How to Become a Publisher

Publishing is one of those stable careers that changes within the industry, but will never go away entirely. if you're looking for a career with stability and security, but one with room for creativity, you might want to become a publisher. Following are the steps you need to take to become a print publisher and a Web publisher.


*Instructions*


Become a Print Publisher


1 - Obtain a bachelor's degree in English or some other liberal arts concentration. Although you can become a print publisher without an education, it will help you to understand the market more fully and might increase the value of your skills later on.

2 - Choose an area of expertise. A print publisher needs to align with a genre or industry in order to make better decisions about the materials you want to publish. For example, you might find that you prefer to work with suspense novels, or perhaps you like the idea of publishing books about gardening, or maybe you'd like to go a totally different path with a mainstream magazine.


3 - Decide if you want to start your own publishing company or work with a publishing house that already exists. If you decide to strike out on your own, know that you will need a significant amount of start-up cash to make acquisitions, print materials and hire staff.

4 - Learn everything you can about the publishing industry. You might want to intern first with a publishing house to learn about every aspect of becoming a publisher, or you could start with a few courses at a local university. Education and industry knowledge are key to publishing.

5 - Build contacts to keep your publishing business afloat. A publisher must always be looking for new talent and scouring the marketplace. For example, you might want to start working with a few literary agents who can bring you talent. If you're working in magazines, you'll need to hire freelancers or full-time staff to handle things like graphic art, editing, sales and advertising.



*Become a Web Publisher*


6 - Determine what type of content you'd like to publish. A Web publisher should have a niche or genre that is unique so that content is not duplicated elsewhere on the Internet.

7 - Register a domain name where your content will be published (see Resources below). Make sure that the domain is related to the type of content you selected in Step 1.

8 - Hire a Web designer or design your own website using a content management system or design software. It should be user-friendly with lots of navigation to help readers find the content they need.

9 - Monetize your website by displaying ads or signing up for affiliate programs (see Resources). This is how most Web publishers make money from their businesses, and most monetization strategies don't take much time to learn.

10 - Continue generating unique, searchable content for the Internet. A Web publisher can make a decent living from this type of business, but you have to continually supply your readers with new information. You can also partner with other people who want to become Web publishers to maximize your output.

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