March 4, 2025
TOKYO – These days, I often hear the term “hitori shuppansha” (one-person publisher), which means that one person edits and launches a book that they feel only they can present to the world, even if only with a small number of copies. Some of these books have gained high profiles.
I visited some one-person publishers to hear about the joys and difficulties of working alone.
Masako Nishiyama runs her one-person publisher, Moon & Compass, from her home office in a residential area of Hachioji, Tokyo.
After graduating from university, Nishiyama gained experience through reporting and editing for culture magazines and other publications, and then moved to a children’s book publisher to make magazines and picture books for infants. She resigned from the company as she often felt that she cannot do well in an organization.
As a freelance editor, in 2015 she edited a book titled: “Hitori shuppansha to iu hatarakikata” (How to work as a one-person publisher) for Kawade Shobo Shinsha publishing house.
She was encouraged to learn, through editing the book, about the diverse lifestyles of people who work as one-person publishers, including a woman who left a broadcasting company and published a picture book while raising her children, and a person who has been publishing books by friends for more than 10 years.
Nishiyama set up her one-person publisher in 2018, hoping to bring readers books that have value but would end up going unrecognized, as no traditional publisher would be willing to publish them.
Her first project was a collection of works by an artist specializing in painting live to music. To make the book stand out in bookstores, the cover was designed to look like a picture frame.
A bookstore specializing in children’s books that Nishiyama had known for years in the spring of 2022 told her that an artist was looking for a publisher for a Japanese edition of her picture book first published in Belgium.
Seeing the delicate and elaborate book design, Nishiyama was convinced that it was the type of book that no major publisher would be able to handle, and she agreed to take on the project.
The book by Shizuka, who goes by one name, was published last year as “Je suis la: Koko ni iruyo” (I’m right here).
The title is stamped on the cover in gold leaf. When the book is opened, the story begins with a sepia-toned picture and a short sentence. A boy is very sad at the death of his cat. The cat, now an invisible being, speaks to the boy. The pictures of the cat are printed on translucent sheets and, when superimposed on the boy’s pictures on the preceding or following pages, the cat seems to be close to the boy.
The 48-page book is priced at ¥2,640. Three thousand copies were printed in November 2023 and have now almost sold out.
In September last year, the book won the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Award at the Japan Book Design Awards, which recognize books with beautiful design and bookbinding. It has entered as a representative for Japan at the Best Book Design from all over the World competition in Germany. According to the Japan Book Design Awards, all the books that participated in the competition in Germany will be exhibited at Frankfurt book fair in October.
For each book, Nishiyama does a lot of the work alone, such as editing the manuscripts she receives from the author on her computer in her home office, discussing the layout and book design with designers and negotiating with printing companies.
Compared to large publishers that produce a large number of copies of each book, one-person publishers have more freedom to produce niche and unique books.
On the other hand, a book with a lot of additional detail costs more, and it is hard to do sales promotion due to the lack of manpower. If it takes a long time to sell the stock, warehousing costs rise, which is an issue that tests Nishiyama’s management skills and has even caused her to lose sleep.
When Nishiyama feels stuck, she turns to her network of peers, which includes a drinking session with other one-person publishers and a mailing list of people in the publishing industry.
She asks printing companies, “How much would you pay to buy this book?” or for referrals to printing companies.
The “one-person” in “one-person publisher” means “independent,” Nishiyama says. “It may sound contradictory, but the more you try to do something alone, the less you can be alone.”
Yet regardless of the size of the publisher, Nishiyama finds it fascinating to work in a world where you can succeed or fail with a book you publish.
“Any book I make as a one-person publisher is a ship that takes me to a big world,” Nishiyama said. “When I work alone, I feel it more keenly that a single action of mine can change the future.”
Publisher of own books
Ryo Sasaki set up his one-person publisher to produce his own books.
Sasaki, 40, graduated from art college and worked as a museum curator before becoming a freelance writer. After his book-writing project involving research work overseas was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he rented a room in his hometown of Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, for ¥4,000 a month and started Manyosha inc., his one-person publishing company.
“Aisuru yorimo aisaretai” (I want to be loved more than I love), a book of his that he published in 2022, attracted attention. It is a unique book that translates some works from the Manyoshu compilation of classic waka poems into the modern Nara dialect. The first print run was just 500 copies.
Through his casual, easy expressions, Sasaki’s works gained popularity. More than 260,000 copies of the book and two sequels that followed have been published in total.
Sasaki is very particular about book design. He uses Gothic typefaces for kanji characters and Ming-style typefaces for hiragana. For the pages, he uses special paper, such as that used for wrapping high-quality confectionery.
According to Koho Co., a printing company that has business ties with Sasaki, when they do additional printing, they have to ask paper manufacturers to make more.
Sasaki plans to stick with his business style, saying: “I never know what will happen next. I can’t be responsible for other people’s lives.” He also says he is often consulted by people from other industries, such as sushi chefs and lawyers, about the nuts and bolts of starting and running an independent business.
Agents for smooth distribution
Many books published by one-person publishers are hard to sell through the direct distribution channels used by large book distributors. To solve this problem, there are agents for direct transactions with bookstores.
I interviewed Hideyuki Kudo, 52, president of Transview Co. and one such agent based in Chuo Ward, Tokyo. Nishiyama is one of the company’s clients.
“We currently deal with 205 one-person publishers (including those run by several people). Our business has increased sixfold in the last eight years,” Kudo said. “More and more independent bookstores are focusing on unique product lines. This situation has encouraged the establishment of one-person publishers.”
“Every month, we send out a flyer by mail that lists books published by one-person publishers to 4,000 bookstores that are our business partners,” Kudo added. “We put the flyers in envelopes with the help of about 20 people who run one-person publishers, and then we have a drink and exchange information.”
“We often get inquiries from people who want to try publishing. My answer is, if you have four book projects a year that can sell 2,000 copies each, your business is viable.”
Solitary work breeds uniqueness
I often see new books arrive on bookstore shelves in large numbers. I have gained respect for one-person publishing, which makes an impression through publishing unique books, even if the print run is small.
One-person publishers are under enormous pressure, as they have to do everything themselves, from planning to negotiating with various parties and worrying about inventory costs, but I’d say judging everything on their own leads to books only they can create.
I feel there are many things that can be done by one person alone and many things that can only be done by one person, not only in the publishing industry, but also in other fields.