In this blog, we will be looking at some of the options open to you if you want to establish your own publishing company to self-publish your book. We will also be considering what the steps are for this and what the advantages of it are over just self-publishing as yourself. However, we will start by asking if you need to set up as a formal company.
Do You Need a Publishing Company?
The short and to-the-point answer to this is no! No, you don’t have to create a company, but it can greatly benefit you and your book – it will depend on your situation. If you would like your book to be widely sold and maybe even appear in bookstores, you will probably find it better to have a company established.
On the other hand, if the book you are publishing is really only aimed at family and friends or will be given as a gift, you don’t need to create a company. It would just be adding an unnecessary step to the process. If it is a family history with lots of old pictures dug out of the albums, this is again not the sort of thing you need a company for.
The question is – are you intending to make your book into a business? This can be indicated by a lot of things, such as you planning to make money from sales, aiming to reach a large and diverse readership or using it to push an agenda. All of these things imply that you have a specific goal for your book and are going into business to pursue this. You will then need to set up a company to enter business.
What are the Advantages of Creating a Publishing Company?
One of the main advantages of creating a publishing company is that your book can be traced back to you as the publisher, providing you bought your own ISBNs under the company name. This means that you are listed as the publisher of your own book, rather than an external company that you used for publication and ISBNs.
Whether or not you have your own publishing imprint, be sure to make someone the publisher when listing your book on sites such as Amazon, as the default otherwise is to make the site the publisher. You can use your own name or a “trading as” one if you prefer.
In addition, make sure the copyright holder for the work is you, not a “trading as” one or even your own publishing company. This is because the author or originator should be the one listed as the owner of the work itself, not a company.
Another advantage of having your own company is that you will find it a lot easier if you choose to self-publish more books. You are already all set to go and can just get new ISBNs for the new book. Self-publishing is a lot easier the second time around if some things are still in place and ready from the last book.
In addition, it is easier if you separate bank accounts for your own personal expenses and incomes, and those of your book. For example, when you buy ISBNs, hire a proofreader or pay for printing, all of these expenses will come from the business account. Likewise, all the profits from the book will go directly to the business account.
There are a number of advantages to having separate accounts. One is that it makes it much easier for you to see at a glance what your book has cost and how much profit you are making on it. You can then use this information to reconsider marketing options and to help you to make decisions if you publish another book. You can see where most of the profits come from, for example, whether ebooks or print books are selling better. All of this is valuable information that you could still learn even without a separate account but is made much easier by it all being in one place.
Another benefit of having a separate account is that it reduces the chance of the money becoming muddled. It can be hard to tell how much money you have, especially if you have another income, which will all be mixed with the sales of the book. In addition, outgoings will become similarly muddled, so it is harder to see what has been spent at a glance if you have set a budget for your book.
This can also be a problem for tax purposes. If you have a separate company for your book, this is easier to evaluate for tax when it is all in the same place than if it is mixed with your own personal finances.
You can also claim some tax exemptions as a business. For example, you may be able to claim a reasonable proportion of your electricity bill as a business expense if you work from home. Exactly what you can declare as an expense should be thoroughly researched, for obvious reasons! You may well decide to hire an accountant to help with this (which also counts as a business expense for tax purposes).
Wrapping Up
I hope that you now understand why you would choose to set up as a publishing company. Of course, there are some disadvantages to this – it is a lot of trouble to go to if you are only doing your book for friends and family – but these are generally outweighed by the benefits.
This additional effort taken tends to be worth it for any future books you publish. It can also help to separate you from your book for financial purposes, which makes things easier in the long run. Good luck with self-publishing and please let me know in the comments if you have any questions – I’ll try my best to help!
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