Opening a publishing company

[Berlec]

Hello, I want to open a publishing company. Do you have any idea what equipment do I need to print books? What do they cost? I need to print just black color. If you have/had a publishing company, can you tell me what problems did you face?

Each answer will be very helpful for me.

English is not my native language, so I hope you understand what I wrote.

Sorry to bother you and thanks in advance.

 

[Raw Rob]

First, you need to understand the difference between a publishing company and a printing company. They are very different types of businesses. To start a book printing company you will need lots of money to buy printing presses and binding machines, and to employ people who know how they work.

 

[The Byre]

1. A publisher NEVER prints books or magazines. Even publishers that own their own printing works ALL separate the two tasks and make their publishing arm pay the going market rate for printing and distribution.

2. A publisher lives entirely from their contacts. If you do not know anybody that can distribute, publicise, advertise in, or write your publications, you are not a publisher.

 

[Sarah Sadler]

Oh now, all this advice is terribly negative. Glad i never met yooz lot when i opened my publishing business.

Jesus, give the poor soul a chance.

Berlec, if you haven't run away, have a go. I knew no one and nothing about printing or publishing when i started. Have eff all in the way of amazing contacts even now 12 years later and earn a decent living.

The printing and publishing industries have changed massively and need ,ore people like us who come to it with zero old school knowledge and the a ability to turn the industry on its head. Have a look at on demand printing, sell online, have fun!

Best of luck
Sarah

 

[Vectis]

Oh now, all this advice is terribly negative. Glad i never met yooz lot when i opened my publishing business.

Jesus, give the poor soul a chance.

Berlec, if you haven't run away, have a go. I knew no one and nothing about printing or publishing when i started. Have eff all in the way of amazing contacts even now 12 years later and earn a decent living.

The printing and publishing industries have changed massively and need ,ore people like us who come to it with zero old school knowledge and the a ability to turn the industry on its head. Have a look at on demand printing, sell online, have fun!

Best of luck
Sarah

To be honest, all you've done is criticise the previous two posters without giving any advice to the OP.

Berlec asked what equipment he needed to print in one colour and how much it cost. With 12 years experience, could you help him with that?

Maybe you could explain to him the difference between printing and publishing and find out which, or indeed if it's both, he wishes to do?

Just telling him to 'have a go' when we don't even know what he intends doing makes no sense. Sorry.

 

[Lawson@CBF]

I deal with a lot of publishers every month.

All publications they produce have valuable content for their chosen sector and it gives a good advertising medium to talk to all that are interested in the content.

They all seem to fail at the business end. Chasing debts managing expectations of the paying advertisers.

There is money to be made with a decent online and offline package for any sector. I'm happy to help if you want to chat further.

 

[The Byre]

If the OP gives us more info on what he intends to do, I could point his in the right direction. A book binding machine, a large ink jet and an industrial guillotine may be all he needs.

On the other hand, he may need a totally different set of tools, if he is going for volume and will have to factor in employing professional publishing agents and putting up a stand in Frankfurt.

Once again, printing and publishing are two different tasks entirely.

 

[mmike86]

Interesting approach. You have no skills, no knowledge and no experience in this industry... Yet you want to open a printing company ???

When I've opened my software business, I had in my hand, a degree in IT (software engineering) and in business... Without those I would be nowhere.

I guess Tomorrow you can try to open also a software business or perhaps a legal aid company...

 

[Berlec]

If the OP gives us more info on what he intends to do, I could point his in the right direction. A book binding machine, a large ink jet and an industrial guillotine may be all he needs.

On the other hand, he may need a totally different set of tools, if he is going for volume and will have to factor in employing professional publishing agents and putting up a stand in Frankfurt.

Once again, printing and publishing are two different tasks entirely.

Thanks for replying. I appreciate your sense of humor . After reading your reply, I realized that printing and publishing companies are different from each other. I find out that publishing company can order printing company to print books for them. So I decided to start a publishing company. I plan to translate books and publish them in my country. If you have any advice about it, I would be very happy to hear about them.

 

[ethical PR]

1. Do you have permission to translate these books?
2. What market research have you done in your home country to demonstrate there is a demand for the books you are going to translate
3. How are you going to market your publishing house to your target customers?

 

[Berlec]

1. Do you have permission to translate these books?
2. What market research have you done in your home country to demonstrate there is a demand for the books you are going to translate
3. How are you going to market your publishing house to your target customers?

Thanks for replying. No, I do not have permission yet. Do you know approximately what time it takes to get the permission? I live in a country with a population of 3,800,000 people. So it’s not that hard to market translated books. Books are being translated rarely and mainly our publishers focus on translating fiction, and there are many book genres that readers “lack” very much.

 

[ethical PR]

I am not sure, you would need to approach the relevant publishers/agents and find out about costs and whether this is something they would be open to.

 

[GraemeL]

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/opening-sex-toy-factory.371150/

 

[Mitch3473]

Oh now, all this advice is terribly negative. Glad i never met yooz lot when i opened my publishing business.

Jesus, give the poor soul a chance.

Berlec, if you haven't run away, have a go. I knew no one and nothing about printing or publishing when i started. Have eff all in the way of amazing contacts even now 12 years later and earn a decent living.

The printing and publishing industries have changed massively and need ,ore people like us who come to it with zero old school knowledge and the a ability to turn the industry on its head. Have a look at on demand printing, sell online, have fun!

Best of luck
Sarah

Dont suppose you met any proof readers during your 12 years.

 

[The Byre]

I would go about the task totally the other way about!

Instead of buying expensive equipment, I would use that money to put up a stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair, inviting publishers to access my national market. I am assuming that we are talking about Bosnia-Herzegovina here and that is a small, but significant market that is growing and should be on the radar of any publisher.

Prior to putting up a stand there, I would contact each and every one of all publishers exhibiting at that fair, telling them about your presence there and showing them that there is a new market for them to exploit.

You will not need a printing press or anything like that at first and you may even find that the owners of the IP (intellectual property - i.e. copyright) will do the printing for you. Publishing houses have giant contracts with printers that allow them to print books for more or less what you would be paying for the paper alone! What they are looking for is publishing know-how.

That means you will have to have access to bookshops, have on-line sales in place (both Amazon and own outlet) and also have a track record of being able to publish books in Serbo-Croat. You will also have to have access to translators that can produce those books and do so in a style that is up to the standards of the originals.

You will not even need any software, as InDesign for CS2 is a free download and InDesign plus Acrobat PDF printer is all you need. (Adobe - register as user for free and go to 'Other Downloads'.)

I have no idea how many bookshops and other retail outlets for books (supermarkets, convenience stores, garages, coffee shops) there are in B-H, but with a population of just 3.8m it cannot be too many and must be a totally manageable task.

But if you want to draw the big boys to your business, you will have to start small and build a real publishing business from scratch.

(For those of you playing the Home Game, B-H was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878 and caused Otto von Bismark to state "If a great conflagration breaks out in Europe, it will be over some damn foolish thing in the Balkans." When Bismark resigned due to ill health, Kaiser Wilhelm began the arms race that resulted in the outbreak of The Great War, following the shooting of Price Ferdinand in Sarajevo.)