How to Establish a Publishing Company

Establishing a publishing company is a great way to publish books that you are interested in. Anyone can establish a publishing company and work on getting books out to the public. And, you can publish any type of books that you want to when you establish your own publishing company. Establishing a publishing company is a fairly simple process, and you can be soliciting manuscripts in no time.

Things You'll Need

• Business name
• Business structure
• ISBNs
• Federal tax ID number
• Staff (optional)
• Office equipment
• Manuscripts

Instructions

1. Select a name for the publishing company. Having the words "publishing" or "books" in the name is a good way to let people know what the business does. Be sure to come up with a few different names in case the one you want is already in use. An easy way to see if the name is already in use is to enter it into your favorite search engine, like Google, and see if you get any results. You will also want to check with your local county clerk's office to see if the name is in the business name database for your state. Your local county clerk office will be at the local courthouse.

2. Pick a business structure. You will need to decide on a structure for your publishing company. You can choose from partnership, sole proprietorship, limited liability partnership (LLP) or limited liability company (LLC) and corporation. An LLC, LLP and corporation structure exempt you from personal liabilities with the business. Because you will be publishing books, there is a potential for lawsuits, which is why LLC is a popular choice for publishing company structures.

3. Register your publishing company with your state. You will need to register your publishing company with your state and let them know that you will be publishing books. You will need to go to the secretary of state office in your state and get the appropriate forms for your business structure. The forms will ask what you will be selling, and this is where you will simply list "books." You will need to fill those out and submit them in person with the appropriate fee in order to register your business with your state.

4. Get your federal tax ID number. In order to report your book sales to the government for your business taxes and to make wholesale purchases of things like printing supplies for your business, you will need to have a federal tax ID number. You can apply for this at irs.gov (see Resources). You will be given your federal tax ID number immediately after you submit the free online application.

5. Order your ISBNs. In order to be able to publish books and to fully establish your publishing company, you will need to purchase some ISBNs, which go on each book that is printed. The ISBNs are unique to each publishing company and cannot be sold to another publisher. The ISBN agency for the United States is Bowker, and you can purchase your ISBNs from them on their website (see Resources). Once you have your ISBNs, you will be ready to publish your books.

6. Decide on your staff and equipment. You can run a publishing company by yourself or you can hire some staff. If you want to go big scale, you can hire an editor, a sales and marketing person and someone to run the office. You can hire just one of each of those positions or create multiple positions for the same job title. A lot of small publishing companies start out with just the owner on staff until manuscripts are acquired and books are printed. The only equipment you will need to start with is a computer, a printer, a phone and maybe a fax machine. Publishing companies contract printers to actually print the books so you will have no need for big printing equipment.

7. Acquire some books to print. You will need to seek out some manuscripts to publish. You may already know someone that has a manuscript ready for printing. Or, you can take open submissions for manuscripts. A great way to do that is to get listed in the Writer's Market. You can contact them at writersmarket.com (see Resources).

Resources

• Bowker - US ISBN Agency
• IRS website
• Writer's Market