Notes from a Small Book Fair: Part 2

Posted on June 11, 2010 in Uncategorized

This seminar, organised by Nielsen, covered how to go about setting up a publishing company; what you should do and, maybe more importantly, what you shouldn’t do. It also considered what is the best source of advice, as well as the sequence of events.

The three speakers were: Ms Bridget Shine, Executive Director at the IPG, Mr Andrew Johnston, MD at Quiller Publishing (which was amongst the nominations for ‘Independent Publisher of the Year’ in the Bookseller Industry Awards 2010), and Mr Simon Skinner, Sales Director at Nielsen Bookdata.

Despite the fact that due to this year’s ash cloud crisis it was a ‘small book fair’, the Conference Centre room at Earl’s Court was simply packed with people hungry for information relating to how easy or hard it is to set up your own publishing house. It’s a wonder I managed to get a seat!  Here is some of the advice given by the speakers for anyone wishing to become the owner of a publishing house:

What books to publish – one speaker stressed the importance of getting recommendations from your future customers; do your market research and people are more likely to buy your books. We were also told that specialist books are the way to go; you need to publish books that are unique. It’s extremely important to be a good salesperson. If you have an idea for a book you also need to ask yourself  ‘is this book likely to make me money?’ If the answer is ‘no’, it might be better to abandon the idea.

Registers and useful bodies – there are a number of registers that we were advised to look at if and when we choose to set up a publishing house; the National Business Register, Companies House (to make sure there isn’t already a company registered with your chosen company name), and you also need to register with Nielsen. With regards to office premises, you need to check your mortgage or tenancy agreement to make sure that you are legally permitted to trade from your home. Other bodies that can give useful advice are Enterprise Agencies and the Chambers of Commerce.

Finances – what are your financial options when trying to set up the publishing house itself? The first option would be to provide the funding through personal means or via sponsorship. The second option is a management buyout. Finally, the last option is to acquire another company – you can acquire an existing company; failing companies are often put up for sale and advertised in the Trade Press. It’s important to have a five-year business plan, and this certainly makes it easier to get sponsorship and bank loans. A backlist is important when starting a publishing house, so acquiring an established company is quite useful. 

Take-home messages – a few other major take-home messages were: 1) get your ducks in the right order and 2)make sure you have a good work-life balance. So if you remember nothing else of this article, at least remember those two things!

A networking opportunity arose – during the Q&A session at the end, one gentleman asked if the IPG were in a position to put fellow wanna-be publishers in touch with one another, as there were clearly so many people who were interested in setting up their own publishing house. Shine replied that while the IPG do not currently have a database of people looking to set up publishing houses, we could leave our contact details with her and there might be a possibility that she would be able to distribute these details at a later stage, to other people who are looking to form a partnership (although this is not standard practice for the IPG).

After the seminar, I bumped into a fellow SYP member and it turned out that after reading Kevin Mahoney’s article about The Fall and Rise of the Independent Sector (InPrint issue 129), she was keen to try her luck at setting up her own publishing house. So his advice to us – ‘if you’re considering working for a trade publisher for free, then why not think about working for yourself instead?’ – has clearly had an impact on InPrint readers!