Interview by David Starkey
Stephen Lambe founded Sonicbond Publishing in 2018, after spending most of his career working for independent non-fiction publishers. During his time in the industry, Lambe learned the benefits of series-based publishing, which allow for easier design and production without compromising on quality. He combined this experience with his love of music to create a company uniquely positioned to bring writing about popular music to a worldwide audience.
DS: I’m wondering about the specifics of how Sonicbond got started. You’re headquartered in Tewkesbury, a small town in Gloucestershire. What are the benefits and challenges of working outside of London when writing about popular music and disseminating that work to the wider world?
SL: I’ve been in book publishing most of my working life, mainly with small, niche publishers, usually publishing local and general history. In all this time, I’ve never worked in London, but then again, I’ve never felt part of the mainstream of book publishing at all. In these days of the global marketplace, you can publish books from anywhere. As soon as a title hits the bibliographic services, it becomes available worldwide. Of course, you still need good distribution, which we try to provide, but it’s not necessary to be in London or Oxford, the two traditional homes of book publishing in the UK. I’ve always felt that the companies I’ve worked for – including Sonicbond – exist on the fringes of the publishing industry.
In the mid-2010s, I commissioned a series called ‘Song By Song’ for a different publisher, combining my two main areas of expertise – music and publishing. The first books did well, but as the publisher wasn’t inclined to publish a lot more of them, I figured it might be an idea to do it myself, so I set up the company in 2017 and the first books were published in 2018.
You “wrote the book” on Yes, and there seem to be quite a few volumes on progressive rock. Assuming prog rock has a special place in your heart, why is that so?
I’ve actually written three books about Yes, and a general history of Progressive Rock for a different publisher, amongst eleven books in total. I also write for Prog magazine in the UK, including two cover-mount stories in the last two years, both related to Yes. As a genre, it was my first love in the late 1970s when I first got into music, and while I actually have quite wide tastes, progressive rock is the area that I have most personal expertise in over the years. I also run a couple of small prog festivals in the UK. I think we all formulate out musical tastes in our teens, and often that stays with us for our entire lives. It certainly has with me.
That said, overall, you cast your net pretty wide. You have books on everyone from Johnny Mathis and the Bee Gees to Smashing Pumpkins and Iggy Pop. What are you looking for when you commission a new project?
First of all, we don’t encourage musical snobbery of any kind. Our philosophy is that it’s all good. Jazz, prog, metal, easy listening, pop, punk, new wave – if a book will sell, we’ll support it. The genre doesn’t matter. I’d love to do more on jazz and even classical music if I can.
But we are a commercial publisher first off, although our books are niche and we keep print runs low, so I’m looking for something that sells, ideally across all our markets, especially The UK and the USA. That said, no formula works completely. We’ve had books on artists that have sold millions that haven’t sold so well and books on acts with a smaller, cult following that have done well because there’s so little already published on that subject and also our ability to penetrate their fan base has been better.
Have there been any significant changes as the company has became better known?
I had a lot of people suggesting books for our On Track series, and we still publish a lot of those each year. There are a lot of advantages to formularization, both from a sales and marketing point of view, as well as from a cost perspective in terms of design and printing.
However, I’m keen to do more regular non-series-based titles now. Publishing in other areas outside music is also something we’re looking at. We did some books on film and TV in the early days but they didn’t really work, but I’m still keen to widen the net a bit as the company matures.
Your authors come from a range of backgrounds. There are quite a few journalists who also dabble in music (and vice versa), but I assume you’ve been wowed by authors you wouldn’t necessarily think would be experts on popular music?
The On Track series is fan-led, so while it’s important that an author can string a sentence together, we make it clear that we will accept first-time authors. If you love a particular band, then there’s a good chance you are already a sort of expert on that band. We just take it from there.
I get most problems with amateur journalists who think they can write, but they can’t. Sometimes, they will have been writing for websites or magazines with low editorial standards and get a rude awakening when they turn in a book that needs a lot of work. Sometimes, they will have no idea that their work isn’t good enough until we tell them. In the nicest possible way, of course.
Of course! Finally, I’m wondering what advice you would give to publishers just starting out—not necessarily those with music-themed work, but anyone who has a vision of the sort of books they want to publish?
Do it! But go in with your eyes open.
Publishing companies need capital to get started, and rather than just publish the books you want to blindly, which I’ve seen happen, make sure you go in with a realistic business plan. Also, with Amazon holding so much of the market, margins are very tight, so be very careful with your costs.
