Anne Friebel, Founder, Palomaa Publishing, Germany

Anne Friebel entered the publishing industry 4 years ago and has already started a digital female publishing community with The Female Publisher, an adjacent podcast called “books of our future”, and her own publishing company, Palomaa Publishing, focusing on developing feminist non-fiction. She has been nominated and awarded several times for her work, most recently was announced as the winner of the in augural PublisHer Excellence Award in Innovation.

How did you get into publishing and what attracted you to the industry?

After almost fifteen years in marketing and consulting, I wanted to set up my own business and work independently. At first, I thought about writing a book myself on a topic that had been on my mind for a while. But then it occurred to me that I would have a much greater impact with my own publishing house. With a publishing house, I can cover the topics that are important to me and promote the women I would like to see and read more about.

At first, I shied away from launching a publishing house because I knew that it would be difficult to make good money in this market with the traditional model. However, I discovered print-on-demand, which allows me to bring books to market quickly with a high degree of flexibility and a low commitment to resources. I now define my work as a publisher a little more broadly than “just publishing books” but have other mainstays and am widely involved in the book industry. This broader understanding of my work brings me a lot of fulfilment and variety.

Did you start in the industry by immediately setting up your own business? That’s quite unusual, most people start in another company then branch out on their own. 

Yes, I started my own business straight away. I believe that you can start something new at any time in your life if you take the time and energy to familiarise yourself and start from scratch. I was confident that I could familiarise myself with this market and use my skills and knowledge to provide new impetus.

The lockdown in 2020 and the shutdown of many events in relation to the founding of my publishing house proved to be beneficial for me. I was able to publish my first book in peace and quiet and learn about the business. When the Frankfurt Book Fair took place again in 2021, I was there right away and grew into my work as a publisher step by step.

What were your initial thoughts about the sector?

When you think of publishing houses in Germany as a person from outside the industry, you immediately think of the big houses. You think of bookshops full of printed books, the pleasant feeling of books from the library and the whole market which has a lot of tradition attached to it. I initially thought – before I found out more – that you would certainly need tens of thousands of euros to start a business in the book industry. But now I think that you can also start very lean and agile and that much more is possible than previously thought.

What challenges did you face setting up your own company?

The biggest challenge for a small independent publisher like mine was and is visibility. We produce wonderful books on important social issues, and I want everyone to know about them. It was clear from the start of my publishing work that we had to start here immediately. Visibility from day one, so to speak – despite the pandemic.

Tell us more about The Female Publisher, why did you establish it, and what do you hope to achieve?

Our network The Female Publisher was born out of a wonderful feeling I got at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2021. I was still quite new to the market at the time and had lots of questions. At the fair, I met numerous female publishers who I asked about their work, Who I learnt from and got recommendations from. They were all very open and willing to share their knowledge which was an unexpected experience. In the weeks and months that followed, I thought about how this experience could be translated into a network that would be accessible to everyone in the industry and would be a trusted circle of women sharing knowledge and supporting each other. We set up an email distribution list and invited women in publishing and program management to sign up for news, digital events, and personal meetings. This was very well received and within 14 days we had 100 members on the list. The Female Publisher now has almost 200 members from German-speaking countries.

What does your digital community have for its objectives?

I want to bring women together and create an atmosphere of cooperation instead of competition. My vision is a network that is barrier-free and offers interesting opportunities for exchange, knowledge transfer and inspiration. The smallest goal could be the feeling of togetherness, the biggest goal joint projects. I believe that if even one woman stays in the industry because of this network, takes the lead, publishes progressive books, shares her knowledge, inspires others, or is inspired herself, then our efforts will have been worthwhile.

How do you feel about innovation in the publishing sector? 

The wonderful thing about our industry is that it still has a lot of development potential in terms of innovation – it’s very exciting to see how everything is changing and growing. The book industry has a rich tradition to build on. At the same time, we are currently in the middle of a disruptive phase in which the laws of publishing are being rewritten. What does well-curated content mean and how can we make our target groups understand this value? Which channels and media will our readers use in the future and how can we optimize our content there? What distinguishes a text written by a human from an AI-generated text? I think these are all exciting questions that we need to ask ourselves. And I also think that our industry will have a completely new face in twenty years’ time.

How do you feel you are contributing to doing things differently in the sector?

On the one hand, my own history naturally gives me the perspective of a career changer. I rarely have the thought “We’ve always done it this way and that’s why we don’t do it now”, but always think “Let’s try it, because what if it works?”. This brings in new perspectives and shows what is possible instead of focusing on the limits of a project.

Secondly, I bring a feminist perspective to many issues. I want to address equal rights in the management levels of large and small publishing houses. I would like to see more agile and flexible working in the book industry. And I prioritize cooperation over competition. These are all points that can promote innovation and break down old ways of thinking.

You recently were given the inaugural PublisHer award for Innovation in Publishing. What does this award mean for you?

I would say the PublisHer Award for Innovation in Publishing is one of the absolute highlights of my four years in the publishing industry. It was an incredible feeling to receive the award on stage at the Bologna Bookfair and completely unexpected. I know that many women are doing incredible things in the book industry, and I am very grateful to be recognized among them for my work. The award motivates me to continue to work for equality, cooperation, and innovation in our industry.

What do you hope to achieve over the next 5 years, for your publishing company, for your community and for your own personal growth and development?

For my own publishing house, Palomaa Publishing, I can see the German Publishing Award in my mind’s eye (aim big!), for our community we would like to achieve even bigger collaborations and even more members with The Female Publisher.  And I personally would love to set up or help shape an international project for a company in the book industry in the next few years. New product development in New York? Digital innovations in Shanghai? Sign me up please!