Excellent article Sam. Just yesterday someone at work, who had ‘found out’ that I’d had 4 books published asked me what I was doing there. I explained that there wasn’t much money in publishing. They said not to worry, one day I might make it. My answer, these days, is that I have made it. I’ve been published. Making money and being published are not the same thing.
I’ve repeated this statistic a number of times now. When my first book, The Lodger, came out in 2002 it was £10. When my latest book, Saltburn, came out in 2025 it was £10. If we take into account inflation the cost of a book should be 2.5 million and I could retire to my Parisian garret.
What can we do? Again, at work, I hear people say they won’t pay more than 99p for a book - on kindle. I don’t buy books from Amazon. You don’t have to be ideological about it. It’s a simple fact - Amazon have quite enough money, so spread it around. Buy books, as you say, from indie shops, from the publishers. Support your community. Lend books. Borrow books. Go to the library.
Thanks for the mention of Bearded Badger. They published the book before my last one. They are back. Paul, the Bearded Badger, has been doing pop ups over the summer, is running a couple of book clubs and a new minty fresh edition of Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel is on the way. And if we’re talking print runs - there’ll be 50 copies, which will be available online or from one of the pop ups. For me, that’s success and I won’t be beaten down and told otherwise 😂.
Many thanks for this - the economics of publishing are peculiar even by the standards of other industries, so it's always super-useful to have them laid out so clearly.
Great piece. Think, in view of the ongoing cost of living crisis; (and experiences like Kate Macdonald's), book prices going up can't be the way to get more people buying. (Also thinking of Allen Lane, and the packet of fags model.) If only there were a way of *reducing* prices to encourage people to chance more - which I suppose is looking at some form of subsidy really. Tax breaks? But so good - and thanks for the hint of optimism at the outset because if not...
That's an interesting point about chancing more. I'm not sure, though, if lower prices, by whatever means, would make enough difference. More people could join public libraries where chances can be taken for free. A lot of second-hand books are also available and cheaper than new books, even online purchases which include postage.
I heard of a move a while back to enable author royalties on second-hand books by using the barcodes. I don't know if that's actually happening in any effective way or if it benefits publishers.
Yes, it's tricky, isn't it? Your point about libraries (die-hard supporter) is a good one; although - almost certainly force majeure - they're quite limited now; and focus mainly on current popular stuff (good for publishers, I suppose...). Have to say, think the whole barcodes on secondhand books thing sounds a bit loopy *and* desperate - but it's also really interesting, as it highlights how, in many ways, the interests of authors and publishers (well, certainly the giants) have almost completely diverged. Maybe that's part of the problem as well...
It is tricky. I'm lucky in living in a UK county which still has a good library service despite cuts and which stocks a wide range, though it could be wider still. My view of libraries might be too rosy!
The barcodes thing: it sounds like something which seems a good idea to someone like me outside the industry but isn't really.
This is excellent and depressing. Since Brexit it's been basically impossible to order books directly from UK publishers to Australia unless you want to pay 2-4 times the cost of the books themselves on postage. What's been the general post-Brexit effect on international orders?
Thank you! And, to begin to answer your question, I've actually started and scrapped articles about the post-Brexit postal nightmare....
... Scrapped because it was too crazy to explain, I got too angry, by the time I'd got half way through the damn regulations had changed again.
But, to cut a very long story short, it's been a complete nightmare.
It's become almost impossible to post to some European countries from the UK (Ireland is the most difficult - go figure!). And I think you are right that there have been knock on effects in that the whole UK international postal service has become unreliable. Posting to Australia is a unfathomable. The (reasonably priced) parcels that we used to send that would reliably arrive within two weeks, can now take anything from a week to (I think this is the current record) six months. We have some lovely, patient Australian subscribers, but even they have been sorely tested... And, as you say, we've had to put prices up a lot so we can use a service that at least has some hope of getting there in reasonable time.
Meanwhile, our last big mailout, for the book mentioned above, Waterblack, nearly sapped my will to live. I was so excited because it was such a wonderful novel and I couldn't wait for people to get hold of it... And then - oh boy - I had to wait and wait... Took ages to get anywhere. But this time the biggest problem was the USA because of the monstering USPS has received at the hands of the regime over there. It took months for many of our packages to get through... and that was before tariffs hit...
Okay, I'm going to stop now, because: ranting. The tl;dr is that yes, Brexit has made things much worse. But also, so has, you know, the world. Victorians could manage postal systems. We can't. Alas!
Thank you! This is sadly what I feared. To live in a world where countries are basically taking out economic sanctions on themselves because of nationalistic bollocks is truly insane.
Very interesting article! If paper is so expensive, why are publishers of literary fiction increasingly using wider margins, more space between the lines, bigger typefaces and more blank pages between chapters and sections? What’s the value proposition for the reader when a 20-30,000 word novella costs more than a Daniel Deronda or Middlemarch?
