Publishing or Content? A Tale of Two Publishing Houses
- David Salariya
- Mar 26
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 28
A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me
In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the Montagues and Capulets were locked in a feud so old and corrosive, no one remembered how it started - but everyone felt the consequences - this isn't really a case of battling 'houses' or 'families' but analysing different ways or working.
Today, in publishing, another quiet feud simmers - not with swords and poisoned potions, but with mission statements, org charts and development manager roles, with the broad remit of developing systems and reviewing publishing processes. One house still believes in courtship - of ideas, of authors, of design. The other? It speaks in the language of content optimisation, synergy, and market alignment.
Both call themselves publishers
Rival houses perhaps, shaping the future of books. One lives by creative codes. The other updates quarterly. hiring more publicists than editors.
When is a Publisher a Publisher?
One publishing house still lives by the pitching of ideas and editorial meetings, perhaps dog-eared manuscripts in canvas bags are long gone, but the ideas are there, the ink stained art director, a maestro in Adobe design with sketchpads filled with ideas, knowing how an ember of an idea can glow into a raging fire of activity.
The other is skulkingly, corporate, structured. Its office language borrows from Silicon Valley. Its books are referred to as “IP.” May promote the outside of the building to say what a 'bella figura' I am.
Both call themselves publishers. But only one still publishes in the traditional sense.
Let’s call them House A and House B.
House A: The Publisher-Led House
The Creative Core Still Exists
This house believes in the holy trinity of publishing: author, editor, and designer. Leadership here includes people who’ve worked on actual books - commissioned them, shaped them, fought for them. Their bios name titles, not just territories...or sports.
Books with Identity and Purpose
In House A:
Design matters. Typography isn’t an afterthought.
Covers are argued over passionately, not decided by salesteams
Spreadsheets exist - but they serve the work, not vice versa.
Author and artist relationships are long-term.
Debuts are nurtured, not manufactured.
Lists are curated, not crowdsourced.
This culture is cautious - sometimes maddeningly slow - but it breathes. Books can still be bold, eccentric, difficult. And yes, they occasionally change the world.
Here, the goal is to amplify voices and shape culture, not just tick boxes in a content calendar.
House B: The Business-Run Content Company
Publishing as IP Management
This is the newer model - and it's rising fast. Publishing here is just one division in a broader media empire.
The C-suite? So, Publishing or Content? Almost entirely from finance, strategy, and sales. Bios feature triathlons, not Tolstoy. You'll see talk of supply chains, consumer insights, and quarterly growth - but rarely a book that changed their life, every book might matter but not every author.
Editors and Designers Pushed to the Margins
Creative staff exist - but they’re buried in the hierarchy. Decision-making is centralised and often disconnected from the creative process.
Books are greenlit based on:
Market alignment
Brand partnerships
Licensing opportunities
A book becomes a scalable asset, not a cultural artifact. Quality isn’t irrelevant - it’s just secondary to strategy.
The personal touch? Often relegated to a footnote. A rescue dog. A love of home brewing. But rarely, if ever, a passion for publishing.
Warning Signs
A couple of warning signs, if you're watching closely: first, the steady stream of press releases. When even minor staffing shifts or routine acquisitions are heralded with the fanfare of a moon landing, you start to suspect the real audience might be internal. Second, the appointment of a literary scout - not to supplement editorial vision, but seemingly to supply it. When a house stops being pitched to and instead sends someone out with a butterfly net, it's worth asking why. I've always felt a publishing house should have a gravitational pull - an identity so clear that the right books find their way in. When you start outsourcing your instincts, you risk outsourcing your soul.
To be fair, House A has its own set of strategies - less reliant on scouts, perhaps, but equally alert to new revenue streams. One notable move was the creation of branded writing academies: part mentorship, part marketing funnel, and, at times, part cash cow. Some have genuinely nurtured new talent and brought exciting voices into the fold; others have felt more like vanity pipelines, charging hopefuls for a proximity to publishing that may never materialise. It’s a clever model—building the myth of access while skimming the profit margins - but it also raises questions about gatekeeping, quality control, and how far a house can stretch before it stops being, well… a house.
In House B, publishing is IP management.
The Strategy of Acquisition and Erasure
Buy, Strip, Rebrand
One way to spot the publishing or content house is the quiet acquisition of independent publishing houses. These are often founder-led, built on distinct editorial identities. They're celebrated - briefly. Then, the quirks, the voices, the vision? Erased.
The name remains. But the spirit is gone.
Training Camps and Cultural Realignment
Staff are sent to leadership programmes or corporate training camps. Thinking becomes "group-think'. Individuality becomes suspect. Legacy knowledge or past CEO's discarded in an almost pharaonic .deep clean.
