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Can You Create a Publishing Company?
You can create a publishing company on your own. Whether you are an author looking to self-publish a book or an entrepreneur interested in publishing someone else’s work, you can get into the realm of book printing.
However, establishing yourself as a publishing company is no easy task. DartFrog’s white-label service provides aspiring book publishers with an instant team. More on that later in the article. First, let’s cover the basics of starting a book publishing company.
Figure Out Why You Are Publishing
Before we dive into the steps of establishing a publishing company and the fundamental pillars that go into it, it’s important to identify precisely why you want to start a publishing company. It does not need to be some grand statement, but discovering your purpose can help give you the motivation and determination to see your publishing company through to success.
So ask yourself, are you a self-made author who wants to publish your books? Do you already have published works and want to branch into the business of publishing other people’s work? Do you want to expand your own business and learn how to do so? Knowing the answers to these questions is all about knowing your own identity as a publishing company.
Steps to Starting a Publishing Company
Now that you know why you want to get into the publishing business, there are some basic steps that you need to take before becoming a full-fledged company. While these are more on the legal and financial end of things, they are important to consider before you take the step of starting your company. These steps include:
- Identify business goals. Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years? How many books do you want to publish each year? In 5 years? 10 years?
- Create your business structure. Limited liability company (LLC) is generally the best for book publishers, but check out other types of businesses.
- Pick a name for your publishing company. Make sure the name is not taken by anyone else.
- Choose your business’s location. Your home could be your location, or you could find an independent location or virtual office.
- Register your business. You will need to obtain an employee identification number (EIN), set up a bank account, create an accounting system, and register your domain name. You also need to create a KDP publishing account on Amazon.
- Create Your Team. We will discuss this in the following sections, but building a publishing team is vital to your company’s success.
The Basic Pillars of Publishing
Being a successful publisher depends almost entirely on the team of people you assemble to get your publishing company off the ground. These are the fundamental pillars of your publishing team, and you will need to make sure that everyone is working together to ensure the success of the books you publish.
Proofreading Team
Your proofreading team will be responsible for ensuring that each published book is error-free and ready for its general audience. Readers will pick up on any grammar or spelling errors in a book, leaving room for poor reviews. This also involves general formatting for eBooks and print books.
Cover Designers
It is human nature to judge a book by its cover, literally. Cover designers are important to your team because they will create the image first judged by potential readers. They will create the pictures on the cover and design the book’s interior as well.
Uploading Team
Your uploading team will be in charge of making sure that the books you publish get to print and distributors. This involves understanding the different platforms that publishers use. It may include the use of Amazon KDP (kindle direct publishing) or IngramSpark.
Metadata Team
The metadata team will gather all the information needed about a manuscript or document. This includes author information, file size, the document was created, keywords to describe the document, and more. This team needs to make sure all information is complete and correct.
Supporting Your Pillars: Other Publishing Details
While the above team members and groups are the fundamental pillars of your publishing team, you will also need supports for these pillars. These include other aspects of publishing that are central to the book’s success.
- Amazon Optimization. Amazon optimization ensures that your books can be found easily on Amazon and is rated highly for SEO so that readers can find your books.
- Video Trailers. Book trailers can help inspire your readers before the book is published.
- Author Websites. You will need someone to manage author websites so that readers can get to know the authors and their books. Fans like to interact with their authors, so it’s essential to have these websites set up.
- Amazon PPC Teams. You need to do more than publish. Properly focused and well-managed advertising campaigns are important.
- PR and Influence Campaign Teams. Position authors to be successful through social media and marketing.
About Our White Label Service
As you can see, there are a lot of moving pieces to start a publishing company. But beyond the pieces themselves, it’s the team’s harmony that allows you to set sail. Hiring freelancers for every step of the process is possible but does not create the team environment you need to provide a seamless production process where creativity is powered through groupthink to produce the best possible version of the book. For this reason, DartFrog offers offers a white-label service that provides publishers with an instant team that already works well together and can serve as the immediate back end for all your publishing company’s book production needs.
With our white label service, you can expand your production without needing to hire additional internal staff. We take care of proofreading, formatting, cover design, ISBN management, uploading, and more so that you can focus on your authors and on building your publishing business. Check out DartFrog’s white label service today to learn more.