Is profit a dirty word?

Running a publishing company as a business

Hello Scribblers! Now that we’ve established our home on Substack, we’re opening out exclusive mailings for those of you who want to subscribe, such as the below. Paid subscribers can expect industry insiders, free stories and in-depth tips for writers, on top of our usual monthly newsletters, which we love sending you! As the industry tightens, we appreciate your support more than ever.

Now let’s get down to business: how do we run a publishing house, survive, and maybe even THRIVE?!

Innovative, diverse and ethical: just three words we may associate with the small press industry. A small press, defined via the British Book Awards, could have between 1 to 10 employees and yet competes (whether intentionally or unintentionally) with large-scale publishing houses with international offices, bustling for space in bookshops. As the managing director of Fly on the Wall Press, I’m often asked: “how do I do it?”, which means, how do you make money? Or, as my grandad puts it, “do you actually make any money?”

Money and profit are contentious topics in the publishing industry. There can be a prevailing opinion that publishers squeeze money away from the author and, as an ethical-minded business owner, I’m really conscious of this.