Sunday 24 May 2009

Salt - Just One Book



I must add my blog voice to the many over the blogosphere and twitter to draw your attention to Salt Publishing's cries for help. They've have a (very small) arts council grant of £4,000, compared to Bloodaxe 2009/10 – £96,297, Carcanet (£116,565 this year), Anvil (£89,831 this year) and Enitharmon (£47,492), to name but a few and their stated aim is to get to a position where they need no funding, almost unheard of.

I'm thinking of The White Road and other stories by Tania Hershman or Katy Bush-Evans poems Me and the Dead.

And I would have thought it woulod make a difference whether you buy from Amazon/whatever or Salt directly as surely you have to pay Amazon a fee?

The Just One Book Campaign

From Chris Hamilton-Emery:

“As many of you will know, Jen and I have been struggling to keep Salt moving since June last year when the economic downturn began to affect our press. Our three year funding ends this year: we’ve £4,000 due from Arts Council England in a final payment, but cannot apply through Grants for the Arts for further funding for Salt’s operations. Spring sales were down nearly 80% on the previous year, and despite April’s much improved trading, the past twelve months has left us with a budget deficit of over £55,000. It’s proving to be a very big hole and we’re having to take some drastic measures to save our business. Here’s how you can help us to save Salt and all our work with hundreds of authors around the world.

JUST ONE BOOK

1. Please buy just one book, right now. We don’t mind from where, you can buy it from us or from Amazon, your local shop or megastore, online or offline. If you buy just one book now, you’ll help to save Salt. Timing is absolutely everything here. We need cash now to stay afloat. If you love literature, help keep it alive. All it takes is just one book sale. Go to our online store and help us keep going.

2. Share this note on your profile. Tell your friends. If we can spread the word about our cash crisis, we can hopefully find more sales and save our literary publishing. Remember it’s just one book, that’s all it takes to save us. Please do it now.

With my best wishes to everyone

Chris

Director Salt Publishing”

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