Support Cardboard House Press

This month, our distributor, Small Press Distribution (SPD), one of the largest and oldest distributors of books from independent publishers, closed its operations permanently and without warning. Since we began distributing through SPD eight years ago, our books reached local and institutional bookstores, public and university libraries, book fairs, online stores, and the public. SPD made the announcement without giving prior notice to the hundreds of publishers with whom they worked and to whom they owe payments and book stock. The impact on the sector has been immense, and it has put us in a state of greater vulnerability.

We have lost significant revenue through producing, printing, and shipping books to SPD that SPD sold and never compensated us for. One third of our annual book sales came through SPD and we have not received payments from book sales due to us. The value of the inventory maintained by SPD is over $10,000. These include Cartonera Collective art books lovingly made by community members in our bookmaking workshops. The next steps will involve unexpected costs of shipping books to our new distributor, which we estimate to be around $3,500.

Our income from sales goes towards author and translator payments, book production, and Cartonera Collective community workshops. If we are able to recover payments owed, resources from this GoFundMe will continue to go towards supporting our nonprofit operations in these areas. As one of few small presses publishing Spanish-language poetry in translation, we are committed to continuing our work of creating bilingual spaces and are grateful for your support.

To view our catalogue and support us through a website purchase, please visit our website.