A few weeks ago, our founder, Farhana Shaikh, posted a short thread on Twitter (X) about the pressures of running a small press against the tide of rising costs.
Thr small presses have been doing their best, but with rising costs affecting paper, print, postage, and the usual utility bills – we need readers to buy our books to ensure our survival.
— Farhana Shaikh 🍉 (@farhanashaikh) July 12, 2025
The post goes on to say: “I set up @DahliaBooks in 2010. We mainly publish short story collections, run Short Story September and occasionally work with community groups to publish their anthologies.
The only way we’ve been able to mitigate against these rising costs is by taking on more commercial work (funded titles) and less commissioning. Even though we are discerning about who we work with, this has a knock on effect for writers trying to place their work.
Many writers are first published by a small press, so when we struggle the entire literary ecology suffers. This is a plea to support the #indies by buying books directly from us (many have websites!), reviewing us and stocking our books.
There’s plenty to choose from if #shortstories isn’t your thing. Check out some regional presses who publish everything from poetry to novels: @commapress @NineArchesPress @ShearsmanBooks @FiveLeavesBooks @Ofmooseandmen @fly_press. Also see @IndiePressNet & @Mslexia Indie guide
The** (apols too hot and brain is melting)
The thread was RT’d 19 times, and current statistics show it has been viewed just under 2,500 times.
Late last night (31st July) Farhana received an email about a newsletter that misrepresents this post, falsely claiming she admitted to cost-cutting and implying wrongdoing. This is untrue.
We have contacted the author and asked them to issue a correction and apologise but they claim they have “stated facts”. We are incredibly disappointed that this author did not have the courtesy of contacting us for clarification after being so shocked that Dahlia Books resorts to publishing “funded titles” to mitigate against rising costs. We also dispute that the original post is an admission of cutting costs as claimed by the author.
For the avoidance of doubt, or should anyone be concerned that Dahlia Books has fallen under the charms of a self-styled billionaire and will only be publishing salacious memoirs from now on, we wanted to take this opportunity to explain what Farhana meant by “commercial work (funded titles)”.
The picture below highlights the commercial projects we’ve published in this cycle (24/25):
From top left to bottom right: Flash Fusion Anthology, Bridges Not Border, The Writer’s Refuge and In the Middle
These titles are not commissioned in the usual way and do not come to us via our submission inbox. The authors do not receive an advance from us. We class these titles as commercial work as they are led by community groups or writers who have secured funding through various means, including but not limited to AHRC, Arts Council England, Royal Society of Literature, and are looking for a publishing partner. This means that we receive payment for the publishing services we provide.
This is not something new to us at Dahlia Books, as we have previously worked with the fantastic Fiona Linday and her group of writers based at Attenborough Arts, publishing their ACE-funded Family Matters and Making Our World Better anthologies. Suffice to say, we are proud of this thread of work and do not take lightly to the suggestion or implication that we are doing anything wrong by taking on such work.
Rest assured, we do not intend to, now or in any time in the future, publish the salacious memoirs of a self-styled billionaire, and we would never take payment from authors for titles we commission through our submissions process. But, in order to keep going, we might, on occasion, take on the odd commercial project that aligns with our values and amplifies voices from marginalised communities.
As for cost-cutting measures, if someone knows how we can reduce our postal costs, paper and print costs, and electricity bills, please do get in touch.
We hope you continue to support us and other small presses who are doing their best in trying times!
An earlier version of this post included a screenshot of the author’s newsletter which has been removed on their request.
