Has anyone actually started a small press? I have questions...

I decided to go ahead and buy a 100 block of ISBN so that I can start my own small press and publish my own non-fiction textbooks. I've been working on this process for a while now and am looking to put out my first set of hard copy books (and CD's too) in the spring. Currently I have more than 50 printable books and unit studies for sale right now at an online distributor and make decent sales numbers each month.

In the meantime - I've had others begin to e-mail me with query and manuscript submission guidelines and I'm not sure how to handle this. Of course my first thought was to just tell these people no as that was never my intention when I registered my company with Bowker and purchased my numbers.

But I'm not sure I should reject these queries right off hand. Maybe I should consider taking on other authors, with the caveat that this is mainly like self-pub right now as I would have to use LS to fulfill unless they want spiral bound as that's the only equipment I have. (Which come to think of it, if they are selling to the same market as I am, and they would have to be if they are looking to me for publishing, then they might want spiral bound.)

I do have several platforms for selling and a nice newsletter list which has exceptionally high open and click through rates - so I might be better than these authors trying to self-publish alone.

Is this what small presses do? Do they wake up one day and say "I think I will publish my first author today!"?

Or does this sound like I might be getting in over my head and should send them on their way?

Any opinions are welcome.

FOTSGreg said:

No. In my opinion, most small presses open with the idea of "I could get rich doing this because I'm better than those stuffy old houses that wouldn't accept my brilliant writing for the masterpiece it obviously is."

The second idea that runs through their heads is "I don't need no steenking professional editors 'cause I know how to read and write and do punctuation and boring stuff like that."

The third idea that runs through their heads is "Why doesn't anyone understand me? Why don't they appreciate what I'm trying to do? Why aren't my books selling?"

Okay, that last one is 3 thoughts, but they all tend to occur very quickly after exposure to the realities of what they're trying to do.

A very wise man once asked the question "How do you make a small fortune in publishing?"

He then answered his own question with the following, "Start with a large fortune."

I apologize for being blunt, but you're on a fool's errand. The only thing a new startup press is likely to receive is total crap that wouldn't survive the smell test at a professional publishing house.

Improve your writing instead of dreaming about publishing your stuff yourself. Drive yourself to improve to the point that major houses will be clamoring for your next work and you can sit at home and wait out the bidding wars over a bottle of Dom Perignon '68.

If you have to publish your own stuff, there are an awful lot of new venues for self-published work and e-publishing. Any of them are going to be far less expensive and heartbreaking than starting up your own micro-press.

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I would agree with you 100% if I were publishing fiction or even mainstream non-fiction. But in my business, this is how it's done. It's called Family Press - where homeschool families start a publishing biz - maybe you've heard of Christopher Paolini. His parents published his book with their homeschool press and the rest is history.

I think you are underestimating my niche business. I am not interested in self-publishing my own fiction - I will definitely get an agent and go 100% traditional route for that.

But I already publish my own non-fiction (for several years now) and in fact make several thousand $$ a month off of it - and that's just the e-books. Which is why I plan on branching out to hard copy books in the spring. It's a very nice side business. In addition, I get so many requests for hard copy books that I simply cannot make excuses as to why I don't offer them anymore. And the 100 ISBN # have already been purchased. The press is moving forward no matter what.

So, my question was really - should I help another author along in their quest to sell homeschool textbooks, or should I stick to my own books? Does anyone have experience in starting their own small press?

Honestly, after talking this through with some business mentors they are inclined to encourage me. Not to make a fortune - I don't even know where you got that from as I never even mentioned money in my post - but to begin a new publishing house for a very niche market.

As someone pointed out to me today - if I don't at least entertain ideas of taking on authors other than myself they will just ask some other publisher until they get the result they are looking for. Wouldn't I be remiss to dismiss them without consideration?

And as to the quality of product I'd get - I am regularly impressed with the quality of materials that a stay-at-home homeschool mother can come up with for learning; quality will not be a problem.

carlaviii said:

...but if you decide to stick with it, I'm a freelance graphic designer with many years of experience in prepress.

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I will keep that in mind. I do all my own artwork now but my son is studying Corel Draw and Painter 11 for homeschool this year - so I'm hoping to rope him in!

carlaviii said:

I for one would not blame anybody who has a steady market for electronic books for merely producing hard copies and leaving it at that. Not for a moment.

