<div><strong>Help us build a bookshop run by the publishers themselves</strong>
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<div><strong><em>15 independent presses. One shared shop in Peckham. Opening 6 November, if we can build it in time.</em></strong>
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<div>Small presses publish some of the most adventurous, urgent and surprising books in Britain. We take risks on new writers, translated literature, experimental work, overlooked histories, and voices that might otherwise struggle to find a home. Between us, we’ve published Nobel laureates, prize-winning novels and writers no one else would take a chance on.
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<div>But behind many of the books readers love is an increasingly fragile ecosystem. Rising costs, tight margins and an industry built around scale make it harder for small publishers to survive and harder for their books to reach readers. Every press tries to solve the same problems alone.
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<div>In October 2025, a group of us published an <a href="https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/open-letter-on-the-future-of-small-press-publishing-in-the-uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">open letter</a> about the future of independent publishing in the UK. A year later, we’re turning that concern into collective action, something you can actually walk into.
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<div><strong>THE SMALL PRESS FUTURES BOOKSHOP</strong>
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<div>This November and December, 15 independent publishers are opening a cooperatively run bookshop at Copeland Park in Peckham, in a space generously provided by <a href="https://peckhamplatform.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Peckham Platform</a>, a creative and educational charity working with local communities and artists. We will be occupying the space alongside Peckham Platform and partnering on future workshops and events.
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<div>But this will not be an ordinary bookshop. It will be run by the publishers themselves.
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<div>Participating publishers: <a href="https://bookworks.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Book Works</a> · <a href="https://cassavarepublic.biz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cassava Republic Press</a> · <a href="https://www.cipherpress.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cipher Press</a> · <a href="https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fitzcarraldo Editions</a> · <a href="https://www.hajarpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hajar Press</a> · <a href="https://monitorbooks.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Monitor Books</a> · <a href="https://www.outspokenldn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Out-Spoken Press</a> · <a href="https://peninsulapress.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Peninsula Press</a> · <a href="https://prototypepublishing.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Prototype</a> · <a href="https://roughtradebooks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rough Trade Books</a> · <a href="https://www.silverpress.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Silver Press</a> · <a href="https://stickyfingers.cargo.site/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sticky Fingers</a> · <a href="https://tenementpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tenement Press</a> · <a href="https://www.the87press.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the87press</a> · <a href="https://www.tiltedaxispress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tilted Axis Press</a>.
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<div>Between us, we publish fiction, poetry, essays, translation, art books, political writing, experimental literature and work that expands what publishing can be.
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<div>We are bringing our books, our labour, our audiences and our experience into one shared space.
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<div>This will be a bookshop like no other:
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<li><strong>It’s run by the publishers.</strong> We’ll staff it ourselves on a rota, so the person behind the till may well have commissioned, edited or designed the book in your hand.
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<li><strong>Every book sale goes directly back to the presses. </strong>The shop gives us a way of bringing books to readers more directly and creating a space where the value of those sales remains with the presses that made the books possible.
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<li><strong>It’s a space as well as a shop. </strong>We’ll host events, workshops and conversations, and give you a closer look at how books come into the world.
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<li><strong>It’s a shared experiment. </strong>We’ll share space, resources, knowledge, labour and audiences instead of struggling alone.
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<div>And, crucially, we want to test a simple but ambitious idea: what happens when small publishers build the infrastructure we need together?
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<div>The bookshop is our first experiment.
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<div><strong>WE HAVE ALREADY PUT OUR OWN MONEY IN</strong>
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<div>The participating presses have collectively contributed <strong>£2,800 </strong>of our own money, along with our books, our time and our labour.
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<div>Now we need <strong>£3,000 more to open the doors on 6 November.</strong>
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<div><strong>WHAT YOUR CONTRIBUTION MAKES POSSIBLE</strong>
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<div>Shelves, storage and a till may sound ordinary, but they’re what allow hundreds of independently published books to reach readers. They are the physical infrastructure needed to turn an empty space into a functioning bookshop.
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<li><strong>£10</strong> buys materials and fittings for the shop
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<li><strong>£25</strong> builds a shelf where a press’s books will be displayed and discovered
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<li><strong>£50</strong> provides storage for stock from 15 publishers
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<li><strong>£100</strong> goes towards custom-made displays for new releases
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<div>The £3,000 target may sound substantial, but together it is achievable.
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<div><strong>£3,000 is achievable.</strong> If 120 people give £25, or 300 people give £10, we will open on time.
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<div><strong>WHAT YOU GET</strong>
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<div>We want everyone who supports the campaign to feel part of what we are building.
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<div>Every donor will receive an invitation to our opening day and launch party on 6 November.
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<div>The shop is open through November and December, so your Christmas shopping is sorted. We want donors to become visitors, and visitors to discover presses and books they didn’t know yet
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<div>And if you cannot donate, sharing the campaign is another way to help.
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<div><strong>IF WE GO FURTHER</strong>
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<div>If we pass £3,000, we will aim to raise an additional <strong>£2,000</strong> for audio and recording equipment. That would let us record and stream readings, conversations and workshops, so that what happens in Peckham can reach people beyond London, and potentially far beyond the UK.
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<div><strong>AND AFTER DECEMBER?</strong>
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<div>The shop is a pilot, but our ambition is larger. If it succeeds, we want to keep the space open and invite more publishers to join. We imagine a shared home for independent publishing, somewhere to sell books, work together, meet readers, host writers, share knowledge and experiment with new ways of sustaining our work.
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<div><strong>FIFTEEN PRESSES. ONE SHARED EXPERIMENT.</strong>
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<div>This isn’t an anonymous institution asking for support. It’s a group of amazing and diverse independent publishers trying to build a more sustainable way of working together. Over the coming weeks, we’ll introduce each press, our books and the people behind them.
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<div>Book Works · Cassava Republic Press · Cipher Press · Fitzcarraldo Editions · Hajar Press · Monitor Books · Out-Spoken Press · Peninsula Press · Prototype · Rough Trade Books · Silver Press · Sticky Fingers · Tenement Press · the87press · Tilted Axis Press.
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<div><strong>Donate if you can. Share the campaign. Come to the shop, buy a book, and bring someone with you.</strong>
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<div>We are not simply crowdfunding shelves.
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<div><strong>For years, small publishers have found ingenious ways to do more with less.</strong>
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<div><strong>Now we are testing whether small publishers can build the infrastructure we need together.</strong>
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Jane Pike

Anonymous

Jacob Smullyan

Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

Ellen McAteer

Stephanie Limb

Christina Riley

Lillian Wilkie Coker

Amanda Rosso

Lucy Davis

Sofia De Ceglie

eirini zormpa

Miranda Peake

Merle Bennett

Saqi Books

Gary Clark

Small Press Futures Bookshop

Small Press Futures Bookshop

Still £3,664 to go. Help us build momentum.