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Publishers

Keep a roster of the publishing houses and imprints whose publications flow through your workspace.

What Publishers Are​

A publisher is a record of a publishing house, imprint, or other publishing partner. Each publication can be assigned to a publisher, and the publisher's detail page rolls up everything published under that name — publications, stories, and author counts. See Managing Publications for how publications get assigned.

If you self-publish, you'll typically have exactly one publisher: your own imprint. Single Publisher Mode, described below, streamlines the sidebar for that setup.

Every workspace has at least one publisher — Inkwren won't let you delete the last one.

Viewing Your Publishers​

Click Publishers in the sidebar under the Business section. When you have more than one publisher, the sidebar item shows a count badge. You'll see a searchable, sortable table with a row for each publisher:

  • Publisher: The logo (or an initials placeholder) and name, linking to the detail page. This is the default sort.
  • Website: An external link, or "No website" if none is set.
  • Description: The description text, or "No description" if none is set.
  • Publications: How many publications are assigned to this publisher. Sortable.

Use Search Publishers to filter the list — it matches descriptions as well as names.

The Add Publisher, Edit, and Delete controls appear for editors and admins, and creating or editing publishers requires an active subscription.

Adding a Publisher​

  1. Click Add Publisher at the top of the list. This opens the New Publisher page.
  2. Fill in the details:
    • Name (required): The publisher's name — the only required field
    • Website: The publisher's website, validated if provided
    • Description: Details about the publisher
  3. Click Create Publisher

The create form has no logo field — you add the logo after creating the publisher, as described below.

You can also create a publisher without leaving the publication form: click + New next to the Publisher dropdown, enter the details, and the new publisher is selected on the publication automatically.

Add a logo from the publisher's detail page, or from the edit form on the list page. Click the Logo dropzone or drag an image onto it — the upload saves immediately, with no separate save step.

  • Recommended size: 200×200px
  • Maximum 2MB; JPEG, PNG, WebP, or SVG

Hover over an existing logo to reveal Replace and Delete buttons.

The Publisher Detail Page​

Click a publisher's name to open its detail page, which gathers everything published under that name:

  • Details: The logo, website link, and description
  • Statistics: Publications, Stories, and Authors counts, plus a By Type breakdown showing how many publications of each type the publisher has
  • Publications by [Name]: Every publication assigned to the publisher, with its cover, type, and story count. The table is sortable and exportable.

From the header you can Edit the publisher or Delete it.

Editing a Publisher​

Click Edit on a publisher's row to open an edit form above the list, or click Edit on the detail page. Both let you change the name, website, and description; the list's edit form also includes the logo upload.

Deleting a Publisher​

Delete a publisher from its row on the list page, from the detail page header, or select multiple rows and use Delete Selected. Two rules apply:

  • You can't delete the last publisher. Every workspace must have at least one, which is why the row's Delete button is greyed out when only one publisher remains.
  • You can't delete a publisher that has publications. Reassign or delete its publications first. Bulk deletes skip any publishers that still have publications and tell you which were skipped.
caution

There's no soft delete — deleting a publisher is permanent.

Single Publisher Mode​

If you publish under a single imprint, turn on Single Publisher Mode under Navigation Mode in Workspace Settings → General. When it's on and exactly one publisher exists, the sidebar item becomes the singular Publisher and links straight to that publisher's detail page, skipping the list.

The toggle can only be switched on while you have at most one publisher — with more than one, it's disabled and shows your publisher count. Adding a second publisher restores the plural Publishers list and its count badge.

Whether or not the mode is on, if your publisher count drops back to one while you're viewing the list, Inkwren redirects you to that publisher's detail page.

The mode only changes navigation — the Publisher dropdown on the publication form still shows the full list.

Tips​

  • Self-publishers, keep it simple: Create one publisher for your imprint and turn on Single Publisher Mode so the sidebar takes you straight to its detail page
  • Add the logo right after creating: The create form doesn't take a logo, so open the new publisher's detail page and drop the image there while you have it handy
  • Put searchable detail in the description: The list search matches descriptions as well as names, so noting genres, markets, or contacts there makes publishers easier to find later
  • Use the detail page as an imprint dashboard: The Statistics card and publications table give you a quick roll-up of everything published under one name, and the table exports to a file
  • Contract templates follow the publisher: Templates are scoped to the publisher selected on a publication, so pick the publisher before choosing a default template — see Managing Contracts
  • Clear publications before deleting: If a publisher won't delete, check its detail page for assigned publications and reassign those first