Collective Ink Limited (formerly John Hunt Publishing) is a publishing company 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 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 in 2001, originally named O Books, a name which it continues to use as one of its imprints, 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 in 2009. John Hunt Publishing then underwent a major reorganization in 2010. In 2014, Goddard and Fisher left Zero Books and launched Repeater Books 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's ''In The Dust of this Planet''. From 2014 the imprint was run by Douglas Lain 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 theorists such as Shulamith Firestone and Theodor Adorno. 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. 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 owner Etan Ilfeld 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 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 paranormalSuzanne 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 * Christian Alternative"The new open spaces" * Circle Books Christian faith * 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 * Mantra Books Eastern religion 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, and parenting * Psyche Books Psychology * RoundfireFiction * Zero BooksCulture, society and politics

Former

* Cosmic Egg Books Fantasy, science fiction, 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,

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 * 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 and "sexy-time" * Gaming Books Card and board games * 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, Frithjof Bergmann, Danielle Collobert, David Fontana, Nicholas Hagger, Leslie Scalapino,

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 ...

, Mark Fisher,

, David Stubbs, Guy Mankowski,

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, Cliff Slaughter,

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, Grafton Tanner, Eugene Thacker, Gilad Atzmon, and David Cromwell.

References

External links

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