The struggle to survive as prices get hammered
Tom Jaine - Book Brunch

Spare the poor woolly publisher, pleads Tom Jaine

The prosperity and survival of small publishers is a constant preoccupation, whether lying in bed, giggling at our MPs, or pounding the keyboard. This is mere preface to a whinge, so divert now if you can’t take self-pity. For readers of that hue, I should immediately agree to the proposition that there are good small publishers and bad. The good survive, the bad do not.

I would plead for a third category: the woolly. The woolly are not bad, they might sometimes be good, but they are a trifle amateur; or they may be single-minded and unwilling to fuss with the necessary evils of success. Or they may just be a little woolly. In a kinder environment the woolly survive because their hearts are in the right place. Currently, the woolly have a tough time.

The structure of the British book trade is pretty weird. The necessary deductions from a book’s retail price before the publisher gets any revenue are surprising to say the least.
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