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley – The Core Idea
Shelley’s sonnet tells of a once-mighty king, Ozymandias, whose colossal statue lies shattered in a vast, empty desert. On the pedestal are the famous words:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
The kicker? There are no works. Just:
“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
It’s a masterclass in irony, warning against pride, hubris, and the illusion of permanence — especially in power.
Deep Clean: The Corporate Erasure of Former CEOs
Modern corporations often engage in what could be called “cultural sanitisation” when a CEO departs under cloudy circumstances, or even when there's a simple desire to 'rebrand'. This process can include:
Scrubbing names from history - internal documents, annual reports, web archives
Rewriting narratives- “Under new leadership, the company has turned a corner...”
Replacing legacy initiatives - no matter how successful, if they’re ‘tainted’
PR memory-washing- acting as though the prior regime never happened
It’s not unlike scraping the name from a statue, or replacing the inscription with something more brand-aligned. The new leadership installs their own monument, metaphorically speaking - and wants all eyes on it, not the ruins beneath.
This isn't accidental - it’s cultural neutralisation.
What’s left is a sanitised, scalable version of publishing. It’s efficient. Manageable. And utterly forgettable.
What’s Lost When Publishing Becomes Content
Formula Over Feeling
This isn’t about elitism. Mass-market books matter. Commercial success matters.
But when publishing becomes:
A logistics operation
A brand management department
A global rollout strategy
...we risk losing what made books matter in the first place: judgement, risk, care.
When editors are shut out, books go bland. When designers are buried, design flattens. When no one in the boardroom knows what a book feels like - publishing becomes a warehouse with marketing.
What Does a Publisher Do in 2025?
The Role Redefined
Today’s publisher wears many hats:
Acquisition: Scouting talent, licensing rights
Development: Working with authors and creatives
Marketing: Designing campaigns
Distribution: Managing global logistics and digital platforms
They operate across a spectrum:
Traditional publishing houses
Corporate media companies
Indie presses
Self-publishing platforms
Entrepreneurial ventures
Skills That Matter
The modern publisher blends creativity with business savvy:
Editorial instinct
Market awareness
Negotiation skills
Digital fluency
Strategic thinking
They are part curator, part entrepreneur,
part navigator.
Navigating the Publishing Landscape in 2025
A Multitude of Pathways
Writers and illustrators today can choose from a range of publishing models:
Traditional Publishing: Full support, less control
Self-Publishing: Full control, higher risk
Hybrid Models: A bit of both—but often pricey
Indie Presses: Agile and focused
Social Publishing: Direct and fast
eBook Platforms: Wide reach, high competition
Print-on-Demand: Low overheads, limited customisation
The choice comes down to your goals, values, and audience.
Final Thought: Publishing with a Soul
You don’t have to be small to be thoughtful.You don’t have to be slow to be good.And you certainly don’t have to bury your creatives to grow.
If a house forgets what it means to publish—to shape, to select, to risk, to care—then all the triathlons and transformation plans in the world won’t bring the soul back.
The future might be corporate. But it doesn’t have to be soulless.
Alternative Rivalry: Bee vs Machine
Imagine two ways of making honey. House A is a beehive: buzzing, organic, collaborative. Slow, yes - but brilliant. Full of instinct and purpose. House B is a factory: sterile, efficient, sealed off. Honey in, honey out. Identical jars. Big volume, little variation. One smells of wildflowers. The other? Of plastic wrap?
Bees, Bots, and the Illusion of the Refresh
Let’s be fair.
House B isn’t evil. It’s efficient. It hits deadlines, fills lists, and prides itself on delivery. It’s a house that works - smoothly, systematically, and at scale.
Yes, there are facilitators whose brief it is to switch fonts and repackage covers. And yes, some are content to do just that. But it’s not the fault of the designer - it’s the logic of the system they’re working within. A system where a change in typography is sometimes called a “refresh,” and a minor facelift is mistaken for a reinvention.
The deeper truth is this: books aren’t changed by fonts alone. Their DNA - ideas, intent, structure - lives deeper than design tweaks. Metadata remembers. A title may be new, but the soul knows.
There are talented, thoughtful people in both houses - editors with instinct, designers with vision, even a few CEOs who secretly sketch book layouts in the margins of their reports. The real difference? It’s not where you publish - it’s why.
House A still asks: “Is this a book worth making?
House B tends to ask: “Can we scale this?”
One makes books that hum. The other makes books that move units.
And every so often, a book will do both.
But let’s not pretend the houses are the same. One breeds bees. The other builds machines. And whichever house you’re in - or working with - you still have a choice:
To make honey, not hexagons.
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