Excellent article Sam. Just yesterday someone at work, who had ‘found out’ that I’d had 4 books published asked me what I was doing there. I explained that there wasn’t much money in publishing. They said not to worry, one day I might make it. My answer, these days, is that I have made it. I’ve been published. Making money and being published are not the same thing.
I’ve repeated this statistic a number of times now. When my first book, The Lodger, came out in 2002 it was £10. When my latest book, Saltburn, came out in 2025 it was £10. If we take into account inflation the cost of a book should be 2.5 million and I could retire to my Parisian garret.
What can we do? Again, at work, I hear people say they won’t pay more than 99p for a book - on kindle. I don’t buy books from Amazon. You don’t have to be ideological about it. It’s a simple fact - Amazon have quite enough money, so spread it around. Buy books, as you say, from indie shops, from the publishers. Support your community. Lend books. Borrow books. Go to the library.
Thanks for the mention of Bearded Badger. They published the book before my last one. They are back. Paul, the Bearded Badger, has been doing pop ups over the summer, is running a couple of book clubs and a new minty fresh edition of Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel is on the way. And if we’re talking print runs - there’ll be 50 copies, which will be available online or from one of the pop ups. For me, that’s success and I won’t be beaten down and told otherwise 😂.
Wonderful news about Bearded Badger! Thanks for that update. And thanks for a fine thoughtful comment too.
I loved this: "If we take into account inflation the cost of a book should be 2.5 million and I could retire to my Parisian garret." Truth.
Many thanks for this - the economics of publishing are peculiar even by the standards of other industries, so it's always super-useful to have them laid out so clearly.
Great piece. Think, in view of the ongoing cost of living crisis; (and experiences like Kate Macdonald's), book prices going up can't be the way to get more people buying. (Also thinking of Allen Lane, and the packet of fags model.) If only there were a way of *reducing* prices to encourage people to chance more - which I suppose is looking at some form of subsidy really. Tax breaks? But so good - and thanks for the hint of optimism at the outset because if not...
That's an interesting point about chancing more. I'm not sure, though, if lower prices, by whatever means, would make enough difference. More people could join public libraries where chances can be taken for free. A lot of second-hand books are also available and cheaper than new books, even online purchases which include postage.
I heard of a move a while back to enable author royalties on second-hand books by using the barcodes. I don't know if that's actually happening in any effective way or if it benefits publishers.
Yes, it's tricky, isn't it? Your point about libraries (die-hard supporter) is a good one; although - almost certainly force majeure - they're quite limited now; and focus mainly on current popular stuff (good for publishers, I suppose...). Have to say, think the whole barcodes on secondhand books thing sounds a bit loopy *and* desperate - but it's also really interesting, as it highlights how, in many ways, the interests of authors and publishers (well, certainly the giants) have almost completely diverged. Maybe that's part of the problem as well...
It is tricky. I'm lucky in living in a UK county which still has a good library service despite cuts and which stocks a wide range, though it could be wider still. My view of libraries might be too rosy!
The barcodes thing: it sounds like something which seems a good idea to someone like me outside the industry but isn't really.
This is excellent and depressing. Since Brexit it's been basically impossible to order books directly from UK publishers to Australia unless you want to pay 2-4 times the cost of the books themselves on postage. What's been the general post-Brexit effect on international orders?
Thank you! And, to begin to answer your question, I've actually started and scrapped articles about the post-Brexit postal nightmare....
... Scrapped because it was too crazy to explain, I got too angry, by the time I'd got half way through the damn regulations had changed again.
But, to cut a very long story short, it's been a complete nightmare.
It's become almost impossible to post to some European countries from the UK (Ireland is the most difficult - go figure!). And I think you are right that there have been knock on effects in that the whole UK international postal service has become unreliable. Posting to Australia is a unfathomable. The (reasonably priced) parcels that we used to send that would reliably arrive within two weeks, can now take anything from a week to (I think this is the current record) six months. We have some lovely, patient Australian subscribers, but even they have been sorely tested... And, as you say, we've had to put prices up a lot so we can use a service that at least has some hope of getting there in reasonable time.
Meanwhile, our last big mailout, for the book mentioned above, Waterblack, nearly sapped my will to live. I was so excited because it was such a wonderful novel and I couldn't wait for people to get hold of it... And then - oh boy - I had to wait and wait... Took ages to get anywhere. But this time the biggest problem was the USA because of the monstering USPS has received at the hands of the regime over there. It took months for many of our packages to get through... and that was before tariffs hit...
Okay, I'm going to stop now, because: ranting. The tl;dr is that yes, Brexit has made things much worse. But also, so has, you know, the world. Victorians could manage postal systems. We can't. Alas!
Thank you! This is sadly what I feared. To live in a world where countries are basically taking out economic sanctions on themselves because of nationalistic bollocks is truly insane.
Yes! Couldn't agree more.
Very interesting article! If paper is so expensive, why are publishers of literary fiction increasingly using wider margins, more space between the lines, bigger typefaces and more blank pages between chapters and sections? What’s the value proposition for the reader when a 20-30,000 word novella costs more than a Daniel Deronda or Middlemarch?