Ángel María Herrera is one of the most successful Spanish entrepreneurs today. You may know him as the founder of Bubok.com, a platform to self-publish books.

Ángel María Herrera is a computer technician and began his professional his career as such, until 2000 when a friend brought him to listen to a storyteller for adults. Since that moment the adventure began, he founded a community of writers on the internet that, in 2004, converted into a small publishing house, the grupo Búho. In 2008, the Grupo Búho received up to 300 works by people who wanted to publish every month; this was when the idea for Bubok was born, a platform for authors to self-publish their works. Referring to Bubok, Ángel María himself says that “we don’t guarantee success, but we do guarantee opportunity”. The model couldn’t be simpler, any person can publish for free and in ten minutes following these 5 steps:

1. Upload your file in .pdf, .doc, or .ppt format

2. Indicate the title, the author, a synopsis, etc.

3. Select the type of binding and the size

4. Select a cover design

5. Set the sale Price as an eBook and in paperback

How can Bubok offer this service for free? Simply because it sustains itself thanks to the margin it charges on book sales: the author of the work receives 80% of the sale of his or her eBook and 80% of the profits of the sale of the printed version (after subtracting the printing costs). Also, Bubok offers services such as editing, formatting, obtaining the ISBN number, etc… All this has allowed for a profitable business 4 years after its creation.

Hi Ángel María, before starting, thanks for having accepted our interview. The first thing we think about when seeing the success of Bubok is that it is the perfect example of how creating a sustainable cultural project is possible, and even profitable. In your opinion, what circumstances could make the progress of Bubok difficult? What obstacles could block the growth of Bubok?

Stopping the growth is complicated because once the wheel begins to turn, it is difficult to stop it, but it’s true that there are difficulties.

First, the big publishing houses are entering this sector more and more, they’re seeing that there are many opportunities in the world of self-publishing. Second, authors have more and more tools to self-edit and self-publish. And finally, the third obstacle is internationalisation, since that requires a lot of resources.

However, the fact that there are difficulties doesn’t mean that we are not already actively working to resolve them.

What is the basis for Bubok’s strategy?

Part of Bubok’s strategy is to offer publishing services. We are not only a site where you can edit your book, but we’re also your ally, your help from the creation of your work until the distribution.

Artists always need help in their work, so what they do is create, but they can’t be in charge of the promotion, distribution, the economic and administrative parts of what it means to be an artist… So we believe that there will always be opportunities in the niche for services for artists.

The more personalised treatment that we offer is one of the things that larger publishing houses have trouble adapting to. They are used to releasing 10 books and selling 100,000 copies of each title, while what we do is release 100,000 books and sell 10 copies of each one.

Do you have competitors?

Yes. In any market you will find yourself with competitors. If there are no competitors it is not an interesting market, so don’t go into it. Competition is good because it helps you grow, adapt, move and do more things.

Our biggest competitor in the English speaking world is Author Solution, which was bought by the publishing house Penguin this summer.

Now Bubok is in Sweden, Portugal, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and the United Kingdom. If I’m an author from Chile, can I publish a book in Bubok.es?

Yes, and you can sell it where you want. The author has total control of the entire process, that is, how they want to publish, where and at what price.

And for distribution?

Well if you are in Japan and you buy a book published by Bubok Portugal, the shipping cost will be international, but if you are in Argentina and you buy the same book, the shipping costs will be local because we have a place in Argentina and it can be printed directly there.

Regarding the distribution to bookstores, in Spain we work with a network of 400 physical bookstores and nearly 60 online ones (casadellibro.com, Amazon, Google…)

Why have you decided to create a Bubok for each country, and why not, for example, one Bubok for the entire Spanish speaking world?

We could have done this, but we realised that there are definite idiomatic barriers that make people prefer that the pages be more local. For example, if you are a Mexican writer, you want a Mexican editor; and you want to be present in the bookstores of your country, your neighbourhood. It seems that we have a language in common, but it’s not exactly like that. There are a series of things which are closely linked to the country. And also for us, since we print books on paper, everything comes with the shipping and printing costs, it turns out to be much more economical since it is local.

We would like to be closer to the people and this is why we have launched a different Bubok in each country where we are present.

And regarding Portugal, how long have you been there?

We’ve been there two years. We are the platform leader in the country. The market there is almost half (proportionally) the Spanish market. Self-publishing is a bit unknown in Portugal. And also the current situation is even worse than in Spain. However, there is a lot of talent and it’s all a question of time. In Spain, we have years of advantage, but we are sure that we will grow bit by bit in Portugal.

What type of services do you offer?

We offer all types of services that are asked of us, and if anyone asks for something and we don’t have it, we search in order to offer it to them. There are people, for example, who ask us that we write a book for them! They come to us and say “I have an idea, but I don’t know how to write”, so our job consists of putting them in contact with a ghost writer.

We offer three main areas of services:

• Creation: workshops, coaching, ghost writers…
• Editing: formatting, correction, designing book covers, illustration…
• Distribution: promotion, sales...

Do you have teams of illustrators, designers, ghost writers…?

Yes, all are freelance collaborators and we contract them according to demand.

Do you have some type of contact with traditional publishing houses? How do you see it dealing with them?

There are publishing houses which look at the books Bubok publishes in order to edit them, they look at us like a farm team. This is OK with us, and as it’s not our business model, we don’t know have any problem. We still have not arrived at a formula for collaborating with the traditional publishing houses, but we’re always open.

What advice would you give a young or emerging writer or to someone who is beginning to write?

Giving advice is complicated but the most important thing in my opinion is perseverance.

And later, more concretely, I would advise new writers to use new technologies to communicate with readers. What writers need most is to attract readers, then the customers will come.

A little while ago, we interviewed Guillermo Spottorno, the director of soypoeta.com [I am a poet] in our lab. Is there some type of relationship between Bubok and Soypoeta?

Yes, the poets of soypoeta.com will soon be able to publish, from soypoeta, directly in Bubok. Poetry, which in the end is something of a minority in book sales, finds the perfect tool in Bubok, because it doesn’t matter how many copies you sell, the important thing to be available to sell or buy and to get your work out there.

And to finish, what book are you Reading now?

The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. It’s an essay about the importance of doing what you need to do at each moment.

Thanks again to Ángel María Herrera for having accepted our interview