Publishing life is in turmoil. There?s money in the bank. The forward load is full of category A titles. Phone calls are suddenly about our publicity rather than our debts. Suppliers look less pained when I meet them. What on earth is going on?
Well, for those who missed it, Salt has received a fantastic award from the Arts Council?s Grants for the Arts scheme, which will see our business transformed over the next few years into an online machine for sales. Erm, okay, not quite a machine for sales, perhaps a machine with the dream of sales. I can?t explain how grateful we are for this money, which will contribute enormously to developing the business after six years of pretty hard graft. Can online sales make a difference? Well, I?d encourage all publishers to develop their own online services as fast as is humanly possible. Caught between deep discounting, the trauma of independent bookselling, supermarkets and aggregators it?s a virtual necessity for publishers to get close to their customers. To really know their customers, personally, and to focus every part of their business on providing them directly with support, services and online sustenance. Lots of alliteration and susurration there, all pointing to sales.
Selling direct doesn?t mean ignoring the trade, or side stepping it, but it does mean that publishers are less exposed to the suicide attempts of some parts of the business. Until all parts of the trade are realigned in the wake (or upsurge) of the internet and changes in the pattern of purchasing habits settle, publishers are advised to protect themselves and not invest in the decline of any sector. No one can escape the Web. In twenty years, no one will buy anything outside of the Web; no one will be driving to the strip mall or shopping arcade burning up carbon and being hit by toll roads and congestion charges. Home delivery is the future of books. The supply chain is about to lose a few links.
You know, I thought I was working hard before we received this grant, but any dreams of respite have been parked as we realised that the working day is back on track for 14 hour stretches. Still, this is all very, very good news: more money for marketing and Web development, and stability and security for the next stages of our (niche) expansion. It?s beginning to feel buoyant; it?s beginning to feel possible. There are smiles in the office. Sales are still up, Web traffic is marching on.
This week, the accounts are finally in, and last year?s turnover is up to ?103K, which, whilst being miniscule, is actually above target for Salt at this stage of proceedings and came as a bit of a shock. What?s worse, we?re in profit. Not bad going, then. Well, I guess it depends on the day of the week and how much Pouilly-Fume one has knocked back the night before and just what has turned up in the in box that morning. In fact, since securing three years? worth of funding, wine consumption is becoming a bit of an embarrassment, folk are driving up to our place to leave us their glass recycling given we resemble a bottle bank. Yes, a new health regime needs installing, and I have made the first steps back in to the gym. Now, steps might be pushing it as a locomotive description, as most of my time in the gym leaves me on my knees, looking like a flaccid steak pud. However, I feel virtuous and vertiginous with money and the prospect of fitness. New Labour might ask the question about ?fitness for purpose?, but given the vacuity of such statements I shall revel in being fit for nothing, and head back to the laptop for a peek at the Web stats and a hard stare at sales.
