Should you set up an imprint or multiple imprints for your self publishing company?
As a self publishing author, your books are published under your publishing company name. This is also called your publishing imprint and is what is recorded in book industry databases used by retailers, book wholesalers, and book distributors, it's on your copyright page and is assigned to your ISBN numbers.
You can also have multiple imprints that fall under your publishing company. For example, maybe you normally write and publish nonfiction under your publishing imprint (let's call it "Mountain Life Books"), but then you find that you want to write and publish cookbooks or some other type of book with subject matter that doesn't quite fit under your main imprint. You can choose a new imprint name (let's call it Tasty Eats Press) that better reflects the new books' subject matter. Then, on your copyright page and in other places, it would say "Published by Tasty Eats Press, an imprint of Mountain Life Books."
It is fun to think about different imprint names - you can get creative with it! An imprint represents your business and you as an author. You'll want to carefully research the name that you choose and then register it as either a Fictitious Business Name (FBN) or Doing Business As (DBA) with your state. Check with your local state regulations for specific details.
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