TO UNDERSTAND THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS AND THEIR FUNCTIONALITIES IN A PUBLISHING HOUSE

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SESSION TWO : ORGANIZATION OF A PUBLISHING HOUSE
3.1 Introduction
In this lecture, we will explain the organization of a publishing house and also look at the types of
publishing firms.
3.2 Objectives
At the end of the session, you should be able to:
1. Identify and explain the organization of a publishing house
2. Discuss the types of publishing firms
3.3 Departments in a Typical Publishing House
The key partners involved in publishing and book trade are coordinated in a publishing firm under
various departments. The departments play different roles to ensure that the published work is
ready for use.
Most book publishing companies have four divisions:
I. Editorial Department
• This department primary deals with the authors.
• This includes receiving and assessing manuscripts.
• It selects the manuscripts and with the help of the reviewers, editors, and proofreaders
prepare the manuscript for publication.
• Decides what to produce and when to release it for sale.
Acquisitions and managing editors discuss and review ideas for books or articles.
II. Design and production Department
• This department is responsible for designing the book including the selection of typeface
paper, format, layout, cover, typesetting cover design, number and type of illustrative
materials, printing and binding.
• It aims at transforming the manuscripts into the final book that goes to the consumer.
• This is the manufacturing department
• They join with the editorial team to make the final decisions regarding production details.
III. Marketing and Sales Department

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• This department involves sales and promotion.
• Its responsible for promoting and selling the product
• Its role is to ensure that the public knows what books are forthcoming or have been
published.
• It’s also involved in the selling of books to various customers.
• They provide input about the sale potential of the title.
• Decide on how many review copies to distribute and do what review sources, where, when
or whether to place an advertisement is its responsibility.
IV. General Administration/Finance
 This is the department responsible for the publisher finance and accounts information and
controls.
 Its functions include accounting, signing of contracts, order processing, bill payment, and
long-range financial forecast.
3.4 Types of Publishing Firms
Publishers maybe classified in many ways such as by their size, their intended audience and the
type of materials they publish or their main area of publishing.
The functional approach that classifies publishers according to their size and main area of
publishing or their target market has three major types of publishers namely:
• Trade publishers
• Scholarly/Academic publishers
• Textbooks publishers
Note: publishers often have several lines or divisions that handle a specific type of publishing e.g.
Trade books, college text books and mass market paperbacks.
I. Trade Publishers
• These are publishers who specialize in publishing for the general market. They deal with
the publication of books for general reading intended to be sold primarily through the retail
book trade (book stores).
• This is the father of publishing.
• They are frequently large corporations that print 10,000 or more copies of their titles.
• They produce a wide range of fiction and non –fiction that have wide sales potential in

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hardcover, paperback and audio format.
• Many trade publishers have divisions that produce specialty titles such as children’s,
college textbooks, paperback and reference.
• They publish all types of materials in all subject areas in all formats.
• Trade publishers have three markets
 Bookstores
 Libraries
 Wholesales
• To sell their products, these publishers often send sales representatives to visit buyers in
businesses or institutions in each of the markets.
• Discounts for trade titles tend to be higher than for many other types of publications.
• Example of trade publishers are: Longhorn, Oxford University press, East African
Education Publishers, Macmillan etc.
II. Scholarly Publishers/Academic
 They are usually associated with research and academic institutions.
 They publish to promote the academic goals or research needs of the parent organization
and other interested groups.
 These include University presses and departments, societies and association charities,
research institutions, learned societies, museums whose main sale are to libraries and
researchers
 Books are produced to enhance learning and teaching. e.g. University of Nairobi Press,
African Medical Research Foundation, Moi University etc.
 They often print 500-5,000 copies of their books
 The purpose of their publication is to share information related to their organization focus.
 In Western countries this publishing is the work of University presses but in developing
countries, this type of publishing is not very common.
 As part of non-profit making organizations, these publishers receive subsidies from their
parent organization/institution.
 Such organization may have publishing as their main purpose or publishing process may
be a minor part of their operation.
 They may rely on profits from their publishing to support the other activities or the

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organization may subsidize the publishing operation with funds from other activities.
 Scholars establish such presses to produce scholarly books that could not be acceptable to
most for profit publishers.
 Most scholarly books have limited sales appeal
 A commercial publisher considering a scholarly manuscript makes three considerations:
 Publish it, and try to sell it, at a price to ensure costs are covered.
 Publish it, sell it at a price comparable to commercial titles and loose money or
 Do not publish the item
• Because of economic factors and the need to disseminate scholarly information regardless
of cost, the subsidized not for profit presses exit.
• The role of scholarly press in the economy and open dissemination of knowledge is critical.
Scholarly publishers/Academic are small but play a significant portion in publishing
industry.
III. Text Book Publishers
 These mainly deal with textbooks.
 The textbook market constitutes 85% of the book market in Kenya.
 This publishing carter for elementary, secondary and colleges markets.
 Textbooks, especially those targeting primary secondary schools occupy one of the highest
risk areas of publishing.
 Production of a good textbook requires large amounts of money, time and energy.
 Printing costs are high because most school texts feature expensive color plates and other
specialized presswork.
 Hence, such projects require large upfront investment that must be recouped before a profit
can be realized.
 Another issue to counter plate is the fact that textbook business is highly seasonal in
character.
 A book may even make limited sales if for example the educational authorities follow the
system of adopting a single textbook in that subject and at the level and do not happen to
pick the particular one.
 If textbook is adopted by the ministry of education, profits can be substantial but failure to
secure adoption can mean tremendous loss.

