Traditional publishing

April 2025

I am often asked what a publishing house is.

A publishing house is any company that buys and sells IP (intellectual property).

Intellectual property covers both written and visual information.

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Please note: Intellectual property laws vary from country to country.

This is not legal advice.

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A publishing house will usually pay for and organise:

● Illustrations

● Design

● Legal/research

● Copyright and fact-checking

● Printing

● Shipping

● Marketing

● Publicity

● Distribution

● Stock management

When a publishing house acquires IP they have to be sure it will sell to cover the overheads of running the company.

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A reputable publishing house should also be concerned about obtaining accurate information.

Being sure that well-informed accurate information is published should be just as important to a publishing house as the creative quality of the writing or images.

Every publishing house is different.

What qualifies as quality content for one publishing house may look different to another.

So research into the companies you want to work with is needed here before submission.

Publishing houses are always inundated with new creative work, both written and visual.

It can be difficult to have your work accepted into a publishing house to begin with.

In recent years, self-publishing has become popular. Many companies now offer a variety of self-publishing help options.

Self-publishing has its own set of challenges.

Read more about self-publishing in the next article.

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This is a brief overview of how a traditional publishing house may operate.

Credits

Written by Lillian Webb

Edited by Gina Cranson

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