Over at The Bookseller, Aaron Kent of Broken Sleep Books makes the argument for why people should continue to set up indie presses:
Earlier this week at The Bookseller’s FutureBook conference, a panel of indie publishers spoke openly about the "existential crisis" facing small presses: rising production costs, reduced arts funding, patchy retail support and the prospect that many of us may not exist in five years’ time. They called for a funded cultural impact study to prove what indies contribute to culture, and stressed that it is not about complaining but about action.
For anyone thinking of starting a press without savings, contacts or a London postcode, this can sound like a warning not to bother. What follows is not a rebuttal of that reality, but a reminder that it is still possible to build a press from the outside, as I would like to think I have done with Broken Sleep Books, on little more than time, stubbornness and a community of writers and readers who refuse to give up.
Read the article in full (you can read one free article at The Bookseller each month without registering).