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Beautiful Books enters administration
11.10.11 | Benedicte Page
Independent publisher Beautiful Books entered administration earlier today (11th October). The company has ceased to trade and four members of staff have been made redundant.
A spokesperson for London firm Leonard Curtis, the administrating company, said those handling the case would now evaluate Beautiful Books and creditors would receive a report. In a statement, the publisher said: "All the employees at Beautiful Books would like to thank everyone with whom we have worked over the past six years."
Last week David Lewis, director of The Beautiful Group PLC, warned authors that the administration was likely, saying that the company had experienced cash flow difficulties, and that discussions to find a buyer, or another publisher prepared to keep some or all of its titles in print and pay royalties under current contracts, had not borne fruit.
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So sad.
This is really sad news. A forward thinking publisher, who really loved books. Good luck to everybody involved.
Working for a typesetter I happened to come across quite a number of Beautiful Books titles. They included a wide ranging mix but all very engaging. And which I would have thought would have sold well. It is that old thing of too many books and too few routes to market. Small publishers need the equivalent to a lottery jackbook if they have hope of surviving. Best of luck to everyone there.
Its the age old dilemma of the small to medium publisher. Most only have access to specialist or otherwise limited titles, to expand they publish more, to publish more the overhead increases, turnover dosen't increase in proportion with turnover and they go broke.
As one of Beautiful Books author's who was owed thousands in foreign rights and royalties, (for the past year I sought settlement of what was due) -it is indeed a sorry state of affairs, however my compassion is lacking.
I count myself as an author and a friend of the BB guys. Simon put so much energy into his business-and a lot of his own money. For them to fall over is a tragedy. It's absolutely indicative of the state of the market. WHS and Waterstone's (ok we've yet to see the full Daunt effect on the latter) have simply fought an attritional war on price and discount. If you're a top 10 publisher you get retail space (well, you pay for it)and you'll probably get reviewed in the nationals. Everyone else is just left with the vague hope that their lottery numbers will come up.
I am truly sorry for Anonymous author above who is owed serious money, but it's a result of a crazy and short-sited industry that's been heading collectively over a cliff for the last few years.
So sad.
This is really sad news. A forward thinking publisher, who really loved books. Good luck to everybody involved.
Working for a typesetter I happened to come across quite a number of Beautiful Books titles. They included a wide ranging mix but all very engaging. And which I would have thought would have sold well. It is that old thing of too many books and too few routes to market. Small publishers need the equivalent to a lottery jackbook if they have hope of surviving. Best of luck to everyone there.
Its the age old dilemma of the small to medium publisher. Most only have access to specialist or otherwise limited titles, to expand they publish more, to publish more the overhead increases, turnover dosen't increase in proportion with turnover and they go broke.
As one of Beautiful Books author's who was owed thousands in foreign rights and royalties, (for the past year I sought settlement of what was due) -it is indeed a sorry state of affairs, however my compassion is lacking.
I count myself as an author and a friend of the BB guys. Simon put so much energy into his business-and a lot of his own money. For them to fall over is a tragedy. It's absolutely indicative of the state of the market. WHS and Waterstone's (ok we've yet to see the full Daunt effect on the latter) have simply fought an attritional war on price and discount. If you're a top 10 publisher you get retail space (well, you pay for it)and you'll probably get reviewed in the nationals. Everyone else is just left with the vague hope that their lottery numbers will come up.
I am truly sorry for Anonymous author above who is owed serious money, but it's a result of a crazy and short-sited industry that's been heading collectively over a cliff for the last few years.