We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Harry Markos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Harry below.
Harry, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Comic books were the way that I learned how to read well and often when I was a kid. I stopped reading them after I started to work, which I always regretted.
I hadn’t read comic books for many years and was working as a police officer when I received a potentially career threatening injury. While I was off work recuperating from surgery, I wrote a fantasy novel that was picked up by a publisher. I worked with them during the process and learnt much about the industry. I decided to start my own publishing company, thinking that I’d be out of a job soon due to my injuries.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I hired the publisher that had signed my book as my editor in chief and took the rights back to my book, and also signed a handful of other titles. That was how i started my publishing company, 20 years ago. Soon after I signed the rights to Starship Troopers and Shadowmancer, amongst others, and soon we grew into one of the largest independent publishers in the UK. We now have more than 450 IP and have published around 700 graphic novels and even more comic issues.
The thing i am most proud of is the books we have published from unknown creators that hadn’t been given a chance by anyone else. There are very few publishers in the UK that you can pitch an idea to anymore, so we are able to allow unknown talent to get a foothold into a very tough industry.
I want to continue publishing new talent and new ideas, and one day see some of our books adapted to TV, animation or movies.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I saw early on that comic books, or ‘floppies’ as they were known, were becoming a loss leader and sales had plummeted significantly, They were no longer viable, especially for small publishers. I made a decision 11 years ago to stop publishing them and leave our distributor, who had a monopoly in the comic book industry, and left for a different business model. That has now been vindicated as we are still in business when many others have failed.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
We have always been known for producing quality product, and introducing new talent and ideas to the marketplace.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://markosia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markosiauk/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkosiaEnterprises/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-markos-5139931/
- Twitter: https://x.com/Markosia/
- Other: https://bsky.app/profile/markosia.bsky.social
Image Credits
All images are copyright Markosia Enterprises limited.