In 2024, I co-authored Humanball with Tom Dawson-Squibb—my first book.
When we were reviewing the final manuscript, Tom asked me, “What’s your next book going to be?”
I thought about everything I had learnt in the process of bringing Humanball to life. No publishers were kicking down either of our doors to write a book, but we were very privileged to have discussions with a few people who made careers in publishing and provided advice at the most crucial junctures.
When it came to setting up a company to run the business side of things, we decided it would make sense for me to run the company that ‘publishes’ Humanball with a royalty agreement in place with Tom as my collaborator. That company is Publicans.
The answer to Tom’s question is that I’d like to help bring many books to life in the future, both as a writer and as a publisher. Humanball is hopefully just project #1 for Publicans.
I chose the name Publicans as it is the name of the bar in The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer—my favourite book. Moehringer is a literary hero of mine and is also the ghostwriter of Andre Agassi’s Open and Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog.
A ‘publican’ in the true sense of the word is the owner or manager of a pub, but it also sounds a bit like a publisher of words to me. I’d like to think that a good filter for the type of projects that Publicans should take on is great stories that can be told and retold among friends over a cold one.
If you’d like to work with Publicans, please email me at nicrosslee@gmail.com with a proposal.
