According to The Guardian, Brexit could usher in a dark chapter for British authors.

They report that Nigel Newton, the chief executive of Bloomsbury, is deeply concerned that Brexit could mean a much worse deal for all but star authors.

British publishers will be forced to focus on keeping their star writers happy, potentially offering them more lucrative deals to keep European rights. As a result, financially pressured British publishers are likely to become more risk-averse in signing and promoting new and aspiring authors.

It’s not just Bloomsbury that are worried. The Publishers Association are concerned that Brexit could threaten to topple the UK as leaders in book sales.

Book publishing is arguably the UK’s biggest success story. Currently, we are the biggest exporter of books in the world with a 17% share by value. That puts us in front of the US (15%) and Germany (10%).

Each year, roughly 200,000 books are published in the UK. That’smore than anywhere else in the world. Part of the reason for our success is that roughly a third of UK book sales are to the EU.

Europe is the biggest export region globally for UK-published books, accounting for more than a third of the almost £1.2bn annual sales of English-language print titles.

All that goes a long way towards explaining the quote from Stephen Lotinga, the chief executive of the Publishers Association.

“The UK is the number one exporter of books anywhere in the world and it is incredibly important that we don’t do anything that undermines that,” said Stephen Lotinga, the chief executive of the Publishers Association. “We have been urging the government to secure a deal with the European Union which ensures we continue to have the fullest possible access to our largest single market so that one of the most successful creative industries the UK has can continue to thrive.”

You can read the full article here.