A survey of indie presses shows that 60% fear they could be out of business by the autumn, writes Galley Beggar Press cofounder Sam JordisonOver the past few years, the success of independent publishers such as Fitzcarraldo, And Other Stories, Bluemooose and Influx Press has been something to behold. They have won prizes, engaged readers and published innovative and important books. Now that wonderful literary flowering is in danger. A survey on the impact of Covid-19 on small presses, carried out by the Bookseller and writer development charity Spread the Word, reveals that 60% of the small presses polled fear they could be out of business by the autumn, 75% don’t know if they will make it beyond March next year, while 85% of the publishers have seen sales drop by more than half.Small presses have been hit especially hard because they are more dependent on physical sales in bookstores, rather than online retailers or ebook sales. I know, because my publisher, Galley Beggar Press, has also seen a big chunk of its income disappear. One of the great strengths of our kind of publishing is that we have a real connection with dedicated readers who love books as physical objects, readers who have an equally strong connection with booksellers. A great deal of what we do relies on the enthusiasm and personal recommendations of those heroes of our trade whose shops Covid-19 has closed. We have lost many of our best advocates, not to mention the most practical way of getting books... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-05-15 06:00:32 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#small presses
#sales drop
#physical sales
#online retailers
#ebook sales
#real connection
#physical objects
#great deal
#bookseller
Publishers like to think that their content is getting read. But at the expense of advertising dollars? Not so fast. Increasingly popular apps like Pocket, Instapaper and Evernote’s Web Clipper have been billed as a way to help publishers combat fragmentation by letting users read bookmarked... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2013-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#advertising dollars
#web publishing
#avid readers
An informal survey of new and established bookstores finds that holiday sales should be up again this year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#strong start
#informal survey
#holiday sales
Facebook says it wants to continue sending traffic to publishers, citing how news stories perform well in the News Feed. Facebook said it would start showing more links to news stories in particular to mobile users. And it would begin resurfacing articles in News Feeds that have attracted... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#news stories
#mobile users
#news feeds
To any small newspaper publisher still holding out against a digital platform, consider a visit to Linton, N.D. There, few publishers serve as small or rural a community as Allan Burke, whose family-owned Emmons County Record, a 3,100-circulation ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#digital platform
Publishers have launched online advent calendars offering readers prizes in the countdown to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
André Schiffrin died in Paris on Sunday of pancreatic cancer. In Schiffrin's nearly three decades at Pantheon Books, he worked with writers Jean-Paul Sartre, Marguerite Duras and Gunter Grass.When André Schiffrin ¿ who died in Paris on Sunday of pancreatic cancer at age 78 ¿ was fired in 1990 as... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pancreatic cancer
#marguerite duras
#gunter grass
#american publishing
Facebook has altered its newsfeed algorithm, which is turning out to be great news for online publishers. Major sites say the social network has driven more referrals in the past month than ever before.The post A Facebook Tweak Gives Publishers a Traffic Boost appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2013-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#online publishers
#traffic boost
#great news
#past month
Founded in 2002, Paizo Publishing specializes in publishing tabletop role-playing games, or RPGs, in particular its flagship Pathfinder Role Playing Game, as well as magazines, books and a wide range of gaming accessories all designed for the fantasy game-playing marketplace. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#wide range
At the New York Times' Drafts blog, comedian Steve Macone offered a helpful, humorous glossary of terms for the modern book business. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book publishing
Staff from Simon & Schuster, Pan Macmillan and Red Lemon Press are calling on employees from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#simon schuster
#pan macmillan
The self-publishing ecosystem in Germany is expanding into more dramatic experimentation, from crowdsourcing to offering author advances. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Small Demons, the L.A.-based book-focused venture that indexes the places, music, food and things mentioned in books, has extended its deadline for finding a buyer or new investor for at least another month. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#small demons
A self-published title has been included in the shortlist for the CMI Management Book of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Advertising on Instagram has quickly moved from a novelty to a near-daily occurence, and they're churning up a tsunami of "likes" as well as a dose of aggrieved user comments.General Electric, Levi's, Lexus and Ben & Jerry's have now posted their first ads to the mobile photo- and... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2013-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#mobile photo-
#video-sharing network
#broad audience
#michael kors
A battle for the hearts, minds and pockets of small and medium-sized newspaper publishers is being fought over the new system of press regulation.The large publishing companies who created the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) are urging smaller publishers to sign up to their... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#rupert murdoch
#news uk
#daily mail
#press regulationhacked
Pan Macmillan has acquired the debut novel of comedienne Helen Lederer, titled Losing it.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pan mac
#pan macmillan
Bookmate, a Russian ebook subscription service, wants to attract English language publishers to its platform to cater to developing markets. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#developing markets
After Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post with his spare pocket change earlier this year, I took a look at the growth of the digital publishing industry here in the Seattle area. Booktrope, a digital publishing startup based here in Seattle, was one of the companies I chatted with... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2013-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#big push
#independent publishers
George Walkley, head of digital at Hachette UK, has defined the three essential, bedrock skills... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#publishing future
#hachette uk
The industry is supposedly embracing a digital future, but too scant attention is too often paid to the basics of organising ebooksThe bright hopes of digital publishing are gathered in London for the latest FutureBook conference and the future looks, well, familiar. As the new boss of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#charlie redmayne