Book sales: Who gets the money?

Plus: why some small publishers are disappearing, and my two methods for pricing books

Those who keep an eye on such things will have noticed that some of my fellow UK small publishers are suffering: 20-year-old Sandstone Press shuttered in July, Henningham Family Press had to be rescued in August, and last week alone, The White Review and Louise Walters Books announced they were closing down. (That last link hits hard; don’t click if you’re in a good mood and want to keep it going.)

The reasons are varied, but ultimately come down to the rising costs of producing and distributing physical books. This article for the Bookseller (paywalled, because they have costs too!) includes quotes from well-known, multi-award-winning small presses who are “holding on by a string” or “balanced on a knife-edge”, as well as the following from the Managing Director of our sales agency:

“Many of our publishers are struggling to find the cash to reprint their most successful titles. They don’t have big reserves, and the cashflow within publishing is extremely hard to manage, with the big costs coming in months before any financial return will be seen. To me the current financial situation, cost of printing and cost of living are a bigger threat to independent publishing than we experienced during lockdown. It feels very precarious.”

In this article – hopefully reaching a new peak of usefulness – I am going to be examining what it takes to survive in times like these. (Spoiler: it mostly comes down to pricing, and making sure you get your share once everyone else has been paid – or better still, before everyone else has been paid). All that distribution I spoke about last week doesn’t come for free; and last year, when I stepped away from publishing for six months, I returned to find print prices had literally doubled. Could that really have happened, and if so, what can we do to compensate?

You’ll find out, with hard data and colourful charts, below. But, this post is paywalled too, I’m afraid, as this Substack blog is one of the other ways I’m keeping Valley Press independent and thriving in these difficult times. (Many thanks for your help, subscribers – huge thanks, even!) See you after the line…