“It will be a great day in America when McSweeney’s has enough money to pay its creditors and the military has to have an inventory sell-off and rare item auction to buy a bomber.” Or however that goes. From McSweeney’s:
As you may know, it’s been tough going for many independent publishers, McSweeney’s included, since our distributor filed for bankruptcy last December 29. We lost about $130,000—actual earnings that were simply erased. Due to the intricacies of the settlement, the real hurt didn’t hit right away, but it’s hitting now. Like most small publishers, our business is basically a break-even proposition in the best of times, so there’s really no way to absorb a loss that big…
Over the next week or so, we’ll be holding an inventory sell-off and rare-item auction, which we hope will make a dent in the losses we sustained. A few years ago, the indispensable comics publisher Fantagraphics, in similarly dire straits, held a similar sale, and it helped them greatly. We’re hoping to do the same.
So if you’ve had your eye on anything we’ve produced, now would be a great time to take the plunge.
Items for sale include signed copies of all of Dave Eggers’ fiction (like, all together in one box - shipped to you), a limited edition mix CD by Nick Hornby to be included with his Songboo and more. Follow the links and buy some stuff. Do it now.
June 14th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[...] Help your favorite small publishers: Yesterday I pointed out that McSweeney’s really needs your help. They’re not the only ones. Soft Skull Press was also unfairly screwed over when the distributor for ALL of the independent houses declared bankruptcy and are also having a huge sale to move books quickly. Soft Skull is the publisher of Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe (reviewed here), African Psycho by (review coming soon!). The Codalmo blog has the full story and recommendations if you don’t know where to start (via EdRants). [...]