About the Publisher

There are many origin stories on the internet. This is one of them.

On this page:

The story behind our publishing label
Our values and goals as a business
About the publisher (Bakst) and his collaborators (friends)
How to work with us as a freelance contributor

How Bakst & Friends Came to Be

Tl;dr: Alex tried to write a book and ended up founding a whole publishing label.

From the founder:

The idea of a micro-publisher for language enthusiasts grew out of my eclectic freelance career, now going on two decades. All my life I’ve worked in language-adjacent fields like journalism, translation, and now business English training. Educational publishing brings it all together.

When I first started teaching English, most of the source material came from standard textbooks by authors like Murphy, Hewings, Emmerson, or Bailey. My students and I have learned a lot from their books, which are still useful resources today. After all, we’re talking about people like Bryan Garner: masters of the craft.

At the same time, I found myself constantly adapting the material to the real people in front of me, from undergraduate students in northwestern Germany to corporate teams all across the country. As the years went by, I was developing my own material for German-speaking professionals who need to get things done in English. That’s been great for my groups, but I’ve long wanted to share my best work with a wider audience beyond the confines of a few classrooms and video calls.

An illustrated book felt like a good place to start. It’s learning in micro-doses: light but informative, augmenting but not replacing teachers. Also, most self-published language books out there today are just text — illustrations are expensive! — revealing what I think is a gap in the market.

So I made like an entrepreneur and just went for it. I found an illustrator. I started writing. I fell in love with the work. And to make a long story short, this was the chain of events that led me to register Bakst & Friends as a publishing business in Berlin.

Guiding Principles

Let’s be honest: Nobody starts self-publishing to get rich quick. You have to be naïve enough to have ideals.

Our Values

There are certain things we strongly believe in. These values guide our decisions as a business, so we thought we should write them down. Our core values are:

Educational innovation. The path to language acquisition is well-worn, and plenty of textbooks will get you there the same old way. We want to do things differently for modern learners.

Craftsmanship. We value quality over quantity and speed in all creative endeavors. If we’re slow and deliberate, that’s because it’s part of the process. We’re not afraid to explore new technology, but we sleep better at night knowing we’re not a slop factory.

Cultural openness. Language reflects the people who speak it, and keeping an open mind is the best way to learn a language. We love learning about new cultures and all their linguistic quirks.

Truth-telling. Language is coded, especially in business. We love uncovering meanings buried beneath the linguistic surface. We try to tell it like it is with kindness and curiosity.

Artistic freedom. We want the creatives who work with us to be free in their artistic expression. Respect for intellectual property is baked into our contracts. That’s the “indie” in indie publishing.

Our Goals

Of course, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. We’re a business, and we have dreams. Here’s a list of things we want to accomplish over the next few years:

Publish a second book and keep expanding our product catalog with new merch and learning supplies
Expand the pool of free-spirited illustrators and writers willing to work with us
Break even by the end of 2026 and turn a profit in 2027
Use the profits to incorporate the business, rent some office space, and start hiring people like a real company by 2030
Expand to other languages besides English and German

Who Bakst, What Friends?

Strictly speaking, this is a one-man-business: literally a sole proprietorship under Alex Bakst. In practice, though, we have a few people working behind the scenes to make our dreams come true.

Alexander Bakst is a former journalist turned translator and university lecturer in business English. He launched a freelance editorial outfit in 2010 and continues to work under that brand from his home office in Berlin. His main business is to provide bilingual writing services and language coaching to German companies and universities.

Alex is an alumnus of Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where he got his BA in Politics and Journalism in 2005. He was born in New York City and grew up bilingually in Germany from an early age. He’s a native speaker of English and German, conversationally fluent in French, and able to communicate in broken Spanish.

Alex lives with his family in Berlin. You can find him on LinkedIn.

About Our Collaborators

Heather Bakst has co-authored several of our workbooks. She also consults on our language lessons and contributes world-class learning material to the site. Her experience with cultural training brings an important perspective to our work, and she’s an indispensable supporter of the business behind the scenes.

Natalia Tutanova is our first indie collaborator. Her work as an illustrator moves people with cute cartoon characters, clever use of negative space, and other techniques we don’t quite understand but can definitely feel. We’re incredibly lucky to have found her.

