11th July 2025
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2 News
404 Ink announces closure ahead of 10th anniversary
Going out on a high was paramount when Heather McDaid and Laura Jones-Rivera made the decision to sunset their labour of love, 404 Ink, but the future continues to look bright for the publishers
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he co-founders and publishers of 404 Ink, the reigning British Book Awards’ Small Press of the Year winner for Scotland, have exclu- sively revealed to The Bookseller
their decision to close the business as it reaches its 10th anniversary in July 2026. Heather McDaid ( 1) and Laura Jones-Rivera
( 2) shared a desire to end 404 Ink’s legacy on their own terms after exploring different options for succession over the past year. Any books scheduled to be published between now and next July remain in production and all pre-orders will be fulfilled. McDaid and Jones-Rivera will officially step back in
summer 2026, at which point 404 Ink will cease all operations. In a conversation with The Bookseller, the
pair attributed the decision to the pressures of balancing family life with operating a small press. Jones-Rivera explained: “Effectively, we realised that we couldn’t keep running this company if we both had children… which is quite an indictment of the system as it is and how impossible it is to make a small company work with two women.” McDaid added: “We risked getting to the point where we just could not be as responsible as we want to be… We were going to be stretched too thin.” She continued: “The important thing is we want to go out on a high.” Despite the closure, the 404 Ink list will live
on in different ways: fellow independent publisher Saraband, helmed by Sara Hunt, will take forward a significant portion of its Inklings non-fiction series and will commission new titles in the series for publication from mid-2026 onwards. This follows Saraband’s initial acquisition of US rights for several Inklings, which will be released in the US from autumn 2025. Saraband will also take forward a selection of main list titles including Victor & Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium by Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson.
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