Collective Ink Limited (formerly John Hunt Publishing) is a

publishing company Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

founded in the United Kingdom in 2001 under the name John Hunt Publishing and launched as O Books.John Hunt Publishing – Reviewed
The Independent Publishing Magazine, February 26, 2014. The publisher has 15 active

imprints Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

, the largest of which are Moon Books, O-Books and Zero Books (styled Zer0 Books). The Zero Books imprint was founded to combat what they viewed as a trend of

anti-intellectualism Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically mo ...

in contemporary culture. After changing ownership in 2021, in June 2023, John Hunt Publishing was renamed to Collective Ink.

History

Collective Ink Limited (then John Hunt Publishing) was founded in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 2001, originally named O Books, a name which it continues to use as one of its

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

s, in the "mind, body, and spirit" market.Suzanne Ruthven, ''Compass Points - The Pagan Writers' Guide: Writing for the Pagan and MB&S Markets'' (2013), p. 25, Its Zero Books imprint was founded by

Tariq Goddard Tariq Goddard (born 1975) is a British novelist and publisher. He has written six novels, the first of which ''Homage to a Firing Squad'', was short-listed for the Whitbread Book Award for First Novel. His first three novels were published by Scep ...

and

Mark Fisher Mark Fisher (11 July 1968 – 13 January 2017), also known under his blogging alias k-punk, was an English writer, music critic, political and cultural theorist, philosopher, and teacher based in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsm ...

in 2009. John Hunt Publishing then underwent a major reorganization in 2010. In 2014, Goddard and Fisher left Zero Books and launched

Repeater Books Repeater Books is a publishing imprint based in London, founded in 2014 by Tariq Goddard and Mark Fisher, formerly the founders of radical publishers Zero Books, along with Etan Ilfeld, Tamar Shlaim, Alex Niven and Matteo Mandarini. Formation I ...

as a part of Watkins Media. Following the sale of Collective Ink to Watkins Media in October 2021 Goddard again became the publisher of Zero Books. Zero Books predominantly publishes works of critical thinking and philosophy, such as Mark Fisher's ''Capitalist Realism'' and

Eugene Thacker Eugene Thacker is an American philosopher, poet, and author. He is Professor of Media Studies at The New School in New York City. His writing is often associated with the philosophy of nihilism and pessimism. Thacker's books include ''In the Dus ...

's ''In The Dust of this Planet''. From 2014 the imprint was run by

Douglas Lain Douglas Lain () is a writer whose books include the post-singularity novel ''Bash Bash Revolution'' from Night Shade Books, the magical realist novel ''Billy Moon'' from Tor Books, and the Philip K. Dick Award nominated novel ''After the Sauce ...

along with Ashley Frawley and C Derick Varn and has published critically acclaimed books such as ''

Kill All Normies ''Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right'' is a 2017 non-fiction book by Angela Nagle published by Zero Books. It focuses on the development of internet culture, the nature of political correctness, ...

'' and ''Zen City''. The imprint began publishing a series called ''Neglected or Misunderstood'' in 2017 with the aim of covering "neglected or misunderstood"

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

theorists such as

Shulamith Firestone Shulamith Bath Shmuel Ben Ari Firestone (born Feuerstein; January 7, 1945 – August 28, 2012) was a Canadian-American radical feminist writer and activist. Firestone was a central figure in the early development of radical feminism and second-w ...

and

Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blueger, ...