Work with Us

If you’re an author or artist looking for new venues to publish your work, consider reaching out to us. As a tiny but proudly independent label, we’re always on the lookout for indie creatives who share our passion for language education.

What We Can Do for You

We might not have the resources of a big publishing house, but with us you can be stubbornly independent and take ownership of your contributions to the finished product. Our contracts are freelance-friendly, and we try to outmatch industry-average rates for royalties and profit sharing.

Another point is that our collabs are actually collaborative. It feels weird to state the obvious, but in practice, the talent–publisher relationship is lopsided: You’ve got this giant corporate entity on one side — you know, the random house penguins — and on the other side, a single person whose main business is not the business but the craft. This creates a power imbalance.

When you work with us, you’re working with fellow creatives who just happen to be running a business. This can be beneficial, but it depends on what you’re looking for. We want to be clear on what we can and cannot do for you.

As a micro-publisher, we can provide resources for our mutual success:

Lean distribution with access to nationwide bookstores, major German retailers (Thalia, Hugendubel), and Amazon
Book listings, ISBNs, and other formalities — if you’re just starting out in Germany, we’ll guide you through the process
Local production partners for high-quality offset printing of paperbacks, hardcovers, and other print products
Global fulfillment partners for book-sale logistics including packaging, handling, shipping, and returns in Germany and the EU, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.
Pre-production work such as editing, proofreading, and cover design — you have a say in the freelancers we choose for the job
Guerilla marketing through our website, social media, and narrowly targeted ads
Promoting your work at indie cons and other events
Networking with creators and industry insiders

What We Can’t Do

We’ve hinted at it a few times now, so let’s just spell it out in plain English: We don’t have a lot of money. There. We said it.

If you were hoping for a six-figure advance on that blockbuster book deal of yours, you’ve come to the wrong place. If that’s your game, more power to you! You’re going to need an agent, a big publisher, and one helluva book.

To be clear, here are some things big publishers typically offer that we cannot match at scale:

No big advances. It’s not that we’re against the advance-payment-for-royalties model per se, it’s just that we can’t afford to pay authors huge sums of money up front. To be fair to us, mainstream publishing houses don’t really do that either unless you’re already a big deal, in which case what are you doing here?

We do envision paying an advance to collaborating authors, as is customary in the industry. Our advance will be modest by big-publisher standards, but you’ll keep a more generous share of our sales once the actual royalties start coming in. That’s the trade-off we can offer.

No mass marketing. Big-name publishers have big-bucks marketing with full-time staff and deep connections. It’s perhaps the single strongest argument in favor of the big guys: You write the book, they sell it HARD. That’s our business, too, but we do it on a much smaller scale using low-cost tactics targeted at niche readers in specific regions. If you want to become the next global bestseller, you should probably talk to the penguin.

No hands-off collabs. Our company is young, and we’re still figuring things out as we go along. If you’re looking for a write-and-forget deal where you offload your manuscript and let the publisher do the rest, then our collaborative approach will likely frustrate you. For example, we like to coordinate our marketing activities with you, sometimes down to the specific wording of a post. If you’re thinking, “wtf that’s not my job,” you’re probably better off with a traditional publisher.

Still Convinced We’re a Good Fit?

Please contact us! We’re excited to get to know you and hear your ideas. You can hop over to our contact page to find your preferred way of connecting with us.

How to Join Our Language Community

There are a few places we like to hang out among like-minded language nerds, authors, publishers, and creatives.

Join us. We’re real people and open to network.

Discord for Learners, Teachers, and Native Speakers

Alex runs a Discord server called Bakst & Friends. Surprising name, right? In fact, the server was here first! For years Alex has been using it to work with his undergrad English students across different schools. With the founding of our publishing label, now we’re bringing it all together into one big happy community of English students, German enthusiasts, book lovers, and language nerds.

Our language community on Discord is open to everyone. Use this link to join us: discord.gg/CrNSEEgR7w

Tap the link to open Discord in the app or a desktop browser
Answer our onboarding questions to get the right roles (Visitor is a good place to start)
Engage with the community *salutes in Vulkan or whatever kids are doing these days… six-seven?*

One last thing before you join: At times our Discord server can be NSFW (not safe for work). It’s definitely not suitable for kids. That said, we work hard to maintain an open-minded space where everyone feels free to speak up. We do what we can to moderate all open channels, and we’re dead-serious about nasty or illegal behavior. Other than that, it’s a casual community where a certain amount of foul language and adult topics are allowed. Discord will show you our rules during onboarding.

