Business books may be ideally suited for smaller specialty publishers—micropublishers who produce fewer than ten titles annually. Larger publishers need to sell far more business titles than smaller publishers to be profitable, and the bigger ones have to spread their promotional resources thin.

I can speak from experience: I have authored business books that were published by both a very small publisher and very large publishers. The small publisher was heavily invested in my books and made a commitment to helping me market the titles because they were important to overall sales. The large publishers barely paid any attention to my titles.

Traditionally, business books are authored by practitioners with specialized knowledge of a discipline or industry—perhaps managers, small business owners, or even those in specific functional business areas like finance, marketing, or sales. These qualities lend a kind of purity to a business book that makes it easy to market to a target audience; at the same time, it is challenging to profit from selling a business book, since a smaller universe of buyers is the norm.

A Promising Future in Business Books

Jim Pennypacker
Maven House Press is one small publisher that sees a promising future in business books. Founded in 2012 by Jim Pennypacker, who had previously published business books for a business association and management consulting firm, Maven House Press publishes only business books. “We publish business books written by experts—mavens—hence the name,” Jim says. “I set up Maven House Press to be a high quality alternative for my author friends who’ve had business books published by the major publishing houses and were disappointed with the editorial and marketing support they’ve been getting.”

Maven House Press publishes just six titles per year—but that’s a benefit from Jim’s point of view. “We can spend much more effort marketing our titles and helping authors market their books as well,” Jim says. “We do what traditional publishers do, of course, making sure that our books are available in all trade channels. But we also do marketing directly to customers, with ongoing PR, e-mail campaigns, advertising, book signings, and trade show attendance. We make a concerted effort on social media marketing, combining our social media presence with that of our authors.”

The micropublisher makes an effort to attract top-flight authors. “Maven House Press offers a better contract than the traditional publishers,” Jim says. “If the book is successful the authors get far higher royalties than they would from traditional publishers. Authors also have more editorial and design control of their books than traditional publishers offer.”

With such a small list, each Maven House Press book takes on greater importance. Jim has well-defined criteria for selecting a manuscript for publication. “The book has to thrill us—it needs to be thoughtful, passionate, and well-written, and it needs to address challenges facing business professionals. … It has to be able to be positioned to be successful in a market, and the author has to have a strong platform—someone with visibility and authority who has proven reach to a target audience.”

A good example of a Maven House Press book that rose above the competition is Six Steps to Business Success,, which won a Book of the Year Award from the Professional Association of Small Business Accountants. “This book is a fairly easy read and provides a soup-to-nuts explanation of what someone starting a small business will need to do throughout the lifetime of their business,” Jim says. “It was written by CPAs whose clients are small business owners, and nobody knows better the key success factors, as well as the pitfalls of running a small business, than their accountant.”

Maven House Press just launched a creative marketing idea, the Business Book Fan Club. The publisher wants to build a community of business book lovers, offering them special discounts on books and free information of interest to business readers like white papers and presentations.

Future Looks Bright for Business

As for the future, Jim is an unabashed optimist. “The business book market continues to be very healthy,” he says. “The larger publishing houses continue to conglomerate or morph, trying to find a way to make a profit with business books. It’s not easy. There are only a handful of publishing houses that focus specifically on business books, and they all seem fairly stable. Many business authors are turning to self-publishing, and that’s actually an appropriate decision for some. But most business authors are small business owners, consultants, or business professionals whose primary job is not publishing.”

That, of course, is where Maven House Press comes in.

Barry Silverstein is a business writer, author, and marketing consultant. You can follow him on Twitter @bdsilv.

Barry Silverstein
October 21, 2014

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