Our community is brimming with indie authors, or writers who are curious to explore self-publishing, and one of the most common questions our festival receives is how to break into self-publishing on a local level.

FolioFox is a local, Melbourne-based commercial printing team who are passionate about helping authors reach audiences with their self-published books, all the while guiding through the process. We sat down with FolioFox Brand Manager, Tracy Yong, to chat all things self-publishing and what FolioFox can offer emerging writers who are interested in self-publishing in 2026.

What kind of specific services does FolioFox offer that can help emerging writers on their publishing journeys?

FolioFox is a Melbourne-based short run book printing company. That means that we locally print and bind books in smaller quantities of 30 to 1000, for Australian authors, publishers and businesses. So we often work with emerging writers who have decided to self-publish their works and want to bring their book to life in print!

As part of what we do, we also try to support authors as much as we can, because we know that getting a book from manuscript to print isn’t easy. We try to do this by sharing helpful content on our website and in-person.

Is FolioFox’s service accessible to emerging writers, and how does your team assist with the process?

Making book printing more accessible is one of our core objectives as a brand and business, which is why we specialise in short run printing. This means low minimum order quantities so that writers don’t need to invest in printing 1000+ copies upfront. We have a team of account managers to provide suggestions, expert advice and support emerging writers throughout the production process. Every book project is unique and even if you’ve never printed a book before, you’ll have someone in your corner to take you through every step over the phone, email or in-person at one showroom in Melbourne.

Oftentimes we find that writers are looking for resources to help them reach the coveted print-ready stage. Does FolioFox offer any resources that EWF’s community of writers might find useful?

Yes! Our website has an active knowledge hub called The Print Burrow, that’s continuously being updated with new articles each month with tips & how-to’s.

That said, we’re also co-hosting our first in-person workshop this month at the Melbourne City Library with one of our industry partners, Dettori Publishing. This is a prepress workshop for self-publishing authors with all the information and guidance on how to make a manuscript ready for print. If you’d like to attend, you can grab a ticket here and all EWF Bookmarkers save 20% with a special code!

One of the biggest things new writers struggle with, and one of the reasons EWF exists at all, is getting their works out there. For writers who don’t know, what is assisted self-publishing?

We often get enquiries from writers who don’t know how to get their book printed, or have printed with us and left with a stack of books and ‘Now what?’. Much like working with FolioFox to print books, there are many professionals and resources for authors to get help when it comes to editing, design, marketing, etc. Our team can help match you with the right professional in our network or to industry partners like Tellwell Publishing for assisted publishing. Assisted publishing simply means hiring someone to help you with various publishing processes, without them necessarily taking a cut of royalties or sales. We’re always expanding our network of industry professionals and try to make sure writers have the support they need, no matter what stage of the publishing process they’re at.

Note: we also love promoting books we print on our socials so we’re always open to chatting more about your project online to help get your work out there!

And finally, what makes FolioFox stand out from other similar services?

FolioFox’s brand promise is ‘Great books with expertise and genuine care’. We’re not the type of printer to simply print whatever digital file we’re sent; we collaborate and partner with writers and businesses to make sure their book projects are printed for success. It’s a privilege to be part of bringing books to life for others to enjoy and we love working with emerging writers to help them print their potential.

Thank-you to Tracy from FolioFox for sitting down with us to chat about how FolioFox can help emerging writers access the self-publishing scene on a local level.

If you’re interested in exploring what FolioFox has to offer, including their resource hub and the exclusive event discount for EWF Bookmarkers, visit their website here.