. Zero Books states that their goal is to utilize

critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

to "publish books that make our readers uncomfortable" in order to "reinvent the left". In 2014, it was stated that John Hunt Publishing "deals directly with authors" and does not require they have an

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

. However, in the mid-2010s it was stated that "because they are a small publisher, they are unable to pay advances, so uthorshave to wait for the

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

to roll in". Imprints of John Hunt Publishing offered four levels of publishing based on the likely popularity of the book,Susie Kearley, ''Freelance Writing On Health, Food and Gardens'' (2014), p. 121 with both "traditional publishing deals and what it describes as co-operative publishing for authors," with about a quarter of books, most prevalently those in fiction, being published "under co-operative terms," though this would vary by imprint. The company also said that "every title gets treated the same. No

bookshop Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librar ...

or reviewer is going to know if one title or another has had a

subsidy A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

." As with other imprints, operations are controlled by authors themselves, who "have gravitated to being involved in publishing, whether coming up through editing, design or marketing." This multiple-imprint author-centric style was described as, "It can't work. It shouldn't work. Yet, somehow, John Hunt Publishing is making it work." A central corporate office continues to manage sales, accounts, and royalties for all imprints. As of 2014, the company was publishing "approximately 300 titles per year with global sales and a focus on physical stores." On October 23, 2021, Repeater Books announced that they had bought the Zero Books imprint from John Hunt Publishing. Then, two days later on October 25, 2021, it was announced that

Watkins Books Watkins Books is London's oldest esoteric bookshop. It specialises in esotericism, mysticism, occultism, oriental religion and contemporary spirituality. The book store was established by John M. Watkins, a friend of Madame Blavatsky, in 1897 ...

owner

Etan Ilfeld Etan Ilfeld is a London-based entrepreneur and the founder of Tenderbooks, Tenderpixel gallery, Watkins Mind Body Spirit Magazine, Watkins Wisdom Academy, PlayStrategy.org, co-founder of Repeater Books, and the owner and managing director of Wat ...

had purchased John Hunt Publishing from John Hunt. In June 2023, John Hunt Publishing was renamed to Collective Ink. Like its predecessor, Collective Ink does not require authors to have an agent, and "welcomes unsolicited

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

submissions". The publisher also routinely publishes lists of contacts for its published authors and data regarding books in production, the number of advertisements run for books, and average royalty payments.

Imprints

Current

As of 2023, the active imprints of John Hunt Publishing are described as: * 6th BooksAll things

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

Suzanne Ruthven, ''Compass Points - The Pagan Writers' Guide: Writing for the Pagan and MB&S Markets'' (2013), p. 44, * Business Books"Fresh thinking for the business world" * Changemakers BooksTransformation * Chronos Books

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

* Christian Alternative"The new open spaces" * Circle Books

Christian faith Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global populat ...

* Iff BooksAcademic and specialist * Liberalis

Liberal arts education Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

and storytelling * Lodestone Books

Young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

* Mantra Books

Eastern religion The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western, African and Iranian religions. This includes the East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese fol ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

* Moon Books

Paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...

and

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

* O-Books

Spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

* Our Street BooksJuvenile fiction,

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

, and

parenting Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a ...

* Psyche Books

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

* RoundfireFiction * Zero BooksCulture, society and politics

Former

* Cosmic Egg Books

Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, and

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...

* Dodona Books

Astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...

and general

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

* Earth Books

Environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

* Compass BooksPractical books for authors * Perfect Edge"Fiction for those who know fiction matters", noted on the website as "no longer receiving submissions" * Bedroom Books

Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

and "sexy-time" * Gaming Books

Card Card or The Card may refer to: * Various types of plastic cards: **By type ***Magnetic stripe card *** Chip card *** Digital card **By function ***Payment card ****Credit card **** Debit card ****EC-card ****Identity card ****European Health Insur ...

and

board games Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

* Soul RocksNew generation * Top Hat Books

Historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

* Sassy Books"Badass books for go-for-it girls"

Authors

Some notable authors published through John Hunt Publishing include:

Andrez Bergen Andrez Simon Bergen is an Australian musician and writer. , Bergen lived in Tokyo, Japan with his wife, Yoko Umehara, and their daughter Cocoa. He has performed and released electronic music as Little Nobody. Biography Andrez Simon Bergen, ...

Frithjof Bergmann Frithjof Harold Bergmann (24 December 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a German professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, where he taught courses on existentialism, continental philosophy, Hegel, and Marx. He was known for the concept of N ...

