What to name your publishing company

Should you decide to create your own publishing company, you’ll need to come up with a name for it.

You really can name the company almost anything you want. Still, there are some general guidelines you should consider following:
• Leave your personal name out of it – Since one of the reasons you’ve decided to create a company is to avoid the appearance of being self-published, you almost certainly don’t want to name it after yourself. That’s a good tipoff that you’re self-publishing!
• Make it unique – You don’t want a name that sounds too similar to another publishing company’s name, even if it’s out of business. You’ll only create confusion and run the risk of being sued. After you’ve come up with a few potential names for your company, run your name through a search engine and see what pops up.
• Ensure it’s easy to remember – You want the name to be unique but not difficult to recall or spell. If your writing franchise really takes off, some people (and buyers interested in making an offer) will search for you online.

The most common names I’ve seen for publishing companies that self-publishing writers have created tend to be geographical based on where the author lives (Gold Valley Publishing Co.), named in honor of someone important to the author (Auntie Jane Publishing), or some word that is personally important or symbolic for the author (Dream Achieved Publishing, Inc.).

Finally, after you’ve named your publishing company, quickly get a web domain name for it. For example, Gold Valley Publishing Co.’s domain name might be https://www.goldvalleypublishing.com. This does come with an expense (but setting up your own publishing company was never sold as inexpensive). Check a domain registry site to see if your name is available (in fact, this may influence what name you ultimately select).

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