Publisher Freight Books invites 100 authors to buy their own books to stave off bankruptcy
Scottish publisher Freight Books has been forced to resort to desperate measures to help stave off bankruptcy, inviting over 100 authors to snap up copies of their own work in bulk in order to sell on directly.
Publisher Freight Books invites 100 authors to buy their own books to stave off bankruptcy
In a round robin email to all writers whose works have been published since its financial position became perilous Davinder Samrai, co-owner of the business. Conceded that the future outlook for the business was ‘extremely uncertain’ amid the prospect of matters being taken ‘out of my hands’.
This follows the acrimonious departure of fellow co-owner Adrian Searle at the end of 2016.
Samrai wrote: “If you would like to buy stock of your titles, it may be prudent to act sooner rather than later. I appreciate this may cause unease but depending on quantities I may be able to supply at a better discount than the regular author discount.”
Freight’s fall from grace comes despite a number of high profile works due to be published from the likes of Irvine Welsh and Janice Galloway, not to mention public funding to the tune of £170k from Creative Scotland between 2014 and 2017.
Searle first quit Freight in 2005 to assume a client-side role at the National Theatre of Scotland.