A Publishing house is a company which prints and publishes. The prints can be books, while the soft can be online publishing. Many people want to read the clear-cut instructions on how to map out the plans to set up a standard publishing house producing both print and soft copies for the end users.

It may be boring if you have to read the lengthened essay because of its complexity. This article has made every aspect possible to clearly understand the basic requirements and essentials you will need to set up a standard publishing house.

The readers testify to the publishing pages when they read the article. Start from basic requirements until you are exhausted with your jot material and pen, and begin to draw your plan for setting up a standard publishing house.

Basic requirements in book publishing

Passion for reading
Determination for hard work and a first university degree
Keen interest in production

Preliminary step in establishing publishing

Do a business plan: pricing, financing, location, mission statement, serving better, target audience, etc.
Determine your market.
Plan your marketing campaign.
Give your publishing house a clear name.
Determine the type of publishing.
Determine the hierarchy.
Make plans for distributions.

Major Publishing Divisions

Editorial
Production: Design Unit, Desktop Publishing, Print Unit, Graphic illustrations

Book publishing chain

Acquisition of manuscripts, both solicited and unsolicited
Assessment of the manuscripts
Editing of the manuscripts
Design and production
Sales and marketing
Distributions
End users

Assessment

Assessment is the process of judging whether the written materials are publishable or not. There are different criteria to consider when we are doing an in-house assessment before the report of the manuscripts can be successful. In educational publications, there are solicited and unsolicited manuscripts. Both of them will be assessed, and the assessors will give the report accordingly.

Manuscript acquisition and assessment

Raw material to publish as books
The books to republish them
Scripts that are manually written, either solicited or unsolicited

How and where to generate the manuscripts

Hunting for good authors
Looking for contributors and reviewers

How is an in-house assessment done

Readership potentials
Coverage
Contributions
Language and styles
Violations of privacy
Suitability of the title
Objectives
The vision of the company

Editing

Editing is regarded as the process of preparing the assessed manuscripts for publication. There are different types of editing, depending on the kind of manuscripts or scripts. The editing includes technical editing, substantive editing, content editing, copyediting, scientific editing, and developmental editing.

Tools and levels of editing

Dictionary and thesaurus
Accuracy of content
Appropriateness of language use
Organisation of content and language
Proper references
Target audience
Possible errors and facts
Insertions of relevant pictures, images, and illustrations
Check the typesetter’s work
Capitalization
Refine in a clear and easy-to-read
Not ambiguity and vagueness
Avoid noun strings
Check your editing; never assume
Check proofs always
Unit measurement
Consistency of Page numbers
Manage efficiently, time and materials

Book design

Book design is the process of getting the edited manuscripts ready for publication in book form. When the artist designs, he or she plans to make the best out of the book. It is a way of giving you the template of the book. The artist’s design for how the book will look is called a template.

Page elements in book design

Content and content/letter characters
Format and style
Pictures/images/illustrations
Text

Elements of design

Coherence
Consistent style
Harmony
Running head, that is, on the head of the book

Qualities of design

Quality of production (Printing)
Quality of Finishing

Book structure

Inside the book
Inside front cover
Outside back cover
Inside back cover
Outside front cover

Outside front cover

The title of the book
The author and authors of the book

Inside front cover

Preliminary matters, such as
Full title
Page
Author or authors
Year of publication
Copyright page
Name of publisher

Main text matter

Fundamental manufacturer of the book
Chapters
Modules
Segments
Sections
Stanzas
Lines
Pagination
Listing building and flipping the title

Inside the book

End matter of the book
Index
Glossary
Word list

Outside back cover

Blurb
The author or About the author
Catalog information
ISBN
Publisher
Recto and Verso

Book production

The book production is explained as the actual manufacturing of the book. After the design is completed and satisfactory, the production processes will take place. The printing of the books must be of good quality. The quality of production and quality of content influence the customers to buy the book, such as compilation of quality, presentation of ideas, language use, and sequence. The production stages are divided into three aspects.

Pre-press is the first stage

Planning
Filming
Softcopy

Press at the second stage

Printing
Actual press where the jobs are done

Post-press is the third stage

Folding
Collating
Stitching
binding
Finishing

Materials used in book production

Text Paper
Bond paper in different sizes

Skills in quality production

Capacity of the authors
Organizational Philosophy
Publishing program
Capacity of editors
Intellectual capacity
Technical capacity
Human relations capacity
Environmental capacity

Cost Management and Book Pricing

Cost: Cost can be seen as the amount paid or given up to gain an object of production. It may be the value of money used to produce something. The cost must usually be evaluated before one goes into producing books. In costing, the following criteria should be considered.

Criteria to consider in costing

Materials
Time-consuming
Risk incurring
Opportunity cost
Delivery of goods and services
Resources

Management: Management can be regarded as the ability to handle the resources wisely and effectively, as the coordination of the organisation to achieve the goals, and an effective, careful, and judicious company resource for organisational growth and the development and profit-making. There are four major functions of management.

4 major functions of management

Learning
Organizing
Directing
Controlling

Cost Management: Cost Management is the process of planning and controlling the budget of an organisation or business enterprise that includes planning, estimating, financing, and budgeting.

Resource Planning
Cost Estimating
Cost budgeting
Cost controlling

Cost budgeting is the overall idea of money to spend on the project, while cost controlling is the application of a procedure to monitor all expenditures.

Pricing mechanism

The pricing mechanism is defined as the amount given by one party to another in exchange for goods and services obtained. It is also the amount for which something is sold; money for someone changing for parting, etc. Fixing the price entails calculation and estimation. So, the price mechanism is the method of fixing the price of a book in publishing.

Types of price

Coasted price/unit price: It is the price that is the retail price for a single item sold. It can increase if the quantity is low. It can also decrease if the quantity is high.
Selling price: This price comprises production costs such as the cost of printing and the cost of materials.

Factors for Fixing Price

Considering the market
Considering the competitors
Considering the growing concern about the products
Reading population
Specification
Colour and illustrations
Page extent
Types of paper
Types of finishing and filming
Sales and marketing
Profit margin

Paper sizes

70gm bond 20×30
70gm bond 2x5x36
Malt paper (cool soft)
Art paper (Glossary) 24.5×33
Pelican card 250 gm

Advantages of the pricing mechanism

To keep costs under control
Profit and Loss Account
To set a competing price
To regulate our profits
To improve content quality
To resolve what to publish, where to publish it, how to publish, and when to publish it.

Sales, marketing and distribution

This is the process of presenting the ready products to the end users or the target audience. There is a department for this job in a well-structured publishing company. The products will have to be distributed to different branches and outlets of the company, from which the marketers and sales representatives will get them to the end use, such as schools, bookstores, bookshops, learning institutions, etc.

End users

These are people buying the products, or they are the target audience for which the products are produced. They are the reasons why the publishing houses are established.