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Canongate and Australian-based Allen & Unwin are the latest publishers to join the Independent Publishers Guild, which has seen its membership swell by 10% since the beginning of the year.
Fifty-four publishers have signed up with IPG so far in 2009, including the publicly-listed Bloomsbury and the children's independent Walker Books.
Canongate sales and marketing director Jenny Todd said: "We already work collegiately with a lot of indies through the Independent Alliance, and people from Canongate have spoken at IPG events before—it just made sense to extend that reach. It was high time to formalise our involvement."
Todd added: "We have also joined the PA recently, and there is no question after what happened with EUK, that working as an industry rather than individually, particularly at the moment, is very important."
For Australia-based Allen & Unwin, membership offers an in-road to British publishing and "the IPG family", said the IPG’s executive director Bridget Shine. She described the signing as "significant” for the IPG, as A&U are the largest international publisher on the guild's books. As well as publishing its own home-grown authors, Allen & Unwin is the Australian agent for IPG members including Faber, Short, Icon, Profile and Serpent’s Tail, Granta and Bloomsbury.
Other recent additions to the IPG include radical publisher Verso and the press arm of the London School of Economics. Shine said she was "delighted at the cross-section of publishers” that had joined.