In Focus: The London Publishing Partnership

The London Publishing Partnership (LPP) is a new publishing services company that has recently joined ALPSP and that specializes in working with learned societies, research institutes and think-tanks. Since getting started in the spring of this year they have signed contracts with the London School of Economics (the Centre for Economic Performance and the Paul Woolley Centre), the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the International Growth Centre. Their first book (published for the LSE) is The Future of Finance: The LSE Report.

The business is focused on books (all disciplines), this being an area that one of the directors, Richard Baggaley, identified as being a problem for many learned societies and research institutes: “Books tend to be occasional publications and, unlike journals, need to be produced and marketed on a one-off basis. They can be expensive to produce and sell, and can therefore lose money for societies. Tie-ups with other publishers, such as university presses, can bring kudos but can also be frustratingly slow, cumbersome and hard to control. Our aim is to solve this problem – starting from the premise that the society has its own kudos, knows its market and with help can reach it as well as anyone.”

The business works by bringing together high-quality production expertise (the London firm T&T Productions) with Richard's long editorial experience and the marketing skills of Oxford Publicity Partnership. They are using both print on demand and traditional printing. For more information see www.londonpublishingpartnership.co.uk