Besides being a freelancer, I was (still am) involved in a small tabletop game publishing company. It's a small and difficult niche market. We produced everything in-house except for illustrations. Artists can be a headache, so if you've got one in-house, I'm jealous. Company crashed and has been burning quietly in the background for several years now. Allow me to show you some of the boxes of our unsold books... (need any kindling?)

Dealing in physical books has its risks. Step back and think about the worst case scenario. Will you need to warehouse? Will this be POD? How much will shipping eat into your profit margin? Are you advertising?

Just some thoughts. I know I'm biased because of my bad experiences.

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I advertised a lot the first year (which is relative to a budget, mine was very small) and concentrated on very tight niche markets. I was given a few opportunities to offer freebies to some very big publishers for online promotions for their websites - so that REALLY helped. Free advertising for me and tens of thousands of potential customers.

This year money was definitely tighter financially so I've cut out a lot of the advertising - the adwords had to go (which DID work well but is just too pricey) and some HUGE newsletter lists which set me back several hundred each month (that's a lot for my budget).

The first year I built my own newsletter list and have about 5000 people and I offer freebies every month for list building. I also have two yearly promotions - an open house in the spring and a huge freebie giveaway in December.

Art is my God-given talent, although I stopped taking formal classes in my early 20's as I could never draw for other people for a living. So I am lucky in that if I HAVE to (which I do) I can do my own artwork. Luckily- art is my son's GGT too - and he likes it better than I did.

I am very wary of printing things up ahead of time and I do not have the money for warehouses and big stuff like that - this is all in house- so I will do a form of POD but from my home. I've collected various pieces of equipment for this venture over the past two years and finally have all the stuff I require - including a CD duplicator (I sell software related to my workbooks too but right now they are online only and people want them on CD so they don't have to rely on the internet.)

I have thought a lot about shipping, but have not made a final decision yet. I really live in the boondocks - the PO is 20 miles away but they will pick up from the house for free. I have researched CD sleeves, mailers, bubble envelopes, flat rate boxes, shrink-wrap machines (which I still need)...

Hopefully my planning will pay off and I will grow slowly the first year of print while I figure this publishing stuff out, then I can think of bigger things like offering my products to other online stores and outsourcing stuff so that I have more time to RUN the business instead of doing all the production. I do have a few really good writers who do literature guides for me right now, but that's it.

I'm pretty much making it up as I go using other homeschool companies as my model. Oh, and I pay cash for everything. I have not and will not take a loan for any of this. I spend the money I make from the e-books on the equipment and stuff, I just wish I had a mentor that has done the same thing or a partner or something.

Some days I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel all by myself.

Stacia Kane said:

Priceless1 was instrumental in the opening of Behler Publishing. I'd send her a PM; she's very nice and I'm sure she'll answer what questions she can. This is her profile:


http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/member.php?u=376


Good luck!

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THANK YOU!

nkkingston said:

I guess it depends. Do any of the submissions meet your standards? Are they on topics you don't have the expertise to cover yourself? Are you prepared to deal with the ramifications of publishing other people's books, such as tax?

Personally, I'd take a long hard look at the business ramifications first, and maybe consult a contracts lawyer (specialising in publishing) to see what kind of contract you might draw up for them. If you do open your doors to other authors, brace yourself for a flood of unpublishable slush that you will have to wade through to find anything worth publishing. Be prepared to say no to even the most heart-wrenching sob story. Be prepared to say yes to books on the same subject as your own if they're better than yours.


(sometimes I wonder if some people in this forum actually read the posts, or just post their usual screed on the chance it's probably right. Self publishing non-fiction is a world away from fiction, and as you've said, you're turning a tidy bit of money out of it already)

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Yeah, your points are all good ones. The current request for submission was on a subject I am not really interested in doing myself, but think would be a good seller and is related to some other stuff that I have written in the past but have moved away from. I am really not ready for taxes and accountants, and contracts, and that stuff. I think I will have to pass. I just hope I'm not running away because I am afraid of this stuff and missing out on a good opportunity to move things forward.

OTOH - rushing in too fast could blow it all and after all this careful preparation if would totally suck to ruin it (or get in trouble with the IRS) by taking on too much.

Thank you.

nitaworm said:

I would suggest that you join publisher organizations that have people of like mind to support you. Like ibpa or something small and local like MidAtlantic Book Publisher's organization who has many small pubs that are like minded and can give great advice. You have to separate your roles Author-writes and the Publisher-sells.

Good luck!

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Oh, thanks! That is a good idea. I will look into those!