UK indies struggling to find distribution post-Grantham

In the UK, independent publishers are finding distribution ‘particularly challenging’ following last year’s announcement that Grantham Book Services (GBS) will close in 2025, reported the Bookseller.

‘The reality is that publishers’ demand for distribution is at odds with supply at the moment,’ said Independent Publishers Guild CEO Bridget Shine. ‘Some distributors have stepped up to fill the gap left by GBS, and it would be good to see more of them embrace small publishers’ lists.’

Sanjee De Silva, publisher at small indie press Sweet Cherry, told the Bookseller: ‘What we’re finding is a lot of the other distributors don’t really want to touch us because we’re not really putting enough revenue through’. ‘No one is serving the independent publishers,’ De Silva said. ‘And certainly not in the way that works for us independents, understanding that our business model is slightly different to that of the bigger five’.

Some larger independents have their distribution moves scheduled for later this year, including Faber and its alliance distribution clients, moving to HarperCollins, and Lonely Planet and Hay House UK, moving to Hachette.

Davinder Bedi, managing director of book distributor BookSource, told the Bookseller that ‘distribution is a volume business, and one of the issues we have is trying to find a synergy between independent publishing and volume, because the two don’t always go hand in hand’. Bedi added that there is an ‘under-supply of distribution’ in the UK, with capacity limited and a lack of new distributors entering the market.

Category: International news