Henningham Family Press extends crowdfunder after being saved by supporters  

The Henningham Family Press has raised £12,000 in under two weeks through an emergency crowdfunding effort, which has saved the publisher run by David and Ping Henningham.

Less than a fortnight ago, the cost of living crisis, Brexit and a rejection of an Arts Council application had left the pair seeking donations to save their hand-made books press. 

In a tearful Youtube video posted on 6th July, Ping and David said: “Brexit has made the cost of printing go up 20% a year, sometimes more, 40% a year. We have countries that we still can’t post to. We’ve literally lost months and months chasing the red tape in circles.”

Ping went on to add: “Basically we need two things, we donations and we need to grow. We have a £12,000 gap that we need to fill. Please would you give us donations if you can. Please would you tell other people about this, we need help. And please would you help us grow by recommending us to other people.”

The pair explained that they had only managed to raise a couple of thousand in the past. But within 24 hours of asking for help this time, they raised £3,000, and went to print with Paul Griffiths’ new books, let me tell you and let me go on. In 10 days, they had exceeded their £12,000 target with the help of hundreds of supporters who rushed to provide donations.

They said: “Over the last 10 days, with help from Brixton Review of Books and The Bookseller, a generation of incredible writers and readers, colleagues from the book trade who as ever wish to remain anonymous, a tweet that reached something like three million people (making ours a cause celebre at first, and with a few notable retweets: a cause celeb). But really it was the flood of £10, £20 even £100 donations from people who read of what we built for the time… It feels like we found our people.”

The post went on to add: “We will always be grateful to these people, many of whom we’ve never met” The publishers are now asking supporters to also help fund their plans for the next two years, and are seeking a £6,000 extension to their initial appeal to fund Griffiths’ next book.

The publishers said that they are receiving business support from Inpress Books and another business mentoring organisation.

“With them we have drawn up realistic plans to publish four books a year at a regular pace, building up bookshop sales,” they explained. “We are also developing our direct sales to our readers. Any money you donate will be an investment in future fiction.”