I was bowling a few nights ago with someone from one of the smaller
publishers, someone from one of the big distributors and a bookseller. Our
discussion of smaller presses and their current crisis was not optimistic.
It was suggested that the Arts Council was likely to cut all subsidy to
certain presses soon, since the sales were so minimal. I'm all for subsidy
of small presses which provide an outlet for quality work, but it still
isn't achieving sales. Most shops have stopped stocking several of the
smaller presses' work. It surprises me to be told that the UK publishes
more book titles per year than the US, which has over four times the
population. When it costs £1 per copy to make a return, it's not hard to
see why; it is hard to lay blame - a combination of many factors. Slow
Dancer and Enitharmon (scaled down to just art books) and Forest have gone
recently - which next?
Roddy
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