Introduction

The Myrtle Press was set up in April 2010 by Tom Rubython to publish non-fiction books written by him and his team of writers and researchers. Myrtle also publishes a small number of books by other authors. The broad object is to publish six original books a year and as many again adapted in new formats. Myrtle already has nine books in various stages of production and three more books in development. Myrtle’s ambition is to publish each book in a mixture of formats over a five or six year period. Myrtle will only develop and produce books that have the potential to sell at least 120,000 copies in the three main formats. Occasionally it will develop and produce special interest titles.

Reasons for entering the book business

Tom Rubython and his team thought long and hard before setting up The Myrtle Press. Before this Tom headed up a team of publishing professionals, however, most of their experience was in the magazine business and although having already published books previously it was not a serious endeavour. They decided to enter the book business because they perceived that the business had long term prospects and that there was no market disadvantage for smaller publishers. They strongly believed their magazine experience to be a positive advantage and that above average performance could be achieved from publishing well-conceived, well written and well-designed books. The team firmly believes that it can bring its special talents – talents that have been honed by long years in the competitive magazine industry – to bear on the books business to great effect.

The Myrtle Press concept

The Myrtle Press will only publish successful books and books that sell. That is a precept that is unknown in the broader book publishing business, in which the vast majority of books do not sell. That is because, in general, traditional book publishers do not choose the books they publish, they are effectively chosen by the authors. Combined with a lack of expertise in the subjects they publish, it is the single biggest reason that large publishers publish so many unsuccessful books – they simply do not have the subject expertise to publish the books they commission.

Myrtle books are aimed at the gift market

When Myrtle plans the strategy for a book it assumes that the person buying the book will not be the person reading the book. Instead, it chooses to ignore, as far as that is possible, the actual buyer and situates itself in the place of the potential receiver when judging a book’s appeal. Myrtle assumes that that the person buying the book will be a person judging the reading habits of the person receiving the book. When considered in this context, the book buyer is an entirely different type of consumer. All of the books published by The Myrtle Press will be exclusively aimed at the gift market and, as such, will have production values in which the look and perception of the product as a gift is just as important as the words and pictures inside.