Connect with Us on Social Media

If you want to follow us on social media, we’re here for it.

Alex Bakst, Self-Publisher

Alex is the one responsible for this mess, and he’s semi-active on a few social platforms.

As it turns out, founding a self-publishing label was the excuse Alex needed to get more active on Substack. Now he posts irregularly about language, life and art. You can subscribe to his free newsletter here: https://substack.com/@elderbax1

You can also find Alex on LinkedIn, where he’s been failing to adopt a clear content strategy for over ten years. If you’re more interested in the business side of things, look here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abakst/

Alex tries to be active on Instagram too. No promises: https://www.instagram.com/elderbax/

Heather Bakst, Co-Author

Heather Bakst writes some of our workbooks and is a silent but indispensable collaborator in all aspects of the business. The shared last name is obviously not a coincidence. Her involvement officially designates this your “one-stop mom-n-pop language shop.”

Anyway. Heather has her own language consultancy to run, which you can follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-bakst-32b665249/

Otherwise, keep an eye out for Heather in our posts whenever we give a peek behind the scenes.

Natalia Tutanova, Illustrator

Natalie is the illustrator behind all the artwork in our launch title. If you liked those satirical cartoons, you should definitely follow Natalie on Instagram for a regular dose of beautiful creativity: https://www.instagram.com/natalitales/

Contact Us Directly

You can always contact us directly by sending an email to friends@bakst.de. We don’t have a dedicated customer service team or anything, but we’re monitoring the inbox and will get back to you quickly.

Good reasons to reach out:

Asking about your orders, downloads, refunds and returns
Letting us know how you like our work and what we can do better
Wondering if we could collaborate on a cool project you had in mind
Inquiring about bulk orders or B2B services for companies and universities
Just looking to connect and geek out over languages like English and German

Poor reasons to send us an email:

Telling us you’re “still awaiting a reply” to that last spam email you never sent
Suggesting how to revolutionize our synergies by integrating your AI wrapper into our workflows
Making it awkwardly personal or political somehow. We just sell books. Be cool.

Contact Form

Otherwise, here’s a good old-fashioned Web 1.0 contact form you can use to send us a message:

New Fon Who Dis

Now, maybe you’re thinking: What about that phone number? Yes. We have a phone number because that’s what businesses do, right? But honestly, just… don’t. Don’t call us. We’re Millennials, haven’t you heard? We hate phone calls! Just send us a text or email, please.

If you must call, you may. But be aware that we almost never pick up the phone right away. In fact, you’ll be immediately forwarded to voicemail, where you can leave a message with your name and number so we can call you back once we’ve worked up the courage.

“Leave a message with your name and number”… you see how antiquated this all sounds, right? Right?!

Business Inquiries

If you’re interested in working with us, do send us an email. We’re always open to your ideas and will respond promptly.

If you want to inquire about B2B language services, visit our sister site at https://www.germanbureau.com or send an email to team@germanbureau.com. Your staff will benefit from inhouse language workshops and online coaching — and that’s just what we do for companies. We also deliver innovative English courses at German universities of applied sciences. And finally, no language consultancy would be complete without editorial serves such as professional translation, bilingual writing, editing, proofreading, or all-human voiceovers by real native speakers.

More recently, Heather has developed a professional workshop program that combines English language training with a formal assessment and cultural awareness seminars. The program is designed to boost your professional development, positioning you for international career success in Germany’s multicultural business environment.

As our business client, you can hire us on demand for your next global project. If you’re an organization of any size looking to expand your reach wherever English and German are spoken, let’s talk. Our B2B services will help your people break down language barriers and make the most of modern multilingual tools.

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More About Us

If you still have unanswered questions, take solace in these links:

Explore our complete catalog of products for learners of English and German
Download free worksheets to get started on your learning journey in English or German
Learn more about our story: our people, values, and origins
Find out how you can achieve your business goals with B2B services wherever English and German are spoken
Read the legal fine print about our company, shipping rates, refunds and returns, privacy policy, and AI guidelines
View the shopping cart and manage your account or create one for easy access to your orders, downloads, and details

Otherwise, don’t hesitate to contact us. A real human will respond as soon as someone is free. Thanks!