U.K. online bookseller the Book People has gone into administration (similar to filing Chapter 11 in the U.S.) and appointed Toby Underwood and Zelf Hussain from PricewaterhouseCoopers as administrators, the Bookseller reported. Founded by Ted Smart and Seni Glaister in 1988, the company currently employs approximately 400 people and does more than 76% of sales through its online platform, with the balance "via employed and self-employed distributors who deliver mobile book school fairs and buses, and pop-up stores in workplaces."
Noting that the decision was a result of the "difficult trading environment that the business has been experiencing, combined with increasing working capital pressures," PwC said there will be no immediate job losses and Christmas orders already placed will be fulfilled, the Bookseller noted, adding that "publishers, however, will be concerned about unpaid bills on stock already supplied to the firm, or sitting in its warehouse."
Underwood, restructuring partner at PwC, said: "I appreciate the obvious concerns that staff in particular will have as we move towards Christmas. Whilst the administrators have funding to meet the payroll for December, the longer-term prospects for the business, staff, customers and suppliers will clearly be dependent upon whether a sale can be secured."
Galley Beggar Press, publisher of Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann, which won the Goldsmiths Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, said that the move had put the independent publisher "under threat" because the Book People owes the press more than £40,000 (about $52,640) "and that is make-or-break for a small company like us."
Galley Beggar quickly launched an emergency gofundme campaign yesterday, noting: "One of the painful things about this is that we would never normally take the risk of having someone owe us £40k. We entered into a partnership with the Book People as part of our involvement with the Booker Prize this year and Ducks, Newburyport's shortlisting. The Book People offer hardback versions of the shortlist to their readers, and as soon as we learned that we were longlisted, we were put in touch with the Book People and made to understand that everyone on the shortlist would need to supply an edition. They wanted 8,000 books, and would pay just over £40,000. It was a sizeable undertaking. It's the sort of money that we never normally play with, but it was part of the schedule and the competition and when Ducks, Newburyport made the shortlist, we did it.... [W]e've been on the phone to the Book People this morning. They will not be paying us the money in the immediate future.... It does feel like make or break, and we need the readers who have supported us every step of the way."
The Guardian reported that fellow publishers, authors and booksellers were rallying behind the Norwich-based publisher, with donors including the National Centre for Writing and Arts Council England's literature director Sarah Crown.
"Viewed in isolation, Galley Beggar is an exceptional force in British publishing. Viewed in context, they’re an essential component of a broad and interdependent ecology that is better, richer and brighter because of them. Supporting them benefits all of us," said Crown.
It took less than a day for Galley Beggar to surpass its £40,000 goal. In an update, co-founders Sam Jordison and Eloise Millar wrote: "Thank you--again, again. It's been an incredible day. The generosity we've seen has been overwhelming. And thanks to that generosity, we're saved. So, the important thing we have to say in this update is that our emergency is over. As I write this, we're at a point where we've raised almost as much as we were expecting from the Book People....
"Anyway, we had no idea when we set up this morning in a panic (and didn't really know what we were doing or what would happen) that we'd be secure at the end of the day. It's quite a feeling--and we're safe because of you. Thank you."