The publishing world isn’t dead like many people believe. Instead, it’s evolved and now consists of a number of digital and self-publishing efforts. Now that just about anyone can publish their own book through a digital platform, do publishing companies still matter? As a matter of fact, they do. A good publishing company is one that edits and polishes books to make them better. These companies also come up with professional-looking layouts and have solid marketing plans in place. Before you start your own publishing company, you need to spend some time thinking about a number of different factors.
The Very Beginning
The first step to founding a publishing company involves picking a genre. Although you don’t necessarily have to do this. Many of the large publishing companies have different imprints that cover many different genres, all under the central company name . After all, it’s already a good idea to start out small. This means narrowing down your company’s scope to focus on a certain type of books. The first decision is the easy one – fiction or nonfiction. From there, you can decide on a genre within that category.
For example, if you choose to go with fiction, you can publish romance, thrillers, detective mysteries, horror, and so one. There are plenty of options to choose from.
After you make that important decision, you next need to decide whether you want to focus on ebooks, print books, or a combination of both.
Ebooks are popular so don’t forget them
Clearly, there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Ebooks are extremely popular. They don’t require access to printing presses or the other things that publications require. However, the market for ebooks is fairly saturated. You’ll need something that makes your company stand out from the crowd.
If you choose only printed books, then you’re leaving out a large segment of the market. Like for instance, people who only read books on e-readers. This is a more expensive option as well.
Finally, if you decide that going with both options is the best way to do, then you need to be prepared to deal with both segments of the market. This can be tiresome, but in today’s marketplace, sometimes it’s the best choice. You do get the best of both worlds this way.
The Next Few Steps for your Publishing company
Now that you have a market niche – your chosen genre – and know how you’re going to publish your books, you need to name your company. This is a step that is very important. Even if you try to rebrand later, the name of your publishing company will be on all of your first ebooks. It will live on forever.
For that reason alone, choose your company name wisely. Since you have a genre chosen, you need to pick something that fits it. However, you don’t want to be too narrow, just in case you decide to expand your company’s scope later on.
You can also use a combination of your name or the company address or anything else that you think might make sense. The name of your company will go in your logo, as well as on your website, business cards, and so on, so it needs to be something that you like really.
Make a good marketing plan and effort for you publishing company
Your company logo plays an important role in your marketing efforts. It needs to go on your letterhead, your business cards, your website, and even in your emails. The logo that you choose should reflect what your company does, which in this case is publishing. Consider adding a small graphic of a book or a stack of books to it. You can also use anything that matches your chosen genre.
For example, if you’re starting a company that publishes romance books, then you want to use some sort of romantic imagery, like a heart or some flowers.
The font and colors of the logo also reflect your company name and genre. The words in your publishing logo need to be legible, and should, obviously, consist of your business name. With that said, you can have a little fun with your logo. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone and choose something unusual and memorable.
Marketing Your Books
Before you start marketing your books, you need to find authors. This can be done by placing an ad online or by approaching people who already have an established web presence, such as bloggers. People with a built-in the audience are good because they’ll have fans who will buy their books. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with taking a chance on a first-time author either.
Once you have some published books, you need to get them some attention. You can offer up free copies to magazines and newspapers that handle book reviews. You can also see if any bloggers might be interested in doing a review. There are plenty of book review bloggers out there.
Advertising is another good way of spreading the word about a book. You can place ads online or in print publications. You can also have your author handle some publicity through their own social media networks. This is a great way of gaining some free publicity since the authors want their books to sell just as much as you do. After all, they make some money off of every purchase in the form of royalties. There are so many ways to create buzz around a new book that you really have no choice but to be successful.
Last few words when starting your own publishing company
Starting a publishing company in the digital age isn’t an impossible feat. You’d be surprised at how successful your company ends up being as long as you find a good niche and some strong writers. Your logo, website, and other publicity materials play a large role in this, as they really reflect what your business is all about. Whether you want to start a publishing company that focuses on nonfiction or fiction, in the end, if you can sell books, then you will be successful. And once you’ve mastered one genre, you can expand into another.