Publishing, like music and newspapers before it, has been waking up to the reality of a dawning digital world. Small-press publishing was among the early risers, but that category did not include Robert Hale Ltd,  the UK family firm established in 1936 that publishes the Black Horse Western novels. The books continued to be produced at the rate of eight a month, but only in hardback, and chiefly with a public library market in mind. No ebooks.

Was history about to repeat itself? Readers and writers with long memories can tell us that although the Hale company dabbled in paperback publishing in the 1950s, it somehow missed the paperback boom of later decades. Meanwhile, a few traditional British publishers, like Mills & Boon, embraced opportunity and grew, although some established imprints in due course disappeared altogether, so long term perhaps caution was fitting.

In 1994, chairman and managing director John Hale wrote, "I do not believe it is possible to start selling mass-market paperbacks in a small way. Everything hinges on the wholesalers who demand a substantial, credible list with a quota of ready-made bestsellers. Someone starting off with a few paperbacks just isn't going to get in the door...."

Paperback publishing, Mr Hale went on, "requires a totally different organization with a wholly different sales force, a basic investment of perhaps £10 million and a very long wait for one's money back. Unfortunately that is outside the resources of this small publisher."

So the company continued to concentrate on its public library customers, though in 1995 Mr Hale also wrote, "Of course, if librarians felt any need to supply what readers actually wanted our task would be easy. In reality they buy what they want and, in general, they deplore the need to stock any fiction (apart from the occasional literary novel). Until such time as librarians are obliged by law to respond to borrowers' requirements the outlook for most fiction will remain bleak. Whenever there are financial constraints fiction suffers first, and of all fiction westerns are regarded as the most dispensable."

In 2011, "financial constraints" again threaten the public libraries. But we are also told from many quarters that an ebook revolution is upon us and astonishing figures showing year-on-year gains are produced to prove it. Will a small publisher seize the uncertain chance offered by ebooks, or will the paperback experience –  which can be interpreted as "we must pass on this, thanks" – be repeated?

Shortly before Christmas, a Black Horse Western writer emailed us, "I think at the moment everyone is stumbling about in the dark regarding ebooks and Hale more than most. Still, it will be interesting to see how much more of a market share the digital books hold in the New Year. I've read that ereaders are THE gift to have this festive season."

A new Hale managing director, Gill Jackson, was alive to the possibilities. As first reported in our last edition's Hoofprints, Ms Jackson wrote in late November that BHW ebooks would be launched with a "four for £10 bundle" in January. "The arrangements had to take place fast in order to take advantage of the hoped-for spike in orders of ebooks following anticipated sales of devices at Christmas."

Later correspondence revealed that ebook downloads were not going to make the company or its authors rich. Although it would appear set-up costs were few, this was not, in fact, the case. And Hale could not handle the work in house.

The book – or file of it – had to go to an "originating" company to be "digitized into the several versions in order that it can play on Kindle, iPad, Sony, etc". Unlike printed books in Britain, a sales tax (VAT) of 20% was payable on ebooks and had to be included in the retail price. The average discount set down for retailers (or "etailers") was 50% with 60% being given to Amazon for the Kindle version. "Out of the remaining revenue we have to pay 20% commission to Faber Factory for their handling of the origination, sales to etailers, accounts, protection systems, etc, and only then is there anything left for the author and Hale."

Author royalties would be "the industry standard" of 25% of the net proceeds received by Hale. This was what was "being paid by all the major publishers". A back-of-an-envelope calculation showed that of the £10 price paid for a download of the four-book BHW bundle, 80 pence would be left to be shared by the four authors.

Meanwhile, the Extra understands that authors publishing independently through Amazon, using its proprietary Kindle system, receive 70% of the gross retail price, as long as this is set at a minimum of $US2.99.

In January, a US author, Lee Goldberg, told the high-readership blog A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: "That’s right. I’d rather self-publish. This from a guy who for years has been an outspoken, and much-reviled, critic of self-publishing. But that was before the Kindle came along and changed everything."

At the same time, he also warned that "people with no discernible writing talent, or even basic writing skills, are rushing to get their atrocious, unpublishable garbage on to the Kindle as fast as they can. The slush pile has gone digital and has unleashed a tsunami of swill...."

Manifestly, this sea-change must ultimately be of concern to readers, too. We hope the present turmoil in the publishing world will subside soon, and we can all enjoy a period of relative calm and prosperity. And good reads!

The immediate disappointment, however, is that the bugbears of the dysfunctional, dead-tree-book trade are being replaced by new ones. The continually rising costs of paper and printing, of the books' shipping, storage and display – not to mention the margins demanded by those who take little risk while they operate on a "sale or return" basis – might have been circumvented. But now tax comes into the British picture and publishers have bills from other middlemen.

As The Economist newspaper said perceptively in 2008: "Publishing has only two indispensable participants: authors and readers. As with music, any technology that brings these two groups closer makes the whole industry more efficient – but hurts those who benefit from the distance between them."

We are sure we haven't heard the last of this, but enough ... it's time to read on and enjoy the latest edition of the untaxed, FREE, completely non-profit-making Black Horse Extra!

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