Loud and Proud: Celebrating ten years of 404 Ink

It wasn’t quite the best of times or the worst of times, but Scottish publishing was a turbulent place in the mid-2010s. Independent Cargo Publishing had been acquired by Freight Books in 2015, who would in turn enter liquidation in 2017 (just two years after being named Publisher of the Year by the Saltire Society). However, Saraband had just published Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project which would go on to be shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, and Scottish crime fiction was increasingly popular alongside the success of the Bloody Scotland festival which launched in 2012. 

It was against this backdrop that former publishing students Laura Jones-Rivera and Heather McDaid came together to launch 404 Ink in 2016. While working at the Saltire Society, they had conversations about how they would do things differently. McDaid recalls: “We always joke that instead of working, we were talking about what we would do if we set up our own publisher. We realised we had a synergy and that our skillset was complementary.” Now as 404 Ink shuts its doors, marking a decade to the exact day, McDaid and Jones Rivera reflect on those ten years together, the books published, and just how much has changed during that time.  

As Jones-Rivera admits, they started out with a self-proclaimed “chip on their shoulder” and a promise to publish loudly. Having worked in a variety of roles in the industry, the duo were determined to take on board what had worked for others, and – more importantly – what hadn’t. Their first publication was the 404 Ink literary magazine, subtitled ‘#1 Error’. It set out their ethos from the start: publishing new and emerging writers alongside a few established names, brought together in a handsome publication. It was clear these were publishers with a strong sense of style as well as substance. They also believed that social media could be a great tool for publishing. “We grew up with the explosion of the internet and social media becoming a crucial thing for a lot of businesses,” Jones-Rivera explains. “We felt a lot of Scottish publishers weren't using it to its full advantage.”

404 Ink magazine may have been the introduction to this new voice in publishing, but it was their first book, 2017’s Nasty Women, which would really make people sit up and take notice. Commissioned in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win, the idea was to publish an essay collection of women writing about their experiences of being a woman in the 21st century. The result was a groundbreaking book which won acclaim far and wide. There were mentions in publications such as Huffington Post and Elle, and it was championed by the likes of Margaret Atwood, who would name 404 Ink as two of the 'women shaping our future' in The Sunday Times. McDaid still feels the importance of the book. “I look back on Nasty Women as being almost like proof of concept,” she says. “We wanted to start a publisher. We thought it could be done differently. I genuinely feel we did that with Nasty Women.”

From such an auspicious opener, the challenge was what would be next. They turned to writer Chris McQueer, whose short story collection Hings was another success, confirming their theories about the benefits of a digital presence. Jones-Rivera explains: “Chris already had an audience reading his short stories that he put online, he had a following. And a lot of them bought the book and said: ‘this is the first time I've read a book since school,’ so it really resonated with an audience that is hard to come by.” There had been word of mouth successes before, but with Hings, that word seemed to spread faster and wider than would have previously been possible. 

By the end of 2017, 404 Ink had six publications to their name, including their first two books, three editions of the magazine, and The Last Days of James Scythe by Lilly Banning – a collaboration with rock band Creeper. Collaboration would prove to be key to their ethos. 

Even in those early years the industry couldn’t fail to take notice and the duo won the Saltire Society’s Emerging Publisher Award. In 2018 they added six more titles to their catalogue, including three by Helen McClory (whom they considered their perfect writer), and two co-publications with BHP Comics (We Shall Fight Until We Win) and London publisher Knights Of for the long-form poem For Every One by Jason Reynolds. 2019 was another notable year which would see them expand and diversify. There was the publication of their first novel, Elle Nash’s Animals Eat Each Other, the first of a number of Queer Words anthologies, We Were Always Here, Nadine Aisha Jassat’s beautiful and personal poetry collection Let Me Tell You, and two thought-provoking non-fiction books by Euan Lownie (Never, Ever Take Anybody’s Advice on Anything) and Jemma Neville (Constitution Street).

Yet with the coming of COVID in 2020, as with so many businesses, the challenges faced were overwhelming. 404 Ink’s response to the crisis, and numerous other challenges, was to launch the Inklings series in 2021, the first being Love That Journey for Me: The Queer Revolution of Schitt's Creek. Jones-Rivera explains the thinking behind the endeavour: “I like to think of them as 404 Ink 2.0. We described them as big ideas in pocket-sized books – 100 pages of just one author and a deep dive into a non-fiction subject area. We've covered so many subjects across pop culture and social justice, all kinds of topics. We wanted to publish fast and really capture the zeitgeist.” The series would do just that, quickly becoming essential reading, helping to reflect, and respond to, a changing Scotland and beyond, and once again introducing new writers and ideas to readers. 

The next few years would see a balance between further Inklings and longer books, both fiction and non-fiction, working with writers as diverse as Andrés N. Ordorica, Carrie Marshall, Xuanlin Tham, Genevieve Jagger, Arun Sood, and even Victor and Barry themselves – Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson. Over the years 404 Ink have won a number of awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Skinny), and in 2022 they were named as the Saltire Society's Publisher of the Year. It was a full circle moment, something which caused them to pause and consider what was to come next. “I think that almost gave us an existential crisis,” Jones-Rivera explains. “Do we keep going or are we done?"

And now they are done, but in typical 404 Ink fashion they leave with a bang rather than a whimper, and on their own terms – something few publishers manage. Their final publication is, appropriately, their own Inkling Publisher Not Found: A Decade of Disruption, 404 Ink 2016-2026. Even beyond the writers they published and the books on our shelves, they leave behing a significant legacy. The Inklings series will continue, taken on by Saraband Books, which Jones-Rivera is delighted about. “They have been very gracious in working with us over the last year. And a lot of the Inklings are gonna have a US release for the first time.” And then there is the 404 Ink Bursary, which was founded to provide financial support and advice to other small, independent publishing presses, and which they describe as “one final hurrah.”

It’s difficult to think of another Scottish publisher who have left their mark in such a substantial and significant manner. However, we shouldn’t overly mourn their passing but be thankful that they existed at all. Heather McDaid and Laura Jones-Rivera had a dream, fulfilled that dream, and then some. They stuck to their guiding principles and refused to compromise. Publishing today is as precarious as it was ten years ago, arguably more so, but thanks to them we have a better understanding of the process, and the right and righteous way to do it. That’s a legacy worth leaving.

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Heather McDaid and Laura Jones-Rivera: Publisher Not Found, Edinburgh International Book Festival, 23 Aug, 6.30pm
404 Ink: Ten Years of Publishing Loudly, Edinburgh International Book Festival, 23 Aug, 9pm