and a granddaughter.

Here's an extract from what The Bookseller had to say about him:

"Most of us feel immortal, but some people really seem so. Especially someone so full of energy who, in only four years, built, with his partner Roni Jay, one of the UK's most successful independent publishing companies - described by Larry Finlay of Transworld as 'an amazing creative powerhouse'.

"White Ladder's strapline is New Tricks for Old Dogs. That was Rich, who had enormous enthusiasm, and was consistently generous with his time and ideas. He had an acute understanding that 'what goes around comes around'; a gift for connecting people; and an original, questioning mind. His regular email newsletters - blending Roni's PR coups, title information, and family news - became entertaining punctuation marks in many people's working weeks. White Ladder will doubtless continue to flourish but we will miss the mischievous twinkle of his emails.

"Rich loved his family above all else: Roni, their three ebullient young boys, and three older children from his first marriage. He was a happy man who lived in a place he adored."