Steve Barker writes the Covert-Ops military thrillers. In September 2026 he turned his company, Books Central Ltd, into a publishing house for other authors on Start a Press. He signed on 28 September, and his press was open on its own web address the next day.
bookscentralpublishing.com, the press's own website.
As an author with 30 books published and a few years using Archieboy Holdings products, I was delighted to set up my own online Start a Press business with them. From the first contact, their professionalism and customer service were excellent. At every stage, they guided me through setting up my own Start a Press. They answered my questions promptly.
As for Start a Press itself. Both the Office and the customer-facing website look professional and have already attracted business. Both are easy to use.
Archieboy Holdings (Start a Press) makes it easy from the start. This is a great product for any author wanting to start their own publishing business. And I would highly recommend this company to all the authors I know.
Steve Barker, founder of Books Central Publishing, October 2026.
Steve applied in the morning, read the order summary and licence agreement, and signed for Books Central Ltd the same day.
Books Central Publishing opened on bookscentralpublishing.com, a domain Steve owns, with his logo, colours and tagline. His existing titles came across with their covers and store links, and he named his agent Holly.
Steve connected his own Stripe account, so authors pay Books Central directly. His author portal went live with projects, files, messages and royalty statements.
Books Central's own KDP, ACX and INaudio accounts were set up for the press, with prices in pounds and buy buttons that go to UK stores.
Every page is Books Central's own. Start a Press does not appear anywhere on it.
Fixed-price publishing packages in pounds, with each step listed.
The catalogue, with menus for format and genre.
These are the requests in our founders' log that came from Books Central.
Every press's Books page now has a genre menu beside the format menu, and the agent suggests a genre for each book. While building it, we also made proofreading keep each manuscript's own British or American spelling.
Press email addresses became a step in every press's setup. The mailboxes stay with the publisher's own provider, such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and the agent can answer routine mail from them.
Any press can now link its own AuthorVoices account from the office. The agent narrates the book, runs a listening check on every chapter and brings back the finished files.
Their press now shows pound prices, and every buy button names its store and links to the UK version of it, such as Amazon UK or Apple Books UK.
Books Central Publishing is a Southampton publisher run by an author. It publishes finished manuscripts as ebooks, paperbacks and audiobooks at fixed prices in pounds, and every step waits for the author's approval. Authors follow their sales and royalty statements in their own portal.
Start your book with Books Central See every serviceTell us about your press, or the one you would like to start. Bo Bennett reads every application and replies to you personally. Applying doesn't commit you to anything.
Riley is an AI agent. She can look things up, email you details, and pass anything she can’t finish to a person.