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Scotsman
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Award winning Edinburgh book publisher 404 Ink announces it is closing down
An award-winning Edinburgh independent book publisher is closing down after 10 years. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... 404 Ink announced on their website that they will close in summer 2026 as 'over the years the costs and obstacles in independent publishing have increased significantly.' The publisher is run by Laura Jones-Rivera and Heather McDaid who started their venture in 2016 fresh out of university. 404 Ink duo Heather McDaid (left) and Laura Jones (right) | contributed Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 404 Ink is known for publishing alternative literary works. Some notable publications are Hings by Chris McQueer, the Inklings series and Nasty Women, a collection of feminist essays which Margaret Atwood called "Essential". In the statement published to the website the team say 404 Ink was and is 'a labour of love' and both Laura and Heather were not making much profit from the business: 'mostly unpaid to the two of us, who are no longer the scrappy upstart graduates, and have different, bigger responsibilities than our younger selves.' They go on to say that this is becoming a common issue in the publishing industry: 'We have also seen many publishers come and go over this time - some burning out in these conditions until they can no longer continue, others stepping back not-so-ethically and leaving their authors in the lurch. We felt the best service we could do, to ourselves, our authors, and the legacy of 404 Ink, is to go out while on top, following our biggest year ever, and on our own terms.' For fans of the Inklings list independent publisher Saraband will be taking a significant portion forward and will continue to distribute a small selection of 404 Inks main titles. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The duo have said they will continue to be involved in the publishing industry as Laura will be starting a PhD in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling this October and Heather will continue her role as Publishing and Campaigns Manager for the Terry Pratchett Estate.


The Herald Scotland
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Scottish publisher announces closure after 'labour of love'
The award-winning company, which published both books and literary magazines, has been funded by Scottish Government arts agency Creative Scotland in recent years. Read more: In a statement on the 404 Ink website, McDaid and Jones-Rivera said they had decided to wind down the company by next summer as they had "ticked off every aspiration and goal" that they had set. However they have cited a significant increase in "costs and obstacles" since the launch of 404 Ink, which was honoured last year in the British Book Awards. Chris McQueer is among the writers published by 404 Ink. (Image: Wildfire) And they have admitted their work on the company had been a "labour of love" which had been "mostly unpaid." Recent titles have included Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson's recent celebration of their cabaret double act Victor and Barry. Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson reunited to write their Victor and Barry book Kelvinside Compendium, which was published by 404 Ink. (Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)) Other writers published have included Chris McQueer, Genevieve Jagger, Heather Parry, Helen McClory and Ellie Nash. McDaid and Jones-Rivera have pledged there will be an "ethical wind down" of 404 Ink by continuing to trade until next year and working with the Glasgow-based publisher Saraband to continue Inklings, a series of pocket-sized non-fiction books. Authors and agents were also alerted about the closure plans earlier this year "to give them as much time as possible to process the news and act accordingly." The company has largely focused on developing the careers of new and emerging writers based in Scotland, and published fiction, non-fiction and poetry. However the pair said they had decided "it is time to step back and leave space for others to pick up the mantle, or disrupt the mantle, or just create their own mantle and future they want to see in the book world." McDaid and Jones-Rivera had pledged to focus on "quality over quanity" and "always punch above our weight in all areas to get our authors in front of as many people as possible." Other writers the pair have championed include Andrés N. Ordorica, Arun Sood, Carrie Marshall, Joe Donnelly, Liam Konemann and Nadine Aisha Jassat. McDaid and Jones-Rivera said they had "paused and reflected" on the future of 404 Ink ahead of its 10th anniversary in July 2026. In their closure announcement, the pair said: "Struggling to come up with a revised mission statement for the next ten years, we realised that we had ticked off every aspiration and goal we had set as fledgling publishers back in 2016 and couldn't think of any way to better those aspirations. "404 Ink has been run by two people the whole time. We were 24 and 25 years old when we launched the company, fresh-faced out of university and full of confidence that we could ruffle some feathers in publishing. Ten years later, we can confidently and proudly say that we did, and it is time to step back and leave space for others to pick up the mantle, or disrupt the mantle, or just create their own mantle and future they want to see in the book world. "Running a company isn't easy - 404 Ink was, is, a labour of love, mostly unpaid to the two of us, who are no longer the scrappy upstart graduates, and have different, bigger responsibilities than our younger selves, and over the years the costs and obstacles in independent publishing have increased significantly (we won't bore you with the long, long list. "We have also seen many publishers come and go over this time - some burning out in these conditions until they can no longer continue, others stepping back not-so-ethically and leaving their authors in the lurch. "We felt the best service we could do, to ourselves, our authors, and the legacy of 404 Ink, is to go out while on top, following our biggest year ever, and on our own terms." McDaid and Jones-Rivera said all future books would still be coming out as planned over the next year. They added: "We aren't commissioning any further titles under 404 Ink and we are focusing our efforts on the ethical wind down of the company, ensuring that all our authors find the future they hope for as much as we are able. "We still have one year until the company fully shutters and plenty of time for goodbyes (and maybe even a big farewell party/funeral), but for now we want to thank our incredible authors who trusted us with their work, the freelancers who we could not have made these books without, the partner organisations who have shared these books far and wide, the funders who made a lot of this business possible and viable, those who have offered insight or supported us through the past ten years and, finally, the wonderful readers who pick up books, whether that's from us, bookshops, libraries, or shared via friends. "No matter how you got them, we're glad you read them. Please keep reading them."