@laurafjones
📓 SGSAH PhD Researcher in publishing @stir.ac.uk 📚 Publisher @404ink.bsky.social 🔧 Operations @charcopress.com ✍️ Substack: epitomeofvague.substack.com ℹ️ Website: lauraflojo.com 📔 My book: www.404ink.com/store/p/inklings-publisher-not-found
Photo of our book Publisher Not Found on a bookshelf surrounded by Inklings
Thinking we need to launch a competition of most meta photo of Publisher Not Found on bookshelves.
Preorders being sent out tomorrow!
www.404ink.com/store/p/inkl...
I wish we were launching this in the halcyon days of a better Twitter when we had much more reach but hopefully there's some aspiring publisher or currently struggling publisher (lol, aren't we all) who might need this and see it!
Bursaries for small presses coming very soon!
Coming soon! The 404 Ink Bursary for small presses and accompanying crowdfunder will launch in mid-March. This will give away at least £3,000 to small presses - we hope to raise more to pay it forward to even more people.
With all this chat about student loans, can I throw in my tactic of being 18 years in without reaching the income threshold to start paying it back and only have 12 years left before it's written off. In my area of work, pretty sure I can keep it up for that remaining time 🤞
👀
Any fellow central Edinburgh dwellers noticed the 5G is barely functional these days? I'm used to it crawling during fringe and christmas but damn, can barely buy a train ticket on the way to the station on a Feb afternoon anymore 😕
Hey pals. We finished our book, Publisher Not Found, and it'll be in our hands in a couple of weeks. If you'd like a copy, you can order it now and have it first: www.404ink.com/store/p/inkl...
More soon!
A picture of the bookshop doors with purple glowing text overlaid on top, saying "Typewronger All-Night Bookshop Fundraiser". Below it there is a purple image of a 24-hour date and time stamp
A picture of the Typewronger stairs, with purple glowing text overlaid reading: "We need YOU to help us keep our lights on, so we're staying OPEN ALL NIGHT 21st-22nd Feb"
A picture of the Typewronger window, with purple glowing text overlaid reading: "WHY? We're struggling to pay our bills, and we've got a big tax bill due in March"
A picture of the Typewronger stairs, with purple glowing text overlaid reading: "No, but why are you staying open all night? ... because it's a badass move! Typewronger is already the latest open indie in Edinburgh and our ridiculous opening hours are a commitment to our community. When else will you be able to say you chilled in a bookshop at 3 am?"
On Saturday the 21st of February the shop will be open all the way through the night as we're fundraising to pay our bills! We'll be switching over to a purple ink stamp for the night shift featuring a time stamp so you can prove you were chilling in a bookshop at 3am. Stay tuned for more details...
That sounds infinitely more enjoyable, tbh
Quote from a 1975 article that says "you have to get out to lunch to find out what's going on out there - and what's going on out there is where an editor's books come from," says James Silberman, editor-in-chief of Random House. "Over the years, I've watched people in the book business stop having lunch, and they stop getting books."
A palate cleanser from 1975
WON'T SOMEOME THINK OF THE LUNCHES?!
An article with a massive math formula I don't know how to read, let alone type out
I need people to understand the process I'm going through to identify more sustainable business practices for small publishing companies
I am in arts and humanities 🫠
Just adding some perspective to the narrative that we couldn't make 404 Ink pay the bills. It's true, but we also didn't want to. We imagined 404 being our full time jobs and neither of us were thrilled about it, interestingly. We were proud of our work, but we felt we could do more elsewhere also.
It became more costly to stay the same size as we had to publish more books to keep the level of turnover at least consistent - the opposite of what we wanted to do. Right now, funding and market conditions make avoiding growth difficult. We have to justify our funding (to GROW!) and it's too hard.
But we couldn't have it all, and eventually 404 had to go as the one that couldn't reliably pay us. Small publishers are pressured by funders and awards bodies to grow grow grow so we're penalised when we don't want to. Deciding to not grow 404 was effectively the first step towards closing, sadly.
While 404 Ink took off, we realised we valued the opportunities that arose outside of the company. We enjoyed having jobs elsewhere with other publishers/companies that ended up paying the bills while 404 could not. We enjoyed the variety when elements of 404 began to feel a bit grindy.
"Many medium-sized independents have either been acquired by larger publishers or have closed down. A recent example is 404 Ink, who published award-winning books but never managed to make it their sole source of income.”
We actually knew in short time we didn't WANT 404 Ink to be our sole income.
Today @heraldscotland.bsky.social published Dominic Ryan's interview with our CEO Sheila Pinder.
Read on for insights into the diverse structure of the industry, and the value of its perseverance in the face of funding struggles and AI-related copyright fears:
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2582878...
We know returns suck, we know AI sucks, we know the slim margins suck, we know the faux meritocracy sucks - what DOESN'T suck? Is it as simple as having capital at the very beginning? How much? Do we have to grow? If not, what problems does that create? We should grapple with these issues together.
I have admiration for all the conferences and panels that discuss small press issues to help, but I think what we really need is some dedicated, honest, uncomfortable LONG discussions about how we're running our companies. Do we suck at it? Is it our fault or not? Or both? Is publishing too broken?
I have a dream of facilitating an in-person two-day workshop/gathering where all small indie publishers gather, with their business plans in hand (and if they don't have one, must write one), and openly, candidly discuss what they want for their press, what is working and what isn't.
In 2026, in Scotland alone, we're losing @404ink.bsky.social, @quindriepress.com & @hauntpublishing.bsky.social. I really want to see new nimble presses rise from the ashes but it's difficult to recommend starting a company in this market.
It's been an honour to be part of the journey!
If it turns out I need to make an unexpected January payment randomly...lol, I'm fucked
I'm "overdue" despite making payments since December and a payment plan... I have a feeling the system is a little fucked this time round (and I refuse to call them about it, I'll let them come to me for the fight I guess)
[explaining to a child why they are living in poverty] for every hundredth pint i drink i can get one free pint
It's kind of an open secret that AI companies are hiring creatives to produce new material to train their models since they've basically run out of data to mine. They're trying to make it so the only job you can still get is training your replacement
[niche PhD post]
Finding out that book publishing actually inspired one of the most pivotal studies in business in the 80s: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!!
Realising it was never adapted to help publishers and publishing has ignored it all: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.
[/niche PhD post]
large boulder the size of a small boulder tweet from San Miguel sheriff, dated 1/27/20
Happy large boulder the size of a small boulder day for all who celebrate
this invoice could have been a podcast
