Six Small Presses Hand Distribution to Consortium and Global Book Sales

Six small publishers have lined up new distributors. Four will work with Consortium and two with Global Book Sales, according to a Publishers Marketplace trade report dated 9 November 2026.

Distribution is the unglamorous part of publishing. It covers storing printed books, shipping them, sending out invoices and pitching titles to bookshops and chains. Many small presses hand that work to a specialist company, because running a warehouse and a sales team in-house costs more than most can carry.

Consortium is taking on four presses. Afterlife Press and Write Bloody start on 2 January 2027. BluPetal follows on 1 February, and Emergence Press starts on 1 March.

Loft Publications and Saint Lucy Books will be distributed through Global Book Sales.

For a reader, the switch will probably go unnoticed. A book's route to the shelf runs through its distributor, though. A change of distributor can affect which shops stock a title and how quickly copies reach them.

Each of the four Consortium start dates falls in the first quarter of 2027, so the new arrangements will take effect in the early months of the year. For the presses involved, the change means handing day-to-day logistics to a larger outside operation and keeping their editorial work in-house.

There is a steady pattern in small publishing: independent houses that want their books in stores often rely on a partner to do the heavy lifting.