Gritstone Publishing

Authors’ co-operative celebrates 10 years 

Gritstone Publishing, still the only author-run co-operative publisher in Britain, is turning ten years old in 2026. 

Established by four member-authors looking to assert more control over how their books were brought to market, the co-operative has grown and is now nine-strong. The most recent author to join is Mike Raine, a mountaineering instructor and author of the leading handbook on mountain craft. Gritstone titles are strongly rooted in a sense of place, with a particular focus on the north of England.

Gritstone will be marking its tenth birthday by bringing out this summer the final two volumes to complete a comprehensive set of guidebooks to the English Coastal Path, the longest and most ambitious of the country’s long-distance national trails. These compact but lavishly illustrated books, from cartographer Chris Goddard, are currently the only published guides for walkers. The 2026 titles, on the Northern and Eastern sections of the path, will join the South and South-West volumes already published. 

Also scheduled for publication in 2026 is fellow Gritstone member Eileen Jones’s tribute to William Wordsworth’s home Rydal Mount in the Lake District, where the poet lived for most of his life. The book has received support and co-operation from current members of the Wordsworth family who have owned the house for nearly 60 years. 

Also among the list of Gritstone titles in the coming year will be Mike Raine’s new book Just One More Hill on the growing popularity of ‘bikepacking’ (cycle touring), and a newly revised edition of The Long Spring by conservationist and former RSPB Director for Northern England Laurence Rose. The Long Spring was described by The Spectator when it was first published in 2018 as an “inspiring, eye-opening read”. 

Gritstone, as a fully mutual co-operative, is controlled collectively by its nine member-authors who discuss and agree proposed new titles for the imprint. Book distribution to the book trade, including bookshops and online retailers, is handled by a mainstream trade distributor, but Gritstone titles are also sold directly from its own website. Gritstone has recently been accepted as a member of the Independent Publishers Guild. 

Andrew Bibby, one of Gritstone’s founder members, explained: “After ten successful years of trading and growth, we can definitely say that our publishing model works. The publishing industry has changed enormously in recent years to become much more marketing-led, and authors are increasingly missing out on a fair share of the rewards for their work.  We enable our authors to have more control over the publishing process. Gritstone offers a third way between conventional publishing and author self-publishing.” 

Also choosing to work through Gritstone as members of the co-op are the veteran countryside writer and campaigner Colin Speakman, national parks author and activist Andrew McCloy, Yorkshire novelist Mike Padgett, and author of walkers’ and cyclists’ guides Chiz Dakin. 

Gritstone takes as its model the long-established concept of marketing co-operatives used for example by farmers and wine producers in many countries to collectively sell their produce. The idea has proved very adaptable for the publishing sector. Gritstone believes there is considerable scope for its model to be adopted by other professional writers and has announced that it will be happy to work with other authors considering their own co-operatives. 

Gritstone itself is currently welcoming approaches from potential new members writing in its fields of interest (broadly conservation, landscape and the outdoors, but also including fiction rooted in northern settings), with a view to potentially expanding to twelve members.

The Gritstone website: https://gritstonecoop.co.uk