Many individuals with a penchant for books have dreamed about owning their own publishing company, and even starting one up from scratch. However, with big names such as Penguin and Vintage dominating the market, this can seem like a pipe dream. There are many indie publishing companies that thrive on the market and that have a great impact on budding authors, though. If you want to set up your own publishing company, this guide will help you to navigate some of the basic steps that you will need to take.
Consider Your Market
- Firstly, you should consider where there is a gap in the market for your publishing company and what your field of interest or expert knowledge is. For instance, if you have experience in the publishing business in one of the big publishing houses, or have acquired a degree in publishing, then you should aim to set up a publishing company that utilises this experience. You should consider what you are interested in and what skills and experience you have to help make your company run smoothly. For instance, if you have a background in journalism, you may aim to set up a non-fiction publishing company.
- You should also attempt to find a gap in the publishing market. For instance, if there is a lack of publishers willing to take on new talent, or less willing to publish a certain genre. Genres such as poetry, non-fiction fantasy and crime are often side-lined by larger publishers, and many authors in these genres thrive on indie publishing companies to help their work get published.
- You should also see what opportunities you have in terms of your target market and the book trends that are currently prominent on the market. This can help you to establish whether your plan is financially feasible and whether your business plan would be a success.
Manage Your Finances Efficiently
- You should ensure that you manage your finances efficiently by finding investors or by raising your own funds to kick-start your company. This will help to enable you to finance print runs, allow you to invest in equipment and promote your new business.
- You should also find ways to save on essential expenses such as utilities as this will ensure that you can run your business cheaply in the future. Many businesses find that they are spending too much on their utilities, and you can cut the costs of this by switching your utility provider. Utility Bidder gives you the option to compare utility providers that suit your needs, allowing you to garner unbiased advice in terms of the costs of your business that can help you to save money.
Complete the Paperwork
- There is also a lot of paperwork and official documents that you need to process in order to start your business. This includes becoming registering as a publishing firm, which you can do by registering your brand name with the appropriate authorities in your local area and by running an investigation into whether your publisher’s brand name has been taken.
- You also need to establish as ISBN for your publishing firm by ensuring that you get one issued from an ISBN agency. ISBNs are numbers on the back of books that share a lot of potentially important information about the book and its publishers and that can be universally recognised by booksellers and libraries.
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