Thoughts on… the Future of Publishing [by Jannat Ahmed]

Listen to the audio version of this post on YouTube.

It’s been just over a year since my last post. There, I concluded after struggling with depression, and my own distaste for working in an ego-driven business, I needed time to catch up on our existing projects, and to work out what to do next.

While it didn’t happen exactly as planned, I’ve been fortunate to take that time.

In conversation with extraordinary creative leaders around the UK as part of the UK Creative Community Fellows (UKCCF), in sessions that helped me gain new perspectives on facilitating creative work, I’ve learnt that whatever I’ve been doing the past few years, I cannot do this anymore. The world has changed drastically since launching Lucent Dreaming’s website in October 2017 and magazine in April 2018. From a 22-year-old with an EFF-IT attitude to now, 8 years later, of course I have changed too.

Independent presses around the country are facing similar challenges and reaching similar conclusions. This open letter on the future of publishing in the UK shared last month is a good example: https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/open-letter-on-the-future-of-small-press-publishing-in-the-uk The ‘existential crisis’ described in the letter has already forced many publishers out of existence. We have said farewell to so many brilliant presses this year alone. Like them, we know our work is unsustainable without adequate income or funding. At Lucent, relying on inadequate core funding from Books Council Wales since 2023, and self-funding to bridge gaps, I have put myself in an unfortunate financial position while trying to sustain our work. Our work and my health have both suffered as a result, and I’ve felt I really only have myself to blame. This is despite inadequate resources for indie presses being a common and systemic issue.

So, with that being the case, I chose not to reapply for Books Council Wales’ (BCW) new longer-term core funding grants for this tender period. I know our vision doesn’t match the resources available in this tender at this time, and we won’t meet BCW agenda in the position we now find ourselves.

I am hugely grateful for the support of BCW over the years, and without them, we would not have made the impact we have made thus far; we are still applying for and in receipt of their more discrete grants. In funding Lucent Dreaming, they have changed the publishing industry in Wales forever. It was their life-changing New Audiences Grant in 2022 that supported us to set up as a book publisher. But I know now they are capable of more because I have seen the resources they have made available for their literary magazine tender, now taken up by Folding Rock. This tender shows it is possible for funders to do better, but even so, the longevity of that funding is still at risk, and secure, sustainable income is never guaranteed in the arts.

Both stagnant funding and funding cuts have affected arts organisations and creative industries across the UK, but in my view, the expectations of what is possible with the funding BCW receives from Welsh Government through Creative Wales, and the funding they then disseminate to book and magazine publishers, has not been properly adjusted to reflect the reality of our industry today.

House prices in Wales have increased 35% since 2018.¹ I don’t believe the £25k pro rata salaries I remember seeing in publishing in 2018 have since increased to £34k, sadly, despite this being Wales’ median wage in 2024.² I suspect the value of author advances has not risen to anywhere near these levels either, where the median income (I emphasise per year here) for self-employed writers in the UK is a gutting £7k.³

As a friend pointed out to me, the publishing industry in Wales has historically been the reserve of academics, who can afford to accept minimal payment, both as publishers and as writers. This legacy is damaging, especially now; with the far-right on the rise, it’s vital that those from lower socio-economic backgrounds are able to represent themselves in their art and in media, or else continue to be misrepresented by the upper-middle classes. We cannot afford to represent ourselves if we are not afforded the means and access to participate fully in these culture-making industries. And we shouldn’t be made to suffer in our attempts to be seen and heard.

In order to support the Welsh talents we believe in, many of whom are from lower socio-economic backgrounds, we are encouraged to accept insufficient funds; this perpetuates the erosion of an industry constantly punching above its weight. Welsh Government needs to realign their funding support to respond to a changing economic climate. Without this, the pool of published writers in Wales, especially writers of colour and working class writers, will be diminished. Wales will be poorer as a result, as it is those in the margins and on lower incomes who will suffer. We look to Ireland as an example of good practice with their new Basic Income for the Arts. A Universal Basic Income in Wales will relieve the pressure on publishers, making creative grants go further: paying our authors, contributors, editors and staff a fair, living wage.

