Dear Readers,
On Thursday, our North American distributor, Small Press Distribution, announced that it had filed bankruptcy and ceased operations. We had no warning, or inclination at all, and our collective reaction can best be described as !!&*))@0@WTF))*(2 SPD….!!)__
Moving on. Why should you, gentle reader, care? Distribution and the supply chain are admittedly the least-sexy aspects of being a publisher, but still, important. And even without reference to Elizabeth’s powerpoint presentation on book distribution in North America, important to the general reader.
Here’s a Cliff’s Notes version: no one buys books from the publisher. Books go from publisher to distributor to wholesaler to shop. Shops like to support small presses and other small businesses, but at the end of the day also like to write one check. We can’t blame them; bookkeeping is hard. Hence book distributors, to do all the things we can’t do because of basic resources of time and manpower. Bookshop. Amazon (ahem. Not that any of us would ever use that for books…). Shops.
Again, what’s this have to do with you? A great deal. The closure of SPD will have a major and lasting impact on literary culture in the United States. We’re considering a number of solutions that will make us stronger, but we will never be able to compete with the big publishers. So, the best things you, our family of readers can do, is continue to support us by purchasing directly, leave reviews of our books on major sites (Goodreads, Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes and Noble, etc…) and, please, encourage your locally owned small bookshops to stock our titles and be in touch directly with us at sales [at] blackwaterpress.com.
This news only affects the US supply chain, and Elizabeth has plenty of copies of all titles on hand, but the same is true for the UK/Europe: please put your local shops in touch with Luca.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Resurgemus.