TOUGH TIMES

Readers of our blog news reports will know that our publishing group, BSPG, is transparent about the challenges of running a small, indie business in this new decade of pandemic, war, and economic crisis.

We pride ourselves on being open about the many issues that face small publishers, from paper shortages, to logistics snarl-ups, to collapsing retail trade. This week's Bookseller has an indicative headline: senior publishing figures warn of tough times ahead for the books market as the cost of living continues to rise.

With the lockdowns of 2020-2021, we saw a major loss of revenue for two years. Such losses for a company that is privately-owned and receives almost no government arts funding could have been catastrophic, but we do not believe in giving up and it is due to this spirit that we made it through the worst of the pandemic years.

We face new challenges, with the impact of the Ukraine war, Brexit, and other issues, on the world economy. For a small company that relies on small margins to break even, the impact on living costs hit us hard as books become less of a necessity.

While our sales struggle in the UK, we have a very large and dynamic US sales team, and several of our recent titles, such as Naked, Technelegy, Tails, and Furnace Creek are doing very well on Amazon.com. We have even more  books coming out soon that we hope will be just as exciting for readers.

We continue to have the positive spirit we held during the height of the pandemic, we have hope,  great strategies, and world class titles to publish.

We continue to value the patience, flexibility and understanding of our authors as we schedule and sometimes reschedule our publication dates, to best work with the current economic climate and market demand; we take our bearings from our sales teams, who advise us. We will gently and calmly stagger our releases, over the next 12-36 months, so all the forthcoming books get the care, attention and support they deserve; but rest assured, we work every day on our books.

We're running a tight ship at the moment with a small crew of very dedicated, hard-working people, who love books and could get higher-paying jobs elsewhere. They work with BSPG because they believe in its aim, to create a  global small indie press, with an open door for un-agented authors and agented writers, of all cultures, faiths, ages, and visions.

With ongoing support and understanding, we can achieve tremendous things.

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.