I won't be writing any more books for Pen and Sword

Having written a few books for publisher Pen and Sword (https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk) over the last decade, I occasionally get asked by folk if they are worth writing books for, or how to go about it. I was always quite supportive in the past, but in the last couple of years the company has seemingly stopped promoting books as they used to, to the point where new books barely get reviewed, and with sales nothing like what they used to be. 

As I noted a couple of weeks ago, the publisher has also failed to pay its authors their latest due royalties for spring 2026 (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2026/06/continued-delay-with-pen-and-sword.html). On Monday, authors received another update from managing director Charles Hewitt, as follows:

Dear Author

I am writing to provide you with an update regarding the problems we are having with the software that we use to calculate royalties. As per my previous email, royalty payments have been delayed as we have not been able to use the software to process the royalty statements due to issues with the software. We need to use the software to calculate royalties as we have over 9,000 product lines, most of which have over 100 royalty rules to assess.

Whilst we have made significant progress and despite the team working over the weekend, we are still not in a position to run the royalty report. We are much closer to being able to run the report and believe that we will be able to do this by the end of this week.

I apologise firstly for the delay in receiving your royalty statements and secondly because the information I have previously passed on to you has been inaccurate. I do however feel that the target we have now set is achievable. I would like to thank you all for your patience in this matter which I understand has been frustrating for everyone concerned.

With best wishes

Charles Hewitt
Managing Director

This has turned out to be another lie, no such royalty statement has been forthcoming.  

I'm incredibly proud of the family history books that I have written over the last ten years which have been published by Pen and Sword, and would encourage you to check them out (I'm sure I'll receive royalties at some point!) but I won't be writing any more books for the company. For the limited royalties now available, it's not worth it, and combined with them not even being paid, it's really something of a no-brainer.

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.