I do not quite know where to start with this one, so I am going to start at the beginning.
I founded Authors & Co because my grandad did not believe he could write a book before he died. He thought only celebrities did that. He left behind empty pages, and I took all the pain of that and turned it into something. Over the past ten years, that something has become more than 700 authors, across more than 50 countries, whose books have changed lives, built legacies, and left something permanent for their families to hold onto.
Authors & Co is now in its tenth year. That is a milestone I am genuinely proud of, and I want to take a moment to acknowledge it before I tell you what comes next. Because what comes next is significant.
What has been happening
For the past year or so I have been building offline, in meetings and conversations and negotiations that have taken up more of my time and energy than I have publicly talked about. I have been doing this work in the background because it needed to be done properly before it could be talked about, and because I have never been someone who announces things before they are real.
They are real now.
Authors & Co has always been built on a simple conviction: that the right people, with the right support, can produce books that stand alongside anything a traditional publisher puts out. That conviction has not changed. What has changed is what we are now able to offer on the back of it.
After months of detailed review – going back through our catalogue, assessing our titles and standards, looking at the success our authors have achieved and the respect we have earned not just within hybrid publishing but within the traditional publishing world too – we have secured trade representation, warehousing, and distribution. Both in the UK and across Europe.
What that means in practice
It means that independent bookshops and the major chains can now order and stock books published under our new imprints. It means five sales representatives covering locations across the UK and Europe, actively speaking to booksellers about our authors and their books. It means a new hire focused on PR, marketing, and events – someone whose job will be to help our authors secure signings, bookshop talks, and launch events that reflect the standard of the work.
POD and Amazon remain part of the model, because if you understand distribution you understand why they have to be. But trade press changes what is possible for an author in ways that go beyond sales. It changes how the book is positioned, how it is received, and what doors it opens.
The new imprints
In addition to Authors & Co, I now have two new publishing companies. One focused on nonfiction. One focused on fiction. Both built on everything Authors & Co has done and then taken further.
Their names will be announced in the coming months, alongside the first titles and the full details of what each imprint offers. I am not ready to share everything yet, partly because trade distribution requires metadata, covers, and sales materials to circulate six months ahead of publication, and partly because I want the announcement to reflect the scale of what we have built. It will.
What stays the same
Authors & Co is not changing. The hybrid model, the standards, the team, the approach – none of that is going anywhere. We have only got here because of how good we are at what we do, and that does not change because we are now able to offer more.
What is changing is the ceiling. There is not one anymore.
Thank you
I want to thank every author who has trusted Authors & Co with their book over the past ten years. Every person who chose us, referred us, championed us, or simply believed in what we were doing before the rest of the world caught up. You are the reason this is possible.
I want to thank everyone who has been in my corner – who cheered, who showed up, who kept going alongside me through the years when this was harder than it looked from the outside.
And I want to thank my team. You have not just held our authors. You have stood behind me through the rough seas as well as the smooth ones. You showed up when it mattered most, and you deserve every good thing that comes from this. I could not be more proud of what we have built together, or more grateful that I get to do it with you.
There is more to come. A lot more.
Watch this space.
Abigail x
Authors & Co is a UK hybrid publisher for nonfiction books. Founded by Abigail Horne in 2017, we help founders, leaders, and experts write and publish books that work strategically. Over 700 authors, 50+ countries.
