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Author · Storyteller
Joe Mercer
@joemercer
Independent writer working mainly in literary fiction, with an interest in craft, books and the practical side of publishing.
Behind the stories
About the writer
Joe Mercer writes literary fiction and historical fiction. Their interests range from character and story structure to editing, formatting and the practical realities of independent publishing.
A story does not need to explain everything to know what it means.
Books and story worlds
Stories by Joe Mercer
On the writing desk
Currently creating
First draft
The Last Copy
Set in late-1940s Exeter, the novel follows a quiet proofreader who is asked to help clear the ruined stock of a family-run printing house after the war. As he sorts damaged ledgers, half-finished books and private letters hidden between pages, he begins to realise the firm’s future depends on a lie everyone in the building has agreed not to name. The story moves between the practical business of paper, type and repair, and the more awkward work of deciding what should be preserved and what ought to be left to vanish.
64%
Draft progress
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