How to Start a Publishing Company

If you are planning to start a publishing company, than you are most likely doing it with one of two goals in mind:

1.) You want to be a small press publisher who accepts submissions from others.

2.) You want to be a publisher who self publishes.

Doing both is not recommended, as being a small press publisher is a full time job that will not allow you the time to write and publish any books of your own. Whereas being a self-published publisher is also a full time job that will not allow you the time to focus on publishing books for other people. So your first step is to decide wither you are starting your company to publish books for you and your family or are you going to put out a call for submissions from strangers? I know that you can not do both, because when I first started, I tried to do both, and found that in the end doing both meant having no time for either. I was forced to make a decision, and in the end I realized that my goal was to publish my own books, so I closed out the call for submissions and stopped accepting work from writers, so that I could focus full time on self-publishing my own books instead.

I started my own publishing company and the best advice I can give to someone seeking to do the same is this:

1.) Be sure that you really have a passion for books.

2.) Know that running a publishing company is a full time job and once you start, you may need to quit your day job just to have enough time to focus on your publishing company.

3.) Know that for the first four or five years, you will be living off your savings, because it will take at least that long before your publishing company starts bringing in a profit.

4.) Most importantly, know that running a publishing company is work. A lot of hard work. Work that will drive you mad if you do not have the stamina to deal with a lot of hard work.

5.) Best advice of all: Do not start your own publishing company unless you have the will power to keep it running for the next 20 or 30 years. There are way to many fly by night publishers out there, you do not need to add to that list.