Brief
Self-Publishing Partnership collapse hits about 100 authors
ALLi and The Bookseller now put the UK service’s failure at around 100 authors and 164 titles, with unpaid royalties and print stock still in the chain.
Why it matters. A paid intermediary can become a single point of failure for rights, stock, and money you thought had already been earned.
The Alliance of Independent Authors’ 12 September news summary, drawing on The Bookseller, says Self-Publishing Partnership has ceased trading. About 100 authors and 164 books are affected. Authors had already been emailed that the company was stopping; unpaid royalties and print copies were left sitting in distribution. A move to strike the company off was suspended on 22 August after freelancers said they were still owed for work.
Gardners is trying to keep titles that remain in its network available. Softwood Books has taken on many of the affected authors. Orna Ross’s warning in The Bookseller is the operational point: a self-publishing business that holds your files, your ISBNs, and your retailer accounts is a single point of failure. If you use a paid service publisher, keep a copy of every file, know who owns the ISBN, and confirm you can move distribution without that company’s dashboard.