Friday 22 May 2009

Just one book...

I've been away all week, and returned to the depressing news that Salt Publishing is going through a major financial crisis at the moment, sad when you consider what they've added to the UK (and international) poetry scene in recent years. You can read more about it here.

There is hope, though. They're still trading, for a start, so now's the time to support them (and other small presses, for that matter). Have a read of the message below from Salt supremo Chris Hamilton-Emery, and treat yourself to some summer reading. I've talked about a few Salt titles on here recently - Rob Mackenzie's The Opposite of Cabbage, Andrew Philip's The Ambulance Box, Shaindel Beers' A Brief History of Time, Sian Hughes' The Missing, and the Salt Companion To Lee Harwood - any one of them would be as good a place as any to start.

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.

UK and International
http://www.saltpublishing.com/shop/index.php

USA
http://www.saltpublishing.com/shop-us/index.php


2. Share this note on your Facebook and MySpace 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

5 comments:

Andrew Philip said...

Many thanks for your support for Salt and for the direct mention, Matt. Sian Hughes's might be my Just One Book book, but it's so hard to decide! I'm on tenterhooks to read your more extensive comments on The Ambulance Box, by the way. And, of course, I'm looking forward very much to meeting you and reading with you in a month's time.

Andrew Philip said...

Oh, and I can very much vouch for Rob's and Shaindel's books.

Matt Merritt said...

Looking forward to it a lot too, Andrew. I haven't yet started on Sian Hughes book, but I heard her read a couple of weeks ago and had to buy it straight away. I think I might go back to Salt for the Ian Sinclair companion, having enjoyed the Lee Harwood book so much.

Andrew Philip said...

Did you know there's a new page for Harwood at PennSound? Haven't checked it out myself, but it's bound to be a great audio resource.

Matt Merritt said...

I hadn't seen that, Andrew. Thanks very much, I'll check it out.