It was in Manchester, at a regional meeting called by The Society of Authors at a centre down near Oxford Road station. The event had been useful – authors tend to work in isolation, so it’s helpful to meet up when we can with other writers – but what happened on the walk back to my train at Victoria was rather more significant.

I was walking with the veteran author and campaigner, Colin Speakman. Quite apart from being the author of more books than I have fingers and toes, he was instrumental in the 1980s in saving the Settle-Carlisle Railway from closure, and was the chief instigator of the popular Dales Way long-distance trail.

Colin and I spent the time discussing if there was some way that authors could have more control over the way that our books are brought to market. The commercial publishing industry has changed enormously in recent years and has become much more marketing-led. In the process, it has been authors who have tended to suffer. The Society of Authors’ most recent survey of authors’ incomes, carried out three years ago, is a sober read. Average (median) earnings were just £7,000 a year, down from the 2006 median of £12,330. As the society points out, when inflation is factored in, this represents a fall in real terms for authors of more than 60 per cent. It can be tough being a professional writer.

Colin and I pondered if there was a third way between conventional commercial publishing and self-publishing. Perhaps a model which enabled us to assert more control over how our books are brought to market, and, when our books found readers, whether we could benefit a little more from the resulting income?

A decade later

That Society of Authors meeting took place a decade ago. Gritstone Publishing Cooperative, the idea we had back in 2016, celebrates its 10^th birthday in 2026. We began with four initial members, all of us professional writers specialising in books about the countryside and the outdoors, and have steadily expanded to the position today where we are nine strong.

As the Gritstone name suggests, we are strongly rooted in a sense of place, with a particular focus on the North of England. Six of the nine of us are Yorkshire-based, with our remaining members in the Peak District and North Wales. We’re approaching 30 books in print and have expanded our focus to include nature conservation and social history. We also publish fiction, again strongly northern-based.

Gritstone is what is known technically as a fully mutual co-operative. Among other things, this means that it’s controlled collectively by the nine members and is restricted to bringing out books written by our co-op members. We discuss and agree proposed new titles for the imprint together. Book distribution to the book trade, including bookshops and online retailers, is handled by a mainstream trade distributor, but our titles are also sold directly from the Gritstone website.

In fact, our model is taken from the long-established concept of marketing co-operatives used, for example, by many farmers and wine producers to collectively sell their produce (some artists also sell their work through this sort of co-op). But Gritstone isn’t just about collective marketing or a collective brand. What we’ve found particularly rewarding has been the strong sense of solidarity which has developed between the co-op members. Writing can be a solitary occupation. Gritstone helps us to overcome this. We take a keen interest in each other’s work (sometimes suggesting book titles) and we support each other through the publishing process.

So, how are we planning to celebrate our tenth birthday? Well, this summer we are publishing the final two volumes in a comprehensive set of guidebooks to the new King Charles III England Coast Path, the longest and most ambitious of the country’s long-distance national trails. The author is one of our founder members, writer and cartographer Chris Goddard, who has walked every inch of the coast path in researching the books. The 2026 titles, on the Northern and Eastern sections of the path, will join the South and South West volumes already published. We’re chuffed that Gritstone is well ahead of commercial publishers here: our books are the only guides to walkers currently available.

The most recent author to join Gritstone is Mike Raine, a mountaineering instructor and author of the leading handbook on mountain craft. His new book, Just One More Hill, is an informative and entertaining account of the growing popularity of ‘bikepacking’ (cycle touring) and will be another 2026 publication. Fellow Gritstone member Eileen Jones’s tribute to William Wordsworth’s home Rydal Mount in the Lake District is also in production at the moment, as is a newly revised edition of The Long Spring by conservationist and former RSPB director for Northern England, Laurence Rose, a book described by The Spectator when it was first published as an ‘inspiring, eye-opening read’. And we have other books lined up for bookshops in time for autumn and Christmas.

When we started the co-operative, we wondered if our approach could work. Now, after ten years, we can categorically assert that the Gritstone model is effective. We’re just a little surprised that, during this period, no other author-run publishing co-operative has emerged to join us. The model is there to be used, and, in line with the principle of co-operation between co-operatives, we’d be very happy to offer advice to anyone who wants to know more.

By Andrew Bibby

 

For more information about Gritstone, click here.