It Began with Just One Book…

Founder & CEO Gareth St John Thomas

Exisle Publishing’s CEO and Publisher, Gareth St John Thomas, got his start in the industry at the age of 11, stacking warehouse shelves for his father’s Devon based publishing house, David & Charles.

After spending time as a sales rep travelling to the far-flung corners of the United Kingdom, Gareth was soon running the company side by side with his father, David.

Thirty years ago, David & Charles was sold, and Gareth moved from England to New Zealand.

In 1991, he started Exisle Publishing.

The goal wasn’t to build a huge business. Instead, Gareth wanted to shine a light on local characters, artists and writers, and bring books into the world which would never otherwise have existed.

But the market had other ideas…

The first book Exisle ever published. Almost 30 years on, and it’s still in print

Exisle books started to get noticed. Local stores couldn’t keep them in stock. And submissions poured in from experts, leaders and artists from across the country.

Soon, Exisle expanded to Australia, where the same thing happened.

Next, we started publishing in the UK. And then the United States. Today, we have staff across the English speaking world and sell foreign rights to dozens of countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Our secret? We publish books that other big publishers don’t.

Exisle Publishing now has global reach, and we are still trying to give voice to those who don’t have it, and serve the communities that corporate publishers tend to ignore.

Our children’s imprint, EK books, has the DNA of a self-help publisher and has joyously spread into environmental, creative learning, and other subjects.

In the last twelve months, we launched Exisle Academy, a community which provides online instruction to writers who want to get published. We have even published some of our students’ work, but we are also pleased when they are published elsewhere. Again, we are about making sure their voices can be and are heard.

The Academy also works alongside Emotional Inheritance, an imprint and service that helps families hold on to the stories that define them.

Next? Well, that’s up to you. Have a look at our latest releases, and join our community to keep in touch.