05/23/2022
From Editorial Director Mark Fretz:
Niche markets allow for specialization. Companies operating in niche markets may promote themselves as having deep expertise in their narrow sector. That depth comes at a cost, however; they only focus on a single type of business. While that business model may work well in some industries, breadth is extremely valuable when it comes to publishing. And offering breadth and depth is the best of both worlds.
Breadth and depth set Radius Book Group apart in the publishing landscape. Before you equate breadth with diverse subject categories, let us clarify what we mean by breadth. The critical detail to understand what we are talking about is that Radius is an author-centered publisher. Our notion of breadth relates to what authors experience when they collaborate with Radius, not what customers and readers think of when they see our colophon on the spine of a book in a bookstore or library. Therefore, I don’t mean we publish everything under the sun, because we don’t. Being in the author-centered publishing space—a.k.a. hybrid or independent publishing—we could publish virtually anything or we could publish only specific genres like board books for preschool children, or Sci-Fi, or weight loss books, or an almost infinite number of other specialties. Rather, Radius Book Group publishes select adult nonfiction titles in categories such as business and technology, memoir and narrative nonfiction, politics and public policy, education, and health and wellness, among others.
By breadth I mean Radius can do an exceptionally wide range of things for authors, things few publishers—traditional or hybrid—do. Imagine a publishing emporium where an author could go to check out all the different options companies use in the publishing industry. Or you could attend an international book fair or expo, such as what once was BookExpo, or a book fair in London, Frankfurt, Bologna, Beijing, or elsewhere. These companies exist to meet real needs. How many of the different services and goods offered by companies represented in such an emporium does any single publisher provide its authors? To be clear, Radius is a publisher, not a company offering piecemeal services. Nonetheless, we are equipped to provide authors with knowledge, services, and contacts that address needs in editorial, design, production, sales and distribution, marketing and publicity, printing and manufacturing, and so on.
Take the editorial realm, to start. As any publisher must, we do standard copyediting, plus substantive and developmental editing. But also we do things further up the publishing chain, such as content creation, book conceptualization, and ghostwriting. You may want to publish your book in English but it is written in another language. We can help you translate it into English.
What about legal issues? If your manuscript includes copyrighted content (textual or graphical), then you need to assess and maybe request permission from copyright holders. We do that. Or the subject matter of your book may be at risk of sparking legal challenges for liable, slander, and other nasty things that could result in lawsuits. To prevent such eventualities, we do legal reads before ever starting the production process.
Publishers have to be able to produce the books they publish. The normal range of tasks to do this encompasses cover design, interior design, typesetting, and ebook creation. What about creating and distributing an audiobook? We can do that. What about developing a podcast series around the book? We can do that too.
And the list goes on.
The breadth of Radius Book Group extends to all aspects of the publishing industry. And the beauty of our breadth is that we marry breadth to depth. Both are built into the DNA of the company. From our inception in 2016, we have intentionally invested in building the broadest infrastructure and deepest pool of resources, so we can help authors publish independently now and in a future publishing landscape filled with unforeseen challenges and opportunities. When you choose a publishing partner, both breadth and depth matter. Radius delivers both to authors who want to publish books successfully and of the highest quality.