Bombadil Publishing

Bombadil Publishing is a youth-to-youth publishing house, founded in Sweden in 2007 by Marianne Rugård-Järvstråt. It operates on a franchise basis and has branches in many countries.

The company publishes both fiction and non-fiction books written by and for pre-teens, teenagers, and young adults (ages 12–26). It uses mentors and tutors, rather than traditional editors, to assist the authors in creating a quality book,^[1] and organises searches for promising authors^[2] as well as finding them through social media.^[3] The authors themselves design the covers and write the back-cover text.^[4]

Books are marketed and sold under the single Bombadil Publishing brand, but the company is a franchise operation and has offices in many countries, including the US, the UK, India, and Latin America.^[5] After the company's foundation in 2007, major expansion began early in 2008, with eleven countries being added in November that year alone^[6] and the number of authors rising from several hundred to over 50,000 by the end of the year and to over 200,000 by the end of 2010.^{[citation needed]} As of February 2010^[update], Bombadil was publishing in 28 languages;^[3] as of September 2010^[update], it had authors in 90 countries.^[7] Some books are published in multiple languages. Authors receive a 20% share of the price of each book sold.^{[3][8][9][10]}

The books are primarily sold on the publisher's website and advertised by word-of-mouth, although in some cases they can be bought in shops; in 2011 the company was negotiating with IKEA and ICA to have some books sold at their stores.^[8]

In El Salvador, Bombadil had difficulty securing promised token government payments to authors^[11] and in 2012 had to abandon a claim for reimbursement for 10,000 books ordered by a government ministry that were not paid for.^[12][13][14] One of the Swedish companies was put into administration on 17 February 2011 in Örebro District Court, Sweden.^{[citation needed]}