Some of you may know, and others may have heard, that the publisher of my fiction, Freight Books, has gone into liquidation. I’m not going to go into the whys and hows here. There are plenty of articles online that go through the salient points, some objectively, some accurately, many just recirculating gossip or grinding axes. I’m not going to get into that. Freight Books were exceptionally kind to me over the years, first as my publisher and then employing me as an editor. They were never perfect and mistakes were made, then compounded. It ended badly and while there certainly is blame to be apportioned, that’s not an avenue I wish to drive. Others fared far worse than I did and they have every right to speak out and I support them in that. However I feel that adding my complaints won’t change anything. I’m simply so tired of the whole mess.
The reason I’m bringing it up at all is because of what it means for my books. As a novelist I am now ‘out of print’ although I prefer the euphemism, ‘sold out’. The liquidators have all the Freight stock and are asking the authors to buy it back at a ridiculous price and so far, I refuse. The very least that could be done to all the authors affected by this is to give them books that are otherwise going to be pulped. But capitalism doesn’t work that way. Our books have most value to us, therefore the liquidators can expect to leverage the highest return out of the very people being screwed. Yay capitalism.
I have a handful of copies left that I can sell if you contact me directly. There are quite a few second-hand copies available online as well, sold by third party sellers and independent bookshops via AbeBooks and Amazon, some very cheaply. Depressingly, many of them are described as ‘unread review copies’ meaning they are, at least, mint condition.
Ideally I would like to get back into print as soon as possible but that’s unlikely until I have something new to offer. I’m working on that at the moment. In the meantime, my novels have become incredibly niche collectors items, so if your shelf is lacking a copy of The Waves Burn Bright, Silma Hill, or First Time Solo and you were putting off the purchase for a rainy day, then you can get one from me directly, online, or from all good charity shops.
Additionally, my poetry was published by Tapsalteerie who are very much still a going concern, and my haiku collection would make an unusual Secret Santa gift.
Iain Maloney 