Help name a publisher!

[devi]

So I need a 'publishing name' for my ISBN application. This will go on the title page of my book, and any other books I use my ISBNs on. I didn't just want to put "(my name) publishing". That's boring. Plus it screams 'vanity project'.

I looked through my notebooks, where I write lists of words I like with a view to using them later, and I thought Headlong Publishing.

(It seems all the more appropriate considering I'm devoting one single afternoon to thinking of a name, before running down to the post office with the application. But anyway)

I googled for it, just to be sure. And yes, there was a Headlong Publishing. But the operative word here is 'was'. It seems to have been run by one John Newson, who lives (lived?) on the island of Lamma, which as far as I can tell is somewhere near Hong Kong. The domain connected with it has expired and the last mention of it is in 2004 - and that's just Mr Newson's bio attached to a review he wrote about some book set on his island, nothing about the company itself. I've found no books he's published or any other reference to his business. I followed a link to a big listing of business people (zoominfo.com), but though Google remembers him and his company being listed there, he isn't on the list any more.

I can't mail him because the only address I can find is at the expired domain. Do you think it's safe to use the name?

Comments

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Handily, I'm meeting him tonight.

But since most people are going 'run away! run away!', I'm thinking there are plenty of names where that one came from :)

[hatmandu.livejournal.com]

My answer isn't 'run away' but 'go for it' - there seems little likelihood of it being a problem, and unless the name is a trademark in the UK specifically for publishing (I think you can check at patent.gov.uk or somewhere) it should be fine. Our business name is Osiris Press - there was an apparently defunct one in the US. SFW! See you later, anyway!

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

That's nice meaty information. Cheers.

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

What he said.

The British Library catalogue doesn't reveal books by any publisher called Headlong. Nor at COPAC, nor at Amazon. Not even in the 61 million records in OCLC WorldCat. Nothing from Headlong Publishing, Headlong Books, or Headlong Press.

What little remains of the Hong Kong publisher's site courtesy of the Wayback Machine indicates that they're more of a trade printer, so you wouldn't be working in exactly the same area.

And I think it's a great name.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It occurred to me after the fact that it's reminiscent of my address too.

And thanks very much for the info. It's good to have librarians on the case :)