Value for money should not come as a result of cutting corners. The Books Council needs to prioritise making the industry sustainable for everyone involved, and set the standard for what is acceptable in the book industry we want to see in Wales and beyond. We believe sustainability should be Publishing Wales’ main focus when speaking to Books Council and the Welsh Government. We know Arts Council Wales was able to receive an increase in investment recently. From what I’ve seen, Creative Wales’ funding and support have likewise positively affected the film and tv industries in Wales, but the book industry falls behind. Several studies show that a reading culture is strongly correlated with social mobility and future success.⁴ Isn’t this what we should aspire to sustain? For a land of bards, we are failing to live up to gwlad beirdd (from an anthem that gained popularity precisely because it was published).⁵

Most writers know and/or believe that they cannot make a living out of writing alone. The working classes often sell their labour for less than they deserve, because there is often no other choice. But, how might it be if there was a choice? What would the majority of us do if we had more (or any) disposable income? What is actually available to us? Isn’t that what the Future Generations Act should be taking into account?

I am thinking now: how might we encourage our political representatives to consider a more positive future? Who else might imagine this future, and what can we do to put in place the pro-cultural policies and the materials to realise this? I imagine future generations will travel around Wales freely, better connected to the world, attending events, co-producing art in community, reading books from all sorts of people, at home, on holiday, and convening in beautiful and large accessible community spaces and libraries (I would turn lots of castles into libraries if I could), building foundations for more connections and better wellbeing. What can we put in place in the publishing industry to make this vision possible?

What is preventing our success? Indie publishers in Wales struggle financially, to support themselves and their writers, unless the publisher has control over some intellectual property (IP) – book series turned franchise usually – that can sustain their business. But creating IP (e.g. a good book, packaged and marketed well) requires intelligent risk-taking, strong networks across creative industries, and the investment of several thousands of pounds of resources. We are a part of the capitalist machine after all.

Intellectual properties work as cultural capital, permeating the boundaries to reach people from all kinds of backgrounds. However, in the absence of strong investment, both the author and their work are lost. In other words, our stories become invisible to the wider world unless we invest in sharing them widely. Sharing creative work widely is something that publishing is designed to do, but the infrastructure we have inherited doesn’t offer the best chances of success for writers Cymreig.

The stories least likely to receive investment are the ones that gatekeepers least value. But if our gatekeepers are either global conglomerates, or independents with inadequate resources (in both cases where only those from wealthy and stable backgrounds can keep ahold of the keys), millions of stories will continue to exist on the fringes. As is already happening, writers will be made to take Wales out of their work, and worse, to exoticise themselves and to fetishize their lived experiences, for a culture that prioritises profit, not cultural health. Our stories deserve to be treated with integrity, not as a trend.⁶ Unless fair, living wages are made a priority for independent authors and publishers, this will not change.

I wrote earlier that I felt I only had myself to blame. For those who want more detail: our business plan was based on an assumption we would be publishing books with two members of full-time staff both paid around £20k per annum for three years. When our grant letter came through at around half the amount we hoped to receive to help cover these foundational costs for our new business, I still went ahead and tried to make it work, topping it up with other funding pots and self-funding, including loans that I will be continuing to pay off for years. It’s only now, with hindsight, I can look back and regret two things: that I didn’t apply for more, and that I accepted less than we needed to fulfil our vision. The harshest critic may sit within us, but so does the realist. Thinking on it here, I wonder why I put so much energy into our vision for a better publisher in Wales if I cut down the protective bark immediately? Almost three years later, it’s obvious that I dimmed our glow because I was desperate for a chance to make a difference. And who can turn down that much money in this economy?

It feels like a personal failing. Why? Because I was going to go for it anyway. I grew up being so used to making the most out of little, it’s default programming to make things stretch, and to expect to have to be in a position to do so, always. These invisible class lines delineate us, where boys at Eton solve maths problems that start with people who have £400, and the rest of us start with £4.

Books Council must already be fully aware of what is needed to make books from Wales a national and international success: skilled editors and commissioners, designers, authors, artists, rights managers, agents, marketers, sales representatives, educators, publicists, lawyers, accountants, booksellers, event planners, readers, warehouse staff, and the culture itself. And yet, because of the nature of publishing in Wales, where publishers are set up to underpay their staff and contributors, they cannot address the barriers to success that working class Welsh women like me face in an industry populated by the white middle class.

