2023

It's been a good year and a bad year for Hobart Books. Good, because we have published great new books by great new authors and bad because we haven't sold very many of these new books.

Hobart has the products and the infrastructure to be a huge success story - everything is in place - and yet if no one actually buys our books, then what has been the point? I don't think these difficulties are ours alone. Publishing is a crowded market, readers stick to authors they know, bookshops stock the popular books; few people take a risk on a book by someone they haven't heard of.

We've tried email marketing, social media accounts, visits to bookshops, freebies, competitions, sales promotions and overall, nothing works. Most people ignore the posts and the emails and support across the board has been almost non-existent.

Hobart Books is a veteran owned company and even appeals to fellow veterans has yielded almost nothing. So much for that famous camaraderie...

When it gets to the point that your family and friends aren't even buying the books you know you're up against it.

I feel let down and dispirited but now that I know where our support doesn't come from, Hobart Books can strike out in a new direction. We're not finished and too much work has gone into this company for us to accept defeat.

2023 will be our year.