Writing last year about the boom in music memoirs, and indeed books about music in general, the Guardian's Alex Petridis cited "the existence of three music imprints at major publishers" as one of the main factors. Inevitably, it couldn't last forever, and yesterday brought the unexpected announcement that Nine Eight Books is effectively no more, the imprint's founder Pete Selby leaving as part of a restructuring process by parent publisher Bonnier.
Selby is - by all accounts and by all testimonies subsequently posted on Twitter - an exceptional publisher. Some might try to argue that the books put out by Nine Eight would have found a publisher anyway, but that would totally ignore the fact that in many cases the books wouldn't even exist without Selby's tireless enthusiasm, encouragement and drive.
One author who's said as much is Ian Wade, whose 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer kept me thoroughly entertained on a mammoth coach journey in the summer. Also most enjoyable was Nige Tassell's Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids?, the subject of discussion at a great evening in Cardiff back in January.
Perhaps I've been living in a rose-tinted bubble, but the news was all the more shocking given the praise lavished on three other Nine Eight publications in particular: Miki Berenyi's Fingers Crossed, Will Hodgkinson's Street-Level Superstar (about Lawrence from Felt/Denim) and Reach For The Stars by Michael Cragg, who did a superb job of selling it at Green Man last year.
Presumably Bonnier's decision has been at least partly motivated by finances, so maybe the music book sector isn't in quite such rude good health as I'd imagined. Either way, as the generous reaction from competitor imprint White Rabbit underlined, the demise of Nine Eight is to be mourned - a sobering reminder of the fragility of the ecosystem.
Here's hoping Selby rallies and is back helping to bring top-quality music books into the world before too long.
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