Volume is a publishing platform for illustrated books. Volume’s ambition is to connect producers of visual editions and works to audiences highly engaged in all aspects of creative culture through exciting original materials, beautiful book-objects and new channels of distribution.

Volume seeks relationship with independent publishers and producers, no matter how small, of illustrated books on all creative disciplines, from design to architecture, from typography to graphics, from fashion to photography, from popular culture to video games.

How can Volume help publishers?

Unlike the most popular crowd-funding platforms, which offer neither selection criteria nor support for projects, Volume works closely with publishers to help market projects, target audience and find most cross-marketing possibilities offered by the Volume community.

Volume can offer support on any aspect of the publishing process, or simply provide the platform from which publishers can explore financing models, offer multiple editions or pre-orders.

What is the process?

The process for starting a conversation with Volume is simple: interested publishers should contact Volume publisher, with a clear outline of the book’s content and specification, and representative spreads, along with a brief description of the book and its author. Volume will establish with the publisher what it would like to achieve on the platform, and what, beyond the platform itself, aspects of Volume’s services it might wish to use. Based on this mutual agreement, the publisher and Volume will agree a fee structure.

What does Volume do?

Although most publishers will have a clear notion of the content, editorial organization, design, production specification and printing methods, Volume can offer publishers expertise and experience for any facet of the project, from editorial consultation to art direction, from prepress to all stage of the production and printing process.

Some publishers may already have arrangements for distribution to the book trade in place. If not, or if publishers seek to reach broader channels, Volume can also offer international distribution through the global network of Thames & Hudson, the world’s leading art-book publisher, whose unparalleled international sales and distribution relationships have been established over decades. In addition to books sold directly through the Volume platform, publications can therefore be made available through bookshops and specialist outlets from Europe to the Middle East, from the United States to Asia.

Volume’s principal ambition is to create communities around visual books and, using the dedicated and focused activities of the platform to broaden and connect audiences with a range of exciting publication that might be otherwise difficult to find.

(If you are an individual looking to fund a book on Volume, you can review our guide here.)