I used to turn over the problem of distribution for small press quite a bit. Distribution is a key challenge for most creative industries, at least those that aren’t digital. One of the business models my brother and I used to toss around was a co-op that would take on the functions of distribution, sales and marketing. Neither of us had the energy or time to tackle it but I’m really heartened to see strong cooperative efforts in independent publishing.
The best of these is SPUNC (Small Press Underground Collective) which has a well articulated vision and fantastic engagement with the broader publishing and bookselling industry.
Today I also learned the indefatigable Tehani Wessley has launched a blog to raise the profile of Australian small press.
It struck me that while Australian small press produce some amazing works, often they receive little wider recognition due to a restricted distribution. This means authors don’t receive all the kudos they should, general readership don’t get access to many of these productions, and has a negative impact on further projects. I’d like to see that change. This is just my way of seeing if I can help increase the visibility of small press publishers in Australia to libraries, retailers and readers outside the traditional sales sphere of small press.
An admirable project! Tehani is so far focusing on speculative fiction publishers. Hopefully she and the gang at SPUNC will find each other and team up, especially as SPUNC has funding.
Kate Eltham is a writer and creative industries professional based in Brisbane, Australia. She is Chief Executive Officer of 
kate.eltham {at} gmail.com
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Thanks Kate! For the support and the contact. Am emailing them right now
Brimstone Press (independent WA publisher) has managed to secure mainstream distribution of its new dark culture magazine Black (which I write for).
Gordon and Gotch are distributing it, which means it’s available at pretty much every newsagency — either on the shelf or available for order.
To maintain that, sales have to reach/stay at a certain level, since G&G gets a commission on sales.
Browsing a few newsagencies, you soon realise the challenge — all those magazines fighting for shelf space.
(And a bit of creative shelf rearranging will only go so far!)
So any initiative that can help integrate niche publications with a wider audience is good news.
Off to check Tehani’s blog now.
Thanks,
Gary
I agree Kate, SPUNC are doing awesome things. Still, anybody who can get a cooperative distro situation happening gets my vote! We are dealing with our first distribution issues at the moment, so it’s an issue that is very close to me at the moment.
cheers
Leticia | http://www.brascoebooks.com.au
Leticia: Coop distro came up today at a meeting I had with Playlab. We were discussing the challenges of distributing play scripts which are, and always will be, a niche market and therefore unlikely to be palatable to distributors. When I thought about plays, I then thought about small press poetry with the exact same problem. I think there’s likely a good focused distro coop, especially focusing on institutional markets like schools and universities, that could be made out of these niche publishers.
Gary: Tell Shane and Angela to check out Exact Editions. They may find some ways of picking up some additional digital subscriptions of the magazine through that, especially international ones? (http://www.exacteditions.com)
Good stuff Kate, right on the “money”..My novel is published by a small press in London.I’m from OZ have a background in publishing research and want to get this message out and around buy small buy online from the independent.
“Uncorrected Proof” the novel from
http://elephantearspress.com
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Best,
L.