How to Run a Book Publishing Company
Anyone who writes a book, has it printed and offers it for sale is, in essence, running a book-publishing company. There are different classes of book publishers: small or self-publishers who put out their own books or those of other unknown authors; medium-level publishers who publish 10 or more moderately successful titles each year; and large publishers. If you want to grow your book publishing company into a solid business, there are a few steps you should take.
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Instructions
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First, hire two people (part time is fine) to help you: one to handle your shipping duties and one to act as a personal assistant to communicate with customers, distributors, wholesalers, printers and bookstores. Your personal assistant will schedule book signings for your authors, track shipments, and order new books and supplies when they are low. Open an account with FEDEX and/or UPS to handle your book shipments. If you cannot afford to hire these people at this time, you will have to handle all of these duties yourself.
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Set up a website to promote your books. Your website should include the following pages at minimum: "About Us," "Contact Us," "Submissions" and "Excerpts," plus an "Order Now" page that lists your available titles.
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Establish marketing initiatives to grow your book publishing company. Submit advertisements and promotions for the books that you publish. The best way to promote books is through press releases, because these may attract media coverage and reviews for your titles. You also can do radio spots and produce flyers to be distributed at local bookstores.
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Solicit orders from wholesalers and distributors, who will ask for a 50 to 60 percent discount on your retail prices. When you are accepted by a wholesaler--for instance, Baker and Taylor--your books will be listed at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other major book retailers automatically. Other popular distributors and wholesalers include Ingram and Greenleaf. See "Resources" for a list of distributors and contact information.
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Expect to receive returns from bookstores, wholesalers and distributors. Most distributors will ask for one-year return privileges.
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Order new books for your company whenever stock runs low. Various sites allow you to get quotes from many book printers at once (see "Resources" for a suggestion).
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Build your reader base. You can find customers (readers) by setting up a website for your books, posting excerpts, and offering incentives for site visitors to leave their email addresses (such as free stories or information). Also consider sending newsletter installments to notify existing customers about new titles.
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Accept submissions from new authors. If you want to grow your book publishing company, you must increase the number of titles published each year consistently. Place a page on your website to tell prospective authors how to submit their work, and set aside a few hours each week to read and respond to submissions.
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Tips & Warnings
Apply for copyrights online at Copyright.gov. ISBNs are available for the books you publish through BowkerLink.com. You can warehouse your books at a local public self-storage location like Public Storage or U-Haul. Ask someone close to you who is proficient in English to work as your editor. You also can find an editor at Craigslist or Writers.net.
