Publisher Not Found

by Heather McDaid, Laura Jones-Rivera

Genres: Nonfiction

Paperback

Reviews

[Karolina]

Prowadzenie małego niezależnego wydawnictwa to jazda bez trzymanki (wiem to z autopsji). Naprawdę nie dziwię się, patrząc na to, jak działa rynek, jak wszystko drożeje i jak męcząca jest ta walka o każdy skrawek godności w tej branży, że wiele wydawnictw (także w Polsce) postanawia zakończyć działalność.

Mam nadzieję meanwhile, że my w Tajfunach damy radę 🤞🏻easy job it ain’t though

[Paul Fulcher]

Time is running out for the cultural infrastructure that only works for high-growth-potential companies, or rich tech bros blustering in with Al to revolutionise an industry by plagiarising its artistic and creative heart, as we're seeing today. To us, a reflective and inclusive environment is not just for the benefit of reading culture: there needs to be space to create, experiment, fail, find new ways in, bring others up, have relative financial security, create platforms that break apart from the larger monopolies. Some of the most groundbreaking and vital publishing is happening in the margins, where the struggles are the most potent. We cannot afford to lose that.

Publisher Not Found is subtitled A Decade of Disruption 404 Ink: 2016-2026.

Written by Heather McDaid and Laura Jones-Rivera it tells the story of the press, 404 Ink, they co-founded, in their early 20s, and ran for a decade, before choosing to bring the venture to an end, working closely with other like-minded presses such as Saraband and Cipher Press to find a home for their back list and authors.

404 Ink was founded by Heather McDaid & Laura Jones-Rivera in 2016 with the view that publishing could be a little louder and a little more fun.

Our goal was to support new and emerging writers’ careers, and we believed in quality over quantity. That is, not publishing to fill a schedule but publishing because that book truly needs to be read.

Our authors and books won awards including the Saltire Society First Book of the Year, Outstanding Literature Award at the Scottish Culture Awards, and are Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardees, as well as appearing in The List Hot 100, and shortlisted for many more. They’ve appeared in Huffington Post, Elle, Alternative Press, New York Magazine, Oprah.com, CNN, Huffington Post, Bustle, Kerrang!, The Guardian, The Times, and more locally, nationally and internationally.

404 Ink’s also aimed to treat authors, interns and other partners fairly and transparently. And this is also a very open account, including a chapter on the detailed, and challenging, financials of small press publishing - one which most years didn’t allow them to draw a salary. Perhaps most stark is the contrast in outcome for press and author between a book sold via their website and one sold via a bookshop:

- Direct: £1.87 to author and £4.31 to 404 Ink
- Via Retailer: £0.67 to author and £0.26 to 404 Ink

Indeed some of their best-selling titles were produced at a loss, a strong reminder of the importance to small presses of direct purchases and, where available, subscriptions, as well as crowd-funding campaigns.

It’s also a very honest account in terms of the tensions and challenges that the pair confronted, alongside their considerable successes, and one they share as an aid to others entering the space, and to encourage public debate.

I am a Trustee of the Republic of Consciousness Foundation, whose charitable purpose is “To advance for the public benefit literary fiction of the highest merit from small presses in the UK and Ireland through a range of reading, speaking and event initiatives, and by providing grants and assistance to practitioners and producers of literary fiction”, including by running the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize, so this really resonated but also personally as an outsider to the publishing industry, so it was highly educational to read this inside account of lived experience.

Highly recommended.

[Emily Catherine]

Not really sure how to give this a star rating so I think I'll leave it for the time being.

This was such a great snapshot of the publishing industry as a business and it's amazing to see just how much 404 Ink achieved during their lifetime. I have thoroughly enjoyed every iteration of the Inklings series I've read and I'd love to read them all someday.

I liked being able to read more about indie publishing specifically considering a lot of my MA material has revolved around the Big 5. I felt like a lot of it was relatively new information and I appreciated just how candid they were about finances.

It's so unjust that the Big 5 publishers are able to just squash the little guys out of existence and, I'll be honest, this didn't give me all that much hope. Sure, it said to open that indie press and do the things you're thinking about, but it was certainly realistic (if not slightly pessimistic) about the life-expectancy of it.

Thanks for the fab titles 404 Ink!

[Barbara McVeigh]

Thank you, Heather & Laura! This farewell from the founders of 404 Ink details the politics and economics of publishing over the past ten years. It mirrors the optimism we felt back in 2016 until Brexit, the pandemic and the bend towards tyranny put a kibosh on what we considered progress. An insightful inkling. I’m also a big sucker for references.

[Susan Morris]

Picked this one up at the National Theatre bookshop in London; successfully running a small press seems almost impossible.

[LC]

A wonderful insight into the running of 404ink, the good and bad of small press management in an increasingly hostile industry. As an aspiring publisher myself, I found this really honest and interesting and maybe mildly anxiety producing but I'm glad that Heather McDaid and Laura Jones-Rivera were able to create something truly special and exciting in Scottish publishing while getting out alive and well with families and careers in the arts industry. Even if it takes me longer than ten years, I'd be very happy if I got to that point as well.

[Rae Leaver Rahman]

It’s a clear five stars but it’s a book I wish never had to be written, because 404ink made such a positive impact in the arena of small presses. Thank you to Laura and Heather and here’s to their next adventures. The generosity of leaving us with this frank and honest guide so others going into the industry can read what it has been like is just fantastic.

[LOU]

I’m so proud to have back 404 Ink’s Inkling series on Kickstarter from the very start, but I’m genuinely so sad there’s going to be no more 😭

[Shell]

This book highlights just how important small press and indies are, and how crucial it is to support them.