Small independent presses are taking some of the biggest creative risks in publishing, platforming exciting emerging authors and celebrating boundary-pushing work. But many are also struggling to make ends meet, faced with funding cuts and eternal competition from online book distribution giants. A new bookshop aims to keep 15 of the UK’s leading small presses afloat.
The shop, which opens today, November 6 and is initially planned to run until December 20, will sell books by 15 of the publishers involved with Small Press Futures, a group of publishers and editors from indie publishing houses that was set up in 2025.
The bookshop is “going to be run collectively between the presses that are going to be stocked in the shop, and all of the money for each book sold goes directly to that publisher”, Sam Fisher, co-owner of Burley Fisher Books, director of Peninsula Press and one of the founders of Small Press Futures, tells Broadsheet.
Editors and publishers from the presses will staff the shop themselves, so “people will probably be editing books and making publicity plans behind the cash desk”, Fisher says.
The space inside the historic Bussey Building was given to Small Press Futures by Peckham Platform, a community arts charity. It represents the “next practical step to creating a more sustainable climate for small press publishing”, Fisher says.
On the shelves? Books that the Small Press Futures team hopes will be of interest to the local community in Peckham. “We wanted a selection of publishers who published diverse books – books that people in Peckham might relate to or see themselves in,” Fisher says.
Some of the publishers include Rough Trade Publishing, the music-focused offshoot of the music label; Tilted Axis, which publishes contemporary literature by the global majority; Cipher Press, which specialises in queer fiction and non-fiction; Cassava Republic Press which focuses on fiction and non-fiction from writing from Africa and its diaspora; Book Works, which publishes experimental and visual-arts-led books; and Fitzcarraldo Editions, which specialises in contemporary fiction and long-form essays, including by multiple Nobel prize-winning authors.
Small Press Futures has funded the bookshop’s opening partly with donations, with the initial fundraising goal reached within days. At the time of writing, it’s raised almost £8800.
The fundraiser was originally intended to generate enough money to make the space “really beautiful and functional”, Fisher says, with “hand-built units made out of plywood” which will be modular and adaptable so the shop can be used in multiple ways. The extra money will also enable the shop to run events, and potentially stay open for longer than two months.
Events in the first few weeks include a reading group by Hajar Press, which publishes books by and for people of colour, and multiple book launches with the 87 Press and Peninsula Press.
“We’ve been so surprised and heartened by how strong the response was to the crowdfunder,” Fisher says. “Once we get the doors open, we’ll be able to think about how we can fling them open even wider.”
Small Press Futures
Unit AG1, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, SE15 4ST
Hours:
Wed to Sun 11am–6pm
