Today we are going to talk about something that confuses authors even to this date because today we are going to talk about imprints.
So, what is an imprint? What is an imprint in self-publishing?
We are going to answer important questions like this so that you might understand everything about imprints whether it is in the context of traditional publishers or independently published titles.
WHAT IS AN IMPRINT?
There can be different ways to define the imprint but it is simply a subsidiary or a trade name of a publishing company under which it publishes books.
A single publisher can have dozens of imprints and they can choose not to have any imprints as well but all the major publishers in the world do hold multiple imprints.
In order to understand this, you must think from a business perspective because a company can have multiple brands for different categories of products and similarly imprints work like that.
For example, Plume is an imprint of Penguin Publishers and the imprint Plume is used to publish non-fiction titles for Penguin Publishing group.
So, why does an imprint matter? Let us find out.
WHY DOES IMPRINT MATTER?
If you are ever thinking of creating a publishing house and you want to know how to create an imprint then the first thing you want to do is to understand the purpose of the imprint.
A publishing house aims to be something that publishes every kind of book because of versatility and profits and market share.
But there is a problem with that because sometimes there can be some genres that see more publications and some genres that see fewer publications.
Additionally, there is a problem with publishing different genres under a single imprint. Let us explain with an example.
Let’s say you want to buy a pen and you want that to be a good pen that is specialised and that you will carry with you and it will be a status symbol. Would you prefer to buy it from a departmental store or a boutique store that specialises in pens?
Of course, you are going to buy it from a pen store that only sells pens, because that way you know it’s not a generic product but a specialised product.
The same goes for different imprints. If a publisher publishes books of every genre and claims to be the best then people would simply consider it a Jack of all trades and master of none.
However, being a publisher, you can claim that you are a specialist if you have different imprints for different genres.
You can be children’s book publishers as well as being self-publishers for independent authors who write mature fiction. The possibilities are endless with multiple imprints.
Let us get into a bit more detail about the advantages of imprints.
ADVANTAGES OF IMPRINTS FOR PUBLISHERS
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MARKETING
One of the critical benefits of having different imprints is marketing. In order to understand this you will have to think in terms of other companies and businesses.
A makeup company can have two different brands separating female makeup and men’s hygiene products. This will allow them to create two brands that can claim to be specialised instead of being a company that does everything.
Similarly, when a publisher has for example two imprints, one for fiction and another for non-fiction, they will be able to market them differently.
They can have entire marketing campaigns and have two different approaches to them and control the marketing process better.
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ACQUISITIONS
Sometimes large publishing houses acquired independent publishing companies or smaller self-publishing houses. Sometimes large publishing houses can acquire smaller publishing houses.
Once they have acquired smaller publishers, the large publishing company would obviously want to retain the same customers and the same sales of the smaller publisher.
That is when the name of the smaller publisher is converted into an imprint. This means that the smaller publisher can still hold on to the name thereby availing the advantage and utilising the previous market share.
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SPECIALISATIONS
Sometimes imprints serve a special purpose which is quite practical and it is to publish different types of books.
This is a relatively new concept because sometimes there can be imprints that only publish audiobooks and there can be other imprints that publish eBooks.
The advantage of this is that it won’t be confusing to the buyers because they will know exactly which imprint to go for if they want a certain type of book.
The advantage of this is also that sometimes the imprints are separated so that they can publish on entirely different platforms.
We hope this blog has been helpful for you to understand what is an imprint and what are the different purposes of an imprint and how important they are to the publishing world.
If you are someone who is keen on publishing your own work and if you are someone who simply does not like to wait for traditional publishers to approve your work and like to take matters into your own hands then we are here for you.
We are Orange Publishers and we are the fastest-growing and most popular self-publishing book house in India.
Everything we do is in-house when it comes to publishing from the illustration design to the book cover design to the printing as well as the publishing and even promotion and copyright.
We would love to work with you and we welcome you to check out our services and request a quotation.
