About Pubblish
Martyn Folkes
Martyn has been building publishing tools since before most self-publishing platforms existed.
In 2000, frustrated with managing Mushroom Publishing's growing catalogue using spreadsheets and disconnected systems, he started building Makebook - an internal tool to handle the workflows that no commercial software addressed. Twenty-five years later, that same itch became Pubblish.
The path to here wasn't direct. Martyn started as a programmer in the 1980s, then spent nine years as a senior bookseller at Waterstones in Lancaster and Bath - watching how publishers operated from the retail side. In 1989, he and his wife Helen spotted a gap in the local market and launched Mushroom Publishing with maps and guides. Fiction followed in 1997. They published their first ebook in 1999.
Thirty-five years later, Mushroom is still going - having outlasted countless industry shifts, platform changes, and the rise and fall of various "next big things" in publishing.
Pubblish exists because Martyn kept hitting the same problem: tools built for big publishers or tools built for hobbyists, but nothing designed for the professionals in between.
Our Philosophy
Publishing is a workflow
Publishing software should reflect how publishers actually work. That means focusing on the journey from manuscript to market, not just storing data.
Simple but complete
You shouldn't need a training course to use your publishing tools. Intuitive design with the depth that professionals need.
Your data, your way
Export your data anytime. Industry standards like ONIX mean your metadata works everywhere, not just in our system.