S.O.S. for Salt

News flash: an important trans-Atlantic poetry publisher put out an S.O.S. this week.  Here's yesterday's update on the  Salt Publishing situation from the U.K. bookseller Catherine Neilan:

Poetry press Salt has launched a viral marketing campaign in a bid to
stave off closure, in the wake of the publisher’s "financial
difficulties". The publisher has asked for customers to "buy just one
Salt book". Director Chris Hamilton-Emery said the first day of his
company’s 'Just One Book’ campaign had "swept the web", leading to
more than 400 orders within 24 hours.

He said: "The response has been astonishing and heart-warming. Since
June last year our family business has faced severe financial
difficulties - the recession hit us hard. We're almost at the end, it's
terrifically sad. Nine years of our lives has gone into developing this
literary business."

Salt's campaign began on Facebook and has now extended to include a
"cheeky" video based on the WWF's 'Adopt a Polar Bear’ advertisements
seen frequently on children's television. "We knew there was terrific
support for Salt and our authors, but it's all been amazing," said
Hamilton-Emery. "These new customers, hundreds of them around the world
from Canada to Australia, Japan to the UK, are saving our business one
book at a time."

The publisher, which was set up after Oxford University Press closed
its poetry list 10 years ago, had been funded by the Arts Council
England until the last financial year. During the last year of ACE
support, the company had increased turnover by 70%.

But, in the wake of the recession, Salt experienced "a shortfall of
￡55,000". Hamilton-Emery said: "It's a very big hole, and the Arts
Council, who have been terrifically supportive, can no longer help us.
They've done everything they can. We're on our own now."

Salt has a website, Facebook page, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdcTqXaOD2s devoted to the campaign.

I'm giving this post a personal slant, since Salt happens to be the publisher of a book I reminisced about just last week on Harriet ("Eileen and Me (1982)." The Encyclopedia of Scotland, the "shamanic long poem in rhythmic free verse" that has received some notoriety since then on the Vowel Movers site, was completed in 1983 and not published until the adventurous Salt coaxed it out of a drawer in 2005. If anyone wants to order The Encyclopedia of Scotland as part of the Salt campaign, I'll be happy to inscribe and send it back to you at my expense as my part of the donation.  Either way, I hope you will browse their voluminous site and see what you can do to be part of this campaign.