For small and mid-sized independent publishers, access to international markets is both an opportunity and a challenge. The appeal is obvious: English-language books are in demand worldwide, and stories rooted in diverse cultural traditions can resonate across borders. Yet for most independent publishers, the path to meaningful international sales is far from straightforward.
As a community, we know the barriers well. Distribution infrastructure, sales representation, metadata alignment, and marketing capacity vary greatly across territories. Major publishers have the resources and networks to establish operations abroad or to contract with global distribution giants. Smaller independents, however, often have little access or must rely on patchwork arrangements—perhaps a distributor with limited reach, or ad hoc foreign rights sales that depend more on contacts at book fairs than on sustained strategy.
The digital era was once heralded as the great equalizer. E-books and online retailers promised to give small publishers a global platform. In practice, however, simply listing titles on Amazon or Ingram’s global catalog has not been enough. Without sales teams advocating for books, without marketing campaigns tailored to local markets, and without the ability to efficiently manage inventory abroad, discoverability and sales remain limited. International visibility requires more than availability.
Structural Challenges
One major hurdle is the cost and complexity of logistics. Shipping books across oceans is expensive, especially in small quantities. Inventory must be warehoused and managed within each market, and small publishers rarely have the scale to make this efficient. Print-on-demand technology helps, but POD alone does not address the need for marketing support or sales relationships.
Another challenge lies in metadata and bibliographic standards. Each market has its own systems—Nielsen in the UK and Europe, Bowker in the US, and regional databases elsewhere. Ensuring that data is accurate and optimized for discoverability in each market is a specialized task, and errors can cripple a book’s prospects abroad.
Finally, there is the question of marketing capacity. Building a meaningful presence in international markets requires more than just a translated press release or a catalog listing. It involves cultivating relationships with local media, reviewers, booksellers, librarians, and cultural institutions—work that is time-intensive and often requires on-the-ground knowledge.
Collaborative Solutions
Given these barriers, one promising path forward is collaboration among small and mid-sized publishing houses. Just as independent publishers have long banded together in associations like IBPA to amplify their collective voice, there is an emerging recognition that partnerships can help bridge international divides.
For example, when Histria Books joined with Forefront Books to acquire the Unicorn Publishing Group in the UK, we confronted the very real question of how best to align our combined strengths. Unicorn brings decades of experience in publishing art and cultural history, along with established distribution in the UK and Europe. Histria has its own strengths in history, culture, and trade fiction, with longstanding relationships across North America. Forefront contributes expertise in business and branded nonfiction, along with strong relationships across the publishing industry. Out of these conversations emerged what is now Unified Book Distribution.
The point here is not to promote a new initiative but to illustrate one model of how independents might think creatively about international access. By pooling resources, aligning distribution agreements, contracting short-run and POD options for printing, and sharing expertise, small and mid-sized publishers can build a footprint that none of us could easily achieve alone. For us, this has meant working through Simon & Schuster’s distribution in the US and Canada, while maintaining Ingram Publisher Services UK as a hub for Europe and beyond. We think Unified Book Distribution is an example of the way in which smaller publishers can band together to achieve results in international markets and a broader reach without requiring them to reinvent the wheel for each market.
Lessons for the Independent Publishing Community
Our experience underscores a few key lessons that may be useful more broadly.
- Selectivity matters. International growth is not about placing every book everywhere. It requires careful curation of titles that will resonate in specific markets and ensuring those books are properly supported. It is wiser to concentrate limited resources on a carefully chosen group of titles rather than spreading them too thin.
- Metadata is mission-critical. In an era where discoverability drives sales, accurate and localized bibliographic data may be as important as cover design or marketing copy. Learning how to tailor metadata to different markets is essential.
- Partnerships amplify impact. Few independents can build global networks alone, but by working together—whether through joint ventures, shared distribution arrangements, or collaborative marketing—we can extend our reach and gain access to markets that might otherwise remain closed.
- Think long-term. International sales do not materialize overnight. It takes time to build trust with local distributors, booksellers, and cultural partners. Consulting with local professionals to develop targeted marketing campaigns in foreign markets can mean the difference between limited sales and lasting success.
Looking Ahead
Independent publishing thrives on diversity, creativity, and resilience. Our size gives us agility, but it also requires us to find innovative ways to compete with far larger players. Accessing international markets is no longer optional; it is increasingly essential in a globalized book trade.
At the same time, we must guard against viewing international expansion purely as a commercial imperative. The cross-pollination of ideas and stories across cultures is one of the greatest contributions publishers can make. When a book from a small press in one country finds readers halfway around the world, it does more than generate revenue—it enriches global dialogue.
As we at Histria Books, Unicorn Publishing, and Forefront Books continue to navigate the opportunities and challenges of our international distribution model and collaborate with other small and mid-sized publishers who are joining to work with us to expand their respective international sales, we recognize that ours is only one example among many possible approaches. The larger takeaway for our community is that barriers to international access, while formidable, are not insurmountable. With creativity, cooperation, and persistence, independent publishers can ensure that our authors’ voices are heard not just locally but around the world.
Dr. Kurt Brackob is the director of Histria Books and an IBPA board member and treasurer. He has worked for over 20 years in the publishing industry and is a historian and author of several books, including Scanderbeg: A History of George Castriota and the Albanian Resistance to Islamic Expansion in Fifteenth Century Europe and Mircea the Old: Father of Wallachia, Grandfather of Dracula.