To add salt to the wound, when I told BCW earlier this year that I wasn’t planning on applying for their core grants again because it was not adequate for our needs, the Books Council suggested we apply for part-time roles instead. I shared that this didn’t make sense to me as we don’t have responsibilities that require us to work part-time. This would be an exercise in cutting corners, restructuring on their terms. I wanted to work full-time because 1. Publishing new and emerging talent is a full-time job, 2. Even if I applied for funding to work part-time, it was likely that our staff would exceed the hours stated to meet targets, and 3. I would like to earn enough to save for a house and pay off my debts.

Unlike others in the industry, I do not have the privilege of financial security offered by a partner, nor a property portfolio to bankroll my publishing work. I have worked part-time at multiple jobs before. It’s not something I want to return to because it’s incredibly hard, supplying twice the stress, at a combined income that amounts to lower than one full-time role. Precarious work and job insecurity are both exploitative and rife, and function only to benefit those who enjoy these aforementioned socio-economic privileges. Part-time work can be a solution for those with corresponding access needs, but part-time workers also live full-time lives, and deserve a living wage. I know there are other working class women in the publishing industry who choose to work part-time for other reasons, who still feel the pressure to exceed their hours to complete their work. Part-time wages as a solution to underrepresentation in the industry is not a sustainable practice and should not be recommended.

Until the severity of this issue of inadequate funding is conveyed to Welsh Government by Books Council Wales and Publishing Wales in the strongest terms, I am not willing to sell my labour for less than I deserve, nor do I wish to set that precedent for others who are setting up or applying for funding, especially in the age of AI, when artists and creatives are already being exploited and devalued.

So, what’s the plan now? We have contacted all the writers who have contracts with us and made it clear that we are not closing down, but we are slowing down. We are taking stock and restructuring on our own terms. My fiction editor and I are no longer waged by Lucent Dreaming. Lucent Dreaming started as a voluntary project, and I will continue to volunteer at Lucent Dreaming one day a week (usually Fridays). Samiha has also kindly offered to volunteer on Mondays. And some of our authors have volunteered to help us out too, which is incredibly humbling. I can’t imagine another business I’ve worked where that would happen.

While we look to see how other independent publishers navigate this period, I believe the best position for us now is one of transparency, where we are clearer how limited our funding and resources have become. Small independent publishing has always been collaborative, with authors participating in the promotion of their books. These expectations will now be explicit. We will continue to operate as a publisher of new and emerging talent, as their stepping stone to bigger projects. Thanks to the foundations we have built and the networks we are a part of, including Inpress and IPG, we can continue to offer an infrastructure that helps bring new voices to traditional print. In my own life, I’ve always described Lucent Dreaming as a procrastination project from my own writing, so I am turning my focus back to my own creative work for as long as I’m able, making myself available for freelance editorial and other work. Freedom from debt and owning a house both seem a long way off, but you never know what comes next.

To the point, if you are reading this, I would like to hear from you. I am writing this post because I would like your input. When my friends and I co-founded Lucent, things were different. We knew why we wanted to work in publishing and how we wanted that to feel. It wasn’t about changing the culture in Wales, it was about changing the culture of publishing worldwide, one which felt wholly inaccessible. Later, when I set up our book publishing arm as a limited business, I knew why I wanted to publish the kind of work we do: because the work mattered. But Lucent has always been more than the people who started it. It’s in all the people who believed in the dream and made it happen.

The world continues to generate hostility, to enable genocide, and to wager exploitation. Racism and transphobia are on the rise, and protests are policed. In this highly charged environment, where books can be tools to connect, to learn, to escape, to reimagine, what do you want to see from your local (or not-so-local) independent publisher? How do you want things to work? What do you feel is missing or not heard? Please share your thoughts with us, long or short. Here is a link to our Google form which will be open until the end of December 2025: https://forms.gle/NkfwHCr8J58JEaN67 Every response with a valid email address will receive a £5 voucher off books purchased on our website. You’re also welcome to record a voice note and share it via email at admin@lucentdreaming.com before 1 January 2026.