A very good quarter
by Christopher Hamilton-Emery
Trade revenue has more than doubled this quarter – and for once, I'm delighted to be talking about a spreadsheet.
I don't often share sales figures in House Magazine. Publishing is built on books, not balance sheets, and most quarters look much like the last: steady, unspectacular, occasionally frustrating. This quarter was different, and the numbers are good enough that I wanted to tell you about them properly, rather than leave them buried in a spreadsheet that only Jen and I ever open.
Across April, May and June, our trade revenue – sales through bookshops and wholesalers via PGUK and Macmillan Distribution – came to £25,007, against £10,437 for the same three months last year. That's an increase of 140 per cent. eBook sales, through Faber Factory and Bookwire, more than doubled too, up 115 per cent to £3,984. Direct sales, by contrast, grew more modestly, up 20 per cent to £3,529 – which I read as a good sign rather than a bad one: more of you are finding our books through booksellers and retailers, which is exactly where we want to be found. Altogether, total revenue for the quarter came to £32,520, up 114 per cent on the same period in 2025.
None of this is a blip. Looking at the rolling twelve months rather than just this quarter, trade revenue is up 53 per cent and eBook revenue up 52 per cent, with overall turnover up 43 per cent year on year. That is the trend that matters: a small independent press steadily building momentum, not one good month flattering the numbers.
It hasn't happened in a vacuum, either. This has also been one of the best quarters of review coverage I can remember in a long while – enough that it deserves its own piece, which you can read separately. Good reviews don't pay invoices on their own, but they clearly help booksellers say yes, and they help readers say yes after them.
So thank you – to PGUK, Macmillan Distribution, Bill Bailey, Bookwire and Faber Factory for getting our books onto shelves and screens; to the booksellers who have taken a chance on us; and to everyone who has bought, read or talked about a Salt book this spring. We are a small press with, for one quarter at least, some properly grown-up numbers. Long may that continue.