About
Publishing is more than putting a book into print.
Who we are
Books are our business.
We've been making them for a long time. Aster House Books was built by four editors with between 9 and 20 years of experience across publishing, editorial, writing and content. Between us, we've worked across the book lifecycle — from the first rough manuscript to the final printed page.
We've edited, rewritten, commissioned, developed, structured, proofread and produced. We've worked with first-time writers and experienced authors, experts and professionals, complex subjects and very personal stories. In other words, we've seen pretty much everything that can happen to a book.
And we've learned that a good book isn't the result of one clever idea. It's the result of hundreds of decisions made well: what stays, what goes, where the argument needs strengthening, where the voice needs protecting, how a chapter should move, what the cover should say before anyone reads a word, and how the finished book should feel in your hands.
That's what we bring to Aster House Books.
Why we exist
The gap in the middle.
Aster House Books was started because there is a wide gap in publishing and not much sitting in it. On one side, traditional houses acquire a very small number of books and take years to do it. On the other, a great many services will convert a Word file into a paperback and call that publishing.
In between are the books that deserve a proper editor, a designer who reads them, and someone who knows what happens on press — but whose authors have no route to any of that. Those are the books we want.
How we work
We don't just publish books.We know how they're made.
Some people come to us with a finished manuscript. Some have 60,000 words and no idea what to do with them. Some have a subject they're an expert in but have never written a book. Some have a lifetime of stories. And some simply have a sentence that starts with, “I've always wanted to write a book…”
Wherever the book begins, we know how to take it forward. We can help you develop it, write it, edit it, design it, produce it and publish it — with experienced editors involved throughout, rather than handing your book from one anonymous service to another.
Principles
What we believe
Editorial matters.
A book that has not been properly edited is a manuscript with a cover on it. Every project starts with someone reading the whole thing and saying what they actually think.
Design matters.
A book is an object as well as a text. The trim size, the paper, the measure, the way the title breaks across three lines — these are not finishing touches, they are the reading experience.
Production matters.
A file that looks right on screen can arrive from press looking wrong. We specify, proof and check, because the author only sees the version that comes out of the box.
Authors should understand the publishing process.
Nobody should sign a contract they cannot read or pay for a service they cannot describe. If we cannot explain what a line item does, it should not be on the invoice.
Authors should retain meaningful control of their work.
Your copyright is yours. The rights you licence are written down, limited and time-bound. You approve the cover, the edit and the final files before anything is printed.
The team
Three kinds of person make a book.
Editorial
Editorial direction
Manuscript assessment, developmental editing and the decision about what a book actually needs. Our editors have worked across trade fiction, academic monographs and commissioned nonfiction.
Design
Design & production
Covers, interiors, typesetting and print. Every sample edition on this site was designed and specified in-house, down to the paper weight.
Writing
Ghostwriting
Interviewers and writers who work in long form: founder stories, professional books, memoirs and family histories, drafted in the author’s voice.
We keep the studio deliberately small and the same editors stay with a book from assessment to press, rather than passing it between departments.
Start here
Have a book in mind?
Whether you have a finished manuscript, a half-formed idea or a story you've been carrying for years, we'd like to hear about it.
A Life in Letters
A family record, 1938–2004