Card Machine Fiasco

This is an explanation of why we have been unable to take card machine payments since June. It is also a warning to card machine users. In 2015 we signed up for a card machine with a company recommended by the Federation of Small Businesses. In June this year I...
The tragic story of Conqueror paper

The tragic story of Conqueror paper

In September 2022 the company that owned the mill in Scotland that had made Conqueror paper and board since the late eighteenth century went into receivership. My experience of the printing industry now dates back about 50 years. In the past every paper merchant (and...

Printing and VAT

This is a rough guide to VAT and printing – it is complicated!Zero rated material: in the UK the government has sought to protect reading materials from bearing VAT . This means that books, magazines and newspapers are all zero rated. By extension, booklets,...

Marketing and selling your book

We do not finance, market or sell books. Poetry and fiction are likely to be the hardest books to sell, while local history and areas of specialised non-fiction may have ready-made markets. The good news is that even in this digital era the sale of books is...