Here we are, at the start of a new financial year. That means that our Ignite authors have all received the payments they were due for sales of their books from April 2024 through to the end of March this year, and we’re all looking forward to what we can do to ensure this coming year is every bit as successful.
That’ll be quite an ask, if we’re honest. The cost of living crisis is biting, costs for printing and postage keep on going up, and people are watching the pennies. It’s long been true that authors who get out and put their work in front of the public are lijkely to sell more books than an equally good author who doesn’t, but we’ve noticed that the number of sales made this way isn’t entirely as resilient as it was. It’s a problem across the publishing industry, and especially hard on small independent publishers who are trying to keep several plates spinning at once.
We know we’re going to have to look for ways to be more inventive and resourceful. We’re going to have to respond to the changes in social media algorithms that have made some platforms (we’re looking at you, Facebook, and you, Twitter) hostile to posts by small businesses trying to promote what they do. Our thoughts and prayers are with the billionaire tech bros who face a daily struggle to put food on the table, and who’ve lost so many millions of $ in cosying up to the Dayglo Toddler, obviously.
So expect to see us at more book fairs in the future (especially the well-run ones). They provide opportunities to showcase our titles, and natter to the book-buying public, and we’re up for that. When you do see us there, it’s more than likely we’ll have some special offers – ones which won’t be available on our website or in the shops – because we want to go home from an event with fewer copies than we turned up with, obviously!
We’ve also one special offer which will be running from now, and which does apply in our online shop. From here on, copies of Kiss & Make Up by Carl Stanley will be on sale for just £2.00, with all money raised from sales of the book going to LGBT charities. Our thanks to Carl for this generous gesture.
And now, back to the grindstone. We’ll return with more news soon!