Publishers Weekly - January 15, 2018

us with the wherewithal to create knowl-
edge that will lead to us knowing what
we can in fact afford to pay our collabora-
tors and partners. We can’t discuss dis-
counts or pricing, of course, but it is still
possible for us to arrive at basic sound
principles of management that apply
specifically to independent book
publishing.”
Over the past year, the group, which is
in an incubation phase under the aegis of
the American Booksellers Association,
has grown to include approximately 100
members representing 60 publishers.
Though membership currently is free,
the organization would like to collect
dues in order to hire paid staff.

“We all want to work with books
because we love books and love to read,” says
Soho Press publisher Bronwen Hruska.
“But publishing is a business. And there’s
nobody who understands our business
model like another indie publisher.”
For Ibrahim Ahmad, editorial director
of Akashic Books, “[IPC is] a very exciting
development.” He adds: “We’ve all been
informally sharing information for years
on best practices and other issues. It’s
helpful to have this free exchange
between like-minded companies. Our
collective muscle can move the needle a
bit for indie presses.”
At this year’s meeting, publishers will
have a chance to voice their concerns at a
Town Hall. Greg Cowles, senior editor for
the New York Times Book Desk, will speak
on cultural and practical aspects of book
reviewing and best practices for indie
publishers to interact with the NYTBR.
In addition, indie booksellers and indie
publishers will hold a panel to discuss
best practices for working with indie
presses to promote and sell more books.
Europa Editions’ editor-in-chief Michael
Reynolds is looking forward to the panel,
which he hopes will produce “something
generalizable that we can take to other
booksellers [at subsequent conferences]
to make indie books part of their bottom
line.” ■

IPC will meet on Monday, January 22,
1–4 p.m., in Magnolia 1, at the Sheraton.

personnel as well as in publishers’ acquisitions. Indie publishing isn’t simply a business, Simon points out; it’s also a cultural endeavor.

Simon says that indie presses tend to
be a lot more vulnerable than other busi-
nesses: “If Amazon tells us that we can
afford to sell our books to them at greater
than a 50% discount, we don’t have the
wherewithal to say with authority that
we can’t. If the printers say we can afford
to pay xyz to print our books, we don’t
have the wherewithal to say our data says
something different. One of my personal
goals is that IPC will ultimately provide