About Harbour Bridge Press
A publisher that works for the author
We are a publishing services company in Parramatta, New South Wales. Australian authors bring us finished manuscripts, and we handle everything required to turn them into properly published books.
Our position
Publishing services, not a rights deal
There is a persistent confusion in independent publishing about what companies like ours actually are. So we will be plain about it.
We are not a traditional publisher. We do not acquire rights, we do not pay advances, and we do not select a handful of manuscripts from a slush pile. We are also not a vanity press dressed up in publishing language: we will tell you when a manuscript is not ready, and we will decline work we cannot do well.
What we are is a company you hire to do specific, skilled work on a book you own. The editing, the design, the production, the setup. You pay for that work, you keep the copyright, you keep the royalties, and you make every final decision.
How we work
Six things we hold to
These are commitments about conduct rather than claims about results. We can control the first and nobody can guarantee the second.
Tell authors the truth about their manuscript
Including when the honest answer costs us work. If a draft needs structural editing, we will not quietly sell you a cover instead. If it is in better shape than you feared, we will say that too and quote for less.
Never take rights we do not need
We provide services on your book. We do not acquire copyright, take a royalty share, or hold your title in a catalogue you have to negotiate your way out of.
Quote on the actual book
Pricing is built from your word count, the condition of the draft and the services you choose. Quotes are itemised so you can see each stage and decline any of it.
Make no promises about sales
We will not claim a bestseller outcome, a ranking, a review, or bookshop shelf space. Those are not within our control, and any publisher suggesting otherwise is telling you what you want to hear.
Keep the same people on your project
You work with a named contact rather than being passed between departments each time a stage completes.
Hand everything over at the end
Print files, cover artwork, ebook files, editorial style sheet. If you want to take your book elsewhere afterwards, nothing is held back.
Australian authors
Why working with an Australian team makes a difference
It is easy to send a manuscript to the cheapest available provider anywhere in the world. It is also easy to get it back subtly wrong.
Australian English is not a preference setting. It is a set of conventions that a copy editor either knows or does not, and the failure mode is a book that reads as slightly foreign to the readers most likely to buy it. Place names get corrected. Idiom gets flattened. Currency and dates get reformatted.
There is a practical dimension too: working hours that overlap with yours, pricing set sensibly for the Amazon Australia storefront, and an address in Parramatta you can actually visit.
- Macquarie Dictionary as the editorial reference
- Australian spelling, punctuation and idiom held consistently
- Local place names and institutions checked, not corrected away
- Pricing considered for the domestic storefront
- ISBN guidance for the Australian system
- Business hours in AEST, and a Sydney office
Who we work with
The authors who come to us
First-time authors
Publishing for the first time and wanting the process explained without jargon or pressure. This is most of the people we speak to.
Independent authors
Already self-publishing and looking for specific stages handled to a standard they cannot reach alone.
Previously published writers
Have had a traditional deal before and now want to release a book on their own terms, keeping the rights and the royalties.
Memoir and life writers
Have a story that matters to them and need help shaping it into something a stranger will want to read.
Business and subject experts
Have genuine expertise and want a credible book rather than an extended brochure.
Children's and YA authors
Need age-appropriate editing, illustration handling and the design that picture books specifically require.
Editorial standards
What "professional" actually means here
The word gets used loosely in this industry, so here is what it means in practice on a Harbour Bridge Press project.
- Editing delivered in tracked changes, never silently applied
- A style sheet recording every editorial decision, carried through to proofreading
- Typesetting with manual attention to widows, breaks and gutter margins
- Cover artwork licensed properly, with the licence documented
- A physical proof checked before anything goes on sale
- Ebook files validated and tested on real devices
Find us
Where we actually are
1 Broughton Street,
Parramatta NSW 2150, Australia
Monday to Friday · 9:00am to 5:30pm AEST
Work with us
Send your manuscript and see what we say about it
The assessment is where you find out whether we are the sort of company we have just described. Send a sample and judge us on the answer.
- An editor reads your sample personally
- Honest assessment, including doing less work
- Itemised quote with a realistic schedule
- No obligation to proceed
Prefer to talk it through? +61 2 8531 1369 · info@harbourbridgepress.com