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 Discounts are rare except in very large quantities.
3.5 Other Publishers
Specialty publishers
 These restrict output to a few areas or subject
 Facts on file are a good example of a specialty publisher on the field or reference titles.
 Their audience is are smaller and more critical of the material than are the trade publisher’s
audience
 Specialty houses exist for a variety of field e.g. Art, Music, Science, Technical, Law,
Medical etc. and subject area
 Their products include reference, paperbacks, children’s, microforms etc.
 Subject specialty have narrow markets easily identified.
 They focus marketing effort on a limited number of potential buyers
 Such a focus allows them to achieve a reasonable return with less risk than trade publisher
takes on a nonfiction title.
 Specialty houses exists for a variety of fields such as Art (Harry N Abrams), Science
(Academic press), Law (West publishing) etc.
 Usually these works require expensive graphic preparation presswork-hence increase
production costs such books are very expensive
 Their market is also small and hence more expensive
Religious Publishers
 These are owned by religious groups
 Publish religious literature for the sake of spreading their religious teachings and beliefs
 Their books consists of Bibles, prayer books, Quran and other works of specific religious
content e.g. African Inland church has a printing and publishing firm at Kijabe.
Vanity Presses
 These differ from other publishing houses, in that they receive most of their operating fund
from the authors whose works they publish
 Usually, they are rich authors wanting their works published to satisfy their vanity even
when other publishers would have refused to do so due to content considerations
 Such presses offer editing assistance for a fee, and arrange to print as many copies of a

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book as the author can afford
 Distribution is the author’s chore
 Many authors who use vanity presses donate copies of their books to local libraries.
 Such always post a profit and never lack materials to produce e.g. Exposition press
Reference Publishing
The publishing of reference books presents its own problems and challenges to a publisher because
of the comprehensiveness and size of some reference books e.g. encyclopedias, handbooks,
dictionaries, atlases, etc.
 Strong editorial input is required to ensure that the content of such books are accurate and
logically arranged. The editor is not also supposed to loose sight of the ultimate end user
who will require a concise, accurate but readable reference book. Only well established and
experienced publishers with competent editorial teams can attempt to publish a reference
book.
 In some cases the preparation of a publication of a single reference book may take several
years with expert contribution drawn from the relevant profession of professionals outside
the immediate editorial staff of a publishing house.
 Encyclopedias in part may involve the collaboration of several editorial teams which
painstakingly examine each entry and evaluate its appropriateness and accuracy before it
can be approved for insertion in the final published edition.
 Because of the need for a large number of experts, the publication of some reference books
require considerable investment on the part of the publisher without which it would not be
possible to ensure a quality publication.
 The publisher may also have to wait several years before he can recover/recoup the
investment he makes in the publication. The potential sales of reference book may not be
so high because books are usually purchased either by libraries or individual professionals
who need to consult them for their daily occupation.
 This limited market makes the print runs limited and this tends to push the price of the
individual copy of the publication. Hence reference books are generally more expensive
than other types of books.
 The publisher may recoup his investment if the published book finds wide acceptance. The
life of a reference book may however be limited by nature of subject covered in the book.

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If the subject is volatile and characterized by constant development and changes, the
content of a reference may be rendered out of date or obsolete.
 In the case of annuals/yearbooks it may be necessary to issue new editions every year since
the contents will be rendered out of date by passage of time
 Despite the setbacks that face publishers of reference books, these books constitute a very
important segment of the publishing industry providing as they do, information which may
not conveniently be available from any other source
 The major players in this segment are the well established publishers especially
multinationals that have access to adequate funding and also potential markets which can
absorb their publications.
 Such publishers have tendered to specialize in a limited range of subjects within their fields
of competence or self-imposed specialization. For example, MCGraw Hill is associated
with scientific publications while for other publications restrict themselves to directories
and year books.
 Publications of encyclopedia such as Britannica have limited themselves to such
publication and developed the necessary competence through time to enable them to
produce the quality of publication that have come to appreciate.
3.6 Discounts
 Many publishers sell books to libraries and booksellers at a price lower than that changed
to the consumer.
 Discounts vary with type of publisher and the purchaser.
 Large trade publishers may offer national bookstores discounts of as much as 50%.
 Societies and Associations may not offer any kind of discount to anyone except members
of their organization.
 Libraries generally receive less discounts than those given to bookstore usually 10-20%.
3.7 Revision Questions
1. Describe the departments in a typical publishing house
2. Identify and explain the types of publishing firms in Kenya
3.8. Further Reading/References

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1. Clark, G.N., & Philips, A. (2014). Inside book publishing. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN:
9780415537162
2. Greco, A.N. (2013). The book publishing industry. Routledge. ISBN-10:0415887240
3. Journal of Library Administration (Taylor & Francis online) ISSN:1540-3564