In 1631 an edition of the Bible was printed with a word missing from one of the Ten Commandments: ‘Thou shalt commit adultery.’ The printer was fined and his license to print was revoked. It’s easily done. The most recent CBe book – Joshua Segun-Lean, Do Not Send Me Out Among Strangers – was printed with a word missing (not ‘not’, in this case) from the title on the title page. My fault entirely. A short second print run has the title right but, annoyingly, the images printed not so well, and there are a lot of images: see the book’s page on the website. The first print run now has stickers on the title page.
My own license to publish has not (yet) been revoked but CBe’s continuing to publish depends entirely on readers buying the books. Putting out books with a niche appeal and that may sell only a hundred or so copies – Do Not Send Me Out is a case in point – carries the risk of not attracting enough readers. But there’s little point in publishing titles with a (perhaps) wider appeal, even if I liked them, if I’m bad at marketing and distribution. To become better I’d need to invest in outside help and even if I had the money to do that I’d be playing catch-up, having to sell a lot more to recoup the investment, a model to which I’m not suited. (I’m not going to the Arts Council. There’s an arrogance in my saying that, I know, but the point of the Arts Council is not to service old white geezers.)
The figures for the last financial year (and the year before, and before) show a net loss. A tolerable loss, for now; probably less than what my neighbours spend on their summer holidays. It’s a balancing act, and for 16 years CBe has kept its balance, but in this phoney summer CBe does need to sell some books.
Five new titles so far this year: Lara Pawson, Spent Light; Katy Evans-Bush, Joe Hill Makes His Way into the Castle; Jean Follain, Paris 1935; Tadeusz Bradecki, The End of Ends; Joshua Segun-Lean, Do Not Send Me Out Among Strangers. Two more will follow in October/November: Will Eaves, Invasion of the Polyhedrons; Charles Boyle, Invisible Dogs. (I don’t have to pay an advance on that one.) There is also the backlist of around 70 titles (there have been more but some original CBe titles are now with other, bigger publishers). Pick and choose: 12 books for £80, 6 for £45 – see the Season Tickets on the website home page.
Robert Barker, the printer of the Bible with the abbreviated Commandment, died in 1643 in a debtors’ prison.
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