Danielle Collobert Danielle Collobert was a French author, poet and journalist. Biography Danielle Collobert was born in Rostrenen, Côtes-d'Armor on 23 July 1940. Her mother, a teacher, was obliged to live in a neighbouring village, and Collobert thus grew up a ...

David Fontana David G. J. Fontana FBPsS (1 November 1934 – 18 October 2010) was a British psychologist, parapsychologist and author. He was Professor of Psychology at Cardiff University. He was also visiting professor at Liverpool John Moores University and ...

Nicholas Hagger Nicholas Hagger (born 1939, London) is a British people, British poet, man of letters, cultural historian and commentator, and philosopher. He has been a proponent of philosophical Universalism. Hagger was educated at Oaklands School in Loughton, E ...

Leslie Scalapino Leslie Scalapino (July 25, 1944 – May 28, 2010) was an American poet, experimental prose writer, playwright, essayist, and editor, sometimes grouped in with the Language poets, though she felt closely tied to the Beat poets. Writes Hejinian: ...

David W. Berner David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Jonathan Dapra and

Steve Taylor Roland Stephen Taylor (born December 9, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, music executive, film maker, assistant professor, and actor. A figure in what has come to be known as Christian alternative rock, Taylor enjoyed ...

. Authors published through the Zero Books imprint include:

Angela Nagle Angela Nagle (born 1984) is an American-born Irish academic and non-fiction writer who has written for ''The Baffler'', ''Jacobin (magazine), Jacobin'', and others. She is the author of the book ''Kill All Normies'', published by Zero Books in 20 ...

David Stubbs David Stubbs (born 13 September 1962 in London) is a British music journalist. He grew up in Leeds and in the early Eighties was a student at the University of Oxford where he was a close friend of Simon Reynolds. The two were part of the Oxfor ...

Guy Mankowski Guy Mankowski (born 6 January 1983) is an English writer. He is the great grandson of the author and broadcaster Harry Mortimer Batten. He was educated at St John's College, Portsmouth and Ampleforth College. He read Applied Psychology at Dur ...

Adam Kotsko Adam Kotsko (born 1980) is an American theologian, religious scholar, culture critic, and translator, working in the field of political theology. He served as an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Shimer College in Chicago, which was absorbed in ...

Owen Hatherley Owen Hatherley (born 24 July 1981 in Southampton, England) is a British writer and journalist based in London who writes primarily on architecture, politics and culture. Early life Hatherley was born in Southampton in 1981, growing up in a 1930s ...

Cliff Slaughter Cliff Slaughter (October 1928 – 3 May 2021) was a British socialist activist, sociologist and author. His best-known works are ''Coal is Our Life'' (written with Norman Dennis and Fernando Henriques) and ''Marxism, Ideology and Literature''. I ...

Anselm Jappe Anselm Jappe (born 3 May 1962, Bonn) is a German professor of philosophy. Biography He grew up in Cologne and in the Périgord. He studied in Paris and Rome where he obtained, respectively, a master's and then a doctorate degree in philosophy. ...

Laurie Penny Laurie Penny (born Laura Barnett, 28 September 1986) is a British journalist and writer. Penny has written articles for publications including ''The Guardian,'' ''The New York Times'' and ''Salon''. Penny is a contributing editor at the ''New ...

, Grafton Tanner,

Gilad Atzmon Gilad Atzmon ( he, גלעד עצמון, ; born 9 June 1963) is a British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist, and writer. As a musician, he is best known as a saxophonist and bandleader. His instruments include the saxophone, acco ...

, and

David Cromwell David Cromwell (born 1962) is a British media campaigner and oceanographer. With David Edwards (journalist), David Edwards, he is a co-editor of the Media Lens website. Cromwell was born in Glasgow. His mother was a practicing Catholic. He spent ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Political book publishing companies British companies established in 2001

History

Imprints

Current

Former

Authors

See also

Zero Books

References

External links